Public Relations Planning: Australian Red Cross

This report aims to investigate the manner in which public relations (PR) planning can be used for influencing public opinion concerning an organization and its activities to acquire their preference. For this the student has acquired the role of PR practitioner of the Australian Red Cross and prepared a PR plan for the organization to overcome its financial crisis.

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PUBLIC RELATIONS PLANNING: AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS
By (Student name)
Class
Professor (Tutor)
School (University)
Location
Date

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1. Situation Analysis........................................................................................................................3
2. Objectives....................................................................................................................................5
3. Target public................................................................................................................................6
4. Strategy and Key Messages.........................................................................................................8
5. Tactics..........................................................................................................................................9
6. Calendar.....................................................................................................................................10
7. Evaluation..................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
This report aims to investigate the manner in which public relations (PR) planning can be used
for influencing public opinion concerning an organization and its activities to acquire their
preference. For this the student has acquired the role of PR practitioner of the Australian Red
Cross and prepared a PR plan for the organization to overcome its financial crisis. By influencing
the opinion of the target public towards the organization’s activities and aim the practitioner aims
to generate preference and contribution of the target public towards achievement of the set
objective.
1. Situation Analysis
Background
Drawing from the findings of the essay assignment on the public relation management in the
Australian Red Cross it can be said that the organization has done remarkably well in utilizing
the public relationship management tactics to increase its accessibility to the community and its
stakeholders. However, result of the investigation also marks that the organization has recently
faced difficulty in running its operations properly due to the limited resources.
The blood services of Australian Red Cross are completely funded by the government while 47%
of the humanitarian program funds are sourced from the government, which has caused
significant financial crisis for the Australian Red Cross, making it difficult for the organization to
compensate the staff and engage in more innovative programs.
The student in this report has assumed the role of PR practitioner of the Australian Red Cross to
plan a PR solution to encourage the target public to partake in regular donation in the

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organization. The target public for this plan includes 1000 retired police officers above the age of
50 years and 1000 blood donors of Australian Red Cross Blood Services.
Research
Secondary research
The Guardian, reported that the financial crisis that the charity organization has recently faced
due to the loss of a crucial government contract resulting in back pay worth over $20 million to
its existing and former staff members (Latimore, 2018). This could be attributed to the excessive
dependency of the organization on government funding. In 2017, the government reduced its
contribution to the humanitarian programs of Australian Red Cross by $28.6 million (Australian
Red Cross, 2017). This, the organization has been attempting to improve through increasing its
community funds (Australian Red Cross, 2017).
Police is identified as the most generous profession with the highest number of individuals
participating in charity activities, while aged people, beginning from the age of 50 years and
especially above 65 years are the highest contributors in the charity activities in Australia. People
above the age of 65 years on an average give away $425 per year. Therefore, including these
individuals as the target public for this PR plan might be helpful. On the other hand, over
606,000 people donate blood through Australian Red Cross Blood Services (Australian Red
Cross Blood Service, n.d.). These individuals can be approached to undertake regular donation of
as little as $1 a day, which could serve as a significant source of funds.
Primary research

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Qualitative research will be undertaken in form of interviews with the volunteers, donors and
some staff members of the Australian Red Cross based on the findings of which questionnaire
would be developed for survey. A quantitative, simple random sampling survey would be
organized for the target public to understand their willingness towards becoming regular
contributor to the community funds of the organization (Hox, Moerbeek and Van de Schoot,
2017).
Problem statement
1. That many retired police officers might initially resist because they are already associated with
some charity, which makes it difficult for them to undertake the regular donation for Australian
Red Cross.
2. That many blood donors identify themselves as incapable of making substantial contribution
because they might identify their donation as of insignificant amount, which restrict them from
undertaking regular monetary donation.
Opportunity statement
1. That they will be interested in partaking in charity subsequent to proper persuasion because
both the target segments are already interested in charity and donation activities.
2. Objectives
The objectives of the public PR plans are provided below with brief explanation:
1. To communicate about the extent of the effect and beneficiaries of humanitarian services of
Australian Red Cross to at least 90% of the 1000 retired police officers. The achievement of this

