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RELATIONS
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ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
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Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Pu
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llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
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tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
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e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series �The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art
ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art
ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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ublic Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors
ries � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP
e Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public
tions � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series
he Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age
llectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations � USP Age Collectors Series � The Art Of Public Relations
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© BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD Copyright 2006 by Brand Vision (India) Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN No. 81 904222 0 0
Published by C D Ramachandran on behalf of Brand Vision (India) Pvt. Ltd
Concept & Design Jain Kamal Edited by Shashidhar V Amit Bapna BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD 103, Mittal Chambers, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Tel. : 3028 8388 Fax : 2283 7214 Website: www.usp-age.com email: feedback@usp-age.com Printed by Pragati Offset Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad Price: Rs 500/U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Foreward
A
S A SOMEWHAT mixed-up profession, public relations or PR has had to struggle for both respectability and clarity of purpose. When I started out as a journalist in the second half of the 1960s, PR seemed to mean precisely what the editor and publisher of this volume sets out, as a misunderstanding, in his preface: “‘placement of information’ in the media through any means.” Is this simply misperception or is it based, at least in part, on what PR practitioners think and do? This is one of the key questions addressed in this collection of 51 reflections on the subject. At a time when the rise of India (and, of course, China) is a defining theme of global discourse, and the Indian economy seems to be on a roll, PR has necessarily a larger, more sophisticated, more complex role to play. It has attempted to reinvent itself and give itself new labels. PR professionals have made significant contributions to the rise of modern India, for example in showcasing India's prowess in the field of information technology and IT-enabled services. However, PR practitioners, in tandem with marketing professionals and political parties, are still capable of making huge blunders, the most spectacular recent instance being the bombing of the ‘India Shining’ campaign in the May 2004 general election. There is, not surprisingly, a strong nexus between the media and PR, which has been able to ride an unprecedented media and advertising boom in India. In most mature media markets, that is, in most developed countries, the old and established media, particularly the press and broadcast television, seem to be in inexorable decline. They have suffered steady and apparently irreversible losses in circulation, readership or viewership, revenues, and cutbacks in staff and news U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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operations. Behind this phenomenon is the big impact of the internet and the generational changes it has brought about in news reading and viewing habits, without throwing up viable and profitable business models for internet news operations. India presents a bright contrast to this picture of gloom, with both the press and the broadcast media thriving and registering buoyant and dynamic trends of growth (mostly from low bases). According to the latest National Readership Study (NRS 2006), there are an estimated 204 million readers of daily newspapers in India and close to 450 million television viewers. The internet is yet to make its impact felt as a mass medium. There are close to 360 million people who are literate but do not yet read any newspaper. So there is heartening space and potential for newspaper readership expansion, and, by implication, for PR activity. Like any professional field, PR has its ethical issues and dilemmas, which are discussed frankly, and with reference to practical situations, in this volume. These, along with questions of selfperception and identity, define the challenge before PR. It can build on its accomplishments; strengthen itself in areas of vulnerability; avoid repeating the costly mistakes made by PR and marketing professionals in some mature media markets; and take advantage of the economic and media boom to recharge, reorient, and even reinvent itself.
N. R AM E DITOR - IN -C HIEF, T HE H INDU
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Acknowledgements
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ONE OF OUR great joys as editors was to discover how managers and consultants write when they tell stories and draw down-to-earth
generalizations based on their own business experiences. We see that each has written their articles in an entertaining and informative way, totally avoiding jargons. We acknowledge the invaluable suggestions provided by the 30-odd authors whose articles are featured in this publication. © BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD
T HE E DITORIAL T EAM BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD 103, Mittal Chambers Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Tel. Nos.: 3028 8388 / Fax No: 2283 7214 Website: www.usp-age.com email: feedback@usp-age.com
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C O N T E N T S
13 I Basic Instinct
Twelve deadly tips to strategic internal communications
19 I No More Sexing Up
It is time people took a holistic view of public relations, a rather misunderstood profession
22 I What’s the Big Idea?
Conventional ways of looking at PR are passe.To succeed in the market place,public relations firms must be creative
26 I Insider’s View
Learn how Polaris Software handled a crisis when its CEO and Sr.VP were detained by the Indonesian police
32 I The power of marketing PR
Which is more effective — public relations or advertising? Here are few examples that show how PR is more effective
37 I WANTED: A big push for small sports
Sport sponsorship is big business world over.But,is corporate India ready to play a new ball game besides cricket?
47 I Does PR Work ?
PR is becoming an important management and marketing tool,valued by head honchos of corporate India
60 I Stop the column centimetre game
Stop unhealthy practices so that demanding companies can possitively grow intense competition.
64 I Newsletter as a PR Tool
Corporate India should seriously look at newsletters as an ego massage exercise instead of message dissemination tool.
68 I Don't shoot the Messenger
Which is more effective — public relations or advertising? Here are few examples that show how PR is more effective. USP Age Collectors Series
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C O N T E N T S
71 I Sex, lies & box office
Film PROs are tinsel town buccaneers who will not stop at anything to woo audience to theatres.
81 I PR in Blogosphere
Net applications enable PR practitioners to forge richer and more robust relationships with constituents
85 I Know your onions
If you want to make your mark in the PR industry then you have to understand your client's business completely
88 I Beyond PR
Is there a connect between successful PR and value creation? Learn from the pros.
92 I Power Shift
A new trend is emerging in the public relations industry. Are you clued in?
BLIC ATIONS
95 I Beyond media management
Media is just one indispensable channel towards achieving one or more PR objectives of the client
98 I Quality By Design, Not By Default Find out how the chairman handled angry shareholders of MMM Apparels.
112 I PR kiya to darna kya?
Creating a brand takes a long time. So,how do they create the buzz and build the brand?
12 I Decoding Financial PR
Financial PR is fast gaining space with companies that have come to realize the need to build a brand.
12 I Time for a makeover
PR agencies and its governing bodies need to frame code of ethics in order to survive. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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121I Jaago Academia, Jaago! What the PR industry really needs is ‘Hit-The-Street-Running’talent.
124 I Riders on the storm
As businesses grow complex,so will communications mature to efficiently reach out to and engage audiences worldwide.
129 I A matter of ethics
Can the PR profession gain respectability,or would it continue to be bogged down by ethical concerns?
133 I CSR as a growth driver
CSR is becoming a way of life with many corporates across the globe.And,it is not just for the sake of earning brownies
138 I It pays to be prepared
part1
143 I Working to plan
part2
147 I The way forward
part3
Companies must have a crisis-management team in place to cope with problems if and when they occur.
Every crisis is a testing time for the management team.Their approach can either make or break an organisation. Recovery from a crisis situation calls for skilful handling. But,is the management ready?
151 I Coming of age
Has PR evolved enough? What are some of the perils and difficulties? And,where is it headed?
170 I Who takes us seriously?
Where is the PR industry headed to? Is it on track or is it missing the wood for the trees? U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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173 I The season of crisis
PUCompanies that invest time and money in crisis planning will UBLIC
R E L AT
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REL be able to surmount a crisis when it hits them
© BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD
175 I No soap opera this
A sophisticated public affairs campaign generated considerable at ended with the government yielding
177 I Partner trouble
ON (INDIA) PVT. LTD Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 388 / Fax No: 2283 7214 www.usp-age.com back@usp-age.com
T H E A RT
Effective lobbying calls for a mastery of the details. Because, that’s where the solution lies.
PUBLIC
179 I What they should teach at B-schools
Public Affairs is a study that is a must for all those planning to pursue a career in PR.But,are they teaching it?
181 I PR tips
study of public affairs is an essential part of the LATIONS The management brief
183 I The election hoopla
I Out of sync RELATIO 185 Political campaigns in India have become a Page Three event. Are they losing their essence?
E L AT I O N S
OF PUBLIC
It’s not about brands.Rather,it is more about the quality of leadership
187 I PR as advocacy
The entry of fixers into the public relation business has subverted its original advocacy role
189 I The power of advocacy
If the government is keen to establish National Horticulture Mission,then it must take the advocacy route
193 I True lies
Why are transparency and truth so under-rated by the PR industry?
197 I Pitfalls of Selling Editorial Space When a media group launches a rate card for editorial space, it throws up issues that need immediate debate U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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C O N T E N T S 200 I Family Feud
The Ambani brothers can lead a progressive Indian response to corporate restructuring.Read how.
204 I PR’s bold new future
In an over-demanding business environment,the PR professional will have to grow out of his conventional role
208 I In search of knowledge
Communication professionals must constantly strive to update their knowledge
210 I Epitaph of a PR Consultant
Has PR become obsolete? Are companies happy with frontpage stories? Probably not.
213 I A Time to Heal
Reputation is an asset.Building it takes time,and maintaining it takes all your life.
217 I PR par bas to nahin!
Public Relations has,today,evolved and is playing a much larger role in building brands.However,will the romance last?
224 I
Q&A - Anthony Good
Anthony Good unspools on PR as a discipline and its emerging (and bigger) role in the entire communication pie.
228 I
THE HUMAN FACE — A PR Oppurtunity Public Relations outfits can help companies “get the right mileage”by focusing on the human face of the company
231 I WANTED: A PR Partner!
It is time that companies started looking at their PR agencies as partners,and not mere outsourcing vendors.
235 I United they stand
Despite their core differences,ad agencies and PR outfits are realising that they need to come together to survive.
241 I An outside job
It is not necessary to set up a full-fledged public relations outfit.Outsourcing could be just as effective. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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USP Age Collectors Series
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Basic Instinct Twelve deadly tips to strategic internal communications
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Strategic Orientation and Imperative
Communication is an organization’s lifeblood. The fundamental purpose of communication in an organization is to enable and energize employees to carry out its strategic intent. Organizations need the capability to rapidly identify, send, receive, and understand strategic information that is credible, sensible, and relevant. But successfully executing a strategy, or bringing about operational or cultural change, or achieving stretch or breakthrough goals requires something more: the broad awareness, understanding and acceptance of strategic intent by people as a foundation to their commitment. Decisions on strategy and policy must take into account the imperative and the challenge of communication, and the tools and talent of the communication function must be oriented to the organization’s strategic priorities.
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Integrity and Integration
Communication must, above all else, be credible. The cornerstone of credibility is integrity; the foundation of integrity is constant and complete consistency between communication and conduct. The challenge of building credibility is the work of integrating an organization’s formal, semi-formal, and informal voices. The rhetoric by which an organization manages its affairs and presents I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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itself to others is manifestly important, but its impact as communication is never equal to or greater than that of the organization’s decisions and actions. For through such decisions and actions, an organization continually tests and defines itself.
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Dignity and Respect
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Flow of Strategic Information
Communication thrives on mutual dignity and respect; together, these are the fundamental building blocks for relationships of trust and accountability. Organizations that are blessed by such relationships will, over time, develop greater internal commitment and thus outperform and surpass organizations that are not. An organization’s success ultimately depends on the fully aligned, discretionary, principled, and inspired effort of its people. Communication characterized by mutual dignity and respect, because it builds relationships of trust and accountability among people, is foundational to such effort and therefore to the success of the organization.
Information is the currency of communication. Just as the flow of money creates wealth, so the rapid and steady flow of strategic information enriches and empowers an organization. Organizations must nurture and sustain the systematic flow of credible, sensible, timely, and relevant information – up, down, and across their structure – so as to bring all their resources to bear on the execution of their strategic intent. That requires the full commitment of leadership, the application of appropriate technology, and the broad participation and support of employees. The upward flow of information is critical; leadership’s receptivity to upward thrusts of negative information, especially, is a reflection of the trust it holds in people. For better or worse, the flow of strategic information through an organization is a barometer of its ability to compete.
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Clarity and Power of Messages
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Clarity is a hallmark of excellent communication. Its absence leads to confusion, complacency, even chaos. Clear and powerful messages are, first and foremost, carefully considered, so they do not conflict with other messages. Though often repeated, they are few in number. Clear and powerful messages strike a balance between simplicity and complexity; they are expressed with an economy of words but a wealth of meaning. Their language is the language of ordinary people in everyday conversation. Because clear messages address the concerns and needs of listeners, they naturally take the form of a conversation more than a lecture or announcement. Finally, clear and powerful messages are coherent, consistent, and complete; they acknowledge their own limits, they explain their rationale, and they speak to whatever questions they have raised.
An organization’s internal communication systems require an external perspective and orientation. Strategy, of course, is the means by which an organization copes with its external environment – its customers, competitors, and suppliers, as well as the communities and governments where it operates. Individuals and teams in an organization seeking to implement a strategy must understand not only the strategy itself but also the reasons for it and the measures of its success. Only a communication system anchored in the company’s external environment can provide that information in a compelling way and place it in a tenable context. The external orientation may include the arenas of public policy and philanthropy; in its totality, information with an external bearing must be balanced, strategic, and truthful.
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Roles and Responsibilities
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A high-performance system of communication depends on the timely, energetic, capable participation of employees throughout an organization. Each employee has a role in communication; some have multiple roles. All employees should have clearly defined responsibilities for vertical (upward and downward) and for lateral communication appropriate to their position. These responsibilities should explicitly address both receiving and sending information as well as building relationships conducive to rapid, credible, strategic communication. Responsibilities should specify what information ought to be communicated, to whom, when, how and why. Accountabilities should include the real consequences of fulfilling or not fulfilling these responsibilities.
Listening is the fibre of good communication. The best communication resembles not so much an eloquent announcement or persuasive admonition as it does a balanced conversation and robust discussion. There can be no communication without listening, and there can be no listening without genuine receptivity and a real inclination to act in response to whatever information or message is being communicated. Good listening is more than polite silence and attention when others speak, and it’s altogether different from manipulative tactics masquerading as skill. It requires intellectual humility and the willingness to learn from people at all stations of life. Through visible presence, one not only learns by listening but also establishes a welcoming rapport that builds relationships of respect and dignity.
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Communication succeeds only to the extent that it enables and energizes employees to align their work with the organization’s strategic intent. A preoccupation with artistry or diction may divert attention away from the business issues at hand.
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Training and Support
Recognising each employee’s vital role in communication, organizations must ensure that all employees have the capability, the tools, and the support to fulfil their responsibilities. Appropriate and adequate tools will include both the technology and the resources for regular communication. Support for communication will include a stream of strategic information, time on the clock, channels of upward communication, and the physical facilities conducive to good communication; above all, it must include simple respect and the presumption of good faith, so as not to “shoot the messenger for the message”.
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Structure and Process
The structure and process of internal communication should reflect the fact that communication is a means, not an end, to success. The fundamental purpose of workplace communication is to enhance the business performance of the organization. Communication succeeds only to the extent that it enables and energizes employees to align their work with the organization’s strategic intent. A preoccupation with artistry or diction may divert attention away from the business issues at hand. Given a choice between centralising and decentralising the communication function, the latter affords more regular contact with line managers, which in turn builds mutual understanding between line and staff functions. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Measurement Systems
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Measurement is a vital aspect of a highperformance system of strategic workplace communication, but it must be undertaken with care and skill. It is a myth that everything of importance in organizations is measured; integrity, perseverance, teamwork, agility and other essential attributes of a vital work culture all but defy measurement. The importance or value of strategic communication is not an appropriate subject for measurement; by definition, it is always and precisely the value of the strategy or the change or the goal that it supports. The best measurement processes address not only formal communication but also semiformal and informal communication. They focus on outcomes, not outputs or inputs. They measure against a progression of awareness, understanding, acceptance, and commitment, and they reflect the fundamental purpose of communication as a bridge between strategy and its successful execution.
More than just another management fad, continuous improvement is a never-ending quest for a better way. It is both a personal and professional habit, and an individual and organisational commitment, to change, progress, and growth. Without it we become stagnant, and we cease to grow. The philosophy, processes, and tools of the quality literature offer abundant means for improving strategic workplace communication, but they require a genuine receptivity to improvement. The time and resources devoted to a thoughtful, well-managed programme of continuous improvement will return their investment many times over. K ERMAN K ASAD
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No More Sexing Up It’s time people took a holistic view of public relations,a rather misunderstood profession
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he recent news-channel boom on the electronic media and the intense circulation battle among print media firms have subtly helped to popularise the clichĂŠd use of PR (public relations). This has not only helped to generate interest among students of mass communications but has also given a new look to an ageold profession that lacked the necessary attention. Courses offered by various institutes however try to project PR as corporate communications and media relations or business communications. Some include PR under the larger umbrella of journalism and mass communications. Another popular usage of PR is unpaid advertising. This has caused confusion among many aspiring PR professionals about the real nature of PR and what professionals are expected to do in this field. There is enough debate among PR professionals about the need to reinvent the profession and therefore the necessity to sex up or glamourise PR as corporate I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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communications and media relations (CCMR). This positioning has helped many who have tried to wash their hands off many strategic and soft skills, which the profession offers its practitioners. A simple search for the word PR in any Internet search engine would give you results about eight times more than a search for corporate communications. The results can be interpreted as sufficient evidence about the diverse applications of PR and its greater acceptance worldwide. The evolution of PR can be traced back to 1802 when US President Thomas Jefferson first used the term in his State of the Union address to Congress. Later Ivy Lee made PR a corporate strategy. PR was employed extensively by the coal industry in 1906 to counter bad publicity arising from the coal strike of 1902. Lee, a PR professional, believed that a company could only maintain good relations with society by actively disclosing its policies, plans and problems without concealing anything or by forming a common relationship between itself and society. In the present context, corporate communications and media relations can be considered to have their origins in public relations and not stand for PR as such. The term “corporate communication” was made popular by US business magazine Fortune during its first annual corporate communications seminar in 1972. Since then it has gained importance and is used interchangeably with PR. In India especially, the word PR, or PRO, is often misinterpreted for the guy who manages to get you a train or plane ticket. This has led to a PR exercise by PR professionals to sex up the entire gamut of PR activities under the banner of corporate communications and media relations. A possible solution to the identity crisis is to accept that softer skills are part of PR and to use these skills to leverage the profession. There are many Indian firms in which the PR guy, apart from communications, does soft jobs like receiving an important customer or simply accompany the CEO to various social get-togethers. The breadth and non-specificity of the term public relations prevents it from being identified with any one type of function. Limiting PR to corporate communications alone would therefore restrict the profession to the “corporate sector” — the field of industry, trade and business. On the other hand, PR as defined by the Mexican statement made at an International Conference of Public Relation Institutions held in Mexico City says, “Public relations practice is the art of social sciences that U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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In a company’s life cycle, there will be tough times and media will certainly report them, irrespective of strong corporate communications and media relations efforts. analyses trends, predicts their consequences, counsels organisation leaders, and implements planned programmes of action that will serve both the organisation and the public interest.” The definition introduces the elements of research, an advisory role, planning and social responsibility, and thereby it places PR as a strategic management function. The idea is not to debate the effectiveness of a particular name for the profession but, on the contrary, give it wider acceptability. PR can be broadly classified as an umbrella term that covers internal communications, generating publicity for an organisation, planning press conferences and press releases, community work, advertising, exhibitions, policy formulation, providing content for a company web site, direct mail, strategic support to human resources for effective communication, sales training, working for communal harmony, liaison with government, event management, hospitality, arrangement for parties, and so on. The rising trend of servicing media alone is consuming a lot of the PR professional’s time. One must remember that media relations, or a good stock market price of a company alone would not trigger the necessary goodwill. In a company’s lifecycle, there will be tough times and media will certainly report those irrespective of the strong corporate communications and media relations efforts. At times excessive dependence on the media has aroused the suspicions of various publics. This is where PR stands out. The target group for PR is not the press alone but may be more than one in a given situation — employees, shareholders, government, community, suppliers or financial institutions. PR will definitely play a very important role in a global economy where image and credibility would be key factors driving business. It is therefore necessary to understand the subject in much greater depth and focus on the umbrella nature of the profession rather than depend on a specific function of the profession. C. C HANDRA M OULI T HE
WRITER IS DEPUT Y MANAGER
(PR) SAIL, D URGAPUR S TEEL P LANT
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What’s the big idea? Conventional ways of looking at PR are passé.To succeed in the market place public relations firms must be creative
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N THE MARKETING ARENA, the words “creativity” and the “big idea” immediately bring to mind advertising people working on a new campaign. Creativity, which means producing something that is new, original or different, has so far been synonymous with advertising, in which young people with the creative ideas make it “Big”. On the other hand public relations, a more recently evolved discipline of communications, has been associated with dull, lengthy press conferences and press releases and smooth talking PR executives trying to get journalists to write about their clients. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the changing world of business, where consumers have a choice of hundreds of brands in each product category, companies need to establish differentiators that U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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give their brands a unique appeal with consumers. PR plays an important role in building brand equity and enhancing corporate image through credible third party communication. The impact of a front-page article in a business daily or discussion on primetime TV can be tremendous. But what can make it get there? For a story to be published, it must have news value and reach the right journalist at the right time. On an average the editor of a pink newspaper gets hundreds of press releases, invitations, research reports, letters from the readers every day and has just a few seconds to decide what is useful to him. Coupled with this are stories filed by in-house journalists, wire services. Besides, some news must appear only on certain pages, columns or days. Given this situation, much of the material received from PR firms could easily find its way into a bin. This is where a well thought out PR strategy, with an unique attention-getting idea plays a crucial role. Having seen the PR industry evolve over the past several years, one has seen that most outstanding campaigns result from creative thinking and an innovative idea. Let me illustrate with a few examples. LAUNCH OF GODREJ I-SPACE KIDS FURNITURE
In November 2001, Godrej & Boyce Mfg Co Ltd were getting ready to launch Godrej i-space — a unique integrated furniture unit for children. The product was small enough to fit into a corner of a room, yet large enough to encompass a child’s whole world. The challenges were: branded furniture was a new concept; the client was not convinced about the effectiveness of PR. To top it all it had a very small budget. Keeping all these in mind, we chalked out a strategy: Launch the product at McDonald’s play area (a location that kids frequent and love) by leveraging the Godrej family’s celebrity value. Leg 1: For the first time we involved the Godrej family to create a photo opportunity with kids so that it would interest the editor of Bombay Times, (a daily supplement of The Times of India) and make it to the front page. Leg 2: After getting the exclusive front-page exposure in the Bombay Times, we issued a news release highlighting the product features with an interesting picture of the product being used in key markets, nationally. Most publications carried launch stories or wrote features. This short four-week PR campaign saw the client receiving a good response to its product. There were 93 writeups/exposures in print and electronic media with a U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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PR plays an important role in building brand equity and enhancing corporate image through credible third-party communication.The impact of a front-page article in a business daily or discussion on primetime TV can be tremendous. But what can make it get there? collective readership of 34 million. In fact, the company’s sales of i-space in the first quarter far exceeded its target. P&G and Sony TV’s education initiative —Shiksha According to the Indian Readership Survey, only 10 per cent adults in urban India are graduates and about 25 per cent children do not pursue studies after completing SSC/HSC. Also the Pathfinder’s study in 2002 conducted among married women indicated that 80 per cent of the respondents said that they would prefer to invest in their child’s education rather than save money for her marriage. With this background in mind, Procter & Gamble thought of an initiative that would help drive sales of its products, while simultaneously contributing to the cause of education, on which its key target consumers placed a lot of importance. P&G thus launched “Shiksha — Secure Your Child’s Future” with select television channels — Sony TV (north, west, east, Karnataka), Jaya TV (Chennai), Asianet (Kochi) and Maa TV (Hyderabad), by linking it to sales of large packs of its brands — Ariel, Tide, Head & Shoulders, Pantene, Whisper and Vicks. The packs carried a scratch sticker. Each day a few lucky numbers were announced on select programmes of TV channels. Purchase of a P&G product would entitle a mother to win full graduation fees, or next year’s tuition fees or sponsorship of educational material, CD ROMs or computers for her child. Everyday, Sony announced prizes worth Rs 2.25 lakh over 45 days. Our objective was to create awareness about Shiksha. We also needed to appeal to a mother’s emotion about her child’s education and future, thereby getting her to buy P&G products. THE WAY WE DID THIS WAS:
Phase I: Organised news conference in Mumbai with the presence and endorsement of a leading educationist — U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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the former vice-chancellor of Mumbai University. Her spontaneous and credible association lent tremendous weight to the campaign, provided an impactful photoopportunity and got media to write large pieces about the initiative to create interest among mothers. The event in Mumbai was followed by a national news release. Phase II: Winner Prize Presentation Ceremonies in local markets. We organised prize presentation ceremonies in local markets to leverage early Shiksha winners through media with the aim of increasing consumer participation. We got brand ambassadors of Shiksha — stars from TV serials P&G had tied up with, to give away prizes to winning mothers and their children. Local media found the stories and photoopportunities interesting and gave it a good coverage. This encouraged more consumers to buy P&G products and participate in Shiksha. Result: The PR campaign resulted in 350 exposures in print and electronic media encompassing a readership of 97 million across metros and small towns which were critical of P&G’s business growth. Return on Investment: There was an overwhelming response to the promotion. Today Shiksha is known and remembered as P&G’s educational initiative in the media and by consumers, and not just as a consumer promotion. On the international front too, the success of brands like Microsoft Windows 95, Red Bull, Body Shop, Harry Porter, Zara, Google and Starbucks, can largely be attributed to the enormous media exposure generated for each of them by innovative and sustained PR campaigns. Building creativity into PR campaigns brings rich rewards. Journalists are more receptive to such ideas, as it holds more interest for their readers and viewers. Creative ideas have long lasting impact with target groups and are memorable. They can break clutter and get better positions and in the long run, such campaigns give companies much better return on investment. Thus, the three Is — interest, impact, and investment — brought together by one big creative idea make for a successful PR exercise. V EENA G IDWANI T HE
WRITER IS
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Insider’s View A first person account of how Polaris Software handled a crisis when its CEO Arun Jain,and senior vice president, Rajiv Malhotra,were detained by the Indonesian police last year
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he Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a crisis as an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which decisive change is impending; especially one with a distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome, a financial crisis. And successful crisis management deals especially with this subject of “highly undesirable outcome” — ways and means to anticipate the results and undertake counter-measures to diminish or nullify these effects. However, there are some areas of crisis management that are fairly well defined and are easy to adopt and implement. One such subject is effective communication with all stakeholders during a crisis. An example of the positive fallout of having good crisis communication strategies can be seen in the handling of the recent crisis that broke out at Polaris Software when its chief executive Arun Jain and senior vice president Rajiv Malhotra were in police custody in Jakarta, Indonesia last year.
