Environmental Analysis and the Case of the Half-iced Donut

UnSplash

Communication Audit

What is a communication audit? It can also be termed a “public relations audit”. It is a process of sorting through and understanding how the company works inside and out and what people think of it. Selling a donut with the reputation that each donut receives only half the icing, would certainly not generate massive returns. The situation has resulted from an internal issue and has affected public opinion. Ultimately leading to a donut shop that only sells to first-timers and probably last-timers.

There are three main pieces to analyze in an audit, Internal environment, public perception, and external environment. These key ingredients bring a full understanding of how the organization operates and how it would handle any issues. Such as the case of the half-iced donut.

Internal environment

When scanning an internal environment, any element that qualifies as “internal impediments to success”, as Smith says in Strategic Planning for Public Relations, will limit your organization’s effectiveness. He lists four points as possible internal issues.

The first is performance, the quality of the product or service. Niche follows, and is stated as the “nook that an organization occupies”. The structure is possibly the most important. This informs of the ability to handle an issue. If the public relations department has a seat at the table, how communication down the line flows, and several other things. Last is the company’s ethical base. The Base consists of values, morals, and how the company reacts to factors affecting those groups.

Public Perception

The perception people give may not be correct but it affects the organization. Public perception is also not “simply the result of linear knowledge acquisition” as stated in the chapter, Assessing Public Perception. A simple measure is not possible as belief is not something that can be fully analyzed. People chose to believe things and say things for many reasons but not always for something that can be guessed. The best way to approach public perception is to try to best understand the visibility a company has and its reputation.

Visibility can be measured through a review of views and the accuracy of information being dispelled from the organization. This can be found in social media, websites, emails, and any outlet where others can find information on the company.

Reputation is more along the lines of gauging the public’s thoughts and behaviors toward a company based on the information they have in their head. It is not based on information that the company has provided. Reputation is part of that belief that people create from the acquisition of knowledge but concludes with their own opinion.

External Environment

This may be the most difficult to research. One must source-specific groups of people and understand why these groups exist. The first are supporters. These are groups that do or potentially help organizations toward its goal. Second, our competitors, who are in the same business or field. Though, Smith suggests that competitors may not always be against the company. Proximity is one factor that would lessen competition and become a resource where both essentially help the other with information.

The last and most offensive external impediment is opponents. Similar to competitors they don’t like the organization in a certain business space, but it is usually the business space that they oppose. These groups are factors that can be hard to navigate because most of the time a business can’t change the niche they’re in and don’t want to. But these groups can make a lot of noise.

Within 24 hours of this article being written, animal rights activists had interrupted the Bills versus Rams game. Fox News covered this event and neither team has made a very public statement about this occurrence. Not that football is what these people are protesting, but some will go to any length to stop a business, and being on the receiving end of it would be a complicated deal.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/animal-rights-activists-interrupt-bills-rams-game-carry-smoke-flare-across-field

Ability to Plan

Awareness of what is being said and attitudes towards an organization will help maintain its survival. As stated by Khalique in Strategic Planning and Reality of External Environment of Organizations in Contemporary Business Environments, “companies need to prepare plans to cope with changes as they face dynamically changing environments”. Having the essential information about an organization will lead to a successful plan that can adapt and navigate through many unpredicted situations. This leads to a full understanding of what the organization is and one can act accordingly for it. Also seen when everyone finds out the donut has always come fully iced.

The finalized goal concludes with an organization that fulfills its mission statement and is on the path to its vision statement.