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objective might be measured through a simple random sample survey, via telephonic calls,
within 10 days after commencement of this communication program with the retired police
officers.
2. To convince 85% of the 1000 blood donors that their smallest monetary donation, when done
regularly can make a huge difference. Fulfillment of this objective could be measured through a
simple random sample online survey, within 10 days after the commencement of the process of
communicating with the listed blood donors.
3. To convince at least 20% of the blood donors to donate an amount as per their convenience to
the humanitarian program of Australian Red Cross within one month of the formal request. The
blood donors can be requested to share a picture of the receipt of their contribution using a
particular hash tag to draw attention of and inspire other donors. Achievement of this objective
can be measured by recording the receipt shared by the donors.
3. Target public
Two different segments of the public have been identified that would be targeted through this
plan. Details of the groups are as follows:
Target segments
a. 1000 retired police officers above the age of 50 years. They are males and females who reside
in New South Wales, Victoria and Australian Capital Territory. These three states lead the list of
state based average donation level (Philanthropy Australia, n.d.).
b. 1000 blood donors under Australian Red Cross Blood Services. They are male and female,
between the age group of 20 to 45 years and reside in cities and suburbs.

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Perception of target public
a. A study by Philanthropy Australia marks that 73.61% of the individuals that contributed to
charities, in the financial year 2015-2016, were police officers (Philanthropy Australia, n.d.). On
the other hand, Australians over the age of 50 years were responsible for around half the
charitable donation in the country where individuals over 65 years of age were the highest
contributors (Cooper, 2015).
b. White, Poulsen and Hyde (2017) explained that an individual’s identify as a donor determine
their intention of donation. Therefore, the blood donors’ self-perception as a donor might serve
crucial part in convincing them to undertake monetary contribution to the humanitarian program
of Australian Red Cross.
View towards the issue
a. The target public is charitable, with willingness to help people in need.
b. This target public along with being charitable is willing to sacrifice personal interest to a level
which might be observed in their willingness to donate blood. However, certain members of this
segment are skeptical towards their ability to make a sustainable contribution, as they doubt their
ability to contribute a significant amount in regular basis.
Reading and comprehension level
a. High
b. High
Preference in terms of events and strategies

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a. Lee and Coughlin (2015) identified that despite availability of several technological system the
older adults express certain level of reluctance towards the use of measures like e-mails or social
media for communication. Therefore, a telephonic conversation with an empathetic message
might be a preferred option for this target segment.
b. Galloway (2017) drawing attention to the average attention span of an adult highlighted that
PR communication need to be designed as per that attention span. To ensure that the MR
message is delivered within the attention span the message needs to be concise, to the point and
emphatic towards the difference that they might make to grab their interest.
Self interest
a. The target public, beyond esteem aims for greater contribution through charitable contribution.
This aspect of individual need is identified in self-actualization and transcendence by Abraham
Maslow (Yaden et al., 2017). Here, though such actions the individual recognizes own ability to
contribute and realizes the purpose (Venter, 2017).
b. The target public already realized own ability to contribute as a blood donor, through financial
donation the individual can reinforce own need for transcendence (Venter, 2017 and Seitel,
2017).
4. Strategy and Key Messages
Concept statement
To convince the retired police officers above the age of 50 years the PR personnel does not need
to change the attitude of the target segment, instead needs to present the donation to
humanitarian programs of Australian Red Cross in line with their existing approach. That is, the

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information about the impact of humanitarian programs of the organization need to be presented
before the target public in comprehensive manner along with the statistics of the existing
contributors, this will trigger their need for belonging and esteem, while the realization of the
change that their contribution might bring would cater to their need for self-actualization and
transcendence (Stoyanov, 2017).
Similarly, the blood donors also need to be presented substantial data about the number of people
whose smallest contribution when merged with the fellow donators add to a sum that can bring
significant change. This realization would not just address their need for belonging but would
trigger the need for esteem and more importantly, transcendence.
Key message
 500,000 Australians are supported to overcome social exclusion (Australian Red Cross,
n.d.)
 In 2019 aims to increase accessibility to aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders by 10%
 Assist 65% migrants in transition to address their humanitarian needs
 With mere $1 a day’s contribution one can bring forth a difference
 The total community contribution in 2017 was $89.7 million
5. Tactics
a. For retired officials the primary tactics involves calling the individual to communicate the
message verbally. Success of the primary tactic might depend on the following back-up tactics:
 The call might be followed by a post card that conveys the message and concisely lists
the positive differences that their contribution might bring

