Effective Public Communication: A Case Study of Coles' Strategies

This report examines Coles' public communication strategies, focusing on their response to the supermarket milk war in 2013. It highlights how Coles utilizes public relations, visual communication, and press releases to manage its image and maintain brand loyalty. The report details Coles' efforts to counter criticism, engage with supporters on social media, and manage the crisis by addressing the game-changer variable – milk prices. The analysis demonstrates Coles' commitment to building customer loyalty by adapting to customer demands and using public communication to navigate challenges and enhance media and employee relations, while also acknowledging potential negative consequences if communication is not effectively executed.

C O L E S
Assessment 3: Public
Communication

Public communication
Way to interact to public regarding the latest happenings at
the organizational level
Forms a relationship of trust between employers and public
Prevents from criticism from respective governing bodies
A good image is rather established
Brand loyalty increases

Modes of public communication
This can be done in following ways:
Public relations
Communication through visuals
Press release
Oral presentations
Writing for the professions

Modes of public communication
Continued…
Means of establishing a healthy
relationship with the public and
media
There will be less criticism in media
Criticism happens due to
communication gap
Communication gap with media is
reduced
Employees are made aware of the
organizational changes
(Doorley and Garcia 2015)

Benefits of public communication
Enhanced media relations
Improved employee relationship
Improved attachment with industry
Good community engagement
Crisis management
Forming a good attachment with respective governing bodies
(Moriarty et al. 2014)

Negative consequences of public communication
Press release, if not good
content wise may also fail
to deliver the impact
Such as, media relation
may hamper
Community engagement
can also suffer
Crisis management can be
affected due to the failure
in delivering the message
to the target public
Image management may
get tortured
(Doorley and Garcia 2015)

Elements communicated from public
communication
Organizational change
Organizational celebration
Organizational embarrassment
Image management
Brand loyalty
(Macnamara 2014)

Public Communication in context to
Coles
Coles take attempts to silence even the minority of critics from public
During the supermarket milk war in 2013, Coles had used every possible PR
tactic to silence the protesters
The company had even debunked the Fact Sheet to counter the myths
Advertisement was done
Coles engaged with its supporters on social media
(Businessinsider.com.au 2018)

Public Communication in context to Coles
Continued…
Public campaigns was an effort for
image management
The image was being tortured by
minority of protesting farmers
The general manager of corporate
affairs Robert Hadler has managed
the protest by delivering the
presentation on the escalated milk
war
It just shows that Coles is keen to
manage its brand loyalty
Brand loyalty was managed by
giving preferences to customers by
reducing the prices of Coles brand
milk
(Businessinsider.com.au 2018)

Public Communication in context to Coles
Continued…
The incident has proved that Coles believe in building the customer loyalty
Coles can go to the feasible extent and reduce the prices to suit the demands of customers
Coles does public communication by identifying the game changer variable
In the escalated incident, the game changer was the milk price
Coles had used the game changer and reduced the milk price of 2-litre pack of all varieties
to $2.
(Businessinsider.com.au 2018)

References
 Businessinsider.com.au, L. 2018. Coles' Supermarket Milk War: 'We
Use Every PR Tactic Possible To Neutralise The Noise'. Retrieved from
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/coles-supermarket-milk-war-we-
use-every-pr-tactic-possible-to-neutralise-the-noise-2013-9
 Doorley, J. and Garcia, H.F., 2015. Reputation management: The key to
successful public relations and corporate communication. Routledge.
 Macnamara, J., 2014. Journalism–PR relations revisited: The good
news, the bad news, and insights into tomorrow's news. Public
Relations Review, 40(5), pp.739-750.
 Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N.D., Wells, W.D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L. and
Spence-Stone, R., 2014. Advertising: Principles and practice. Pearson
Australia.
 Sonawane, M.A. and Chaudhari, P.R., 2015. VIRAL MARKETING-
SOCIAL ADVERTISING OR COMMERCIAL ENDEAVOUR: AN
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH. Journal Impact Factor, 6(5), pp.53-62.