By Peter Wilkinson, Wilkinson Group Public Relations Sydney
The general rule: Planning a strategy should be an early critical step in a campaign.
Sounds obvious doesn’t it?
But the Gillard government once again provides us with a PR case study of what not to do – this time with its proposed solution to illegal immigration.
The latest news for the luckless government is that the UNHCR* spoke out against the Malaysian solution as an answer to our illegal immigrant problem citing potential mistreatment of children. That was Friday; possibly sorted by this morning, no doubt after frantic weekend phone calls.
Whoops! Why didn’t the government cover off with the UNHCR to start with? Could it be a Planning ‘moment’?
The charmless term the PR profession uses for this part of strategy development is ‘stakeholder management’ – it means ensuring that all interested parties are somewhere between happy and delighted and even advocating on your behalf.
The UNHCR is clearly a critical party in the government’s attempts to stop illegal immigrants.
On the face of it the Malaysian solution looked like a good idea. And it could have been. But in preparing a strategy for that Plan a stakeholder engagement program is essential. Failure to have one is strong evidence of planning-on-the-run, or a room full of tacticians and no strategists.
Everyone with a stake in a campaign needs to be comfortable with the what’s happening – especially where there is conflict. If one critical stakeholder becomes concerned with an aspect of the campaign, everything has to stop and wait until it’s sorted. A well thought through strategy reduces to a minimum any hiccups. Failure to have kept the UNHCR on board with the program was evidence of a lack of one.
*UNHCR = United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Photo credit: Daily Telegraph via Courier Mail
Join the conversation…
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on LinkedIn
Subscribe to our blog