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 Information on the works that Australian Red Cross has been doing through
humanitarian programs is to be spread via community events
b. For the blood donors primary tactics will involve recognizing them as a meaningful
contributor and addressing them through electronic media channels such as social media sites.
Backup tactics for this are as follows:
 To ensure their participation a catchy hash tag is to be created
 Blood donors can also be accessed during blood donation camps and requested to partake
in the social media activity
 E-mails can be sent with concise and to the point information
6. Calendar
Figure 1: Gantt chart
(Source: created by student)
For details please refer to the excel file.

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7. Evaluation
Although throughout the process of the PR planning the most suited approach and tactics have
been attempted to be applied certain alternatives could provide different understanding and
result. For instance, use of convenience or non-random sampling instead of the simple random
sampling could help in acquiring more subjective perspective of the issue. Similarly, use of
qualitative research over quantitative could help in acquiring a deeper insight to the perception
and opinion of the target public. On the other hand, qualitative research could have been more
time consuming and less useful in providing a statistical analysis of the responses (Bernard,
2017). This technique helped in acquiring an understanding of the level of impact that this PR
campaign could have over the population at large.
Conclusion
Completion of this study has provided an understanding of the manner in which the process of
PR planning can be used to generate public interest and preference for an organization and its
activities. It also marks the importance of thorough research and objective based planning.

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References
Australian Red Cross Blood Service, (n.d.) General Blood Statistics [online]. Available from:
https://www.donateblood.com.au/general-statistics [Accessed 22 January 2019]
Australian Red Cross, (2017) Annual Report 2016/2017 [online]. Available from:
https://www.redcross.org.au/annualreport_2017/financials/where-the-money-came-from.html
[Accessed 22 January 2019]
Australian Red Cross, (n.d.) Annual plan FY19 [online]. Available from:
https://www.redcross.org.au/stories/strategy-2020-blog/annual-plan-fy19 [Accessed 22 January
2019]
Bernard, H.R., (2017) Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches. 6th ed. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
Cooper, E. (2015) Older Australians Giving More to Charity. PBA [online]. 17th September.
Available from: https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/09/older-australians-giving-more-to-
charity-report/ [Accessed 22 January 2019]
Galloway, C., (2017) Blink and they’re gone: PR and the battle for attention. Public Relations
Review, 43(5), pp.969-977.
Hox, J.J., Moerbeek, M. and Van de Schoot, R., (2017) Multilevel analysis: Techniques and
applications. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge.
Latimore, J. (2018) Australian Red Cross owes up to $20m in back pay to current and former
staff. The Guardian [online]. 23rd May. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-

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news/2018/may/25/australian-red-cross-owes-20m-in-back-pay-to-current-and-former-staff
[Accessed 22 January 2019]
Lee, C. and Coughlin, J.F., (2015) PERSPECTIVE: Older adults' adoption of technology: an
integrated approach to identifying determinants and barriers. Journal of Product Innovation
Management, 32(5), pp.747-759.
Philanthropy Australia, (n.d.) Fast facts and statistics on giving in Australia [online]. Available
from: www.philanthropy.org.au/tools-resources/fast-facts-and-stats/ [Accessed 22 January 2019]
Seitel, F.P., (2017) Practice of public relations. 13th ed. New York: Pearson Education.
Stoyanov, S., (2017) A theory of human motivation. London: Macat Library.
Venter, H.J., (2017) Self-Transcendence: Maslow’s Answer to Cultural Closeness. Journal of
Innovation Management, 4(4), pp.3-7.
White, K.M., Poulsen, B.E. and Hyde, M.K., (2017) Identity and personality influences on
donating money, time, and blood. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46(2), pp.372-394.
Yaden, D.B., Haidt, J., Hood Jr, R.W., Vago, D.R. and Newberg, A.B., (2017) The varieties of
self-transcendent experience. Review of General Psychology, 21(2), p.1-18.