Big strategy to little strategy: a multiple case analysis of public affairs planning

Grand strategy or overall strategy is essential to successful strategic communication planning as are the tactics of any campaign to accomplish that longer‐term strategy. That is what is meant in thinking of big strategy to little strategy in the title of this study. The terms play off the phrase, the big idea, generally credited to David Ogilvy who some call the father of advertising but also used by Edward Bernays, who some call the father of public relations, in his 1936 work, Biography of an Idea: The Founding Principles of Public Relations. The purpose of the present study was to meld the big and little concepts of strategy in public relations through analyzing strategic communication plans for Multi‐National Forces‐Iraq, a United Nations military force of 40 countries led by the United States. It encompassed multiple case studies that included interviews, documents, participant observation, and direct observation in strategic communication planning. It also confirmed the usage of research and overarching goals as big strategy, and the operational and tactical parts of public relations planning as little strategy although big strategy can be elevated to the highest corporate levels as well.