Crises defines life. In them you discover what you are. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Arun Jain at a press conference soon after his release
Crisis resolution rarely happens in one fell swoop. It’s a psychological battle — a nip here, a jab there, testing the strength, resolve and street-smartness of the involved parties at all times. While it is important to understand the nature of the crisis and the goal that defines its successful resolution, it is equally important to understand that progress must be achieved step by step to attain that goal. An absolute necessity for this is teams of people on the ground, working towards achieving these small victories that will eventually help you to win the war. Delegation of responsibility and role definition is crucial in a crisis. Communication, ties with statutory and government bodies, on-ground activities and corporate strategy are some of the key areas that call for dedicated teams allocated to them. The crisis communication management skills we adopted at Polaris is an example of how to effectively handle communication with stakeholder groups in a crisis situation. In any crisis situation effective communication to different stakeholder groups is of paramount importance — especially since there will much misinformation floating around in times of distress. Poor communication will snowball into a crisis by itself that will cause extensive damage to our reputation. All these potential disasters were avoided by clearly recognising the importance of effective and proactive communication with key stakeholder groups. Our modus operandi for an
Arun Jain shared his thoughts on a piece of paper and reached them to the Chennai office.This was sent to every associate as a morale-booster communication. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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effective communication strategy was simple and straightforward: We established a Command And Control (CAC) operations centre in Chennai (Tamil Nadu), headed by the acting CEO Govind Singhal, to manage the crisis. All decisions relating to crisis resolution were taken at or in concurrence with the CAC centre. There were only two official spokespersons for Polaris Software during this crisis — Singhal and I. This ensured a single, consistent channel of communication with the external world and allowed the organisation to control the nature and flow of information. All the teams dealing with different aspects of the crisis management provided periodic updates on developments to the CAC centre. This information was then assimilated and reorganised into meaningful communication to individual stakeholder groups. The crisis communication team ensured that the information dissemination to stakeholders was customised to each group’s needs and was done in a proactive manner through multiple channels of communication. The media is one of the most important stakeholder groups during a crisis situation since they have the ability to influence public opinion and effectively broadcast our stance to key decision makers and the public. A proactive and transparent communication policy plays a major role in not only garnering huge media support for your cause but also helps sustain pressure on the crisis resolution effort by awakening public awareness and opinion on the issue. Going by this premise we took extra care to ensure that the media world was provided with accurate, relevant and timely information. Daily media briefings on the status of the crisis, one-on-one conversations with individual media citizens seeking their support in highlighting specific issues, all went a long way in whetting the media appetite for information and at the same time converting them to an ally with our cause. The media effort was targeted at getting as many publications to cover our point of view as possible. This is one endeavour where “more the merrier” really holds good — the greater the number of publications you reach out to, the greater is the footprint of readership that can empathise with your stance on the crisis and greater is the support you can garner. One of the important achievements of our transparent and responsive media communication strategy was the unqualified support extended to our cause global media including those in Indonesia! U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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But as we implemented our media strategies we also realised that engaging the media could be a double-edged sword and we had to be constantly watchful for the “blind cut”. For example, early in the crisis, we found out through informed sources that a certain journalist had filed a report indicating that Polaris was negotiating with the Jakarta Police for the release of Arun and Rajiv. While this was completely untrue, it also had the potential of derailing diplomatic efforts under way. We immediately sought assistance from senior authorities in the publication and worked through the night to ensure that the false report was not carried in the next day’s papers. We are extremely grateful to that publication and the concerned authorities for the signal service rendered by them towards our cause. Another trend we saw during the crisis was that while all our media friends were supportive of our cause, they were also keen on information on different aspects of the crisis. Sometimes this was in conflict with our ability to share the latest developments with them because of the sensitive nature of the information. Also, while our primary focus was on getting Jain and Malhotra safely back to India, many journalists wanted to probe details of the Bank Artha Graha relationship and reasons for the fallout with the client, even while executives languished in detention. These instances posed unique challenges in terms of not only maintaining positive relationships with media citizens but also in helping them to understand the sensitivities involved. At the same time we had to be able to satisfy their information needs to the extent possible and sustain their support in moulding public opinion and exerting pressure on the diplomatic effort. Investors form another important stakeholder group that requires constant, timely and accurate information on the crisis and the group’s role in it. Sincerity and involvement in handling each investor’s call/request for information had a big impact on retention of confidence by the investor community in the firm’s stock. The universe of existing and potential clients was also targeted. Communication with this stakeholder group assumed significance since it formed the group’s primary source of revenue and an impact on its confidence in the credibility/stability of the group would hurt the organisation’s very existence. Sales managers were given briefs on the crisis situation so that they could communicate this to clients U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Arun Jain with his family
and reinforce the faith these customers reposed in the organisation as a vendor committed to “customer delight” and in showing that the crisis did not affect the group’s ability to meet its obligations. A time of crisis is a time of doubt. It is important to maintain employee morale through a crisis since this affects everything from productivity to hurtful rumour mongering, to staff exodus. We ensured the associates (as employees are termed at Polaris) received regular, detailed communication on the status of the crisis and Polaris’ role in it. The empathy that such communication created in the workforce was remarkable. It ensured associates stuck together and business operations did not suffer. Even Jain shared his thoughts on a piece of paper and reached it to the Chennai office from Jakarta. This was sent to every associate. The effect was astounding — suddenly there was a spring in each associate’s step, knowing that the CEO was making a stand for them by sticking to ethical business practices. They reciprocated by ensuring none of the other clients’ work was affected and deliveries were on schedule. I have tried to focus on one of the more important aspects of crisis management — crisis communication strategy. What brought Jain and Malhotra back to India might have been diplomatic efforts, but the ability of the Crisis Communication Team to stay focused on the core issue and proactive, transparent communication helped to maintain pressure on that diplomatic effort. Through this effort we derived important learnings on crisis management and what we can do to pre-empt crisis situations: We created a separate risk and audit department to assist our sales teams conduct business in foreign markets to ensure we understood the business risks in a new geography before we engaged in doing business there. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Arun Jain was out of the Police Detention Centre in seven days and back with his family in India within two weeks In a crisis rumours about a firm float and sometimes we tended to focus on providing correct information more than denying/repudiating rumours. Both are crucial and must be part of crisis communication plans. Although it may not have been the perfect crisis communication management effort in every way, aspects that stand out are: � The speed of resolution of the issue through diplomatic efforts backed by communication to create a public opinion backlash — Jain and Malhotra were out of the detention in seven days and in India in two weeks. � The media communication management that resulted in unanimous and unconditional support for the India Inc. cause. � The proactive and transparent sharing of relevant information with each stakeholder group according to their needs. � The fantastic coordination effort between the onground team, the diplomatic efforts team and the communication team in keeping each other updated and maintaining consistency and accuracy in information dissemination. � Crisis management strategy for delegation while retaining sharp focus and keeping normal business operations going. This episode highlights that not only must top-flight firms regularly sustain their reputations but they must occasionally defend it against attack. The Bank Artha Graha crisis represented a commercial, diplomatic and ethical crisis for Polaris in which it had to defend its reputation against charges of non-performance and criminal charges against Jain and Malhotra. The action of the Polaris crisis communication team represents a winning strategy adopted by a savvy top management that manoeuvred the diplomatic initiative to secure the release of Jain and Malhotra and positioned the organisation, both publicly and privately, so as to defend its reputation, sustain its character and reinforce a sense of self. � �
RAGHURAMAN BALAKRISHNAN
THE WRITER IS VICE-PRESIDENT AT POLARIS SOFTWARE LAB.
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The power of marketing PR Which is more effective — PR or advertising? Here are few examples that show how PR is more effective
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N A COMPETITIVE and price-sensitive marketplace manufacturers and marketers realise that innovative marketing strategies must be evolved to establish brands and that a well thought out and executed public relations plan to publicise the brands goes a long way in reaching and winning customers. Marketing public relations covers planning, executing and evaluating programmes that help to encourage U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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product buying and customer satisfaction through credible communication of information. Typical activities that lend themselves to PR include product launches, promotions, product repositioning and social marketing initiatives. Let me demonstrate the power of marketing PR through a few examples. VIDEO CONFERENCING AT IWAYS
Sify Ltd., a leading network and e-commerce services company in India was introducing a unique service by offering video conferencing facility branded “iMeet” at its iways (cyber cafes) across India for just Rs 5 per minute. This meant a person in Mumbai or any other city could talk with and simultaneously see his mother, brother, wife, boss or anyone else in Delhi or any other city for just Rs5 per minute. Video conferencing was being launched as a convenience for businesses for recruitment, marketing feedback and other activities. It could keep individuals in touch with their loved ones. The PR plan to launch Sify “iMeet” had two components: a . Simultaneous media conferences in Delhi and Chennai with a video conference between Arun Shourie, union minister for information technology, communications and disinvestment and George Zacharias, COO Sify in Delhi, with Vivek Hariharan, IT secretary of Tamil Nadu and R. Ramaraj managing director & CEO of Sify in Chennai. The videoconference gave journalists in Delhi and Chennai simultaneously a first-hand experience of Sify’s “iMeet” service. b . A media release and photograph were disseminated to journalists in all cities where the “iMeet” service is offered. Both the media conferences and the media release resulted in extensive exposure for “iMeet”. FISH FOR GOLD
A unique contest was planned for Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, Zaveri Bazar, Mumbai to boost sales during the lean season. A large attractive fish tank, with exotic species of fishes, was placed in a jewellery showroom. Also placed in the tank was a glass jar full of gold coins. Consumers who bought jewellery for as little as Rs 5,000 could participate in a month-long contest and guess the number of coins in the jar. The person who guessed the number correctly would get diamond jewellery worth Rs 2 lakh. The runner-up would get gold jewellery worth Rs 1 U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The Aspirin Foundation Information Service (AFIS) was created for collecting and distributing credible scientific information to both the medical and health community and the media. lakh. Besides, there were more than 100 consolation prizes. The PR challenge was to publicise the contest and drive consumers to the TBZ showroom during the period of the contest. Here is what we did. During the first leg of the exercise we invited model Aditi Govitrikar, who at the time had just been crowned Mrs World and who fitted the profile of TBZ’s jewellery customer perfectly, to launch the contest at the show room. Key journalists from consumer media (print and television) were invited to the launch. Govitrikar launched the contest by unveiling the curtain on the fish tank, providing an interesting photo opportunity. Immediately after the launch a media release with her photograph was disseminated to media in Mumbai. Within a week there was extensive coverage with photographs in both English and language media. Even a business paper like The Economic Times carried the photograph prominently on its back page. The contest got an overwhelming response during the month and the winners were selected. During the second leg of the exercise, a prize distribution event was organised at the Cricket Club of India (CCI) at which Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, Zaveri Bazar's key customers, participants of the contest, winners and media were invited. Photographs of the winners along with media release was sent to various publications and some of them gave good coverage. ASPIRIN – THE NEW WONDER DRUG
According to Thomas L. Harris’ book Value Added Public Relations — The Secret Weapon Of Integrated Marketing, published in 1981, several manufacturers of aspirin in the US came together to form a trade association following health concerns that aspirin was unsafe and the success of competitive products. This producers wanted to reverse the negative image in the public mind about aspirin. This led to the formation of the Aspirin Foundation of America (AFA). U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The PR challenge was to publicise the contest and drive consumers to the TBZ showroom during the period of the contest The AFA decided to build credibility by developing contacts in the medical, scientific and healthcare communities and establishing a strong and multi-faceted image of aspirin’s benefits and safety profile. The PR agency, working on the campaign, decided to turn the situation around by repositioning aspirin as the “new wonder drug”, while highlighting its long history of safety. The agency also wanted to prove that new doesn’t necessarily mean better. The Aspirin Foundation Information Service (AFIS) was created for collecting and distributing credible scientific information to both the medical and health community and the media. The Aspirin Foundation Scientific Advisory Board (AFSAB), comprising health professionals representing different areas of aspirin research, was formed to lend credibility to the message and to act as spokespersons. The communications campaign was built around the information service, a consumer hotline, seminars and symposia and aggressive media relations. Seminars and symposia were held in conjunction with several credible scientific and public health groups focusing on traditional and new uses of aspirin, such as its potential help in preventing heart attacks and strokes and in helping to bolster the immune system. Media tours were conducted in top markets featuring members of the AFSAB and other independent scientists speaking on aspirin’s many benefits. As a result of the media outreach programme, positive U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Whether it's a marketing initiative for a corporate, retail store or an association, PR delivers results at a very effective cost. stories on “the miracle in the medicine chest� began to appear regularly in newspapers, on local television networks, and in major consumer magazines that catered to health-conscious men and women. The continuous sharing of new research on newfound benefits of aspirin reported in the media, coupled with the interest by the medical community, repositioned a century-old stand-by as a miracle drug, widely consumed by millions. All the three examples mentioned here show that whether it's a marketing initiative for a corporate, retail store or an association, PR delivers results at a very effective cost. FOUR KEY BENEFITS
PR offers four unique benefits to building brand loyalty and brand equity. They are as follows: Timeliness: A PR campaign can be tied to real-time equity-building news coverage. Events such as media conferences and openings can be covered and broadcast live. ADAPTABILITY: A PR campaign can work in synergy with advertising, direct mail or sales promotion. Credibility: Since PR is a third-party endorsement it enjoys very high credibility. Consumers tend to find messages delivered by journalists more believable than advertised messages. Cost efficiency: The cost of a PR campaign is typically far lower than that of an advertising campaign. Although marketing PR specifically supports marketing objectives it also serves a corporate purpose because effective communication of product benefits enhances overall corporate reputation. VEENA GIDWANI The writer is the CEO of Madison Public Relations
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Wanted:
A big push for small sports Sport sponsorship is big business world over.But in India it is largely limited to cricket.A new breed of PR managers are quietly changing the rule of the game. And,not surprisingly,corporate India is playing the ball
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T COULD BE the same old trick of hitting a ball either with a log of wood or a racket or a stick on a table. Or it could be just about kicking a ball all around the place or maybe just serving it up as in volleyball. But professional firms eyeing a nascent Rs 200 crore sports promotion-management industry in India feel sports could be one of the best mediums to sell brands if presented in the right way. Although, most advertising revenue flows to cricket sponsors are now moving to other not-so-popular sports to corner exclusive brand attention. “Ninety per cent of the money in sports sponsorships goes to cricket and 10 per cent goes in other sports,” says Sanjiv Saran Mehra, who runs a sports management firm, Saran Presents. “But now because of efforts made by the smaller games and by professional marketing firms, the sponsorship money in other sports may rise by 15 per cent. Even this five per cent rise will be a big thing for these smaller sports.” Saran feels the only way to beat the system of cricket-fixation among sponsors is to present other games in a novel and exciting way. He narrates U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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“Ninety per cent of the money in sports sponsorships goes to cricket and 10 per cent goes in other sports” — SANJIV SARAN MEHRA,
S ARAN P RESENTS
how his company was able to get a sponsor for snooker, in which even champions like Geet Sethi had struggled to find sponsors. “In such a scenario we pegged a tournament around women,” he says. “This was the first Ladies Snooker Championship and we successfully managed to rope diamond jewellery brand, Cygnus as our sponsor.” Incidentally, Mehra is credited with conceptualising and promoting the concept of seven-aside corporate cricket tournaments, which are gaining popularity. Similarly, when Clea PR, whose managing director Vinod Nair believes that the trick lies in making a sport more television-friendly, had to promote the Billiards And Snooker Association Of India, it introduced a nine-ballpool tournament. “The game is shorter, finishes faster and audiences loves quick action,” says Nair. “We also roped in celebrities like Ritesh Deshmukh and this attracted good television media coverage for the event.” CMCG India will enhance excitement for the All India Monopoly Championship by giving the winning child a free trip to Japan. This idea got them sponsors such as toy maker Funskool since the target audiences were the same. Similarly, they got the Asia Pacific Rally 2003 to start from Nariman Point, Mumbai rather than at Pune to involve more Mumbaikars in the event. But Procam International is clearly a master at making a world-class event out of any humdrum daily sport. The U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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company’s ideas to promote a sporting event are by far the most unusual and high profile. The most famous example of course is the recent marathon organised by Standard Chartered Bank. “It was the best marathon organised on this scale in India,” says Bruno Goveas, who handled the PR for the event. “For the first time a special crew from the UK filmed the marathon from a helicopter. Again, a control room was set atop Air India building and a laser display show ran on the AI building for days. This kind of thing was unheard of in India.” Besides, celebrities were roped in and special promotions organised on how they were preparing for the event. All this of course created more than its share of buzz around the event. Earlier, while organising the Mahindra Squash Championship, Procam flew down an entire all-glass squash court, thunder dome from Singapore and placed it right in the middle of Brabourne stadium in downtown Mumbai. The players would arrive in Mahindra jeeps in the stadium on a specially built ramp. “Everybody is looking for a sport to associate with and you need to create a package that will help the brand stand out of the clutter and get them to associate with it,” explains Anil Singh, managing director of Procam International. “You
