Reliability of Samsung Phones for Planning †MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theReliability of Samsung Phones for Planning. Answer: Introduction The series of reports regarding the explosion of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 seven phones in different parts of the world through the state of the Companys public relations off balance that it affected its and led to recalls of similar products already on the market (Maheshwari, 2016). A particular aspect of the management of the corporation that was placed on the spotlight was the public relations. Public relation is a discipline that mainly concerns itself with reputation, so as to establish an understanding and support towards influencing opinion, as such planning and sustaining effort with the view of establishing and maintaining a certain form of understanding between an establishment and its publics (BotanTrowbrdge, 2015). The current report puts focus on the extent to which Samsungs situation is regarded a PR disaster. Considering that public relations are one of the fastest growing and fastest changing amongst professional practices according to BotanTrowbrige (2015), A few questio ns arise: How does is impact the reputation of the organization from a PR point of view? How has this incident highlighted PR onto the national and international media? How having a PR person or team would help shape the outcome for Samsung both in the short-term and in the long-term? How much of a PR Disaster was this Incident? Samsung downplaying the magnitude of the crisis was one of the major aspects that contributed to the escalation of the incident to unprecedented levels. The situation was bad that the annual ranking of the most visible companies tipped Samsung at 49th up from 7th (Alaimo, 2017).The disaster could have been avoided altogether if certain measures were in place or rather, having in mind that the company takes public relations seriously, would have been treated with the magnitude it deserved. It started off with a product recall that many at Samsungs leadership thought would adequately handle the issue, but events took a life of their own. These events were to be handled by the companys public relations department who could have figured how to handle the situation from the word go instead of playing catch up. Handling of a PR situation, just like any other aspects of business operations require careful planning and preparation (Wigley Zhang, 2014), something that Samsung overlooked despi te its size. There is a general assumption that is unanimous to all sorts of companies- large or small- where companies simply hope for the best or expect that by carrying out its mission there is no room for things going wrong. Samsung is among the top ranked business entities with regard to PR expenditures as it is one of its major marketing strategies. According to Adage.com Samsungs global PR expenses stood at a tune of $558.8million in 2012 with the previous year the company recording a value of $476.1 million as per the reports of Ad Age Data Centre. Further Samsungs handling of the situation is baffling considering that the corporation has been known to hire numerous PR experts to oversee its public relations affairs in various countries and across different lines of products under its name. Even more, a lot of PR activity is kept in-house and outsourcing only happens when the leadership is adamant that the handling of external agencies might be better. The PR firms on Samsungs roster incl ude Edelman PR, and Weber Shandwick MWW PR Group among others (Bruell, 2013). Key Stakeholders A stakeholder, according to the Business Dictionary is a person, group, or organization that has interest or concern in an establishment. This resonates with the definition of one of the major theorists in public relations, Grunig. Further, there exist two most important theories of public relations one put forth by Grunig referred to as the situational theory that provides a description of the publics important to organizations and the other, power-interest matrix. The brand image of Samsung has been built on the creation of a lot of ads through the help of PR experts thus broadening the companys reach to different populations. This has resulted in the company having a considerable number of stakeholders. Moreover, accuracy in the identification of publics alongside whom mutually beneficial relations will be built one of the most important of steps in building a strategic and effective public relations. Various scholars have reiterated that there is no such thing as general public and it is from this understanding the Samsung has a wide range of stakeholders that the company should have taken into consideration following its response to the crisis. Public relations touches on all the stakeholders to a company. Samsungs key stakeholders include the following: customers, business partners, shareholders/ investors, NGOs, employees, local communities, government and the press. Prioritization of stakeholders is at the center of management of any crisis. There exist processes that are touted to be models towards this prioritization. Firstly, is the identification of all the potential stakeholders with relation to their relationship with the company. Secondly, a look at the attributes of the stakeholders, thirdly prioritizing with regard to the association certain stakeholders have to the situation and lastly prioritizing in line with the communication strategy (Rawlins, 2017).The following group of publics is important and any attempt to overlook them constitutes a PR disaster. Even more, it is important to handle all stakeholders from a common ground. The vitality of the abovementioned stakeholders to Samsung and any other organization there is is as follows: an incident of the above magnitude is very much capable of affecting other products affiliated with Samsung. A memory of such incidents fosters hesitation in potential clients. The governments in the relevant country also express reservation as the product poses a threat to the general well-being of its citizens. Take a case example of replica phones going off in an airborne plane. The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission expressed its concerns with the inability of Samsung leadership to adhere to the stipulated guidelines and protocols during recalls. Additionally, the incident took a toll on