Proactive V. Reactive Strategies for 5 Bridges

Anna Swafford
Mar 3, 2022
3 min read

#planning #proactive #reactive #strategiccommunication

After the research portion of your campaign is complete, you move into the planning phase. In this phase, you begin to think of your organization's goals, positioning, objectives etc, and you get to begin the more creative work with the strategic messaging work. When you begin thinking of your messaging, keep in mind the variety of action strategies that should shape your messaging, including the difference between proactive and reactive strategies.

Proactive Strategies

According to Study.com, proactive public relations practices aid in strengthening the image of the organization, are low costing practices and increase your organization's credibility. There are two main types of proactive strategies: action and communication (Smith, 2021).

Action strategies are the actions and events that your organization undergoes to reach its goals. These would be things like holding fundraisers, sponsoring festivals or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). They are the things that your audiences can physically see your involvement in,.

Communication strategies are the messages that you tend to think of when you think PR. So things like gaining publicity, generating news, etc. Its the earned media your organization should generate to cultivate a stronger reputation.

Reactive Strategies

According to Bizfluent, reactive public relations practices refer to how your organization reacts to bad press/crises - really anything negative about your organization. Reactive strategies are the ones that organizations should focus on during a crisis. There are seven types of reactive strategies: pre-emptive action, offensive response, defensive response, diversionary response, vocal commiseration, rectifying behavior and deliberate inaction.

Premptive action is getting the story out yourself, before it goes viral on social media or gets on the 5 o'clock news.

Offensive responses only work if your organization is NOT at fault. Reactive strategies demand that you remain objective about your organization. Be aware of when your organization has done something wrong, no matter how small. These include things like attacking and embarassing the opposition or shocking the public.

Defensive responses are the less confrontational option, so it includes denial, justification, excuses etc. Organizations frequently flop when using this strategy, so be careful. Look at the BP Deepwater Oil Spill and the mess that they unfortunately got themselves into by playing the defensive.

Diversionary responses shift the conversation away from your organization's issue: so concessions, relabeling, and dissociations.

Vocal commiseration is my personal favorite. It's just apologizing, for what you can and can't control. People really just want to hear 'I'm Sorry.' Its okay that your organization made a mistake, just promise to learn from it.

Rectifying behavior is exactly what it sounds like-- learning from what they did wrong, conducting investigations, and making corrective actions. Any crisis professional will agree that this coupled with apologizing is always a great step to take when dealing with a crisis.

Finally, deliberate inaction (its what gives PR practicioners the name of spin doctors), basically staying quiet, or dodging the question.

For 5 Bridges

There are so many different types of strategies that a brand aiming for increasing their awareness and expanding their reputation should be aware of. A brand like 5 Bridges should be taking early steps to cultivate proactive strategies and planning ahead with reactive strategies for how to handle potential crises (because let's be honest, every organization will face a crisis at some point or another).