Describe the Case

The plea for smaller electronics as well as the small, coin-sized batteries has become prevalent which is an indication that the lives of more children are in danger. Small objects, including batteries, can easily be swallowed by children thus leading to catastrophic damages. These batteries are usually in small sizes, and therefore they can place themselves in the esophagus and burn the internal organs in less than two hours. For instance, Emmett Rauch swallowed a battery from a remote control, and it remained in the esophagus for four days. The battery caused significant damages to tissues, and as a result, he is most likely to face challenges in his health condition for the rest of his life.

Nevertheless, business organizations such as Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer have been working together to ensure that they create awareness and encourage parents to be part of their campaign dubbed “The Battery Controlled.” The public awareness campaign is an award-winning drive which includes objectives, research, evaluation and programming efforts that are aimed at spreading consciousness and success in the campaign. Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer are convinced that the campaign will be successful and therefore they need to conduct research.

Cause & Effect

A research strategy is essential when creating a public relations campaign (Stacks, 2016). The approach is useful because it assists an organization during the campaign in forming the basis for the campaign since it deals with the fundamental issue of what the researchers wish to find out and how they plan on gathering the information. This case study entails Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer who want to create awareness about the battery challenge. The company carried out secondary and primary research with the assistance of focus groups. The primary audiences in the study include grandparents, parents or any individual who is concerned with taking care of children under six years old since it is the group that is exposed to the biggest danger. The two companies researched Fleishman-Hillard, a marketing and public relations corporation that deals with parents’ online database. The companies affirmed that parents are usually much concerned with the safety dangers that they are unable to see, batteries being a major one. The fundamental research is essential since it is an original type of study and is essential to attain new information which can add to the information and analysis that could have been previously carried out.

The study also used secondary audiences who consisted of parenting groups, professions, safety as well as health advocates. The importance of secondary research is that it is essential to apply because although it was supposed to be commenced from the beginning (Quinlan et al. 2019), it is further essential to identify the nature of the information that might be determined regarding the batteries. The companies used focus groups for secondary research in discussing the increasing incidents and dangers. Fleishman-Hillard carried out their focus group with a group of parents and debated about the theme of the campaign and the steps that they were supposed to undertake and how they were to accomplish the same. Fleishman-Hillard further carried out two online kinds of research that included parents to find out their perception about the concern, and also to weigh the campaign’s effect. Caretakers, parents and health officers were regarded as the primary target during the subsidiary audience and were further included as shareholders.

The stakeholders in the campaign include caretakers, health officials, and parents. The strategy can be useful since these individuals are interested and particularly the parents have a concern regarding batteries. All the individuals who were involved in the “Battery Controlled” objectives were chosen because they were dealing with a particular age set that had a high likelihood of getting involved in the campaign. Every other individual who has children and purchases batteries for remotes and other appliances should also be aware even though they are not exposed to a significant danger and were therefore not included by the companies in the objectives.

PR Strategy to counter the effect

PR strategies are tactics that the organization takes in effecting the relationship with the public. The tactics of the PR strategy was to engage partners, create a story that is powerful and later create an upsurge of support. Safe Kids Worldwide assisted Energizer by using information and individual encounters. Safe Kids Worldwide was used as the spokesman for the entire campaign, as well as Karla Rauch which took control of the media to obtain information since the campaign included their battery safety message that they wished to send and control how the public perceives the same. The company was featured in “Today Show” which is press article associate and created their website with an objective of creating awareness about safety concerns.

Theories of mass communication can be utilized as public relations strategies and can assist companies in relaying their messages to the general public (Katz, Lazarsfeld and Roper, 2017). Similar to the theory of diffusion, Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer utilize mass media as one of the techniques of informing different individuals instead of motivating them. The agenda-setting theory is a public relations strategy that the companies could adopt in informing the public what they are supposed to think. The magic bullet theory is also a public relations strategy that which is based on the premise that in case a company sends the right message, the public can be motivated to almost do anything they wish. Kids safety Worldwide and Energizer want to send the appropriate message that will eventually inform and influence people thus ensuring that they spread the required awareness and their objectives after evaluation of campaigns.

Repair the image of the Corporation

The procedure of repairing the image of Energizer was successful mainly because of the systems that were undertaken by the company. The partnership between Safe Kids Worldwide and Energizer led to the formation of a campaign referred to as The Battery Controlled which was a successful venture. The success of the strategies adopted during the campaign included research on the targeted audience, application of communication theories and identification of objectives. Consequently, the company has been able to assist the general public in saving the lives of children through creating awareness. Without the application of these procedures which are essential in public relations, the campaign that was conducted by Energizer would not have been successful.

References

Katz, E., Lazarsfeld, P.F. and Roper, E., 2017. Personal influence: The part played by people in the flow of mass communications. Routledge.

Stacks, D.W., 2016. Primer of public relations research. Guilford Publications.

Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J. and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.