PR Campaign About Cutting Food Waste for Oxfam Australia (Essay Sample)

PR campaign about cutting food waste for Oxfam Australia
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PR campaign about cutting food waste for Oxfam Australia
Food waste presents an environmental, social, and economic problem that is complex in nature. In the New South Wales alone, households throw nearly $2.5 billion dollars of edible foods yearly (Environment Protection Authority 2012: 5). Food waste studies have revealed the presence of diverse and interrelated complex behaviors that create food wastes in households. Raising community awareness concerning the extent of Australia’s food waste is the first step to understanding that the amount of food waste and focusing on behavior change areas (Environment Protection Authority 2012: 5). The following report details the process of developing a public relations campaign for cutting food waste for Oxfam Australia. The public relations campaign is intended to create public awareness of food wastes and to build a relationship with the Australian public. The report will analyze the problem, the situation, the research, the public relations objectives, and the key publics involved.
Organization and Goals
Oxfam Australia is a not-for-profit organization whose key vision is the eradication of unjustifiable and preventable poverty (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). According to the company’s website, Oxfam strongly believes that the current state of inequality and justice should be challenged and that the lives of the poor can change for the better if the right help is offered. In Oxfam’s strategic commitments and goals, the organization aims to change the lives of poverty-stricken individuals by partnering with other organizations that have similar visions (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). The company’s website also states that Oxfam Australia focuses on saving lives during humanitarian crises, working with locals to influence policies and practices aimed at eradicating poverty, supporting the development of communities, and influencing governments as well as institution to establish and implement laws and policies that would help individuals rise out of poverty.
Situation Analysis
Johnson and Parry (2008: 23) indicate that an in-depth situational analysis details the needs, policies, and practices. Oxfam Australia has hundreds of programs with small and large organizational partners who work towards saving lives and tackling injustice using practical and innovative approaches (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). This enables it to deliver programs that address the root cause of poverty, injustice and vulnerability both at the national and international level. Given the numerous programs run by Oxfam, the cutting food waste program has received little attention among policy makers and related stakeholders. As such, Oxfam programs aimed at cutting food waste are unknown due to the intense competition from other programs. The poor reception of the program can also be attributed to the lack of a proper communication and public relations channel.
Problem / Opportunity Statement
Communicating to the Australian public concerning food waste has received a major setback since a few care to notice the amount of food they waste (Gaballa & Abraham, 2008: 44). According to Oxfam Australia’s (2014: n.d.) website, nearly a third of the produced food is either wasted or lost. Oxfam reports indicate that most of the food waste in Australia occurs after food is bought. Pollard et al. 2007: 315) note that the busy lifestyle of individuals means few people stop to think of consumed food or that which they throw away. In addition, the authors detail that the yearly quantity of food waste in Australia is over $8 billion dollars. Each NSW household throws nearly $1000 worth of food yearly totaling nearly $2.5 billion. This is an equivalent of 800,000 tons of food thrown in the trash even as one in eight persons around the globe goes hungry (Pollard et al. 2007: 315). This can be equated to buying four bags full of groceries and dumping one straight into the bin. Given the busy lifestyle of Australians, Oxfam needs a public relations campaign program to create cutting food waste awareness and to generate the involvement of the public.
SWOT Analysis
Prior to developing a strategically viable public relations campaign, the factors involved can be identified using a SWOT analysis (Gaballa & Abraham, 2008: 37). A SWOT analysis will identify the internal strengths and weaknesses of Oxfam and the external opportunities related to the organization. A SWOT analysis will classify the current state of Oxfam’s food waste programs in Australia and its outer situation.
Strengths
A SWOT analysis on Oxfam indicates that the program on cutting food waste already has potential and abundant strength (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). Oxfam has a strong brand name and receives donations from strong brand companies. The company’s website also indicates that Oxfam has been active in capacity building initiatives leading to new skills and increased access of international arenas. Partnership with local and international organizations aimed at cutting food waste is a key strength of the organization (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). Furthermore, the presence of a strong and committed team comprising of policyholders and governments focused on decreasing the benchmark on food waste is an added advantage. The program also has the ability to promote a healthy lifestyle as well as motivate a population to embrace health initiatives that could reduce long-term medical costs.
Weaknesses
The communication and interaction gap between Oxfam and the public hinders the ability of Oxfam to understand the wants and needs of the public. The public cannot express their views on the program given the limited relationship with the Australian public. Without promotion, a greater portion of the public would be unaware of the cutting food waste campaigns since many do not recognize the situation in the first place. Even if they recognize this, most people do not intend to change their lifestyles to cut on food waste. The public relations campaigns of the organization are overlooked and most are not connected to units through sustainable local promotion messages.
Opportunities
There are numerous opportunities for the organization to increase awareness of food waste if the implementation and enforcement of policies is done effectively (Oxfam Australia, 2014: n.d.). The organization’s partners have increased their involvement in initiatives focused on cutting food waste, making penetrating the local level easier. Oxfam has collaborated with over one hundred programs supporting poverty eradication among the local communities and aligning these to cutting food waste will be an easy task. In addition, the social media offers a platform for increasing the awareness of the public and communicating with them concerning cutting food waste. These communication forums offered by the social media such as Twitter and Facebook will enable people to communicate and share their ideas, particularly to an organization’s external audience (Draper et al 2005: 62). The social media offers Oxfam a cheap and effective opportunity to include the public in conversations, to reinforce their media relations, and to communicate as well as foster relationships with the public.
Threats
The threats facing Oxfam are external elements that may hinder the organization from achieving its intended objective. Oxfam faces intense competition from the numerous charity-driven programs focused on eradicating food waste. According to the Department of Environment and Conservation (2007: 22), those arguing against a change in lifestyle such as some business owners would also object to this initiative since the campaign risks decreasing revenues. Consumer eating habit trends are another unforeseen pressure that could hinder the efforts of Oxfam.
Research Undertaken
An in-depth research was conducted before developing the strategy to understand the communication program that should be developed in response to cutting food wastes. Collins and Fairchild (2007: 7) reiterate that the factors affecting the reception of cutting food waste programs are important before the strategic public relations program is initiated. Conducting a formative research would be the first step to gaining experiential data and insights into decisions on what media to use and the content of the campaigns. Since Oxfam is not limited to budget constraints, any research method can be used. The study will initially perform an analysis of secondary data from research conducted by the company or by other organizations focused on eradicating food waste. An analysis of the existing situation through the eyes of the media, published and unpublished reports, as well as news trends are also necessary.
A pre-test was conducted to obtain feedback from the public concerning the initiative. This provided an opportunity for the organization to gather signs of the campaign’s success or failure. The pre-test gathered feedback from a focused group discussion involving ten randomly selected Australians. Information gathered from the participants included their lifestyle trends, the strategies they implement in limiting food waste, their communication patterns with Oxfam and their awareness of food waste cuts. The participants’ knowledge of food waste cuts was also investigated.
Proposed research
Research will be conducted to assist in developing the food cut wastes. Following the pretest, the organization will conduct focus group discussions where they will be allowed to talk about their own experiences, inspirations, and feelings. Both Oxfam and the public will be invited to participate in the focus groups with a rewar...