"Everybody is looking for a sport to associate with and you need to create a package that will help the brand stand out of the clutter” — A N I L S I N G H , P ROCAM I NTERNATIONALAM I NTERNATIONAL U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Today, sports associations realise the importance of presenting the game in a more viewer-friendly way so as to attract media interest in it.The goal, of course, is to use the mileage to hook a sponsor and if a sponsor is already in, to help him get his due. need to build around an event; you need to synergise the product with the game. Not any sponsor would do for any game.” He explains that the greatest success occurs when both the brand and the sport meet. Procam also pegs an event creatively. It pegged the 57th Men’s World Bodybuilding Championship at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai in November last year as a world-class event that Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger had won several times. It is a cyclical process — creating a buzz in the media attracts audiences, which in turn attracts sponsors that bring in revenue that could be ploughed back for the development of the game. That is why media coverage is significant. Mahendra Agarwal, founder director of Indian Squash Professionals recalls that when he started the first Professional Squash Championships, he would rope in builders from his circle of friends to chip in as sponsors. As the championships became popular with each succeeding year, media coverage increased and subsequently this media coverage was used to rope in corporate sponsors for squash. Today sports associations realise the importance of presenting the game in a more viewer-friendly way so as to attract media interest in it. The goal, of course, is to use the mileage to hook a sponsor and if a sponsor is already in, to help him get his due. The long-term goal is to attract sustained returns so that money is available for the development of the sport. This is where Goveas, who owns Aryan Associates, comes into the picture. “He is the perfect PR person for us,” says sports journalist N.D. Prashant. “Unlike other PR people who talk soppy language but fail to be of any help, Bruno organises it all well for us.” Incidentally, one of Goveas’ jobs also involves convincing journalists to retain a sponsor’s name in a tournament. “I convince journalists about the importance of sponsors in sports and about how retaining their name will help the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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“Sports sponsorships can make a material difference to a player’s life” — MAHENDRA AGARWAL, I NDIAN S QUASH P ROFESSIONALS
sport grow,” he says. “This coupled with my personal rapport with journalists, ensures that the sponsor gets his due through the sports section of newspapers.” If you ever wondered how little known sports manage to get sponsors to run the show, here is the secret. Sports public relations firms tap known enthusiasts of a game in executive positions of corporate houses and use their good offices to get their company to sponsor the game. This seems to be the norm rather than the exception in getting sponsors for sports that do not have a mass base. The wife of HCL chairman Shiv Nadar is said to be a bridge champion and managing director of Tolani Shipping. Being a bridge enthusiast ensures the support of big companies like these for such games. An ITC senior executive’s wife playing golf ensured the cigarette firm would sponsor golf tournaments. Stories abound about how smaller games tap senior executives or game enthusiasts to rope in sponsors. All this is done out of personal goodwill. The good thing about all this is that such activity has revitalised the sport and helped it to develop in a better way. While a sponsor seeks mileage, wittingly or unwittingly, he has helped the sport to grow or at least create temporary excitement for a sport. Kehar Singh, president of the Mumbai District Football Association recalls that until recently his association would pay referees Rs20 per game, the association found it difficult U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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“I convince journalists about the importance of sponsors in sports and about how retaining their name will help the sport grow” — B R U N O G O V E A S A RYAN A SSOCIATES
to maintain the grounds and it paid players poorly. “We did not have a sponsor worth the name,” he says. “The money for the game came through tickets sales or individual donations. But things changed after Procam took over in 2000. Now it pays us Rs 7.5 lakh a year and it takes charge of everything. It has brought in sponsors (Haywards 2000K) and helped to cover the game in a much better way in the media. “Earlier, we would just invite media before a tournament and then send the scores after the tournament. But now these people get media before the tournament, organise interviews with individual players and so on.” Kehar Singh adds that now promising junior players can go abroad for training and they can be offered better facilities. Goveas says that after Procam took over promoting tennis in India it was able to host Leander Paes, then only a junior champion in Hotel President in Mumbai, which had never happened before. After the success of the Standard Chartered marathon, Hugh Jones, secretary of the Association Of International Marathon And Road Races, wrote to Procam International, “India is a country where we have long lacked a presence… We feel the Mumbai Marathon can act as a flagship event for the nation.” U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Agarwal points out that sports sponsorships can make a material difference to a player's life. A young squash player could expect to earn between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 a year until a few years ago. But now, because of the large number of tournaments that are played, a player could earn between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh a year. He says that with sponsors showing interest in the game the amount of prize money available to players has also increased. Agarwal's association has created a record of sorts by offering Rs6 lakh as prize money in a squash tournament and it has managed to fly in Pakistani squash champion Jehangir Khan to hype the event. The government too was mooting the idea of enticing and involving companies to promote sports in India. In 2001 the sports minister of the day Uma Bharati had urged bodies such as the Federation of Indian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to help to promote sports and sportspeople with an eye on creating champions for the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. “Participation of industry in this sector would help the development of sports enabling it to reach international standards and would give mileage to the industry, as well,” she had said. “The involvement of the corporate sector would go a long way in the promotion of these sports disciplines.” And to encourage more business houses to promote sport, the CII recently instituted a Corporate Sports Awards to
“We did not have a sponsor worth the name” — KEHAR SINGH, M UMBAI D ISTRICT F OOTBALL A SSOCIATION U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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“Cricket attracts huge advertising spends because it is well-planned and well-marketed” — S A M E E R K A L E , CMCG
accord recognition to efforts to industries that promote and develop sports in India. In a seminar organised by the CII to deliberate the role of corporate in sports promotion, executive director and president of the automotive sector at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd Alan Durante said sports was an effective marketing tool that built goodwill for a company. His company's tractor and farm equipment sector took an active interest in the development of games like kabaddi and the company also went to schools to address budding sportspeople. Despite such positive responses professional firms complain that sponsors are hesitant to tie-up with associations to promote a game in the long term. Most associations are run by political nominees and are rife with stories of one-upmanship, factionalism, corruption and mismanagement of resources. “Things like association wrangling and siphoning of funds create a fear psychosis among sponsors,” says Mehra. “There have been instances of sports officials staying in five-star hotels while players were put up in literal godowns. So, now sponsors want to know about exactly how their money is going to be spent.” “Games other than cricket still go with a begging bowl and there are few takers,” admits Nair of Clea PR. CMCG’s managing director, Sameer Kale confesses that things are not very hot with sponsors and one of the reasons is “the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Although the efforts of champions such as Leander Paes, Prakash Padukone, Vishwanathan Anand, or Dhanraj Pillai to create excitement for their sport cannot be denied, the fact is that these successes alone cannot directly translate into corporate sponsors running to them. association’s refusal to take professional firms on board for fear of losing control over things”. Kale explains: “Cricket attracts huge advertising spends not because of its popularity but because it is well-planned and wellmarketed. Cricket is the only organised game that has its calendar fixed for the next three years, while the ICC [International Cricket Council] has a 10-year calendar ready. This helps sponsors to plan and prepare for an event. This can't be said about other sports associations. We need Dalmias in every sports association.” Procam's Anil Singh feels people need to be made accountable in sports. “You need people whose job could be on the line if they fail to promote a game. Only then will things change,” he says. This is the necessary evil that sports promotion firms will have to counter to reach the proverbial pot of gold at the end. But for all the strategies, ideas, hype and brands, nothing beats a hero in a sport. Once a sports hero makes it, public adulation generates excitement and attracts sponsors to the game. Although the efforts of champions such as Leander Paes, Prakash Padukone, Vishwanathan Anand, Pulela Gopichand or Dhanraj Pillai to create excitement for their sport cannot be denied, the fact is that these successes alone cannot directly translate into corporate sponsors running to them. Their charisma also needs to be complemented with professional firms ready to cash in on the adulation and convert interested parties into sponsors. A good case in point of a classic waste of charisma because of a lack of marketing back-up is that of athlete Anju George. George, who could be a perfect role model for women’s health and fitness brands, lacks a sponsor and spends her own money to train abroad. But no corporate house comes to her because there is no professional firm that sells this concept to a sponsor and gets them to cash in on it. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Tatas,Birlas,Ambanis and Narayana Murthys have long understood its values,implications and importance.Public relations is becoming an important management and marketing tool. A.B.Ravi takes a close look at the public relations industry USP Age Collectors Series
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DOES PR WORK ? I
T IS A PERCEPTION-versus-reality game. On a scale of zero to 10 if reality is four and you as a CEO ask your public relations honcho to hype the perception to seven then you might as well sign your own death warrant. Inversely, if the reality is seven but the perception among your stakeholders is four then you may not face a backlash. Yes, your company could be labelled conservative; and chances are that at the bourses your company may not get a good discounting. Let’s take a look at Ratan Tata and his pet project — Indica. The Rs 1,400 crore greenfield project saw Cassandaras prophesying doomsday for Tata Motors. Privately corporate rivals and senior Tata executives were asking how a truck maker could produce a passenger car. Indica rolled out in 1999 and has proved to be a runaway hit. Sure, Tata Motors suffered red ink until 2002 and the scrip was hammered at the stock market. Yet Ratan Tata did not resort to window dressing to show his company in a good light. He chose to be transparent. Today, Tata Motors is making handsome profits and the scrip has bounced back with a vengeance. Tata built an image that was real, based on performance. Take the case of the late Harshad Mehta, who earned the sobriquet of Big Bull and coined the phrase “India is a turnaround scrip” in 1992, when prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was finance minister. Mehta was literally the Pied Piper of Dalal Street. With sheer money power he drove prices of stocks such as Apollo Tyres, ACC, Mazda Leasing, Karnataka Ball Bearings through the roof. Then the arrogance of success, money and power made the Big Bull lose focus. The overnight celebrity appeared on covers of business and news magazines. His Lexus and golf-course house became the talk of the town. The image he built was that at a snap of finger he could change the
I L L U S T R AT I O N : S A N J AY G H O S H
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When a crisis breaks it's typical of a public relations person to go underground. Then, when the media go ahead with the story, the media get a bad name — they are labelled “biased, slanted and mischievous” complexion of the market. Soon people began to question his source of funds and one morning he was arrested and found himself in the midst of a Rs 3,000 crore securities scandal. Had he not been flashy and publicity crazy nobody would have known of a phenomenon called Harshad Mehta. He built a perception that was not real — when his source of funds dried up he was caught. “The perception-reality matrix has to blend,” says Ravi Shyam of Shyam & Associate, a Mumbai-based perception management firm. “If you present facts then half the battle is won,” says the president, corporate communications of one of India's leading corporate giants. “Most communication managers try to give it a spin and that's the beginning of the trouble.” Quite. But that's easier said and done. The truth is that corporate India is more than demanding say public relations professionals. Corporate chieftains talk about ethics and corporate governance but when it comes to actual practice they shy away from morality. Last month a corporate communications professional working for a pharmaceutical company was called for an interview by a well-known business house. During the course of the interview, she was asked how strong was her relationship was with the media; could she ensure nothing negative appeared in the press. She was taken aback. When she talked about ethics and values they were amused. Similarly when a public relations agency goes for a pitch, the first question most CEOs invariably ask is, “Can you get a front-page story in a pink paper or cover story in a business magazine or plant stories against competition?” If the public relations agency says ‘No’, then the chances of its losing the business are very high. The competition is so intense that some firms succumb to such unreasonable demands as promising editorial space in publications by the column centimetre. Obviously some of them are in cahoots with journalists — it’s a dog-eat-dog world. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Public relations is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted professions But not everybody wants to make money at any cost or will put up with questionable practices. “We have resigned huge accounts, and in one or two cases refunded money,” says Roger Pereira, CEO & MD, R&P Management Communications Pvt Ltd. “We have certain values and principles that we will not compromise.” Avis, chief dreamer of Chennai-based imagequity, a reputation management firm, chips in, “PR is a much abused and mistrusted word. The way it is practised today is akin to world's oldest profession. In the media industry you cannot hire dogs to bite.” With so much bad blood and resentment has public relations moved up the value chain in the past 10 years? Has the industry been able to deliver? Is it growing as fast as its associations claim? Is it still doing the same old stuff, wining and dining journalists, planting and spiking stories? Is it a mere tool for corporate narcissism? The truth lies somewhere in between. So what is public relations? It is the face of the organisation, an effective management and marketing tool. But the word public relations continues to be loosely used. To different people at different levels it means different things. To some it is receiving people at an airport; to others organising train tickets or passes for cultural events in a jiffy is public relations. For a few it means helping management to organise a press conference or getting a CEO’s photograph published in a newspaper. It is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted professions. In fact the best definition of public relations comes from the author Michael Levine in his book Selling Goodness. “When the circus comes to town and you paint a sign about it, that’s advertising. Put the sign on the
“PR is a much abused and mistrusted word. The way it is practised today is akin to world's oldest profession. In the media industry you cannot hire dogs to bite.” — Avis chief dreamer, imagequity U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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PR takes To really understand the world of public relations, USP Age spoke to a cross-section of public relations agencies, corporate communications heads and analysts. In the course of interviews it also did a dipstick survey among these constituents on some of the controversial stories that made the headlines in the past 10 years. Many of them spoke in one voice when it came to talking about the Coke-Pepsi pesticides controversy, Cadbury, Enron and Hindustan Lever. But their views differed on Tatas, Birlas, Reliance and Infosys. Here's a quick look at their collective take.
INFOSYS sexual harassment episode. N.R. Narayana Murthy comes across as man of values thanks to his initiative on corporate governance. His down-to-earth lifestyle is a hit with his stakeholders. Investor positioning is very strong. Phanesh Murthy was important as he built the North American operations. But once the sexual harassment case broke Narayana Murthy sent out a clear signal down the line that nobody is larger than the company. Phanesh Murthy had to go. For Infosys public relations is a strong management tool. Every quarter its top management team meets to decide on its public relations strategy. There are no leaks or discordant views from company officials. RELIANCE Group. The late Dhirubhai Ambani was one of the earliest practitioners of public relations. He understood the power of the media and the value of rewarding shareholders with higher dividends and bonus shares. Shareholders are his best ambassadors. He used public relations effectively and was able to raise money time and again. Reliance mastered the art of managing the environment because during the licence raj days their success or failure depended on good relations with the government. Of course the Ambanis have had more than their share of bad press than others. But in the past six years the public relations machinery has been able to generate positive coverage. A case in point: when the Central Bureau U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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of Investigation (CBI) raided the Ambani residences five years ago most mainline dailies carried their denials, not the story. They use public relations to build bridges with shareholders, journalists and bureaucrats. In the case of Reliance Infocomm, initially their product and services did not match expectations, which is why dealers staged a morcha. ADITYA BIRLA GROUP. Its public relations has been very strong and cohesive. There is a firewall with no leakages. What the media gets to know is what the company wants to tell. Invariably, only Kumar Mangalam Birla has been quoted in the media. What also helped was the group's performance and initially the young Birla had the sympathy factor when Aditya Birla passed away. Although Kumar Mangalam Birla also makes it to page three these days, it is not at the cost of his image as a serious businessman. His restructuring of the group by regrouping the business won him favourable coverage in the media. Besides this, his mother is always beside him in most photographs, demonstrating his beliefs in old values. This goes down well with the masses. Some time ago there were negative writeups in a business magazine about an L&T deal. TATA GROUP is still learning. But on the credibility parameter the group scores very high. Although internal dissensions in various group companies saw several stories in the past 10 years, Ratan Tata managed to come out a winner. His value system, transparency and ethics have stood him in good stead. Tata Finance did sully the group's image. What came to the fore was the group's poor financial management control system as even auditors were involved. It was badly handled at the media level. But the firm had the guts to admit there was something wrong and the group company put aside Rs500 crore to ensure there was no panic in the marketplace. The group has too many spokespersons. HINDUSTAN LEVER. After announcing with much fanfare that it would focus on 30 power brands, the group received good press — front-page stories in business dailies and cover stories in business magazines. But, that was its undoing. In some of its new products margins are wafer thin. The scrip has lost its lustre on the bourses. Today it has to fight several Nirmas in various segments — toothpaste, soaps, detergents and shampoos. When P&G cut the price of its Ariel, HLL was forced to follow suit. The reshuffling of the top management team was also not positively reported. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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After the labour trouble episode in Sewri in the early 1980s this is the second time there have been negative reports in the media. The perception that HLL is impregnable and a darling of the media seems to be wearing thin. COKE & PEPSI. It was a public relations bloomer when two archrivals, Coke and Pepsi, shared the dais to fight the Indian government. It is almost tantamount to saying,‘we are international giants, we can do no wrong’. Rubbing salt into the wound were photographs of the chiefs of Pepsi and Coke drinking coffee. Had they been shown drinking their colas, perhaps it would have gone well with the masses. You can't go against national sensitivity. Even though it must be business as usual, the cola majors have learnt an invaluable lesson. It's better to be upfront than skirt an issue. After that episode, Coke was hit by sexual harassment and overnight it settled the problem with Sushmita Sen and moved forward. CADBURY. Initially it tried to sweep the problem of worms in its products under the carpet saying it was a problem at the distribution end. But people are buying Cadbury for its brand value. They took a while to come out with the solution and lost good business during Diwali last year. Its new packaging and advertising campaign with Amitabh Bachchan has created the desired impact. DABHOL POWER COMPANY. Too much arrogance, poor understanding of the Indian environment (it did not realise the Maharashtra government's financial constraints). It signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) and kept it under wraps — by doing so it sowed seeds of suspicion. It was constantly battling, tackling the environment and local issues. Also, its public relations department was selective in dealing with the media. It bullied the media, which antagonised a section when the going was good. At the first sign of trouble this antagonised section went hammer and tongs. Several public relations agencies made good money in this whole debacle. It was a political issue but a classic case of public relations failure.
