#9

I think the two key points to remember from this week's readings were:

1. Crisis Management Tactics
2. The rise of consumerism

Crisis Management Tactics represents aspects of Public Relations which most people do not think is within the job scope of the public relations practitioner. Also, the issue of the rise of consumerism is a proliferating trend which cannot be avoided in society today.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory/practice in that it goes far beyond what layman think of PR. In a layman's mind, PR is merely event coordination and planning, smiling sweetly and entertaining clients. Much of that is true, but it goes beyond just that.

Public relations not only deal with the good, but also the bad. By bad, i'm referring to unprecedented, unforeseen events which culminates into a crisis. There are 3 parts to crisis management, the before, during and after. The before is the anticipation of what might happen, the during is what did actually happen and how it is being dealt with, and the after is how the issue was being resolved. As such, crisis management tactics are extremely extremely important as it can either alleviate the problem, or elevate the severity of the issue at hand. Also, it reflects not only on the capabilities of the PR company but also their clients' reputations.

The rise of consumerism is a proliferating trend which must not, and will not be neglected in society today. In Public Relations, it is essential to pick up on the latest trends which society presents to us. We capture the latest happenings of society, and incorporate it into our PR plan. By exploiting on trends and fads, we make it work to our advantage, and steer our PR strategy towards that direction. People are always welcoming towards their preferences and especially Whats Hot of the moment, so if we design our project in such a way in which it captures the target audience's attention, half the battle is won. Like for example, if the latest craze in town is the game show Who wants to be a Millionaire, perhaps a presentation Millionaire-style could be presented. In essence, it is important to know what your target audience like, dislike, and loathe.