Executive Summary

This report on Virgin Australia examines the effectiveness of the communication strategies employed by the
company while dealing with its stakeholders—both internal and external.

The project was undertaken to get a comprehensive understanding of Virgin Australia’s current strategic public relations practice.

License
Attribution Some rights reserved by david_shankbone
Richard Branson thumbs Shankbone 2010 NYC

It seeks to form a basis for further research to achieve company’s goals and objectives; for it provides as a runway for the company to take flight from, towards its destination of dominance over both business and leisure markets!

The report analyses the effectiveness of the company’s on-going strategies when put to test alongside a framework of existing work that comprises of Hazleton’s1 empirical taxonomy.

It further evaluates this empirical model with relation to: theoretical arguments embedded in Mayhew’s 2 work; a multi-stakeholder survey; and the messages communicated in the company’s Annual Report 2010-11.

This combined body of elements provides for recommendations that intend to enhance the company’s public relations communication process, by making it dynamic and situational.

The findings conclude that while Virgin Australia has put into action strategies in accordance with its ‘Game Change’ program, it still needs to work on strategies that will reflect the interactive nature of communication.

The company needs to persuade and influence the stakeholders into attaining problem recognition, high level of involvement, constraint recognition, and goal compatibility.

The report recommends that Virgin Australia needs to understand the attributes of the stakeholders, with attention to audience segments.

Evidence from the research points towards the need for a more open, transparent dialogue between the company and its external stakeholders, thereby creating two-way communication, that in turn might shape the share prices in shareholders’ favor.

The result is that—public relations jargon aside, communication spins not withstanding, Annual Report gloss ignored—Virgin Australia needs to start building stronger ties with its external stakeholders.

For complete report, contact josephr@hismastersreview.com