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Clients need to be told they cannot buy an umbrella halfway through the monsoons back of an elephant and march him through Beverly Hills, and that’s promotion. If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower-bed, that’s publicity. And if you can get the mayor to laugh or comment about it, that’s public relations.” Public relations today includes event management, marketing consultancy and brand management but it is largely perceived as “media management”. Says Dilip Cherian, consulting partner of Delhi-headquartered Perfect Relations, "Media management is an important component of public relations but to think it's the only thing is quite like the story of the five blind men and the elephant.” Explains Ganesh Pai, general manager, corporate communications of the Essar Group, “PR encompasses a larger scope than merely managing the media. Media is only a part of it. As far as media is concerned the job of PR is to facilitate a journalist to get the correct information in the right perspective.” Adds Veena Gidwani, CEO of Madison Public Relations, “The misconception that most people have is that PR is only media relations. Some of the other stakeholders of an organisation that PR effectively reaches out to are investors through investor relations and financial communications, employees through internal communications, government and regulatory bodies through lobbying, consumers and green groups. More and more organisations are realising the need for such a basket of services.” A few agree it’s largely media relations. “Media management is the key attribute of PR worldwide,” N.S. Rajan, managing director of Sampark Public Relations Pvt Ltd. “It is a single vehicle that has the mass reach.” Kerman Kasad, head, corporate communications of Punebased Deepak Fertiliser & Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd says, “Media is the quintessence of PR. It’s the last mile connectivity. After a whole lot of research and strategy it has to end with media.” Rajan and Kasad are saying that all the strategy and plans of the company finally must be translated into stories that appear in the media. Only then would the stakeholders know what the company is up to. Media is very important in the whole value chain. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Corporate chieftains talk about ethics and corporate governance but when it comes to actual practice they shy away from morality Perhaps this explains why imagequity was quite miffed when a junior reporter from an electronic medium breezed in very late to interview an accomplished CEO Radha Basu of Supportstaff from the US. This Americaborn of Indian origin CEO had made a trip to India for the first time and to brief the media about her company's business plans. But to Basu’s utter shock the journalist asked her simplistic questions such as ‘Why have you come to this country, what do you like about India’, and so on. After a few minutes Basu freaked and the interview was cancelled. When this was brought to the notice of the senior editor he apologised. But imageqity’s client lost an opportunity to reach out to its stakeholders. Clearly media is part and parcel of the public relations industry as it helps to effectively mould public opinion and perception. Ask Rajiv Desai, president of IPAN Public Relations and Public Affairs Ltd. IPAN has helped clients such as Citibank (credit cards), Star TV, ITC (golf) and Indian Soaps and Toiletries Manufacturers' Association (ISTMA) to achieve their objectives. ISTMA's brief was to reduce the prohibitive 120 per cent excise duty on its products. IPAN used the advocacy route that targeted key allies such as women's groups, consumer groups, taxation experts and the media. To cut a long story short IPAN succeeded in achieving its objective. In the late 1980s when Philips, Salt Lake City, was paralysed by inter-union rivalry over the signing of a new wage agreement, the public relations department worked overtime and through strategic dissemination of stories in print and the electronic media created a perceptible shift and thus restored normalcy. For the first time in Philips' history the unions signed a three-year wage agreement. In the 1970s the Indian courier industry was about to be banned because it was seen as a threat to the postal department but clever strategy and positioning by a public relations company saw the withdrawal of legislation to ban couriers. When scooter maker Bajaj Auto lost its number one position to Hero Honda it decided to hire an external public relations agency, Sampark. In the past four years the agency has been able to position Bajaj Auto as a twowheeler maker that is fast catching up. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Gidwani reiterates public relations is effective. She points out that several global and international brands such as Microsoft Windows 95, Starbucks, Zara, Nintendo, US Postal Service, Wonderbra, Sony Walkman, Oprah Winfrey's Book Club have built their equity, reputation and business entirely through PR. This clearly demonstrates that public relations works and works well, she says. The late Dewang Mehta, who was president of Nasscom, made it as powerful a lobby as CII largely with his public relations skills. Recently the Pakistan Cricket Board hired a public relations agency to spruce up its image. And with the Railway minister Laloo Prasad Yadav replacing plastic cups with clay cups, the plastic industry lobby is already at work. That's the power of the media and public relations. But the real trouble begins when publicity-hungry companies turn media shy at the first signs of trouble. There could be several reasons — poor financial results or CEO’s involvement in a scam or the firm’s violation of environmental laws or the selling of a banned drug. During such times companies tend to clam up and ask their public relations managers to keep “pesky” journalists at bay or kill the stories. This is where they antagonise the media. When the going was good, the journalist was the CEO's good friend but the moment the boat rocks, the journalist becomes persona non grata. The media is always blamed for not being accountable and responsible. And it becomes fashionable to say, “it’s a trial by media”. Companies for their part use pressure tactics to prevent a story from appearing. There are tales galore of journalists being threatened when soft options did not work. Forced public relations does not work and failures cannot be camouflaged. It is here that a company’s investment in reputation helps. If a company has been historically known for its transparency and best trade practices then it can be sure media will not go on overdrive. Generally the Tatas, Mahindras, HDFC and Infosys have enjoyed good press — a clear indicator that promises must be matched by performance. First deserve then desire is the name of the game. “Your constituents will believe you if the company has good reasons why things went sour,” says Shyam. On the other hand, a bad public relations head or a department that's not clued in to market intelligence can cost a company dearly. Take the case of Florida Power & U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Light Company (FPLC), which had to cough up $37 million in damages awarded by a Miami-Dade jury, not so much for gross negligence, but for brash statements made by a company spokesman in the local press. On September 12, 1997 Rosalie Goldberg and her 12year-old daughter, Jill, met with an accident at a traffic intersection. Their car was hit by an SUV. The young girl died on the spot. The power to this particular traffic signal had been cut. Local newspapers in Pinecrest reported that the cause of the accident was that FPLC had cut power to the traffic signal to carry on repair work but did not alert the public of the outage. An FPCL spokesman informed local media that the firm was not duty-bound to warn the public about power outages or a disabled traffic light, but its primary duty was to protect its own workers. This was the company's first mistake. The spokesman also expressed no sympathy to the family of accident victims. This was the second mistake. When the girl’s father read FPLC statement in the newspaper he was livid and hired a lawyer to sue for damages. During negotiations the company's lawyer too did not offer any sympathy but told the girl's father sternly, “Accept our of $400,000 or else we will see you in court.” The matter finally went before a jury. The jury was shocked and peeved by the firm's constantly changing stand, its vague information and attempts to pass the buck. Such insensitivity angered the jury, which gave its verdict against the company. In India one can think of several similar mishaps in which either the public relations failed or the client did not take the advice seriously. Dupont was trying to set up a nylon 6,6 plant in India. It first tried Goa then was forced to move Chennai because of environmental restrictions. This is considered to one of the safest chemical plants yet it was not able convey this to its constituents. Finally Dupont moved out of India. Ditto: P&O setting up a port at Wadhavan did not take the advice of its public relations personnel seriously. There was an environment issue but the client was arrogant says a public relations chief who serviced the account. So public relations professionals have an important role to play in devising an appropriate strategy to guide a company. During a crisis media reach, access and networking become crucial. Can a public relations professional reduce the impact of damage to a client? When a crisis breaks it's typical of a public relations person to go underground. Then, when the media go U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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A pliable journalist might be a public relations executive's delight but it's a short-term solution ahead with the story, the media get a bad name — they are labelled “biased, slanted and mischievous”. But what clients or public relations managers have not understood is that the media themselves face tough competition within the fraternity. With electronic media, newspapers, newsmagazines and the Internet fighting for an audience’s mind space and a retailer’s shelf space, media are forced to chase issues that will appeal to its viewers and readers. Typically, most Indian companies call their public relations head or agency only when there is a crisis. Once the fire fighting is done public relations is forgotten. Take the case of a leading engineering construction firm, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons. It had been awarded a large contract by a state government, but half way through the project the government increased the scope of the work. When the company asked to boost the cost, which amounted to more than Rs 100 crore, the state government dragged its feet. Meanwhile bureaucrats began to feed the media with stories of unjustified demands from the company after the tendering process. Even though the company's demand is legally justified the chairman never took time to put the issue in perspective before the media. It's here that the public relations industry needs to educate its clients. Clients need to be told they cannot buy an umbrella halfway through the monsoons. Public relations is an ongoing exercise, not a one-off service. Clients need to be educated on rudimentary “dos” and “don'ts” — for example, it is not possible to read a copy of a story before it is published; there is no guarantee that a story will be published; that a story cannot be killed, they need to be talked out of the column-centimetre game, they need to be exposed to problems of overexposure, they need to keep perception close to facts; and talk to the media in good times and in bad, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health... If clients need to be educated, so do public relations personnel. “It’s overcrowded with mediocrity,” says Pereira. “Most of them don't have a proper understanding of the industry or client they are servicing.” Avis very succinctly puts it: “The tragedy today is that PR U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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companies do not differentiate between the two roles of chanakya and champakali. While they are doing only champakali stuff they imagine themselves to be chanakyas. Wherever they do chanakya's role effectively they fail to do champakali's role effectively.” It is hardly surprising then that the media perceive them poorly. Some of them do a postman’s job. When a journalist asks for clarifications a typical reply is, “I am not sure, send me an e-mail, I will check with the CEO and get back to you.” This mediocrity manifests itself in ugly forms. Illinformed ones wine and dine journalists and tell their clients or CEOs, "Don't worry we have taken care of the journalist.” A pliable journalist might be a public relations executive's delight but it's a short-term solution. This is how the public relations profession and media get a bad name. There should be mutual respect between public relations professionals and journalists — both need each other. Looking at this degeneration Desai of IPAN, in one of his columns in USP Age wrote: “Increasingly PR companies sell access to the media as their raison d'etre. I believe that this is why some media companies have responded with rates on editorial coverage. It is time for sensible journalists and public relations people to put their heads together to save both their profession from being crucified on a cross of gold.” “You have to set client expectations right and that disconnect is happening more and more these days,” says Samir Kale, managing director of public relations consultancy CMCG. He explains how one of his client's (ESPN) story appeared as a single column in The Economic Times Mumbai edition. The same story appeared in ET's Delhi edition in four columns. Nobody has control over this situation — neither reporter nor public relations professional. Says Rajan of Sampark “PR can add value but not whitewash it. I cannot make an Aishwarya Rai or Amitabh Bachchan. He/she must have fundamentals only then can PR deliver.” In turn clients must be transparent as they are with their doctors and lawyers if they are looking for longterm returns. Several industrialists have tried hard to buy respectability but to no avail. A classic case is of an NRI tycoon who passed away recently. His money power could not buy him respectability. Reality is like pregnancy — you cannot hide it for long. Similarly, a politically linked business house in the north U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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There should be mutual respect between public relations professionals and journalists — both need each other buys advertorial space because it is in control of what appears on those pages. Surprisingly, this highly visible group, which is into all kinds of sponsorships, has never managed to get good editorial coverage. It is here that corporate India needs to take a lesson from the late Dhirubhai Ambani. He owed his is success largely because he nurtured his constituents — shareholders, media, bureaucrats — continuously. So it is imperative that public relations managers tell their clients what they ought to know not what they like to hear. Take for instance, the CEO of a company in the white goods industry, who is all over the press. His public relations guys should advise him against going overboard. Corporate history shows that over-exposure and building larger than life images may cost the CEO his job and the company its market share. In the past 20 years there has been a paradigm shift within the public relations industry. Gone are the days when companies could dictate terms — look how Fiat and Ambassador got turfed out because of competition. Today you have discerning customers with multiple choices. Corporate India has to understand that Noah's Ark was built before it rained. Public relations is an ongoing exercise. It is an important management tool. Says Cherian, “PR is about creating and managing image because image is growth inductive and recession proof.” Kasad says, “Today it’s a battle of perception not product, services or solutions.” If you want to be up there then take public relations seriously. But public relations too has its limitations. For instance, when the former president Bill Clinton was caught with his pants down even the best spin-doctors in the world could not save him. That’s reality. Yet, the perception is Clinton delivered.
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Stop the column centimetre game Demanding companies and intense competition is seeing the PR industry resort to unhealthy practices.This must stop if the profession is to grow
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HE OBSESSION WITH assessment in the corporate sector has led to the development of an ambiguous column-centimetre-rate evaluation of PR efforts. This has become accentuated with the mushrooming of private public relations companies, whose payment is closely related to column centimetre coverage and everybody is obsessed with the print space occupation or seconds of footage on television. What is wrong about it or what is right about it? The first and foremost point to be noted is that the column-centimetre yardstick restricts the PR professional as a media servicing agent. This means that if some former editor gets through to an old friend of his and manages to publish a few lines about his client through his one-man one-chair agency, would the agency be termed a PR agency or a media management company? Many consultants, who claim to be experts in the field of PR, adopt the same strategy. There is no doubt that an increased level of awareness about PR has led to self-styled experts whose only concern is the column U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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centimetre. This trend is not only dangerous for genuine PR professionals but also to students who wish to make a career in PR. So the big question is how to evaluate the performance of a PR agency or the in-house PR department. The Institute for Public Relations in its Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation, University of Florida, has formulated some useful guiding principles that can be applied to an Indian context as well. The commission says it is important to differentiate between measuring PR outputs, which are usually short-term and surface (such as the amount of media coverage received or exposure of a particular message), and measuring PR outcomes, which are usually far-reaching and can have more impact (determining whether a programme has changed awareness and attitude levels and possibly behaviour patterns). The commission also says measuring media content, I L L U S T R AT I O N : S A N J AY G H O S H
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One has to agree that PR or communication activities deal with intangibles and like other intangibles considered crucial for management — leadership, trust, loyalty, sincerity and teamwork — the yardstick for measurement is not only difficult but also quite challenging. while of great value, needs to be viewed as only a first step in the PR evaluation process. It can measure possible exposure to PR messages and actual media coverage; however it cannot, by itself, measure whether target audiences actually saw the messages and responded to them in any way. One has to agree that PR or communication activities deal with intangibles and like other intangibles considered crucial for management — leadership, trust, loyalty, sincerity and teamwork — the yardstick for measurement is not only difficult but also quite challenging. Measuring only column centimetre is akin to a bottomline-oriented strategy without bothering about the corporate social responsibility of companies. Many PR professionals would point that most of their job is about internal communications and not writing media releases. On an average any organisation, depending on its category and turnover, might have between two and 10 stories each month. Out of these, only one or two might be interesting for the media. Also most chief executives like to have the final say on what’s going out and this puts further scrutiny on the media release. One doesn’t churn out stories to occupy space or keep the media busy. There has to be good performance and a good story. In this scenario how can the number of press releases or volume of column centimetre space alone be considered the parameter for PR evaluation? The services of a PR agency or an in-house PR department have to be seen in totality and not selectively. Ill-informed clients might hanker on for free space but the fact of the matter is that there is no such thing as free space. What survives is content and if the media requires it, even the humble release would not be required. A prompt response on the phone itself may satisfy the media. In the age of integrated communications PR will have to stand for credibility through editorial support. A U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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THE commission says it is important to differentiate between measuring PR outputs, which are usually short-term and surface‌ and measuring PR outcomes, which are usually far-reaching and can have more impact payment service purely in terms of column centimetre would make clients compare PR with advertising and since both the professions deal with communications, there would be associated confusion. A PR professional has no control over the content while advertising has complete control over the form and content. The prospect of making good business through myopic use of a profession is not new. A few years ago hundreds of computer institutes sprang up all over India banking on an information technology wave. There were some genuine institutes but most of them were fly-by-night operators trying to make a quick buck. The death of the institutes was inevitable and so were the people engaged in the business. Similarly, the lure of profiteering has made the column centimetre measure a tool for some PR agencies and clients. Agencies might survive or perish but the damage to the profession will be permanent. Business houses are interested in acquiring a good brand name and in developing value from good perception. But this comes from patience and real good work. Deploying a PR agency or a PR department to produce media releases and occupying column centimetres would hardly be in the best interest of an organisation. Media analysis would definitely be part of a PR evaluation but more importantly PR services need to be studied in detail, based on outcomes. PR has the potential to offer a lot more than it is apparent but for that professionals must convince clients and their respective managements about the real nature of the profession. C. C HANDRA M OULI T HE
WRITER IS DEPUT Y MANAGER ,
PR
AT
D URGAPUR
STEEL PLANT,
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Newsletter as a PR Tool Traditionally,corporate India has used newsletters as an ego massage exercise instead of message dissemination tool.It’s time they looked at this medium seriously
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HE EMERGENCE OF knowledge management (KM) as the key word has almost given it a buzz status in the entire corporate world. Any discussion or powerpoint presentation in the boardroom has to have a bullet point focussing upon the KM efforts taken up in the organisation. More importantly, KM efforts seem to have origin in some IT system or some million dollar information system. The validity of the system and the Return on Investment (ROI) on such a process can be a study within itself. Experts have pointed out that concepts like KM and Customer Relationship Management are more like enabling factors for the organisation and don’t stand for technology. On the other hand, there are several other tools already available U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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within the organisation which are being underutilised. The humble in-house company newsletter is one of them which can prove to be very cost effective as well as maintenance-free tool for the KM system. According to John Blossom of Shore Communications, “KM is becoming another way of saying “business analysis” or “process improvement,” and very soon it would be treated as a factor shaping a larger institutional publishing culture. It is the act of publishing that is driving institutions forward into a new era of productivity and human relations. It is in publishing that institutions are investing. Having a knowing organisation is highly important, but it is the publishing organisation that turns the concept of knowledge into a tangible asset.” Critical analysis like that of Blossom point towards a renewed interest in internal communications, possibly, with the help of newsletters. The core of the knowledge management lies in three fundamental steps: knowledge creation, knowledge capture and knowledge dessemination. The third point deals exclusively with the communication of knowledge or sharing of captured knowledge generated in the organisation. Most of the knowledge management systems get stuck up with this particular issue. While small IT companies having a workforce of thousand employees or less than that, can have effective intranet systems to deal with the issue, the solutions become quite complicated in a multi-locational, man-power intensive, diversified companies which have employees in thousands. It would be also wrong to imagine that each and every employee, essentially in a developing country like India, has a computer terminal connected to the intranet of the company. Moreover, getting the employees interested in the KM system itself is a big challenge. Microsoft founder Bill Gates noted in his presentation at COMDEX Fall 1999: “Corporate information today is so hard to find. It’s kept in folders, or anecdotally understood by people in the company. Knowledge workers need to share things, and need access to the right information at the right time. This is so hard today.” While Gates was referring to corporate information alone, the same applies true for the immense floating knowledge available in the organisation. In fact, the concern for knowledge dissemination is a major issue before the top executives of the world today. While most of us tend to connect a sound IT system for an effective KM system, I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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For the newsletter to become a potent tool of KM, it has to be empowered with quality content — not just CEO messages and act as a survival tool for the PR and internal communications professionals there is immense scope of developing the newsletter as a powerful tool for knowledge management. Newsletters are the least technologically sensitive instruments and one doesn't have to call a board meeting for approving the budget of the same. Since KM deals with the tacit knowledge available in the organisation, the newsletter can act as a viable interface for knowledge generation/creation, capture as well as dissemination. The latter part is however more prominent. Company newsletters are the preferred tools of PR and internal communications professionals in disseminating company information and other related issues. These are normally meant for free distribution among the employees and also shared with other stakeholders. CEO’s message, visits of dignitaries and customers to the company, introduction of new products, organisational changes, photographs of retiring employees, etc normally form the content of the newsletters. It would be quite unfair to say that this traditional information does not help in knowledge generation or dissemination. They do play an important role in enhancing the knowledge level of employees and keep them abreast of the happenings in the company. Jon Powell, CKO, Hewitt Associates and Jean Eqman, director, Learning and Organisation Change, North Western University, in their article KM's Hierarchy of Needs (www.destinationKM.com) mention that “There is nothing wrong with beginning with information as a necessary but insufficient part of knowledge. For information to rise to knowledge requires that the information be laced with the business and employee's context (including what they already think and believe), and with the organisation's business goals and the people's work and personal goals. When you add all of that to the mix, it is clear why knowledge is “sticky” and messy in the making.” It is in this context that newsletters have to be designed, packaged and marketed to the employees to achieve the organisational objective of KM. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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For the newsletter to become a potent tool of KM, it has to be empowered with quality content — not just CEO messages and act as a survival tool for the PR and internal communications professionals. The first step in getting the employee attention towards the KM efforts is in brokering information. The small packets of information play an important role in generating interest among the employees about the company. Given the insecure conditions in today’s work place, the first important thing is to make the employee come out of the shell and give feedback. It would not be exaggerating to say that Seeds of Knowledge Generation lie within this paradigm alone. There is a tendency among the companies to save money by bringing newsletters in the minimum possible budget, which might contradict the very purpose of using the newsletter as a KM tool. The content of the newsletters would have to be carefully selected and success stories of various units highlighted. More emphasis has to me made on the `how part' rather on the completion of the task. It is this how part which will raise the interest level among employees in showcasing their knowledge levels and prove their innovative skills. For example, if the maintenance personnel of a certain department comes up with a novel way of cost reduction by reducing the lubricant consumption and he shares the idea in the newsletter, it can act as knowledge seed for other employees. In a way newsletters can act both ways – as an agent for knowledge sharing as well as act as the seed for knowledge generation. The success of KM-Newsletter paradigm would depend upon the honesty of an organisation in delivering the right message to the employees. To expect results overnight would prove counter productive and may even derail the KM process. A lot will also depend upon the will of PR professionals to buck the trend and have a holistic approach towards internal communications by involving other knowledge workers in the process of producing the newsletter. Keeping the big picture in view would definitely see a win-win proposition for everybody. C.C HANDRA M OULI T HE
WRITER IS DEPUT Y MANAGER ,
PR, D URGAPUR S TEEL P LANT, SAIL
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Don’t shoot the Messenger Which is more effective,public relations or advertising? Here are few examples that show how PR is more effective
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N 1960, W.W. Rostow, an economist wrote a book titled The Stages of Economic Growth. In this book, Rostow claimed that all societies (economies) pass through five stages to become a developed economy.
