ABSTRACT
Book Title: Strategic Planning for Public Relations
Chapter Author: Ronald D. Smith
orcid.org/0000-0002-9757-8399
Chapter Number and Title: Formative Research. Step 3: Analyzing the Publics
This step identifies a public and differentiates it from a market, audience, and stakeholder. It looks at several characteristics of a public, as well as various categories of linkages (including customers, producers, enablers, and limiters. The step introduces the concept of networking and intercessory publics. It focuses on opinion leaders, with a subgroup of vocal activists. The step also features research on influencers. It then identified a key public, also called a strategic public, as a specific public planner identified as being most important for a particular public relations activity. This step also features a priorities worksheet to help planners objectively identify key publics. This step also focuses on analyzing key publics with attention to their stage of development (including nonpublic, latent public, apathetic public, aware public, and active public). This step also deals with stereotypes of several groups, including American Indians, Italian Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ Community, and Arab Americans/American Muslims. This step concludes with the cultural context of publics and the concept of face saving.
