Comm 370 - American Red Cross

  PR Case Study Part 1                                           Avi Liberman

Comm 370

               The company that I chose to do my public relations case study on is the American Red Cross, a non-profit organization. “The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and education in the United States” (Red Cross). It is the largest humanitarian organization in the United States. They have over 500,000 volunteers and over 30,000 employees annually. The American Red Cross does a ton of things ranging from disaster relief to places that have had a disaster strike their city or state, hosting blood donation centers, helping military families, and so much more. Clara Barton founded the Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881 where the head of the organization still currently resides.

   The Red Cross’ state of business lately has been very busy due to the recent natural disasters and tragedies with the Hurricane’s effecting Houston, Puerto Rico, Vegas, etc. Its goal is to obviously help everyone in need and that needs assistance but it is tough to do so when there is so much happening at once. According to the Red Cross website they are helping as many people as they can and doing their work with the most diligence as possible. The organization has been in the news a ton lately because of all these disasters that have taken place. Although, some of the news has been negative lately because there are reports and rumors from social media sites and blogs that claim that the American Red Cross is not honest with their money or does not help as much as they can with everything. A problem or opportunity that could be accomplished from a Public Relations campaign would be to debunk these rumors and allegations and reassure not only the citizens in need but the public and media that the American Red Cross is a completely transparent organization and is doing the best they can to help as much as possible. I would expect this campaign to work and everyone would be reassured and have their faith restored in the Red Cross and for donations to increase to help those in need. Success would mean for donations to increase steadily after the public relations campaign and more positive articles and mentions across the Internet and social media about the Red Cross.

     Research needed for the public relations campaign to be successful would need to be mainly focused on the public’s perception of the organization through social media. A lot of firsthand research will need to be conducted as well as a complete allocation of donations that were collected and how they were used. The research will need to be presented either through a press conference or a presentation open to the public about all the donations and the rumblings of the Red Cross controversy and deception so that the organization can be clear and thorough and the public and media can see firsthand that the organization is working hard to help everyone they can. I think that the more firsthand testimony and more firsthand presentation of evidence the better because a lot of the misconception about the Red Cross is their use of funds and donations. I think if this information about how the funds and donations are used is presented clearly then those in need, the public, and the media will feel a lot better about the Red Cross and have their faith restored in the organization. Everyone is important in regards to the Red Cross being in good recognition but I think the most important demographic to reach in this situation would be social media. Social media basically runs the world nowadays and a lot of the negative perception of the Red Cross is because of things from social media. Regardless if someone has social media or not if something is big on social media it will be shown on the news and mainstream Internet for everyone to see. If the organization pits its main focus on social media I think it will be the most beneficial. Since a lot of the negative perception is off of social media, then if those people and outlets are addressed first and foremost that gives the American Red Cross the best possible way to stop the negativity surrounding them and also gives them a chance to address everyone in the same way because as I stated previously if it makes a big enough impact on social media alone then it will be shown and known outside of social media as well.