THE FIVE STAGES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
The traditional society less developed in terms of science and technology. The size of population and the quality of life depend on success or failure of crops. There is pre-dominance of agriculture. Pre-conditions for take off societies are in the process of transition. There is change in the nature of sociopolitical structure and also in the production techniques U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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of the traditional society. An agrarian society attempts to transform itself into a predominantly industrial society. The take off decisive stage in the evolution. The take off process generally begins on account of some sharp stimulus, which may come from a political revolution, a technological innovation or even a favourable international environment. The take off also requires presence of a group of enterprising people in the society, who will carry out innovation and thereby produce growth. Drive to maturity the period when a society has effectively applied the range of modern technology to the bulk of its resources. The society thus reaches a stage in which its economy has both technological and entrepreneurial skills to produce not everything, but anything it wishes to produce. Age of high mass consumption attention of the society shifts from the problems of production to problems of consumption and welfare. The country aspires for external power and influence, adopts welfare measures for an egalitarian society, and wishes to raise consumption levels beyond food, shelter and clothing. Public Relations as practiced today, finds its roots in America from the 19th century. PR started with Press Agentry, moved to Planned Publicity and with the World Wars the element of research/ public opinion also got added. America and other developed countries have moved beyond the stage of high mass consumption of Rostow's theory. The consumer there is busy agitating for worker rights in developing countries (sweat shops is a case in point). NGO’s are being called the Fifth Estate. After consumerism and environmentalism, the new NGO activism is a cause of concern for corporate reputation. Organisations in the developed countries are busy devising strategies to cope with it. The role of PR departments in these organisations is not just to produce good words, but to produce good deeds followed by good words. Hence PR has evolved as a driver in today's consumer-oriented organisation. It is important here to bring to the reader’s notice that PR deals with corporate reputation, addressing/ communicating with various stakeholders for the organisation. Many people understand PR purely in terms of the communication tool under ‘Promotion’, one of the 4P's of Philip Kotler. Yes, some PR techniques can be used to generate product publicity, but it is known as I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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Consumers tend to find messages delivered by journalists more believable than advertised messages Marketing Public Relations (MPR). At what stage of economic growth are Indian companies? The consumer here is not aware of his own rights, let alone fighting for others and the consumerism movement. The recent pesticide and chocolate controversy may be the beginning of activism in India. But it’s a long way to go. Companies in India are purely sales focused and for them PR is only a cheap alternative (with editorial publicity) vis-a-vis advertising. To blame PR and its practitioner for only doing Champakali work and no strategy, is to accuse them for things out of their control. If the client asks only for generating publicity and media coverage how do we push for more services? It is for the client to realise what can PR help them to achieve. With no consumer movement, outdated regulations, why should companies care about reputation management and hence about PR? But with increasing competition and customer awareness, Indian companies will realise the importance of PR. I am not complaining but reasoning. Yes, agreed PR practitioners are themselves to be blamed. But the society also has to reach that level where organisations have to continuously communicate, both within and outside, trying to build an understanding with the stakeholders. How do you expect fresh talent to enter the field when media and businesses compare PR to the oldest profession in the world? For PR to perform well, it is important that clients and businesses understand what is PR and what it does. The coming years will see this happening. A cover story on this topic in USP Age was a welcome step. I am hopeful and optimistic about the role of PR in the future. No, I am not keeping fingers crossed, but have my Thumbs Up. N OUMAAN Q URESHI
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Sex lies & box office
Film PROs are tinsel town buccaneers who will not stop at anything to woo audience to theatres.Creating controversy is the way of life for them. A look at how PR works in Bollywood
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FTER FILMMAKERS HAVE created their socalled masterpieces, it is left to these little known entities called filmi public relations officers (PROs) to get the audience into theatres to watch the films. The mandate for these tinsel-town PROs is very clear: the film should be a box office hit or, at the very least, the producers must break even. And to achieve this objective the time given is less than a month. So how do they create the desired impact? Obviously by hook or crook. They throw conventional methods to the winds and they break rules with impunity. And, not surprisingly, their strategy works — like a typical Hindi film plot. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Generally, PROs get to see the film two weeks before its release and they have to work within that time to create publicity for the film.This is because film makers are apprehensive that their story line or ideas would be stolen, hence they are very secretive — R A U F A H M E D Take one. Filmworld PROs have indeed mastered the art of hype and hoopla to make the film a talking point among viewers. Gimmicks could be anything or everything. “I was asked by my PRO to agree to release rumors linking me with my co-star,” says actor Sonu Sood. “And when I refused, he convinced me by saying, ‘No problem. Why don’t you two go out to some disco so that your picture could be clicked? It surely won’t suggest anything.” Sood has featured in about 11 Tamil films and has roles in Mani Ratnam’s Yuva and Shyam Benegal’s upcoming film Netaji. Sood’s morals stood in the way of his giving the goahead to link his name with his co-star. Maybe he lost. But he agrees that this bunch of professionals is effective. “It surely helps to hire a PR just to keep you in the news,” he says. “They tell you where to hang out and even tell you to get into particular events where media presence is ensured and you are bound to get noticed “This is because film makers are apprehensive that their story line or U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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ideas might be stolen, hence they are very secretive. A PRO is roped in only after the film is completely ready.” In the good old days production houses would themselves write press releases in their broken English. The work of a film PRO was to fax it to the press and arrange for prerelease star interviews. “They were complete angootachhap, nincompoops, who did not know much beyond faxing press releases and releasing film photographs,” says Taran Adarsh, editor of Trade Guide, a leading film trade magazine. “We really had to bear with them as they created barriers between journalists and stars, who did not want to talk to journalists they did not know. Thankfully, now PROs are educated and show respect to journalists. Even now stars do not want to meet
When Fardeen Khan was caught with cocaine, his dad Feroz Khan sought my advise.The first thing I told Feroz Khan was that if you need public opinion in your favour don’t adopt the denial tactics. Fardeen was caught red-handed so there was no question of denying the thing. I told him to admit the offence and appear guilty...The strategy worked. Fardeen’s career was unaffected — R A J U K A R I A U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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When we worked on Taal, we highlighted how it was the first film to be insured, we spoke about the financial aspects, which were a striking departure from the past. Consequently, the film got reported in the pink papers, which never happened in the past.This strategy was deliberate because, at that time, Mukta Arts was planning its IPO — A R C H A N A S A D A N A N D journalists who they do not know but the arrangement is handled very professionally.” Veteran film PRO Rajoo Karia says: “We would watch a film and then sit with the producer and decide on things that could be highlighted to get publicity for the film.” Karia is your typical film PRO, who takes pride in the bizarre means he uses to get his films noticed and thus click at the box-office. So, the press was fed details on how Samajwadi Party leader Raj Babbar was mouthing antiGandhi dialogues, to create curiosity for the film Shaheed Uddham Singh. When the Dev Anand-Hema Malini starrer, Aman Ke Farishtey, was not doing well in the first few days of its release, Karia stepped in. “Those days the TV serial Mahabharat was a rage and Aman Ke Farishtey had Rupa Ganguly (who plays the character of Draupadi in the serial) do a dance with Javed Jaffrey at Iskon temple hall. The film was pegged as Draupadi doing a break U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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dance at the temple of Lord Krishna. It became such a hit that the Hindi edition of India Today put it on the cover,” says Karia. In his 25-year career in Bollywood Karia has handled 320 films worked on PR assignments for stars like Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty and Salman Khan. He recounts how he handled Fardeen Khan's cocaine controversy. “When Fardeen Khan was caught with cocaine, his dad Feroz Khan sought my advice,” he says. “The first thing I told Feroz Khan was that if you need public opinion in your favour, don’t adopt denial tactics. Fardeen was caught red-handed so there was no question of denying the thing. I told him to admit the offence and appear guilty before the press. I told him he should say he felt his son was in the wrong but as a father he felt guilty about it and forgave him.” The strategy worked. Fardeen’s career was unaffected. Unlike PR professionals who cater to the corporate world filmi PROs are a different breed. While they are hired to organise publicity for film stars and films, yet they have to per force put up with stars’ antics and tantrums. Besides, they must keep the media in good humour. Most of them seem to know how to strike a balance. Some have built bridges with film journalists by being their “sources” for gossip or major newsbreaks. Unlike a corporate or political journalist, film journalists are heavily dependent on PROs for gossip or they are their main source for stories. It is not uncommon to see film PROs gossiping with journalists about stars they don't handle. Such tip-offs earn PROs their goodwill. Some PROs exploit such goodwill when the need arises to plant stories or rumours to promote a movie. Sometimes they spread malicious gossip about their rivals. During the 1970s and the 1980s this was rampant. “In those days there used to be intense rivalry between Amitabh Bachchan and Rajesh Khanna,” recalls Ahmed. “So the PROs from each camp would feed information about the rival star to the media.” There were instances of film PROs sneaking into Big B's shoots and feeding reports of Amit-Rekha affair to the media. Ahmed says some of these PROs were so powerful that they would approach the media with a completely written article. He recalls: “I remember a PRO coming to me with a complete story written linking a film starring V. Shantaram’s grandson Siddharth with film star Padmini Kolhapure. The PR said I could carry the entire story verbatim, without bothering about the repercussions, as he would take care of them. I also remember another PRO U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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I take a lot of pain to discover the faces and I don’t want them to be carried anywhere and everywhere. So, in my contract I would put a clause restraining my heroines from posing for any publication or circulating any picture without my permission. At the right time, I would unravel them — DEV ANAND
coming up with pages laid and insisting it be carried the same way.” Not all of them resorted to such methods to attract media attention. Showmen like the late Raj Kapoor and evergreen hero Dev Anand were masters at media management. Both were media-savvy, natural conversationalists who cultivated journalists by inviting them to their famous parties. This massaged the egos of the scribes. For this Raj Kapoor had the services of Bunny Reuben, who did not resort to cheap gimmicks. The media respected him. Hero-turned-producer Dev Anand adopted a different strategy in handling publicity for his films or his heroines. Historically he managed to create a buzz around his films by adding a dash of mystery to them. Anand makes special efforts to ensure his discoveries — his heroines — are kept out of the media and their faces would be unravelled only before the release of his film. Anand, who has discovered beautiful faces such as Zeenat Aman, Tina Munim, Richa Sharma, Tabu and Mink explains his U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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strategies thus: “I take a lot of pain to discover the faces and I don't want them to be carried anywhere and everywhere. So, in my contract I would put a clause restraining my heroines from posing for any publication or circulating a picture without my permission. At the right time, I would unravel them before the media and my staffers would ensure that not a single photographer gets to click or carry a picture from the wrong angles. Not all faces are perfect and so you have to take these precautions,” explains Anand. So, his forthcoming releases, Mr Prime Minister and Beauty Queen, will have two press conferences, one in which Dev Anand will talk about the film alone to create the hype around it and the new face and the second conference will unveil the new face. Nothing has changed in the film industry, neither the stars nor their unorganised ways nor the audiences. The only thing that has changed is the way films are being marketed. In these changing times, some PROs are still adopting the old trick in the trade of linking hero and heroine. But this does not draw the audience anymore. Today, filmmakers especially the big names prefer to strategise and plan their publicity rather than leave it to street-smart professionals. The big names are willing to experiment and to shell out a little more in the bargain. “When we worked on Taal, we highlighted how it was the first film to be insured, we spoke about the financial aspects, which were a striking departure from the past. Consequently, the film got reported in the pink papers, which never happened in the past. This strategy was deliberate because at that time when Mukta Arts was planning its IPO,” says Archana Sadanand, CEO of Buzz, a PR outfit that caters to Bollywood. Buzz, for instance, is also involved in getting sponsors for Mukta Arts. So, it gets involved with a film from the scripting level. The script is read to scan areas where marketing sponsors could be involved. Other PR firms, such as Spice, also get involved early in the day to grasp a filmmaker’s vision of a movie, to synergise with the subject and the filmmaker and accordingly decide the prime target audience and evolve strategies. The entry of professionals is also bringing in fresh, interesting, innovative, intelligent ways to attract people to a film. In Koi Mil Gaya it was Hrithik Roshan’s Jadoo that became the talking point. Information was provided on how Jadoo was conceptualised in Australia. In Hum Tum the makers ensured that Saif Ali Khan and not the perky maker Kunal Kohli was the talking point. Again to U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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In Koi Mil Gaya, it was Hrithik Roshan’s Jadoo that became the talking point. Information was provided on how Jadoo was conceptualised in Australia. In Hum Tum, the makers ensured that Saif Ali Khan and not the perky maker, Kunal Kohli, was the talking point — P R A B H A T C H O U D H A R Y take the urbane theme down to India's interiors, a special tie-up was done with a Hindi magazine in which the film's lead actors, Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee would answer queries from readers. “The idea was to show that although the film may be stylish it is very much accessible,” explains Prabhat Choudhary, senior manager (strategy) at Spice. Unusual events are also planned around the subject of the movie to promote the film. So, the Indo-Pak peace theme film Pinjar was promoted by getting Urmila Matondkar to visit the Wagah border. Buzz planned special screenings of Chameli’s lead actress Kareena Kapoor with commercial sex workers to promote the film. Viruddh, which has Amitabh-Sharmila Tagore portraying Saransh-kind of old couple fighting the system, will have a premier at which people fighting the system will be felicitated. The idea is to get the audience to relate to such people. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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With Bollywood attracting international audiences and wowing international markets, PR firms too seem to be bitten by the glamour buzz. Bitten, because the film industry itself is very small. Buzz, which has done PR for films like Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai, Taal and also handles the corporate communication of Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts, charges between Rs 2 and Rs 5 lakh to handle the PR account of a film. While Spice which has done PR for Saathiya, Maqbool, Gangajal, handles the corporate communication of Yashraj Films, UTV, Ramgopal Varma, Adlabs has annual billing of Rs 40 lakh. There is a world of difference between corporate PR and film PR. Film PR has a limited shelf life, varied target audiences of different sensibilities in different regions. Unlike a brand of shampoo, for instance, which will retain specific qualities at least for some time, a film brand has limited shelf life. There is only a limited time period available to work on this product. So market timing is precious to develop this brand. “There is a humungous difference between corporate PR and a film PR,” explains Choudhary. “In corporate PR it is more of reputation management, image guarding and strategic messaging. While in films the work of a PRO comes closest to marketing and the PR has direct repercussions on the sales of a film.” Sadanand recalls a major difference was the way meetings were held. “The meetings would go on until late at night,” she says. “I have even seen meetings start at 11pm or midnight.” Sadanand previously worked with parent firm Perfect Relations. “These corporate PROs cannot last long in our film industry because they believe in coming to office in the morning and winding up by evening,” says Ajit Ghosh, a professional filmi PRO who has handled films like Ghayal and Ek Rishtaa besides handling assignments of stars like Karishma Kapoor, Neelam, Akshay Kumar, Reena Roy and Asha Bhonsale. “The film industry is completely wayward and you have to get used to its ways. At times a producer calls up at 11 in the night and asks me to get coverage for his film’s mahurat the very next morning at 11 and we have done that. Would your normal corporate PROs ever be able to handle such assignments?” Although the Indian film industry has matured, it still adopts the old ploys of working. Contrary to popular belief gimmicks do work even now. The biggest gimmick success story is Girlfriend and Ek Chhotisi Love Story. “Girlfriend is a perfect example of a film recovering money solely on a gimmick,” says a source associated with the movie. “The U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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These corporate PROs cannot last long in our film industry because they believe in coming to office in the morning and winding up by evening — A J I T G H O S H film had shown only 40 per cent collections before the controversy broke out but started showing 80 per cent collections after its release. Thanks entirely to the controversy created, we managed to get the film run in theatres for about three weeks. We do most of the gimmicks a day or two of its release and never before the film's release. The idea is that the gimmicks should translate into ticket sales at the movie counter.” A little earlier another controversy served the same purpose for yet another flop movie Ek Chhotisi Love Story. “Though we did not create the controversy, we did encourage it,” admits Choudhary of Spice. “We believe controversies are opportunities. So we would give honest accounts of court proceedings and events happening with the movie and this helped to keep the movie in the news.” Choudhary denies that the controversy was deliberately created. But just before the release of her next movie Manisha Koirala was embroiled in a minor controversy as her boyfriend threatened a film PRO for releasing steamy photographs to the media. Sex sells and film PROs are capitalising on that to keep their producers’ cash registers ringing. H EPZI A NTHONY
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PR in Blogosphere Net applications enable PR practitioners to forge richer and more robust relationships with constituents
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N THE BACK of real-time communication, accessibility, interactivity, and multi-format capabilities, the Internet with over 812 million users1 has unprecedented global reach. Internet growth since the year 2000 has been 125.2 per annum, or about 25 per cent per year. Expected to cross one billion users in 2005, Metcalfe’s law2 is often cited as an explanation for this exponential proliferation. The Internet ushers invaluable public relations opportunities that now equal, or even outclass, traditional PR tools. Don Middleberg3 coined the term ‘online PR’ to italicise the potential of communicating with constituents leveraging digital technologies. Palpably, Middleberg was a man ahead of his time by dint of the fact that by 2006 online PR is estimated to grow to a $2 billion industry. Online PR is taking a mammoth leap with an empowering electronic publishing medium — blogs (short for U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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To harness the intrinsic power of blogging, PR professionals must target the most authoritative and influential bloggers and blog posting sites to integrate the organisation’s message into those avenues web logs). This increasingly popular web tool was the most looked-up word on US dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster’s Internet site in 2004 and will be a new entry in the 2005 version of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition. A blog is a publicly accessible online journal with date and time-stamped postings organised in reverse chronological order, generally concentrating on a specific topic. Most blogs are micro managed by an individual called a blogger; the majority of these autodidactic Internet czars are web aficionados who aspired to bring their views to the online table. Others are reporters or seasoned industry insiders who wanted to create platforms for articulating their opinions without editorial fetters. There are a few blogs, however, that are collaborative efforts, wherein an alliance of vocal netizens participate in furnishing intellectual haemoglobin, commentary, and links. Characterised by fast, spontaneous, and unpredictable discussions, a complex online ecosystem called the blogosphere has surfaced. Blogs turn passive media readers into participatory news sources, and bloggers often position themselves as key influencers. Blogging differs from other mediums in that it reduces the distance between the organisations and its publics enabling a free-form, two way dialogue. Moreover, since the conversations are archived online, they are easily accessible to all stakeholders. To manage an online reputation, intervening and influencing these communities necessitates an assortment of skills, techniques, protocols, and strategies. It requires transparency, openess, and the ability to enmesh conversation in the long established PR formulae of controlling messages. Media management is an integral element of public relations activities and substantial efforts are channelised towards promoting messages in mainstream media. However, excessive dependence on media cliques to reach out to constituents is a commonly faced problem. Blogs can be the new go-between practitioners and U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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publics by providing an alternative forum in cyberspace. For instance, to counter gratuitous negative coverage, the process of sending a rejoinder to an editor and waiting for it to be published can be a harrowing experience. The practitioner could consider setting the record straight on blogs as well. To harness the intrinsic power of blogging, PR professionals must target the most authoritative and influential bloggers and blog posting sites to integrate the organisation’s message into those avenues. Start by first identifying key blogs. A good place to begin is Bloghop’s http://www.bloghop.com/, alternatively, use Google search, or any blog search engine. Once you identify a relevant blog, you would typically find hyperlinks to other blogs covering the subject on the site’s links section. Be sure to sift through the web for fresh blogs periodically — as new ones mushroom every day. Prior to approaching a blogger, read his posts and get acquainted with his blog’s parlance and interests. Having done that, do apprise him of your organisation or client’s activities. Editors of blogs are intensely engaged in the issues they cover and will appreciate having bona fide information shared with them. Refrain from directly asking bloggers to link to your portal or latest press release, as they are hypersensitive vis-à-vis turning into instruments for third-party marketing initiatives. However, deftly crafted story ideas to bloggers might not only generate mileage on their blogs, but could also be featured in other media outlets as well. A few blogs depend on stereotypical news outlets to provide content for incisive discussion and commentary relative to the populace they represent. So in a way, bloggers look to the same news centres for fodder that PR specialists focus on initially. Make sure you are getting in the news stores that blogs link to by using http://blogdex.net/ and http://www.daypop.com/ to find this information.
A caveat, blogging is an instantaneous feedback network and could disseminate factually inaccurate information about organisations and individuals in public spotlight. PR practitioners should, therefore, plug into these networks and scour for any averse comments put forth in them U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Through blogs, any online PR efforts resulting in content generation has the potential to be moved around the Internet and reacted to. Practitioners could strategically position senior management as thought leaders, track the market perception of competitors, or even support managers to create their own blogs as e-forums to discuss new products or services. In fact, http://www.blogger.com/start even offers software to build blogs. If you do choose to create a blog, fine tune presentation layer aesthetics, ensure that it’s ranked well in search engines, invite relevant industry experts, and update core issues frequently. A caveat, blogging is an instantaneous feedback network and could disseminate factually inaccurate information about organisations and individuals in public spotlight. PR practitioners should therefore plug into these networks and scour for any averse comments put forth in them. If there are damaging opinions or reviews, do realise that transparency and plain speak will go a long way in developing stronger online relationships. “It took 38 years for radio to amass 50 million users. It took 13 years for television to do it. The Internet has done it in just 4,” says Steve Yelvington4. Digital Darwinism has arrived; and in this rapidly evolving technology-driven paradigm, PR has to adapt to more intelligent conduits of communication. Although blogging is not yet classified as journalism, it is viewed as a powerful participatory news forum that PR practitioners cannot afford to discount. If a recent decision by the University of California, Berkeley, to offer a graduate-level programme in blogs is any harbinger, these online forums are set to assume an increasingly critical role in the new communications coliseum of the 21st century. A ARTI H. S ABHANEY T HE
WRITER IS A
M UMBAI - BASED M ARCOM H ER
SPECIALIST AND ACADEMICIAN .
RESEARCH INTERESTS INCLUDE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND ADVOCACY.
REFERENCES: 1. Data published by Nielsen Net Ratings, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), and Network Information Centers (NICs), as on September 30, 2004. 2. “A network’s value grows as the square of the number of users.” Developed by Robert M. Metcalfe, founder of 3Com Corporation and designer of the Ethernet protocol for computer networks. 3. Don Middleberg is Chairman and CEO of Middleberg Euro. A leader in public relations and marketing, Middleberg is widely considered to be among the elite communications professionals in digital public relations. 4. Steve Yelvington is vice-president of strategy and content for the interactive division of Morris Newspapers. In 2001, the Newspaper Association of America presented him with its New Media Pioneer Award.
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Know your onions If you want to make your mark in the PR industry,then you have to understand your client’s business completely
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R PROFESSIONALS AT seminars and through media articles, are busy justifying how they create value for the client by non-media activities. Their complaint: We are not consulted or given due respect of a consultant. Even in media relations, the client looks at us to handle the tactical part of the task. Let’s face it — the onus for respect of the profession and its practitioner lies on the individual practicing it. Isn’t it true that as PR professionals we look at generating media coverage even through an event or any new initiative? The media coverage report gives us the most tangible result to show to the client. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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For a marketing person, PR falls under the P of promotion in the marketing mix. It is just a communication tool to increase awareness about his organization/ products.That’s his perception of PR and perception is reality Let’s accept that the chunk of our activities revolve around media relations. The client looks at us as media experts and outsources his media relations to us. Why be on the defensive? In the words of a senior PR professional “Media relations is the bread and butter of a PR firm, rest all is value add.” How do we then move from being tactical geniuses to the more valued communication consultants? Perhaps by working on the following two areas: a) Understanding the client (people), b) Understanding the client’s business. We usually deal with corporate communications or marketing department of an organization. In corp comm (as we call it), life is a little easier if the person has a PR consultancy background. It is advisable to have clarity on what we can do through PR if he has been transferred from some other function, say exports or HR. Don’t be surprised if they belong to the tribe which believes that every news from their organsiation is worthy of big write-ups; there should be a press release for every mundane announcement and a press conference should be held at the drop of a hat!!! For a marketing person, PR falls under the P of promotion in the marketing mix. It is just a communication tool to increase awareness about his organization/ products. That’s his perception of PR and perception is reality. It is important for the PR professional here to have a counterview at times. It may work in his favour rather than against him. Client dealings largely depend on the value system of the PR firm and the commitment of the top management towards the profession. If the top management is happy doing the pair-of-hands kind of work, consulting will remain a dream. The second issue, and a common complaint against communication professionals, is that they don’t understand our (client’s) business. But how much knowledge of U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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a client’s business is essential? According to an ex-journalist and now an account director with a PR firm, “If you understand the client’s customers, competition, products and industry scenario, you can do a good job.” It is an added advantage if you know more technical details about the products and the organisation, he adds. We should have the courage to ask questions at the right time if we are unable to understand something. A knowledgeable client knows that ‘you don’t know’ kind of attitude on their part can be detrimental to the communication process. PR firm head honchos also need to look at motivating their account management teams to have a sense of attachment with the client organization. If the young executives feel that their job on the account is only Monday to Friday during office hours, that detachment reflects in their client interactions. Since there is so much glamour attached to the PR profession, some young executives tend to think that the team on the client’s side is dim. We shall look at this issue in a future article. N OUMAAN Q URESHI T HE
WRITER IS A
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BASED
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Beyond PR Is there a connect between successful PR and value creation?
