Give the People What they Want: Analyzing OG&E’s Key Public

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The conclusion of the first stage of formative research is upon us. What are we analyzing you may ask? We are taking a look at what makes your organizations go round. The people behind the purchases. The people at which marketing is aimed toward. The publics. Publics are unique as,

“A public is like your family. You don’t pick them; they just are—like generous Cousin Ezekiel and crazy Aunt Bertie. A public may be helpful or annoying, friendly or not, but an organization must deal with each regardless.” Smith, 2021 (79).

And for an organization to ‘deal with’ publics, the organization must first understand the publics. In today’s post, I will be analyzing OG&E’s key public and influential public while noting the differences between audiences and publics.

Audience vs. Public

An audience is defined as, “a group of people who pay attention to a particular medium of communication and receive messages through it,” (Smith, 80). Audiences are less captive than publics, and often spend moments interacting with the organization via news articles, without engaging with the company directly.

Kermit Meme from makeameme.org

Take OG&E for example. Recently, the organization has been in the news for fighting local power outages in the midst of winter storms. Any Oklahoman that seeks news coverage may come across articles about how OG&E handled the storm. This Oklahoman may not use OG&E for their energy needs, being an audience, but not a public. A public however is “a group of people that shares a common interest vis-à-vis an organization, recognizes its significance, and sets out to do something about it,” (Smith, 79).

Strategic Public

The strategic public, also known as the key public, is imperative to understand when crafting campaigns or messaging (Smith, 80). This public is the most important for the company to reach, and helps define where marketing and public relations efforts should be targeted.

In the case of OG&E’s workforce development campaign, the strategic public to analyze is 17-23 year olds who have the potential to learn more about craft careers. This public has a significance, as skilled workers are needed, and there is a shortage of skilled workers in Oklahoma. According to a KGOU article, there is an estimated shortage of 20,000 skilled workers by 2028 (Halter, 2019). This prediction stems from age of retirement information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, along with smaller rates of hiring replacement laborers.

These contributing factors help to highlight the strategic public as young people can be mobilized to train and to apply for craft positions, such as lineman and electricians, as OG&E is seeking in this campaign.

Influential Public

Influential publics include groups of people who can help make things within the campaign happen. For OG&E’s workforce development campaign, these publics could be parents and important adults of high school aged children, school counselors and current craft workers who can work as spokespeople. These opinion leaders have “the ability to influence public opinion in favor of an organization,” (Smith, 91).

Identifying influential and strategic publics is necessary to developing campaigns. Learning from and analyzing these publics can help a campaign be successful.

References

Buel, Z. (2021, January 21). The state of skilled trades in Oklahoma: 2019- 2020 update. Tulsa Welding School. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.tws.edu/blog/skilled-trades/the-state-of-skilled-trades-in-oklahoma-2019-2020-update/

Halter, C. (2019, June 1). 20,000 worker shortage predicted by 2028 in Oklahoma. KGOU. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.kgou.org/news/2019-05-28/20-000-worker-shortage-predicted-by-2028-in-oklahoma

Querry-Thompson, K. (2022, February 3). OG&E: Galloping Power Lines responsible for outages. KFOR.com Oklahoma City. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://kfor.com/news/local/oge-galloping-power-lines-responsible-for-outages/

Smith, R.D. (2021). Strategic planning for public relations (6th Ed.). Routledge.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (n.d.). Oklahoma economy at a glance. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.ok.htm

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