Communication Strategy and Planning

This study explores a communication initiative by the Queensland government to address obesity and overweight issues. It analyzes the goals, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, and recommendations of the campaign. The study also discusses the use of different communication channels and behavior change theories in the campaign.

Running Head: COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLANNING
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLANNING
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Overview or introduction
The purpose of this study is to select a communication initiative and the communication
planning process on the basis of a case study showcasing a campaign arranged by Queensland
government in order to make the obese people of Queensland aware of the health problems
which are the result of obesity as well as overweight. The introduction section of this essay,
attempts to elaborate the problem critically. According to this section, critics argue that social
media would be the most effective media to encourage the people of Queensland to adopt a
healthier lifestyle, but TV, press and the Happy Healthy Habit Selector are considered more
appropriate media by the government and the government gave a little focus on social media.
Again, the supporters of the campaign argue that the initiative forms part of the Government’s
wider ‘Healthier. Happier’ program and includes a digital platform with information on nutrition
and physical activity.
Research (context)
Likely Problem Statement in the Case study
 The problem statement is the unhealthy food habit of the people of Queensland for which
most of the people of Queensland are suffering from obesity and over-weight problem
Goals and Objectives:
Goals:
 The goal in this case study is to eliminate the health problems related to obesity
and overweight from the province of Queensland.

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Objectives
 Communicate with the people of Queensland effectively through TV, press, social and
digital elements, including the Happy Healthy Habit Selector,
 Inspire people to grow healthy habits-this objective has been taken for attaining the goal
of eliminating obesity from Queensland.
Organization:
In case of this communication initiative the organization is the Government of
Queensland.
Publics that the initiative is trying to address
The public that the campaign addresses are those suffering from overweight and obesity
in Queensland.
The degree of research and analysis need to undertake
The degree of research and analysis which are needed to be undertaken are qualitative.
The research method should be survey through questionnaire method.
Relation with the mission, vision and values of the organization
Relating the situation to the initiative back to the mission, vision and values of the
organization, it can be said that. Such process of communication will never be helpful for the
achievement of the both the mission as well as the goals of Queensland Government which are to
generate motivations, educating the target audience about the values of healthy living.

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Relation with Behavior Change Theories to Analyze Necessary Changes in Behavior
Relating the hypothetic situation with the Rational Economic Model (Cognitive) it can be
said that, this situation reflects the strategic public relation planning concept. In order to motivate
the overweight people of Queensland the government should not only arrange awareness
programs that enhance the knowledge of the people suffering from obesity about the importance
of nourishing healthy food habits and following a healthy lifestyle. Rather, the government
should evoke the interest of the obese people so that they become inclined to healthy living. This
is the reason why the government has taken the fun and upbeat approach (Week 3 Lecture2019).
The Rational Economic Models (Cognitive), assumes that people can perceive, respond
and also adjust with different atmosphere. The government should follow this model while
communicating with the target audience and provide them chances to respond and give
feedbacks or opinions (Week 1 Lecture 2019).
Relating the hypothetic situation with theBehavioral models (conative), it can be said
that, this situation reflects the strategic public relation planning concept. In order to motivate the
overweight people of Queensland the government should not only arrange awareness programs
that enhance the knowledge of the people suffering from obesity about the importance of
nourishing healthy food habits and following a healthy lifestyle. Rather, the government should
evoke the interest of the obese people so that they become inclined to healthy living. This is the
reason why the government has taken the fun and upbeat approach (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009).
Relating the hypothetic situation with the Emotional models (affective) it can be said that,
This situation reflects the strategic public relation planning concept and government’s strategy to

5COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLANNING
educate the obese people about importance of nourishing healthy food habits (Week 3 Lecture
2019).
Analysis and alignment to context
The situation can be aligned with the key concepts, theories and models of behavior
change. Through this behavior change campaign, Queensland government attempt to evoke the
interest of the obese people to change their irregular behavior regarding the consumption of food.
This behavior change goal, will be fulfilled only if the messages are generated using the most
effective medium with which the people of Queensland are familiar. In order to find out the
suitability of communication initiative, the media through which the Queensland Government
was communicating its initiative to the obese people of Queensland. The communication channel
used in this case are-TV, press, social and digital media, including the Happy Healthy Habit
Selector. Analyzing, the selection of media from a critical angle , it can be said that, a little focus
have been given on the digital media, and latest techno;logy to represent the idea of the
campaign. Now-a-days the digital platform is supposed to be the most effective communication
channel to educate the obese people of Queensland about the importance of becoming health
conscious, following a diet chart full of nutritious and low calorie food. Hence, it can be said that
the government has emphasized on the communication channels like television as well as
magazines , newspapers and journals, which may not prove effective to cast upon a deep impact
on the obese people of Queensland so that they are encouraged to change their food habit, start
healthy diet and consume less calorie food.