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OR MANY OF us in the public relations profession, it gets most difficult to explain to our parents and to the uninitiated in concise, clear terms what exactly we do for a living. Inside an elevator, when a long lost acquaintance or a newly formed relative asks the ubiquitous “so-what-do-you-do” query, even the most articulate among us find ourselves hemming and hawing. The dictionary definition, “the efforts of a corporation to promote good will between itself and the public,” simply U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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does not cut it. To begin, many of us don’t work for corporations. And, among ourselves we already debate interminably what the word “public” includes. As for the precise meaning of the term “good will,” don’t even get me started. Our profession is supposed to nurture the relationships between a company, its customers, its stockholders, its community and its government. We are supposed to educate the public about causes and prevention of illness and disease; we are meant to cultivate and support a free and open society by serving as credible, reliable resources for the media and others who disseminate information to the public. We are the agents to enhance brands visually and verbally and by action; and to help restore public confidence in all institutions by helping those institutions operate with openness, honesty and integrity. The list is endless. Unfortunately, when a profession has such a wideranging mandate, the public provides its own derisive identity like “flack,” “press agent”, “spin doctor” and worse, “pimps”, to name a few. To some extent, the profession itself and its practitioners are to be blamed for the lack of discipline and integrity with which the profession is practiced. Instead of worrying about what term to use to describe the profession we all practice, we should focus on enhanc-
When it comes to PR, the cult brands understand the power of the media. Apple is a master of the media. One reason they’re very effective is because they understand that there needs to be a unique story to sell ing the understanding of what our profession is all about: building relationships with the public — an enterprise that goes far beyond publicity. We divert energy from the critical efforts to build value for PR when we are distracted by extraneous debates about terminology. There are many young PR people today who know a bit about their own craft, but often have difficulty relating it to an organisation’s overall mission because they don’t have the foggiest idea of what the organisation’s brand ILLUSTRATION
: J AIN K AMAL U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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We need to understand the connection between successful PR and value creation. Admittedly, it is very difficult to measure, but successful PR does have a connection to value growth, whether it’s share price, profits, revenues, or some other measure important to the company stands for, how it got that way, and how marketers strategically intend to keep it alive and meaningful. Even senior practitioners fall into similar traps in feeble attempts to cover their lack of knowledge. First, we need to understand the connection between successful PR and value creation. Admittedly, it is very difficult to measure, but successful PR does have a connection to value growth, whether it’s share price, profits, revenues, or some other measure important to the company. Second, public relations professionals need to continually drive home the role that PR can play in differentiation. We think of the power of advertising to differentiate, but because PR is so pervasive, it can differentiate a company or organisation and make it stand apart from all others. It is the importance of this function that should give PR people an opportunity to sit at the policy table. I, like many in the field of communications, am convinced a brand is the sum of a person’s experiences with an organisation. You can’t buy a brand; rather a brand is built over time through working with employees, customers, partners and other third parties. It’s not about nice colours and design; it’s about good business practice. Too often I have seen new CEO’s or VPs of marketing getting stuck on their first and only port of call, the company’s “brand”. To me it’s akin to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. If your company is broken, no amount of nice design and guidelines is going to save you. Sure, a company should have a common look and feel across locations, collaterals etc. but if your business is right your brand will follow. What do Star Trek, Harley-Davidson, Oprah Winfrey, World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly WWF), Apple, the Volkswagen Beetle and Linux have all in common? These entities are among the handful of national and international brands that have reached cult status. At one time or another, we’ve all probably wondered U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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why Star Trek appeals to so many people. I’m sure many of us don’t quite understand why Stephen Forbes rode a Harley-Davidson at 62. Or why Apple McIntosh loyalists hate Microsoft with such passion? What are the most captivating and loyal brands when it comes to customers? Does this happen by plan or does it happen by accident? How do these brands spark this level of captivation? Some say the cult status happened because of accident. Others understand the relationship is really between the brand and the customer. Such similarities are found in almost every cult brand. All cult brands dare to be different. Cult brands understand that they’re not just selling a product or service. The brands don’t take themselves too seriously — at least not publicly. The one thing all of these brands have in common is that they understand they’re not just selling a product or service; they’re selling other customers to each other. When it comes to PR, the cult brands understand the power of the media. Apple is a master of the media. One reason they’re very effective at dealing with the media is that they understand that there needs to be a unique story to sell. Apple and all of these cult brands sell their story very well. A lot of time, they use the classic underdog story. Harley is a good example of this. When they were being beat down in the ‘80s by overseas competition, they played into the patriotic nature of their brand. PR plays an important role in all of this. Cult branding doesn’t have to be a national or international phenomenon. Restaurants are a good example of how cult branding can happen on the local level. Every decent size city has cult-brand restaurants. At the end of the day, people buy because of other consumers. When you buy a Harley, you’re buying a ticket to a new communal experience. Harley represents more than riding a bike. In the end though, using these cult brands, as templates for marketing and PR initiatives can’t hurt. Not every product or service is cut out to be a cult brand. It’s just not going to invoke that same level of passion and excitement that other products and services do. But a lot of learnings can be applied to any brand. As someone put it simply, “Not everyone can become Tiger Woods, but everyone can improve their golf game.” SUNIL GAUTAM
T HE
WRITER IS
CEO
OF THE
M UMBAI - BASED H ANMER & PARTNERS , A
PR
CONSULTING FIRM
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HE FAST CHANGING dynamics of the world economy is forcing organisations to fundamentally rethink the manner in which they have been communicating with their constituent communities and decision-makers. It is constantly being proven that conventional communication approaches that are designed to raise public awareness may often have the opposite effects of those intended. This is because they fail to take into account the public’s profound resistance to the traditional communication stimuli. Therefore, organisations are placing more emphasis on developing two-way and more open-ended methods of communication in their public advocacy strategies. This is in preference to the more traditional top-down methods based on elements of audience manipulation or persuasion. Attitudinal, behavioural and social changes are long-term processes. Researches into modern communication methods indicate that it is imprudent to regard attitudinal change merely as a shift along a continuum, as it inevitably involves a reordering of individuals’ cognitive structures. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Power Shift A new trend is emerging in the public relations industry To effect, then, any significant alterations in attitudes and values, or to explicitly form them, requires the identification of both cognitive and affective objectives and the examination and exposure of beliefs and prejudices. This cannot be achieved through the mere imparting of information. This implies that the following years will only reinforce the need for innovative approaches, for creativity and agility and communication agencies will be forced to restructure their strategies. Only those agencies that can keep pace with this transformation will succeed in this unforgiving world. Quite a few agencies in India have shifted from their existing framework and are now focusing on niche areas of operation. It is becoming evident that increasing competition and the pressure to redesign strategies will force the agencies to identify and specify their particular areas of competence more clearly. It does not come as a surprise, then, that some very prominent companies are revisiting the strategies preILLUSTRATION
: S ANJAY
GHOSH
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Another interesting aspect of these changes has been the recent phenomenon of hiring prominent marketing professionals by agencies of all sizes, even the mid-sized ones sented by their communication partners. The clients’ increasing preference for fast-footed, nimble and proactive agencies has shown dramatic change in their approach to communications. Another interesting aspect of these changes has been the recent phenomenon of hiring prominent marketing professionals by agencies of all sizes even the mid-sized ones. The need to reorient communication strategies to the clients’ business goals has fuelled such shifts. Soumitro Mukherji, an MBA from XLRI with over 18 years marketing and sales experience in giants like Asian Paints, HLL, Sony Entertainment Television, Pepsi and Airtel recently took over as COO of my organisation which has a capitalised billings of approximately Rs10 crore. Mukherji’s move is demonstrative of the changing face of the mid-sized agency which is gearing up to meet the clients’ imperative today. Since the older agencies are too deeply rooted in traditional thinking, this trend is being witnessed in a mid-sized set up. The time has come that agencies look at the clients’ brand from a marketing perspective and the migration of marketing professionals to agencies is definitely a sign of evolution in the communications industry. There are indications that creativity and results will drive the entire communications industry in the ensuing years. N. C HANDRAMOULI T HE
WRITER IS
CEO
OF
B LUE LOTUS C OMMUNICATIONS C ONSULTANCY.
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Beyond media management Media is just one indispensable channel towards achieving one or more PR objectives of the client
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HOMAS FRIEDMAN, foreign affairs columnist, New York Times asserts, “This is the age of globalisation, and the countries that succeed best at globalisation are those that are best at “glocalisation” — taking the best global innovations, styles and practices and moulding them with their own culture.” Though PR as a practice in India has come a long way into establishing its need and indispensable role with India Inc., compared to the stimulating application of PR in the global market, Indian PR industry still has miles to go… Where India Inc. is breaking all barriers to adopt the most innovative of strategies and processes to chart-out the most viable and effective communication plans, the role of PR is still largely a media relations game. The practitioners, agencies and even companies have either not realized or unknowingly ignored the diversity and scale/scope of the profession. An aspirant in PR today is Panglossian about two things, while choosing it as a career option. The role of PR extends to every communication opportunity that can potentially influence the key constituencies either by creating a perception, or informing/educating through NEWS. Media is just one indispensable channel/mode towards achieving one or more PR/business objectives of the client. It often proves to be detrimental when people quit the profession when their actual experience negates the said points. This gets even more unfavourable, given the fact that there is a dearth of professionally trained and experienced PR professionals in India. The larger responsibility lies with educational institutes offering courses in PR, U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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and a greater responsibility with the industry specialists. The formal definition of Public Relations that the institutions advocate usually reads as: The management of relationships between an organization and the constituencies upon which it depends. But the practical challenge is to employ all the PR tools to actually devise strategies towards effective communications to all the constituencies, media being just one important tool. A true understanding of PR would clearly define the various public that hold importance to a company in creating and influencing its image. Similarly, the importance of PR would have linear effect with the increase in the importance of ‘reputation management’ for any given company. The first step into exploring opportunities with PR as a profession should ideally be to assume responbility to practice the profession from a broader platform and consider media relations as just one aspect to it. Even the companies should outrightly look-out for agencies with the right kind of resources who can clearly demarcate the value in terms of media coverage and value through strategic communication inputs, be it branding or driving the company’s vision across the organization and employees. It’s for a company to seek out a PR practioner who not only understands his role but also the business objectives and varied contituencies. Only when a PR professional is adept with the everchanging rules of integrated communications, new emerging channels of information and changing behaviours of the target audience, can he make value addition to the already existing communications model of any company. Yes, this means the approach to the profession needs to undergo a change and the immediate role and responsibility lies with the agencies, who should put the term ‘Public Relations’ in its true perspective. PR in India is still at a very nascent stage and we are yet to see a transition from employing media relations to evolving as a pivotal component of not just marketing communications but also employee and key stakeholder communication. We, the PR agencies, practitioners, client organisations… all are yet to understand PR for the greater influence, value and awareness that it can generate in its true light. We all have promises to keep; and miles to go before we sleep. K ISHORE R AVURI
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THE COMPLETE MAGAZINE FOR MARKETING COMMUNICATION PROFESSIONALS
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Quality By Design, Not By Default MMM Apparels turnover was growing at a fast clip and the chairman,Nikhil Kumar had every reason to be happy. He was getting ready for the company’s annual general meeting with optimism when the unexpected happened:Marks & Spencer,its key customer,rejected a huge consignment over the quality issue.The Press got a whiff of it and went to town.Angry shareholders,on reading this,sent letters to the chairman seeking his explanation.So how did the chairman handle the crisis? Read on U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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FEW WEEKS BEFORE their annual general meeting, MMM Apparels had a PR and marketing crisis at the company. A large order from Marks & Spencer, one of their key customers in the UK, had been rejected for some small weaving faults in the cotton shirting material. The order was worth about 50,000 pounds. MMM Apparels had to take back the supply and, within a given time schedule of two months, replace it with a fresh lot. MMM Apparels had accepted the rejection, and pulled out all the stops at their Mumbai factory to supply the fresh lot on time and, thus, not only not lose the order but also the client to a competitor from Ahmedabad who had made inroads into Marks & Spencer. This fact had unfortunately leaked to the Press, and The Economic Times, Mumbai ran a negative story on how MMM Apparels’ consignment was rejected on account of poor quality. This article created a strong uproar among the company’s shareholders who individually, and collectively, wrote to the chairman asking for explanations. The chairman, on the advice of his marketing director and public relations director thought it fit to make a presentation to the shareholders at the AGM and convince on MMM’s quality efforts and recent thrust programme U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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I am convinced that MMM Apparels will be a truly world-class group, and we are trying to imbibe world class quality culture in every part of our organization. Our values are shared and enthusiastically embraced; our employees are encouraged to make decisions that positively affect the organization. launched within the company to motivate the employees and external customers on MMM’s hi-quality efforts at the plants, and within the CRM policies in place at the company. The presentation by the chairman at the AGM was as follows: “Dear shareholders, fellow employees and friends, I extend a warm welcome to you all, and appreciate the time you have given us to attend this Annual General Meeting. As we all are aware, liberalization of the Indian economy has brought in its wake many opportunities and challenges. The entry of multinational corporations (MNC’s) has intensified competition in almost all sectors that have been opened up. Competition is intense to service the large consumer market in our country, especially in the field of textiles. Consequently, meeting consumer needs and wants is of primary importance. The concept of a seller’s market is long gone, it is the buyer’s purchasing power that pervades today in the market, and hence the consumer demands the best quality at the lowest price. With complete access to the best and most efficient technology and methods, the need of the hour to succeed is QUALITY. Quality is a right and not a privilege that you offer to your consumers. QUALITY CULTURE
However, quality is not just an initiative or a programme that can be implemented in a straightjacket kind of fashion. Quality is actually the result of a carefully crafted corporate culture in any organization. To create and weave this fabric, managers and employees of the company need to be quality-friendly and consistently work towards the quality goals. Gentlemen, Think Big, Start Small is a wise adage. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Experience has, however shown us that improvement initiatives often fail because they attempt to do too much or too little. Identifying the game plan and then proceeding, so each improvement links to an overall larger change is the philosophy that has driven MMM Apparels to success over the years. We, at MMM Apparels are growing to be a Rs 2000crore group. Not only expanding in the traditional areas of garments, cotton and blended textiles, but we have also entered new product areas, such as denim fabric. As you will have observed, we have taken various steps to promote ourselves as the MMM Apparels Group. The able management at MMM identified certain key thrust areas which needed concerted efforts and which were in sync with our overall growth objectives as a multifaceted and multi-product organization. One of the key thrust areas has been Quality of its products and services. Not just the usual quality assurance and improvement for which MMM Apparels was already well known, but a “quality culture” at all Group companies, and all levels within each company. MMM Apparels has been producing quality products for decades, but has never boasted of this fact. MMM Apparels, philosophy has always been down-toearth, credible, and yet novel in its approach. However, today there is a different and a planned transformation taking place within our organization, wherein the basics are being looked at afresh — especially in the area of product quality and quality of service to the consumers. We aim to achieve market leadership and be known as producers of quality products. Being a consumer-centric organization, we would like to be known as highly respon-
We strongly believe in creating value through the best and most contemporary quality and related management practices. We have even adopted some of the critical elements of the famous Six Sigma practice. We strongly believe that improvements in our product quality are defined by their impact on consumer satisfaction, which we have instilled in all our operations. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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sive to consumer needs. In this, it is a well-documented fact that only when the company treats the employees well will they in turn treat the consumers well. So, our primary focus is on our employees as well. We wish to be known as a company that cares for its employees who in turn care for the consumers and community. I am convinced that MMM Apparels will be a truly world-class group, and we are trying to imbibe world class quality culture in every part of our organization. Our values are shared and enthusiastically embraced; our employees are encouraged to make decisions that positively affect the organization. With employees adopting quality consciousness for leadership, today at MMM Apparels, we all have come to believe that quality means doing things right the first time, every time. Quality is not a destination that the top-management forces upon the company; instead it is a journey that we are committed to! LEADERSHIP THROUGH QUALITY
Our commitment to quality, thus, is not a mere lip service. We have put in place quality infrastructure to support our initiatives. Towards this, our ISO Certification efforts commenced a few years ago. The ISO 9002 system at MMM has increased the commitment of our employees, improved traceability in case of problems, and introduced a disciplined approach to manufacturing and marketing. We realized that getting the certification was just one step forward in quality management. We then directed our efforts towards measuring cost of poor quality (COPQ). The findings were astonishing and costs were staggering! This helped us pinpoint areas that needed improvement on a priority basis, and the gains from this initiative today are visibly reflected not only in our products but also consumer satisfaction and bottom line. As you know, close to half our textiles production is exported to the developed world, particularly the US and Europe. Customers there lay special emphasis on our factory and office environment, besides product quality. We now, therefore, also lay much focus on the environmental concerns like the level of permissible effluents and dust and noise levels at our manufacturing units. We also emphasize on our supplier’s quality. Our quality efforts are not restricted to our manufacturing only; we have established an in-house Consumer Satisfaction Index, which is a composite measurement of all that we do to delight the consumer at the market place. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Having undertaken all these initiatives, we felt it was necessary to test our strategies by benchmarking all the functions of the company against certain pre-defined excellence criteria. So we opted for entering the Indian Merchant’s Chamber — Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Competition. We have assessed the organization against their criteria and have further identified improvement areas with a time-bound action plan. I am personally leading this effort. The enthusiasm of our top management in making this a success is also palpable. We are in the thick of actioning the improvement. I am sure MMM will be overall a more proactive and dynamic organization at the end of this effort. QUALITY POLICY
These initiatives highlight quality at MMM Apparels is by design, and not by default. For us, today, quality is the way of life. Thus it is by design that we have formulated our quality policy. This policy not only focuses on our core philosophy but also the objectives that we are following in our journey towards becoming a world-class group. Our quality policy is even more relevant in the current market scenario where textiles, our core business, is in for a radical change in the marketplace with the impending phase out of International Quota Restrictions and the Multi-Fibre Agreement by the government. Further, the developed countries, especially the European Union, are increasingly resorting to non-tariff barriers to blunt our export competitiveness. In this situation, our efforts to constantly reduce costs and raise our quality to world standards are even more critical in sustaining our competitive advantage in the global markets. MMM’S QUALITY POLICY
We have dedicated ourselves to providing our customers in the national and international markets, products and services of agreed standards. We also commit to extend the quality concept to all phases of our business by strengthening partnership with our customers and suppliers. We shall continue our endeavors to develop new products and markets, especially for exports. We shall further develop our information systems to receive regular feedback on our product quality, performance, and acceptance from our external customers to prepare ourselves to meet the future requirements. We shall continue to upgrade our manufacturing facilities to achieve improved quality. We pay special emphaU S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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sis on quality assurance through a dedicated set up, independent of production. We provide skills and training to our employees and promote open communication to maximize their contribution in achieving quality excellence. We shall implement ISO 9002 series of standards, to ensure total customer satisfaction by supplying products that conform to contractual requirements. We strongly believe in creating value through the best and most contemporary quality and related management practices. We have even adopted some of the critical elements of the famous Six Sigma practice. We strongly believe that improvements in our product quality are defined by their impact on consumer satisfaction, which we have instilled in all our operations. We have consciously incorporated the Six Sigma practices in our processes -- whether it is designing products, measuring performances, improving efficiency or gauging consumer satisfaction. We aspire to drive for perfection by learning through our mistakes and making sure they are not repeated, and in this we vouch by the Six Sigma principals that say, ‘Push to be ever more perfect, while being willing to accept and manage occasional setbacks.’ With these activities, a need was felt all across the management to reach out to our consumers, suppliers and employees and make them aware about the various initiatives that we had undertaken. With this intention the company also launched a specially designed Quality Campaign and PR initiative. This quality campaign focused on the quality inputs and efforts at MMM Apparels as a culture, which will result in all-round improved quality and profitability. QUALITY CAMPAIGN
The quality campaign launched through a unique blend of the theme, copy thought, visual content and focus was around MMM Apparels going about ‘redefining the fundamentals.’ We wished to highlight the Company’s line of thinking and focus on Quality and having world class quality standards. The campaign consisted of a variety of initiatives, which I shall now take you through one by one. Gentlemen, the Quality Campaign and PR initiatives taken by us, wherein we came up with a series of five advertisements, were to let the world know how we have redefined our fundamentals by restructuring the quality parameters across the organization, with a focus on the right mindset and excellence. These ads, in colour, were U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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released in the leading business newspapers and magazines to reach out to our potential audiences: consumers, suppliers, trade and employees, our indirect target group, for it also included the government, financial institutions and our business associates. The 5-advertisement campaign clearly presents the picture on where the MMM Apparels Group stood in terms of its thinking on quality. Each advertisement focuses on the core value and beliefs of the Group that give rise to the quality culture, the right attitude, environment consciousness and keeping our word in delivering what we promise. As you can see, the visual of each ad is designed in a contemporary illustration style with the core message and imagery emerging in the visual, and supported by the copy thought. Thus, the communication we are trying to get across is complete, direct and self-explanatory. The theme that ran through all the advertisements in words and a signature was ‘The MMM Apparels Group. Redefining the Fundamentals’. AD 1 — HUMAN RELATIONSHIP
If we look at the first advertisement, it shows our focus on human relationship in quality. It shows that the way we are defining quality is different from the way others define it. This ad also emphasizes what we value the most — human relationship, which forms the core of our quality fundamentals, which drives the company. Quality is, thus, not just the outcome of well-defined systems for us, it is more of an outcome of the excellence in the human
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relationships. No doubt systems need to be in place, but, at the end of the day, it is the people who need to run the systems. Unlike in other organizations where systems run people, at MMM Apparels it is our employees who manage these systems. This goes to show the amount of empowerment our employees enjoy, and how they use it sensibly in the organization. AD 2 — KEEPING YOUR WORD
In the second ad, our focus was to convey that the most common quality rule is actually an uncommon business principle, i.e. Keeping Your Word. We believe in delivering what we promise. The ad also shows that irrespective of the position you hold in the organization “keeping your word” is of prime importance. Where else would you see this unique business principle? At MMM Apparels, we honor our promise to our consumers, who place their trust and faith in us. This credo has stood us in great stead always, and it shall continue to be our philosophy in the years to come.