Samsungs market share that will for sure take a while before it regains its initial position. This cuts across to all categories of stakeholders. Apart from phones, Samsung also has other categories of consumer electronics. Analysis of Response made by Samsung: PR Perspective The response by Samsung failed to adhere to any one of the various strategic approaches to public relations. There are four kinds of strategic approaches: one, the defensive approach where the course of action only observes the interests of the establishments, to the responsive approach that is solely considerate of the stakeholders (Gregory, 2015) , three, the assertive approach that principally promotes self-interests in an attempt to control an organizations environment and last, a collaborative approach that employs dialogue in the creation of solutions that are beneficial and basically take into account the position of the establishment and the stakeholders (Gregory, 2015; Verhoeven et al ., 2014). In addition to non-adherence to the various approaches of public relations, Samsungs communication strategy with stakeholders was lacking. It is a well-known fact that stakeholders are the most active of all the publics and for this reason, they take the position of the most prioritized publics (Gregory, 2015). The social media makes up a huge percentage of the avenues that these prioritized publics seek information regarding the entities that they take an interest in. Samsung totally failed to exploit these avenues to the utter disbelief of many who regarded the handling as baffling and overly passive. This pointed to a general lack of strategy to address the prioritized stakeholders the world over. This meant that the prioritization step was similarly not adhered to. Recommendation of Alternative Response Adoption of a strategic public relation approach that puts more focus on the stakeholders in a bid to re-establish the trust that existed before the incident. This will help Samsung deal with different situations by applying the four segment approach of the contingency model that assists in the creation of an effective public relations strategy (2012books.lardbucket.org.2017). Response to the crisis is all about timing and how you address the most affected. Further, it will be a sensible gesture to align the wishes and interests of different stakeholders in one direction to ensure on time delivery and as per the expectations (Alaimo, 2017). Instead of an official response statement from the corporation, a first response statement would have been fitter as it would have assured stakeholders of the seriousness with which they were taking the matter. This would have gone a long way in alleviating the Corporations PR status in the midst of the crisis in the following ways: it would have demonstrated to the stakeholders that the establishment cared and it prioritized a swift conclusion of the incident, provided an immediate answer to the stakeholders regarding their level of knowledge of the incident, a way for the organization to create more time for managing the situation away from the public eyes in a bid to get to the root of it all and lastly, strengthen the companys position as the trusted voice and a credible manager of the crisis (Agnes, 2017). Ethical Issues According to Grunig, (2014), a majority of people hold the notion that public relations are inherently unethical and the same could be said of some of its practices. Regardless, some public relation theorists attest that it is not inherently unethical, but it is inherently about ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability. The handling of the Samsung notebook crisis is the one aspect of the situation that brought into question the reliability of Samsung phones. A matter of this magnitude does not arise without a look at the ethical issues surrounding it and more importantly, the ethical justification to the alternatives of handling such a crisis. There was a considerable decrease in a number of positive attitudes among the consumers. There were frustrations among regulators regarding the response of Samsung since they failed to adhere to the recall guidelines and protocols put forth by the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission. This led to the ban by the federal authorities in U.S from traveling with the phones on flights in addition to indicating that passengers who had the phones in their luggage could face criminal charges. The above-mentioned touches on the aspect of sustainability and responsibility in the conversation between stakeholders and the organization in a public relation setting (Grunig, 2014). Conclusion In conclusion, the case of Samsung provides a perfect case for analysis from a public relations point of view, and a few notable lessons can be drawn from it. Moreover, more it provides more insight into the role of communication between Samsung as an organization and the publics. The major lessons learned in the above case are in relation to the role that public relations in the current business environment. Further, it provides other corporations of similar magnitude with a reference point to the handling of PR related issues. More importantly is devising ways that will ensure applicability of the various strategic approaches to public relations i.e. defensive, collaborative, assertive and responsive approaches. It is also important to note that the loyalty of any organization is not only to its clients but also to the public's, the media agencies, and to the public relations in general. Lastly, a lot more aspects of business operations- trade relationships and corporations market capitalization- are hinged onto the handling of the stakeholders some of whom double up to constitute the publics. References Botan, C. H., Trowbridge, J. G. (2015). Public relations theory: Past, present and future. InHandbuch der Public Relations(pp. 357-377). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden Wigley, S., Zhang, W. (2014). Does Planning and Practice Make Perfect? A Study of Communication Culture, Autonomy and PR Practitioners Confidence in Handling Crises.Public Relations Journal,8(2), 2. Agnes, M. (2017).Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/melissaagnes/2016/09/15/what-samsung-did-wrong-when-responding-to-the-galaxy-note-7-disaster/2/#24b11dfb7915 [Accessed 23 May 2017]. 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