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Topic:

PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion

Essay Instructions:

the paper is writing about the company, PG&E. There are three parts, the problem, objective and audiences. I will upload the instruction for details. San Bruno pipeline explosion Problem: Everyone hates PG&E. Their reputation throughout the years has deteriorated due to poor safety (San Bruno pipeline explosion in 2010). Objective: To regain the trust of its customers and to rebuild their reputation and credibility as a safe and reliable company in the minds of the public Publics: California PG&E customers, San Bruno residents, residents living above PG&E’s gas pipeline network, PG&E shareholders

 

I. Situation Analysis

The first step is to thoroughly research and understand the situation. If your campaign will focus on a specific product or service, collect all pertinent information about the product/service, including name, description, benefits and features, history, prices, how to order information, etc. If your program involves addressing a particular issue or crisis, gather all pertinent information about the background, causes, and participants in the situation. How did the situation arise, why, and what are the possible consequences if not adequately addressed? Who are key people who will be involved in resolving the situation? As part of your situation analysis, take an inventory of communications activities in which your client is engaged that might be relevant to your program. Also, examine communications strategies and tactics used in the past and survey the communications of competitors and other similar organizations for ideas to emulate or avoid. This process constitutes what many practitioners term a communications audit.

Problem/Opportunity Statement (one paragraph). Your written proposal should begin with a very brief narrative introduction in which you provide an overview of your campaign plan for the client. This introduction should capture the attention of the reader, outline the problem or opportunity, and suggest that action is needed. As appropriate, suggest the consequences if no action is taken. (Note: You'll probably want to hone and polish your first draft of this introduction after completing the entire document.)

Problems usually involve threats from outside the organizations or weaknesses from within that threaten the mutually beneficial relationship between the organization and a group. Problems can include issues that create a gap (disagreement or conflict) between the organization and its key publics. Examples: a wage dispute with employees, opposition from a community group. Opportunities usually involve positive external developments or strengths stemming from within that the organization can capitalize upon. Example: plans to introduce a new product.

Background (additional details as needed). In the second part of your situation analysis, elaborate upon your introduction by summarizing the research findings to provide your client with a more comprehensive description of the problem or opportunity you intend to address in your program. Use one of the outline formats in Exhibit 1, if desired, to structure your discussion. Address the key challenges or obstacles that must be met in order to have a successful campaign.

The purpose of this section is to demonstrate your depth of understanding of the issues involved, and to identify any sources of misunderstanding or disagreement about the situation. All material facts should be summarized here and everything that follows in your proposal should flow logically from this summary. Focus on those issues that are important for understanding your recommendations; omit needless details; provide any exhibits in the form of appendices. Note: This section is a situation analysis only; it should not be a preview of your actual recommendations.

II. Objectives

Based upon the Statement of the Problem specified in Section 1, identify a set of objectives for your campaign. An objective is a statement about the outcome you would like to achieve. Your program can have one overall goal, but might have several ancillary objectives as well. For example, in a political campaign, the overall goal might be to get the candidate elected with 50% plus 1 of all votes cast in the general election. Some specific program objectives to achieve that goal might be:

            To create awareness of the candidate's name among 90% of potential voters by election day

            To create understanding of the candidate's position on key issues among 70% of voters by election day

            To create a 70% favorable rating of the candidate among voters based on polls taken one week prior to the election.

            To deliver 5,000 potential voters to go to the polls on election day 
Most objectives in PR campaigns center around building awareness and interest (gaining knowledge or improving understanding), attitude formation (reinforcement or change), or behavioral change (such as product trial, repeated purchases, etc.) Objectives should be stated in the form of an infinitive (To ... ). Good objective statements focus upon the effects or changes you want to achieve in your target audiences rather than on tasks that will be undertaken (e.g., obtaining publicity exposure for a product is a communication strategy that you may propose to implement in order to achieve a certain objective, but not an objective per se).

        
III. Key Publics/Audiences

Identify all potential publics (internal and external) that might be affected by your program. Then, identify what these publics think about your product or problem including their knowledge and involvement, attitudes or past behaviors. Include those who share as well as those who oppose the organization's concerns, interests and positions on the problem. 
From all potentially important publics, make a list of the key audiences to whom your program should be directed. Eliminate those groups that you determine are not important, or that are beyond the reach of your proposed effort. Combine together publics that are similar and that you might reach using similar messages through similar media. You can classify publics (and organize your list) in several ways: primary vs. secondary; internal v. external; active vs. aware vs. inactive publics, etc. Be sure to consider groups and/or individuals that might be important because they can serve as intermediaries or influentials in reaching key target groups.

 

Essay Sample Content Preview:
Name
Course
Instructor
Date
Communication Plan: PG&E San Bruno pipeline explosion
Problem/ opportunity statement
As energy based company, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG &E) has an obligation to improve its brand among various stakeholders. The 2010 San Bruno pipeline disaster dented the company’s image and relations with stake holders. Thus, it's necessary to highlight on the need to fix distribution lines over time in different phases. This seeks to continue gas distribution with minimal disruption as singular overhaul would be expensive and impractical to carry out. At the heart of the problem is that the company also took little time to respond and has been slow to repair damaged pipes over time. In particular, welding of shorter pipelines weakens them because damage typically occurs at the welded areas where there are weak points (Johnson).
Background
Following the explosion, there has been an outcry on the company’s efforts towards maintaining safety measures in natural gas pipeline. Even though the company is a major player in the energy sector of San Francisco, there is increased scrutiny of the organization’s activities from government regulatory authorities. Also arising from the situation is the level of compensation to the affected families, and though the compensation set seems high for the company the need to maintain positive relations with the community should be a top priority. The explosion is of great concern to the company because image problems, trust issues with the publics and compensation package.
Arising out of the tragedy is the question of the company’s response on safety concerns including the pipeline pressure and record keeping on nature of pipes (Johnson). To deal with this it is important to highlight that the high pi...
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