AD 3 — QUALITY AS CULTURE
The third ad redefines quality in yet another way. Here the focus is on the fact that quality does not end being just a science and art; it is in fact a culture. This is now our guidepost for excellence. Culture is the glue that holds an organization together. Culture, at MMM Apparels, as understood by us, is the present manifestation of the past: U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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the challenges, successes, mistakes and lessons learned. All our formal and Informal values, philosophies and norms knit and overlap to create the fabric we term “Culture”. And, indeed, we are proud of this. AD 4 — RIGHT MINDSET
The fourth ad depicts one of the special “Thinking Hats” (of Edward De Bono), which needs to be worn to produce quality is, in fact, the right mindset. We believe that the right attitude goes a long way in achieving quality. Our mindset is one of our strengths, which has led us to create and meet world-class benchmarks in quality. Thus, at MMM Apparels we not only carry out initiatives
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towards quality, we also sport the attitude for quality and excellence in all our endeavors. Employees at MMM Apparels have not only adopted this, but are also now openly communicating this to the external world. AD 5 — ENVIRONMENT CONSCIOUSNESS
The fifth ad shows our concern for the environment. For others it seems quality initiatives end with just being environmentally consciousness. However, at MMM Apparels, this is where quality standards begin. Since we cater to both the national and international consumers, our products and processes meet up with superior quality specifications and procedures of each of them. MMM Apparels also strives not only to be the best group but also a good corporate citizen.
This ad campaign lent itself ideally for rendering into other support promotional material. Five attractive individual posters in colour (30" x 40" size) were developed and displayed within all our offices and factories. Furthermore, they doubled as publicity material, which was sent out to clients, who were therein reminded of our commitment to “redefining fundamentals” and the way we understood quality. Needless to say, our clients, especially in the UK, appreciated this effort. Quoting the chief quality officer at Marks & Spencer, the leading department store chain wrote to us saying: “Very innovative campaign, I truly enjoyed it. It reflects MMM Apparel’s commitment to quality. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The 5-advertisement campaign clearly presents the picture on where the MMM Apparels Group stood in terms of its thinking on quality. Each advertisement focuses on the core value and beliefs of the Group that give rise to the quality culture, the right attitude, environment consciousness and keeping our word in delivering what we promise. Moreover, it reassures us to know that our supplier partner is as committed to quality as we are!” The production officer at JC Penny, another retail chain in the UK said: “MMM Apparels has renewed its commitment towards Quality through this effective campaign. I am sure this will have far reaching consequences for the Group. It is a pleasure to be associated with such a company.” We also had a special 10-page pullout as a quality Supplement in our MMM Apparels house journal. The supplement highlighted the history of quality efforts at MMM Apparels, the quality policy and the mission, which lead to the ISO 9002 certification, and the current quality campaign and PR activities. This pullout, besides being circulated to the 3000 recipients of the house journal, was also separately mailed as a direct mail shot to our consumers, business associates and key suppliers. The idea was image building and communication of MMM Apparel’s quality objectives and philosophy to people who mattered to us. Besides this, we prepared a pocket quality Policy Folder, which became a pocketsize, handout, and a guide and reference item for the employees to use and distribute. This was of special relevance, since it enumerated our Quality Policy as well as our commitment to ISO 9002 standards that we had incorporated at MMM. We also developed gift items and reminder pieces, which were essentially adapted from the ad and poster designs, to spread our message across further wherever possible. A pocket telephone index was developed, with the front and inside cover containing the MMM Apparels quality message and policy. The first four ads acted as dividers within the index pages and were visible whenever the index was used. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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A 4-sided plastic pen stand was developed. The four sides had one ad on each side visible when placed on the office desk. QUALITY FEEDBACK
I am proud to tell you that the feedback on our quality campaign was indeed excellent. It was considered to be unique and distinctive by one and all. It worked excellently within the overall objectives of bringing about an image change of our quality at MMM Apparels. The positive feedback we have received has indeed been a moraleboaster for us at the organization, and we hope to carry this campaign forward with communications that will be based on the relevance of the situation and future needs. As part of an internal audit conducted separately after the campaign, it was found that employee motivation was at a high pitch. Employee commitment had been renewed and this positive feedback from them came on all fronts. I quote one of the employees who are a part of the quality teams at MMM Apparels as having stated: “We made it!” Expressing his sense of achievement and pride after receiving the ISO 9002. This campaign also drew a fair amount of coverage in both electronic and print media. This campaign was the talking point among our external consumers and stakeholders. Today, as vice chairman of MIL, I am delighted to state that MMM Apparels is seen as a professional and dynamic organization not only among its employees but also among the external target groups. And as we move towards being a Rs. 2,000-crore Group, your renewed support and commitment will make a great difference in our thrust forward for greater profitability through our mission “Redefining the Fundamentals”. I sincerely thank you all for your patience and time. Thank You.”
Unlike in other organizations where systems run people, at MMM Apparels it is our employees who manage these systems.This goes to show the amount of empowerment our employees enjoy, and how they use it sensibly in the organization U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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OUTCOME OF THE PRESENTATION BY THE CHAIRMAN
As a result of this honest and detailed presentation at the AGM, the chairman, Nikhil Kumar was able to spell out to the shareholders MMM Apparels’ quality intentions and efforts internally and externally to ensure supply of the best possible products and service. And, also, how the company was trying to build its quality image among its target audience and with what impact. The presentation had a good impact on the shareholders, their protest was contained, and they were won over by the chairman! QUESTIONS ON THE CASE STUDY FOR DISCUSSION:
1: If you were the chairman of the company in the place of Nikhil Kumar what strategy and action plan would you have followed in respect of the quality effort in the company, and then at the AGM to communicate to the shareholders? Would you do it differently, and if so, how? 2: What will be your strategy if you were asked to recommend a Phase II of the campaign and effort at MMM apparels? Elaborate and explain. S USHIL B AHL T HE
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PR kiya to darna kya? Creating a brand takes a long time. However,that’s one luxury seldom found by PR profressionals given the short life-cycle of a movie.So,how do they create the buzz and build the brand?
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UBLIC RELATIONS, or Strategic Media Communications, is a vital marketing tool in marketing motion pictures. Whereas in conservative corporate parlance, PR is used more as an image/ reputation management tool, in motion pictures/ entertainment sector, PR is used as one of the flagship marketing initiatives with a vital bearing on sales. Motion picture PR is a much more aggressive exercise than its corporate version with some fundamental differences in the objectives itself. It’s the magical tool in the marketing armory that can produce sensational results in an extremely cost-efficient environment. Entertainment is a unique space, one that holds U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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immense attraction for the consumers. And, there is always a curiosity in the minds of the consumer about the experience of entertainment. Media exploits this curiosity and, thus, dedicates increasing amount of space to entertainment/film content. More and more editorial space is being given to films/lifestyle beats even in serious news vehicles, so much so that it is altering the very definition of news. This phenomenon is only slated to move upwards with hectic activity in the media sector and new players entering the fray. In a scenario where eyeballs are more precious than conventional definition of news, entertainment/cinema content is a reliable magnet that becomes much more effective when intelligently used. And, motion picture marketers are in a unique advantageous position to leverage this dynamics. Even as I write about how marketers are placed advantageously in entertainment industry vis-a- vis say plastic or the insurance sector, let us make no bones about the fact that entertainment marketing is one of the most challenging/ exciting spaces to be in today. The challenge is the dynamism of the entire apparatus; the challenge is the quantum of relationship, which the consumer has with the sector. Movies-Media-Consumers is one of the busiest highways in the marketing sector. It deals with elusive elements and the degree of subjectivity is high. The clutter of products makes the task further difficult. The dynamism of entertainment marketing cannot be overstated precisely because of the dynamism in entertainment market. The rules are changing even before they can be learnt. The business processes, especially in motion picture business, are itself changing. Corporatisation of business, volume players, integration of the value chain of production — distribution — exhibition, rise of multiplexes, increasing segmentation of the consumers and, consequently, of products. These are changes that are reshaping the fundamentals of the business and, hence, marketing strategies. Before one can safely learn the ground rules, second levels of complexities present themselves. One of the seminal developments has been the emergence of movies as short-term brands. And, since they are short-lived, the brand attributes and its dissemination is a quick and dense process. An IBM or a Honda, or a Gillette, has years to build/consolidate/harness its brand whereas a Dhoom or Bunty Aur Babli has to run through U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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the entire process in the span of 8-12 weeks. It’s a dense set of brand values and explosive dissemination. The process behaves like throwing brand grenades at a targeted set of audiences. PR uses movie collaterals for disseminating the brand values. These collaterals generally are visuals of the film, interfaces with the actors/director, promos, etc. The key exercise is to align the communication content carefully to the desired positioning of the film and then to bring out the elements of the positioning effectively through the orchestration of the communication. But motion picture PR clearly needs to move beyond the basics. Innovation adds that edge through which marketing can cut through the clutter. For instance, at Spice, we were grappling with the marketing communications of two very different products – Bunty Aur Babli and Parineeta. Bunty Aur Babli is a fun film that has two smart con characters that put on different garbs to have innocent fun. In one of our marathon brain storming sessions, we came up with the idea of Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji read prime time news on NDTV as Bunty Aur Babli. They read serious news of the day and didn’t talk about the movie at all in the bulletin. The idea worked big time on two accounts. Firstly, that it was the first initiative of its kind and novelty quotient was very high, and, secondly, it communicated the brand of the movie very effectively. Parineeta necessitated a more classical approach. The challenge here was to communicate a period classic to contemporary audiences. We carefully chose the media and a good pre-release hype was followed by an extensive and thorough post-release campaign when the general verdict on the film emerged positive. Media appreciated the film and the task of the PR was to translate that appreciation into media mileage. For an earlier film, Dhoom, we had clearly identified speed and glamour to be brand values. Fast bikes, babes and handsome hunks were the messaging elements. Just one day prior to the release of the film, we had the cast of the film riding their high-end bikes through the length of Mumbai with the media closely following it. It generated a lot of hype and attention. Bikes turned out to be the heroes of the film and caught the fancy of the target audience in a big manner. One of the other significant changes is that now the consumers expect you to market the product intelligently and they react to smart marketing ideas positively. Today’s youth, which is a central target audience for any U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji read prime time news on NDTV as Bunty Aur Babli.They read serious news of the day and didn’t talk about the movie at all in the bulletin. motion picture, are responding very well to marketing initiatives such as these. They don’t perceive marketing ideas as gimmicks as many from the pre-liberalization generation do. They almost demand that a product should introduce/communicate with them prior to their decision to experience it, or not, as the case may be. Like their pair of jeans, shades, watches and iPod, movies are just another consumable for them. Similar to the relationship between any brand and its consumers, a motion picture brand too has to have a living relationship with its consumers. And the marketers have to build, nurture and consummate that relationship within the productive life span of the film. It can often require the best from the best. P RABHAT C HOUDHARY T HE
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Decoding Financial PR Financial PR is fast gaining space with companies that have come to realize the need to build a brand and competitive positioning while executing financial activities
Market debut that failed to seek the expected response… Mergers & Acquisitions that failed to create news… Delisting procedures that failed to maintain the brand value… Corporate restructurings that failed to create a buzz…
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UCH SITUATIONS are passé and, in today’s dynamic financial services industry, even when a company doesn’t accomplish the charted objectives or face one of the similar situations, it is the prerogative of the PR fraternity to make it emerge as a ‘strategic failure’. Gone are the years when financial undertakings were part and parcel of the routine trade; today, it is an art in itself and financial public relations has created its U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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role, while establishing a long-term, strategic financial standing for companies. With an extremely gung ho business environment and an increasing number of companies battling for fewer market opportunities, the financial stakes are considerably higher running almost parallel to the market risks. The much-disputed rationale on which the contemporary PR agencies work is the ‘camouflage principle’ where, ineffect, the core concept of Financial PR emerges as a knight in shining armour. How simple, or rather, how feasible is it to project an uneconomic company as ‘incurring planned losses’ or, how easy is it to gain a favourable voting of key stakeholders, even before a company announces an IPO? For the communication experts in Financial PR, it’s a ‘run-of-the-mill’ contest. Today, when a company issues its annual report, the Financial PR experts identify it as an opportunity to target the strong financial performance, thus contributing towards strengthening the brand image and value with the people that matter - customers, analysts, regulatory authorities, shareholders, employees, etc. In the scheme of the functions of PR, Financial PR, with its magic wand, has a specialized role in expanding market share; in generating coverage that triggers actual sales; in creating a notable presence in financial markets. Financial PR is fast gaining space with companies that have come to realize the need to build a brand and competitive position while executing financial activities/dealings, which otherwise would only trigger some amount of media interest; favourable or otherwise. Viable organizational structure, profitable business portfolio, successful conglomeration of companies, understanding the evolved market structure and hence, investor relations, effective dissemination of information, scientific approach to managing investors and analysts – all fall within the purview of Financial PR.
How simple, or rather, how feasible is it to project an uneconomic company as ‘incurring planned losses’, or how easy is it to gain a favourable voting of key stakeholders, even before a company announces an IPO? U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The journey for a specialist in Financial PR though doesn’t end at this, but is taken afar or extends to analyst perception audits and perception management. The width of Financial PR covers all aspects of financial undertakings and the related industry influencers and key constituencies. It is the Financial PR experts who advocate relationship management with the key market analysts – who directly influence the financial communities. Their contribution lies in driving home the differentiating factors that could potentially help in building value for a company. Government regulations, or control over the financial policies of companies, used to be norm of the yore. Today, most of the private companies/firms have gained their power – whether it is to regulate the price for issuing equity or the rate of interest on the company bonds and their cash offerings. Corporate financial management has become a “whole function” in itself, requiring expertise and efficacy. The role of Financial PR has much been realized by companies that have chosen to makeshift from an unscientific to an extrapolative approach, while taking critical ‘financial decisions’. With Financial PR experts around, companies today do not need to vacillate over any institutional changes in structure or their business itself and yet create a legacy of surviving the worst of financial crises. K ISHORE R AVURI
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Time for a makeover PR agencies and its governing bodies need to frame code of ethics in order to survive.
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HE RIES REALLY created a flutter in the placid world of public relations. However, after the muchtouted imminent fall of advertising and the muchawaited glorious rise of PR, neither have we seen the ignominious exit of the hidden persuaders nor have we seen the spin-doctors ascending to Himalayan heights. All we have seen is some realignment and reinvention. The ad agencies which had opened an additional window to help their clients with their PR issues switched over to the single window concept and began to operate independent units which took up the PR business on their COLLAGe: JAIN KAMAL
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If you look at the much-crowded PR scene today, all one sees is an exodus of marketing execs entering the field and providing a glib edge to the verbal diarrhoea that goes under the garb of client serving. own. There has been no great PR revolution nor has any doomsday overtaken advertising. If you look at the much-crowded PR scene today, all one sees is an exodus of marketing execs entering the field and providing a glib edge to the verbal diarrhoea that goes under the garb of client serving. After all, when they know that even a front office manager trained in hospitality business can become the CEO of a PR agency, they feel assured of their future. Don’t get me wrong when we talk of a bright future. The young career-conscious gen-next may look forward to the bright side of things, but what about the future of PR? Does PR have a future at all? A recent book on employee relations spoke of a Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) Professional Standard. Why can’t we have a similar institute for Public Relations? How about professional standards for PR in India? The question is: who will set them up? I know there exists a code of ethics, but that is only a part of the syllabus for students who study PR. (I wonder how many practitioners actually know of it, leave alone practice it!) So, how about the PR associations being chartered to ensure that these standards are complied with? Someone once remarked that when there are two U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Indian professionals, we are blessed with three professional bodies to promote the profession — which could mean their business portfolio or, mainly, themselves. While ‘the-more-the-merrier’ attitude may seem positive in general, it is also a sign of maturity in the PR profession that we have quite a few associations that are committed to get the best out of us. Take, for instance, Jayaram who has striven to set up a PR Council that focuses on providing, among other things, training and, of course, PR ethics. His council has even published a monograph on ethics. On the other hand, Ram, who heads a local PR chapter, has becomes a battering ram for all the seniors who want activities — by which they meaning a drinking session. There is, of course, a section that wants nubile females around and, hence, would prefer a song and dance evening. Organising a purely professional programme is no problem. Getting an audience is. It becomes increasingly embarrassing for the host to tell the main speaker that our members always working 24x7 have been held up but will eventually arrive. And, so, after waiting for the mandatory thirty minutes — or even serving tea and biscuits — the final attendance can be counted on one’s fingers. The audience is a myth. But the myth became a reality when, recently, a friend attended a PR programme and could count over fifty young people nodding their heads as the speaker went over his slick presentation. This gave hope that PR professionals are really interested in upgrading themselves or interested in honing their skills. Only later did the truth reveal itself: it was boss’s whip that brought these young people to the programme! Globalisation is the mantra of the hour and every PR agency worth its salt has gone in for a tie-up with some or the other ‘firangi’ expert. So why not professional bodies? And that is what exactly they are up to. From a concept point of view, this sounds excellent. But who benefits with such tie-ups? It is the office bearers who go abroad on association’s expense to sign the initial agreement. And, then, of course, nothing happens, unless you need to have another trip abroad. And, this learning journey always leads to the west and not to any third world country where PR is still in a nascent stage. After all, in the future, it is these very nations that will need innovative PR strategies, thereby heralding the PR revolution. But, for that, we will need ideas and not slick jargon. S ANTAN R ODRIGUES
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Jaago Academia, Jaago! What the PR industry really needs is HTSR talent…
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HE ORGANIZED PR industry is just over a dozen years old in India and, over these years, PR has slowly evolved to become a critical tool for Indian businesses, and it continues to do so. Currently valued between Rs175 and Rs200 crores, the industry is estimated to be growing at robust pace of approximately 40-45 per cent per annum. Estimates show that the top 15 to 20 PR agencies in the country contribute close to 60-70 per cent of the total sector turnover; the balance 35 to 40 odd agencies form the middle segment and the balance 1000 to 1100 odd agencies are one-man shops set up (usually) by ex-journalists/ex-professionals. The total number of professionals working in the PR industry is estimated to be around 10,000 to 11,000; with 25-30 per cent of them working with the top 20 agencies. The Indian PR market is burgeoning into a force to reckon with, and the world’s focus on India, and India’s focus on the world is bound to make the communication imperative impossible to ignore.