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Strengths and weaknesses found:
Strengths:
 After analyzing the situation, it can be said that, one of the major strengths of this
campaign is the adoption of approaches that are full of fun and upbeat the
campaign takes a decidedly fun and upbeat approach so that the interest for
healthier habits can be grown among the obese and overweight people of
Queensland.
 This initiative is actually a wider part of the yearly health campaign of the
Queensland government. It is true that, this communication initiative has use d
digital platform very little, but the little usage of the digital media has casted upon
a deep impact on the target audience, who are the people of Queensland suffering
from health problems due to obesity.
Weakness:
 The campaign should have emphasized more on the communication channels like
face book, instagram, Twitter.
 Before the commencement of the campaign the government would have made an
You Tube channel where the subscribers would have give free health tips then
more and more people would become interested to join campaign and the
campaign would have become more successful, but these are not done.
These are the major loopholes of the communication initiative of the Queensland
government.
Recommendations:

7COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND PLANNING
The several recommendations that can be made in this case are:
 Adoption of 9-step communication planning process as described by smith, in the
phase 1. This 9-step communication planning process consists of several
questions-
 The first question is about the specification ogf the situationand agenda of
the campaign.
 The second question focuses on the process of receiving the require
information by the target audience.
 The third question is about the process of interpretation of the information
received.
 The fourth question is about the identification of the key issues.
 The fifth question is about the people involved in the issues. This implies,
that the question focuses on the target audience.
 The next question highlights the way the target audience are involved with
the issues.
 The following question in the 9-step communication process focuses on
the change in the behavior or the attitude of the target audience after this
communication initiative.
 The final question focus on the objective of the communicator, i.e. what
the communicator want the target audiences make feel or do.

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 Source:Week 1 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143. Communication Strategy and
Planning. In: Week 1 Lecture, ed., Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT
University.
 Adoption of the communication strategies for behavioral change and also the
Behavioral Change models:
• Rational economic models (cognitive)
• Behavioral models (conative)
• Emotional models (affective)
• Socio-cultural ecological models
• Multi-theory models
• Consumer behavior decision models
 Following flowchart of Issues Management (Health.qld.gov.au, 2019).

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Conclusion
In the conclusion, it can be said that, the lesson learnt from the observation of the
communication initiative is about the planning as well as the management of the communication
programs like health campaigns that aims to change the attitude or the behavior of the mass. The
analysis of the strengths as well as weakness of this communication initiative also cleared my
ideas about some of the key aspects of the strategic PR planning, these are-
 Before formulating such strategies we need to understand the target audience.
 Develop and represent key messages following the models and theories of behavior
change, considering social media as the main platform to do so, adopting the advanced
technology in communicating.

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References:
Week 1 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143. Communication Strategy and Planning. In: Week 1
Lecture, ed., Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.
Week 2 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143. Communication Strategy and Planning. In: Week 2
Lecture, ed., Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.
Week 3 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143 Communication Strategy and Planning. In: Week 3
Lecture, ed., Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.
Lecture 2. (2019). PR COMM2687Media and media writing Influence & Impact. In: Semester 1
Lecture2, ed.,Media and media writing Influence & Impact. RMIT University.
Week 5 Lecture. (2019).COMM2143 Communication Strategy and Planning. In: Week 5
Lecture, ed.,Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.
Lecture 1. (2019). PRCOMM2867Influence & Impact in PR. In:Lecture 1Semester 1,
ed.,Influence & Impact in PR. RMIT University.
Week 4 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143 Communication Strategy and Planning. In:Week 4
Lecture, ed.,Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.
Assessment 2: Written analysis and critique. (2019). COMM2143 Communication Strategy and
Planning. In:Assessment 2: Written analysis and critique., ed., Communication Strategy and
Planning. RMIT University.

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Health.qld.gov.au (2019). Find your happy healthy campaign | Queensland Health. [online]
Health.qld.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-alerts/campaigns/healthier/find-your-happy-healthy
[Accessed 12 Apr. 2019].
Power Digital, A. (2019). Top 5 PR Fails of 2017 - Power Digital Marketing Blog. [online]
Power Digital. Available at: https://powerdigitalmarketing.com/blog/top-5-pr-fails-of-2017/
[Accessed 11 Apr. 2019].
Appendices: (such as the EAST, Smith, PEST or other models)
Smith’s 9 step process
Source:Week 1 Lecture. (2019). COMM2143. Communication Strategy and Planning. In: Week
1 Lecture, ed., Communication Strategy and Planning. RMIT University.