Mastering the Public Opinion Challenge won the PRIDE award, given by the National Communication Association, for the best book produced in public relations in 1994. This book was one of the first to advocate an approach that is implicit in the new Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) strategies. Mastering the Public Opinion Challenge suggests the need to tie communication planning (advertising, marketing, and public relations) to the business and strategic planning cycles of the organization. The book argues the need for integrated planning processes based on public opinion research.
This book was written for public opinion and policy analysts, issues management specialists, and communication planners (advertising, public relations, and marketing).
The book offers the following benefits:
Suggests a menu of questions that can be asked by a policy analyst or issue-monitoring team--questions that you won't find anywhere else.
Suggests criteria that executives can use to prioritize and manage the issues that face their organization.
Tells how to set up intelligence systems (scanning, monitoring, and forecasting) that draw on internal and external information sources.
Tells how to write a multi-year or annual communication plan that supports the business or strategic objectives of the organization.
Tells how to write a multi-year or annual operational plan and work plans that put the strategic plan into action.
Tells how to write support plans for advertising or social marketing campaigns, issues management, or other communication activities.
Tells how to write a contingency plan for managing crises.
Provides sample communication plans to illustrate the above processes.
Explains how to produce a media analysis that appeals to executive audiences.
Offers excerpts from media analyses to demonstrate how public opinion analysts can add value to their products.
Describes how to design credible and valid survey questions and conduct surveys and focus groups to obtain the required information on publics.
Discusses media strategies for controlling issue development.
Argues the importance of communication strategies that involve multiple partners and share resources.
Mastering the Public Opinion Challenge is a book that led the field in offering a new approach to integrated communication planning in organizations. Please see also Communication Planning: An Integrated Approach by Sherry Devereaux Ferguson, Volume I of the new Sage Series in Public Relations, July 1999. This book will be available in paperback and hardcover.
