Wang

Jing Wang
J453
Planning Essay#1
Why Planning
Dwight D. Eisenhower suggested1, In preparing for battle I have always
found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. I believe what
Eisenhower means by stating that plans are useless is that because of
uncertain elements, circumstances will almost always cause the result to be
different than the goal. However, as Eisenhower seems to agree, planning
ahead provides enough time so that in the event of a change of plan,
alternatives are known and can be put into action effectively. More
importantly, planning is imperative to the profession of public relations since
it is what allows people in the profession to adapt to the changing consumer
market opinions.
How to Form Strategy from Planning
Besides the four questions method from the article1, strategic planning is the
root of a successful event. It takes research, identification of targets, action
plans, etcto direct PR members and fulfill the clients demands. The
importance of strategic planning entails creating a situational tailored plan
based on primary research rather than simply making one out of a template.
Without sufficient planning, many previously invisible problems often surface
during final event preparation, or worse yet, during the event. One thing I
noticed that I found interesting was that PR professionals do not always make
the right decisions, or in other words, plan wisely. If the PR manager ever
feels perfectly comfortable with the plan, then the chances that the plan still
has flaws and will not go well is high. The technique of saving solutions to
problems until after the problems have already occurred is not a good
business approach for anyone in PR. Someone meant to be in PR will be the
type of person who is consistent in taking the lead and gives helpful
suggestions of direction to the client. From my own experience, I understand
how PR plays an extremely important role in a group and how planning by
the PR figure strengthens the entire process of any activity.
When I was the vice president of Chinese Student Scholars Association

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(CSSA) I was assigned the task of organizing an event called China Night,
which is the biggest yearly event for group on campus. Before the vice
president position1, I was the head of public relations, so I know the basic
concepts of Public Relations. I collaborated with the other PR members
within the group and came up a plan for how to promote China Night by
reaching out more to the potential audience than had ever been done prior.
We did a small survey via the groups official wechat account, asking our
potential attendees what forms of entertainment they wanted to see at China
Night, if the proposed event time and date worked for them, and if they would
attend the night for the ticket fee of five dollars. The survey turned out to be
extremely helpful for CSSA by showing that seventy percent of responding
participants stating they would attend because of the traditional culture
customs rather than other reasons.
Because of the survey results, I decided to attract more multi-cultural
students to celebrate Chinese culture. Rather than only posting flyers as
previously planned, I also targeted non-Chinese populations around campus
by passing out flyers in areas, such as EMU, that are frequented by nonChinese students. Tabling is a fundamental way of marketing an event, and
one we utilized, but we made a QR code for students to scan so that they
would have a chance to win a free ticket to the event as well. This strategy
attracted more interested students, who would have otherwise not been
interested, because it meant they had a chance to experience the event
without paying. By setting up objectives, creating a survey to target our
prospective audience, handing out promotional materials, and following up on
our survey, the result was that China Night was more successful than any
year before.
I feel this class will definitely be the most useful for those interested in the
profession of public relations. By observing past examples and adjusting the
root concepts in order to fit with current work, as well as avoiding similar
past mistakes, those in PR positions will save a great amount of time as well
as create events and client-customer relations of higher quality. I am
confident that I will take away knowledge that will greatly help my future in
public relations from this class.
1 PR planning primer by Alan. R. Freitag