THE REAL CHALLENGE
The biggest issue that faces any public relations U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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agency that’s on a fast growth track is a steady flow of talent that can ‘Hit-The-Street-Running’ (HTSR). Unofficial estimates show that the PR industry in India will double by 2010 absorbing about 10,000 to 12,000 professionals. On the supply side, there exist about 30 goodto-average institutes across the country, which offer specialized courses in Public Relations, churning out about 1500 professionals each year. It is estimated that the demand for talent in this industry will outstrip supply within just a few years; but more significant is the fact that the students who pass out of these courses are just not equipped to be a good fit with the industry. It is here that a very serious discussion needs to be initiated between the academia and the industry that will make this talent better suited to the PR industry’s needs and design an academic course that will create real HTSR talent. HTSR talent should be in a state of readiness to accept the challenges of the organization almost immediately on joining, so as to be able to extract peak productive value from even the new talent. That may sound impossible, but if the academia puts its will behind such a project, the curriculum can begin to include the industry’s needs. Not only must the talent be functionally ready in the theory and practical aspects of communications, but the talent must also have a specialization in their final semesters that allows them to choose their functional area of expertise. Let us raise the bar a bit further. The talent must also come with existing relationships with the media, where the institution can play a vital role in teaching the students to practically ‘sell’ the story to the media. Those from the industry, who think this would be a good idea, please raise your hands!! There are plenty going up, I can assure you. THE VISION FOR LEADERSHIP
The blueprint for success for any PR agency on the fast growth track can only be by a continuous creation, acquisition and sharing of knowledge and ensuring that the requisite HTSR talent is acquired and retained is an essential pre-requisite to leadership. It is imperative, therefore, that the academia engages the industry and gets a more ‘real’ feel of how they can make their students a better fit for the industry. Jaago Academia, Jaago! N C HANDRAMOULI T HE
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Riders on the storm Management of complex global publics
As the business world grows complex,so will communications mature to be able to efficiently address its need to reach out to and engage audiences worldwide in a seamless manner
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OE TRIPPI, speaking to an engrossed audience of over 60 PR veterans, spoke of the ‘advent of new age decentralized public opinion building, riding the internet wave’. This highly admired political campaigner, with successful US Presidential campaigns to his credit, spoke about continental shifts in how communications would be structured in a highly connected world when one didn’t need to be a media baron to make their voice heard to multitudes. Think blogs, think podcasts, think email, and think instant messaging, text messaging, community sites, wikis… That is the way the world of communication is moving, globally. Public Relations, initially, took centre-stage as a marU S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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keting communication tool and, then, that of a central business function. Technology companies, worldwide, demonstrated its power of persuasion, spelling success for its brands and products. It took technology companies to unleash the power of PR, as what PR does best is offer credibility en-mass. At a time when technology is growing faster than its users can understand and grasp, PR acts as the tool that establishes the trust and confidence; softening the ground for various business functions, be it to woo the discerning customer, the elusive investor or the progressive employee, or even provide an industry voice to regulatory issues. Whichever business function it may augment, PR has always been about opinion, or awareness building and management, through neutral communication channels, be it media, industry platforms, associations or even when innovative campaigns demanded Churches, village panchayats and various other key audience opinion influencers. To be faced with a multitude of faceless opinion influencers across the world, building and sharing opinions puts PR up to the challenge of managing what is now popularly being called ‘Peer Media’. The growing power of Peer Media, as increasingly larger sections of developed and developing nations take to the internet as a lifestyle, is undeniable. The rise of Peer Media, interestingly, comes at a time when companies, big and small, are going global. The ability to communicate almost seamlessly has spawned not just large enterprises that have a global presence and audience, but multitudes of mini companies with a virtual presence across the world. You could call this virtual presence, not because these are portals or websites (though these companies, like many others, would have
At a time when technology is growing faster than its users can understand and grasp, PR acts as the tool that establishes the trust and confidence; softening the ground for various business functions, be it to woo the discerning customer, the elusive investor or the progressive employee, or even provide an industry voice to regulatory issues U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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one) but because, while they may not yet have the infrastructure of manpower on ground various geographies, the same may comprise their marketplace ahead of the time when they would evaluate investing in a presence there. This poses a unique challenge for communication professionals who are being challenged to run global campaigns at slightly higher than local costs. The classical debate of the role of PR in the management of neutral communication channels has begun afresh. Corporate blogs and their ‘ulterior’ motives are being questioned. The ethical approach to blogger management is under scrutiny ever since Wal-mart was known to have ‘planted’ information not attributed to it (as it should have by the unwritten ethical code for bloggers) through regular bloggers, challenging the sanctity of blogger neutrality. The questions and the debate is, however, not new at all. It has been around since the inception of PR. It’s just being fought on new ground. However, it is not the art or science of PR that should have been questioned, neither should it be now. In every industry, there will be those that follow the fair and ethical and those that will resort to unfair means as long as the objectives are met. Communications, or Public
Excerpt from http://www.weblogswork.com/?p=366 , blogpost dated 26 November 2005 titl ‘Corporate Blogging Prognosis’ DREW NEISSER, CEO of Renegade Marketing, predicts that, In the last few months alone, smaller agencies have delivered slap shots to the biggies, stealing away such prestigious accounts as Heineken, Volkswagen, Sprite and British Airways. Agencies like Mother, Strawberry Frog, Renegade Marketing and Crispin Porter and Bogusky (the Wayne Gretsky of the idea pack) are among a handful of firms that are building reputations for delivering channel neutral multi-disciplined cam-
paigns, and driving what will be an enormous shift in how clients approach their agencies in 2006. Big clients are already starting to see the benefits again of having multiple partners,and asking each for “media neutral” ideas; it might not be long before clients designate one firm as the “idea agency”, tasked with coming up with the media & channel neutral idea, while other firms are tasked with execution according to their specialty. The cost-benefit ratio of
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Relations, are no exception, except that it is highly visible by its very nature. As the business world grows more complex globally, so will communications mature to be able to efficiently address its need to reach out to and engage audiences worldwide in a seamless manner. Communication techniques grow more sophisticated as its tools expand to match this complexity. Word of mouth has assumed global proportions. Just as the internet turned the world into the global village, citizens of this village take a full circle back to relying on peer opinion to form their own. This is a far cry away from the dominance of “expert opinion” being broadcast by mass media as that was the only one easily accessible, when trying to seek a second opinions as a part of decision making. This, by no means, spells the demise of the expert, but just that the expert now shares the platform with peers. What one expert might have to say on a subject may be vetted, contradicted or draw neutral views from “peers”. At the time that the neutral nature of traditional media is under attack, at least by more informed audiences, peer media seems to be rushing in to fill a natural vacuum. ‘Trusted’ relationships are being virtually formed, taking away the time lag inherent when these are
communications is not just posed by these ‘mini MNCs’. The need to communicate to global audiences that have real-time access to information is challenging even large global companies to abandon their time-tested ways of top-down communication directed by the high powered corporate communications team in US headquarters. Communication hot button locations are now being identified across multiple worldwide locations to ensure that the world is truly represented and not just views from the US when making strategic communications decisions. Since increase in
organizational revenues are not necessarily commensurate with the increasing complexities of audiences and the need to ‘engage’ them on an ongoing basis, companies are looking for ways to increase the efficiencies of their communication functions and budgets on the back of that which created this complexity to start with: the internet. From investing in basic extranets to creating virtual teams to more recent experiments like corporate blogs such as those of Walmart, GM, IBM, Microsoft and many others primarily US based companies and increasing European ones.
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NEW YORK TIMES REPORT EXCERPT:
“What is different about Wal-Mart’s approach to blogging is that, rather than promoting a product - something it does quite well, given its $300 billion in annual sales - it is trying to improve its battered image.Wal-Mart,long criticized for low wages and its health benefits, began working with bloggers in late 2005 “as part of our overall effort to tell our story,” said Mona Williams, a company spokeswoman. “As more and more Americans go to the Internet to get information from varied, credible, trusted sources, Wal-Mart is committed to participating in that online conversation,” she said. Copies of e-mail messages that a Wal-Mart representative sent to bloggers were made available to The New York Times by Bob Beller, who runs a blog called Crazy Politico’s Rantings. Mr. Beller, a regular Wal-Mart shopper who frequently defends the retailer on his blog, said the company never asked that the messages be kept private.”
The classical debate of the role of PR in the management of neutral communication channels has begun afresh. Corporate blogs and their ‘ulterior’ motives are being questioned. built in person. Public Relations offshoring as a means to meet the need for ‘global communications’ is already a subject of interest and investment to most large PR consultancies. It would be even more interesting to see the marriage of peer media management with offshoring. The possibilities are endless. Progressing from the time that Public Relations was loosely mixed up with various functions, such as media management, corporate guest hospitality, as well as one of those various tasks that secretaries took up, even as recently as 30 years back variously in various parts of the world, it is definitely come and going at the speed of light, a long way. As the Chinese curse, bastardized and much popularized by the late JFK goes, “May we live in interesting times”. M ADHURI S EN T HE
AUTHOR IS VICE PRESIDENT,
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A matter of ethics
Can the PR profession gain respectability,or would it continue to be bogged down by ethical concerns?
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any people perceive Public Relations (PR) as something less than respectable; as nothing more than clever strategies to convince the public that what’s wrong is right. Some see PR practitioners as manipulators of the public mind, rather than conveyors of facts. Journalists see them as obstructers/evaders of truth – more so when they try to dig deeper into a crisis or a potentially damaging situation. When pondering ethical matters in the abstract, there is a natural and powerful tendency to want to reach personally comforting and, perhaps, truly inspiring, conclusions, even if it requires that we overlook the obvious. Worldwide, PR schools of ethics and conduct state that ethical, and professional conduct for PR practitioners should promote ‘honesty, accuracy, integrity and truth’ in public communications. The watchword here is ‘honesty'. While this notion is truly inspiring, it, nonetheless, ignores what the profession actually is all about — nameU S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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ly, the advocacy and dissemination of the viewpoints of those who engage our services, for the benefit of those who engage our services. Going by this thought, are PR professionals guilty of forgoing the larger view of public good to client interest? Does conduct, indeed, fall short of the code? Spin substitute for truth? Perception substitute for reality? Victory substitute for success? An organization’s ethics flow from the top-down and back-up again, and permeate throughout the company mindset. A stranger off the street can sniff it out just by walking in the door. Nothing is hidden, especially now, where news – especially bad news — gushes in an instant. One thing we’ve learnt well in recent decades is that the uncovered cover-up frequently incurs more wrath than the original offence. Even the highest officials with all the levers at their power cannot keep a lid on a secret boiling over. Why does the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky fracas come to mind so instantly? Corporations retain PR specialists for image management, which is all about providing a holistic communication service that can build, strengthen and protect the reputation of a brand. It helps organizations project change. You cannot always control what might happen to your brand, but you can control how you deal with it. And, in the end, that’s what matters. A classic case in point is how a strong messaging helped Cadbury’s bounce back after the worm crisis. Today, an increasing number of corporations rely on PR agencies to manage and control the flow of news, be it good or bad, to their staff and the community at large. The PR team copes with company crises. PR practitioners are often put on the spot — if not to determine the morality of a course, at least to help envision the fallout. We might remember, too, that PR is a two-way street: not only do we represent our client’s organization to the public, but we present the public back to our client. PR practitioners must function as the eyes and ears and help companies understand how the public perceives its actions. Contrary to what the Canadian PR Society Code says, the real basis for defining how we serve the public good, and for our ethical professional behaviour, is not founded in any set of transcendent values, however inspiring they may be. Rather, our ethics are embedded in the terms of the contracts we enter into with the clients we choose to work with. As with lawyers, the deal is not complicated. We agree U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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to use our expertise to promote the interests of our client — as ultimately defined by the client — within the parameters of the law. In some specific instances, a client’s true interest may lie in complete openness, transparency and disclosure in their communications, and even tom-tomming to draw attention to their story and message. In such situations, the PR practitioner has every reason to be and is candid, open and forthcoming. In many instances, however, the client’s interest may lie in seeing that particular facts never see the light of day, and if they do burst forth for all to see, to minimize the impact, duration and even the clarity of any resulting reporting and public communications. This is called crisis avoidance, and damage control. As we all, practicing this profession know, it constitutes a large part of what we do. This is also what many clients most value of the work as PR practitioners, besides crisis pre-emption and preparedness. In crisis situations, where a client’s real or perceived culpability in a matter is low, damage control can be, and usually should be, approached in a manner that may happily promote “honesty, accuracy, integrity and truth". (Examples: the Singhania Thane Hospital crisis, or the Tylenol crisis, where the company was seen to be a victim). In such situations, where the client’s perceived or real culpability is high, however, damage control almost always means being highly selective in what is said publicly, and in being very careful about when and where anything at all is said. (Example: Bhopal Gas leak or the Cadbury’s worm crisis.) But, when perceived or real culpability is high, damage control inherently requires that engaged PR practitioners not volunteer facts they may know which may be true and U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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We might remember too that PR is a twoway street: not only do we represent our client’s organization to the public, but we present the public back to our client. PR practitioners must function as the eyes and ears and help companies understand how the public perceives its actions. may even be important to getting at the “truth” of the matter, but the disclosure of which would be harmful to the client’s interest. If it is true that, as a profession, we are not, fundamentally and at all times, in the “honesty, accuracy, integrity and truth” business, does it, then, follow that there is therefore no ethical foundation for what we do? I believe there is. A strong one — or, as strong as you choose to make it. There are a set of socially-sanctioned propositions and personal beliefs around which to anchor our professional conduct. In all instances, on both practical and legal grounds, effective public relations mean not lying or defaming. I also can’t stress enough on the importance of opening the doors to communicate, at the same time, being steadfast in using “focused messaging”. Simply stated, it means being timely and highly selective and accurate in the presentation of information. Ultimately, in certain cases, it may translate into being secretive. Like life, no issue or situation is all black or all white. There are many shades in between. It all depends on how you look at them. It is these very nuances that PR practitioners must attempt to understand, capture and present to the public. K AVITA L AKHANI T HE
AUTHOR IS THE VICE PRESIDENT OF
LINO PINION . T HE
VIEWS EXPRESSED
ABOVE ARE OF THE AUTHOR AND NOT NECESSARILY OF THE ORGANISATION SHE IS EMPLOYED WITH .
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Mission PR —
CSR as a growth driver CSR is becoming a way of life with many corporates across the globe.And,it is not just for the sake of earning brownies
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sustainable business policy is central to a company’s growth. Corporate citizenship should essentially arise from the business policies and growth drivers of the company, industry and the economy. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) refers to the impact or interaction an organization has with society in three distinct areas: U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Voluntary Contributions: Voluntary contributions made to the community and wider society, often in partnership with not-for-profit organizations, is the visible ‘tip of the iceberg’ of the much larger impact of business operations. Impact of Operations: The most important impact on society is through a business’s direct operations. Impact through the Value Chain: A wider indirect impact along the ‘value chain’, from suppliers through trade customers to consumers. Public Relations long understood the importance of orientating their clients to set aside budgets, time and resources to the community development initiative. Not that before PR came into the picture, corporations weren’t involving themselves in CSR. But, PR came about to leverage it. There are schools of thought who believe that charity done should not be propagated and, if publicized, then it loses its worth. But PR is not always about publicizing a good cause. It is about leveraging somebody’s initiative to create awareness about certain causes and mobilizing the masses to be involved in such activities. Public relations today is at a stage where it does not restrict itself to per column centimeter coverage only, but encompasses a whole gamut of services, such as investor relations, financial relations, interactive and CSR. PR firms, in association with their clients, formulate strategies to reach out to intermediaries who are target audiences, shop floor workers and their families, etc. Sometimes, they pick up larger issues concerning the nation and adopt it as a corporate objective and represent that objective forever, the mission broadly defined as “to positively contribute to the development of society by acting as a good neighbour, considerate of each other, playing a role of good corporate citizen with passion and compassion.” Say, for example, an Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys Technologies Ltd., came into existence with the objective of fulfilling the social responsibility of the company by supporting and encouraging the underprivileged sections of the society. In a short span of time, they had implemented numerous projects in chosen areas and undertaken various initiatives in providing medical facilities to remote rural areas, organizing novel pension schemes and in aiding orphans and street children. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Be it Standard Chartered’s Marathon for AIDS Awareness, Hindustan Lever’s Shakti, or any initiative that is directed towards the community, they are all a structured and well-conceptualised way of reaching out to the public at large One of their biggest programmes is rural education program, titled “A library for every school”, under which 5500 libraries have been set up in government schools spread across many villages. Other activities include the reconstruction of old school buildings, setting up of rural Science Centers and schemes to provide support to dying traditional art and culture forms. That is not to say that any PR agency compelled them to work on CSR initiatives. On the contrary, their interest and involvement in community development helps keep it in the news for reasons which are not necessarily related to IT, attrition, employment, etc. It reflects an understanding on the part of the organization’s management to focus its energies and resources to help develop the country’s under-privileged, which only heightens the organization’s brand equity. A leading paint company has identified its four specific focus areas as education, health, environment and community development. In their own way, they have encouraged resource management, conservation of nature, safety and health of employees, improvement of health standards of the people who contribute to the growth of the organisation, thereby making a huge difference to the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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PR or no PR, CSR is becoming a way of life with most corporates across the globe. In a way, there are many thousand samaritans working towards the betterment of the nation under the banner of CSR employees and their families who contribute to the growth of the organisation. The company, as a selfimposed policy, contributes on an average 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent of its profit every year towards social causes. BPCL believes that it is equally important to return back to society, which has made them get involved with initiatives in various small towns and villages spread across the country. They initially started working in Mahul, a village located in the neighborhood of its Mumbai refinery, since 1986, for the sole reason of their upliftment. Developments with selfless intentions helped introspect about the future role BPCL should adopt in its aim to contribute to this effort. Thereafter, there was no looking back. As a corporate responsibility, today, 37 villages across India have been adopted by BPCL. This includes making substantial investments for nearly a decade-and-a-half in U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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them, to make them fully self reliant, providing them fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities, medical facilities, enhancing their income standards by imparting vocational training and agricultural innovations. LG India, the Korean electronic giant, has worked jointly with Prayas, a Delhi-based NGO, by undertaking campaigns/activities for the welfare and upliftment of underprivileged street and slum children and providing them services in the field of education, healthcare, shelter, vocational training and other rehabilitation programmes, where they have funded the programme. The company also tied-up with HELPAGE India, the country’s largest voluntary organisation working for the cause and care of disadvantaged older people. In the 24-years since inception, it has made an impact on the lives of nearly Six million older people through 3084 projects. Be it Standard Chartered’s Marathon for AIDS Awareness, Hindustan Lever’s Shakti, or any initiative that is directed towards the community, they are all a structured and well-conceptualised way of reaching out to the public at large. No community work is done with the idea of getting PR mileage out of it, but most of the initiatives are platforms to leverage bigger concerns in society and encourage many more to follow suit. PR or no PR, CSR is becoming a way of life with most corporates across the globe. In a way, there are many thousand samaritans working towards the betterment of the nation under the banner of CSR, and what matters is that there are so many collectively thinking for uplifting the underprivileged and the needy, which only means there is ‘Hope’ for a better tomorrow. M ADHAVI M UKHERJEE
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This piece, on crisis planning, is the first of three articles on crisis management and recovery from a crisis will follow
It pays to be prepared Companies must have a crisis-management team in place to cope with problems if and when they occur.
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CRISIS IS NOT, in the first instance, a communication problem. It is a corporate problem with technical and functional components that should have been anticipated. In very rare cases is it an occurrence beyond the control of a company, which the firm could not have anticipated. Crises that occur through lack of anticipation and are then mismanaged through lack of planning are misfortunes, which the company has called upon itself. The lack of crisis planning constitutes criminal corporate negligence. Crisis management requires a proactive state of mind, an ability to accept that things can go wrong very quickly and the unchanging desire to stay alert. Anticipation of crises and planning in advance for their I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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management are not one-time business activities. They need to be undertaken at least once a year, and ideally, every quarter. This is because many types of crises are linked to changing external situations and shifting public expectations. Planning for crisis management begins with the anticipation of all possible risks that a business could face in the short and medium term. Significantly new thinking on crisis management indicates that all employees must be made aware of the vulnerabilities that business faces. The more aware and involved the workforce, the more committed it is to ensure that crises are avoided. The first step in planning for crises is to create a crisismanagement team that can be given the responsibility to lead the company through the process of planning, management and recovery. At the minimum, this team comprises three persons: the CEO, head of legal, head of corporate communications/public affairs. Others who should be involved on a regular basis are the COO, head of mar-
It is best to leave the task of risk audits to external specialists.These are people who understand how to conduct a thorough audit and who can bring a high degree of objectivity to the process. keting, head of manufacturing and HRD. Other specialised functions can be invited to join as required. The main responsibilities of the crisis team are to: conduct a risk-assessment audit, create a risk-impact matrix, prepare response strategies for all identified crises, arrange for senior management crisis training, including training to manage the media and to prepare and keep current the crisis management manual. It is best to leave the task of risk audits to external specialists. These are people who understand how to conduct a thorough audit and who can bring a high degree of objectivity to the process. Audit methodology is determined by the nature of the industry and the complexity of the business, but it has been found that focus-group discussions yield the richest material for this kind of planning. Since focus-group discussions call for considerable skill external experts should be called in. Groups to be audited are: senior management, other key employees, shop floor workers, business partners U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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such as dealers and suppliers. To benchmark brand perceptions and track shifts it is advisable to also audit external stakeholders such as shareholders, regulators and policy makers, select senior media, even third parties such as activists. As is evident from this list the audit is aimed at investigating both what can go wrong plus how people will react to it. These audits again are not just one-time activities. The crisis team must decide at what intervals the audits would need to be repeated. The danger here is that the more successful the planning and preparation process the higher the level of complacency that is likely to develop. This could lead to slips in alertness. Risk audits look at three things: the probability of an occurrence happening, how likely it is that such a crisis
The worst fear companies have in a crisis is how the media will react and how aggressive or destructive they might be. Much of this can be eliminated if there are open lines of communication with the media and the [crisis] team is clear about two or three key messages that need to be put out for any crisis. can hit us; the severity of the occurrence, just how badly we will be hit if this crisis occurs; and the company’s current ability to eliminate or handle the occurrence, should it happen. Broadly speaking risk assessment needs to cover situations under the following heads: Top management: death, scandal, firing of top brass, sudden changes in leadership, management misdemeanours Organisational: sacking of staff, controversial hires, employee unrest, employee death and accident, trade union activism, sale of facilities, lock out, strike, government action, regulatory negligence Financial: accounting irregularities, inquiry by a regulator, bankruptcy, mergers, acquisitions, taxation issues, investor activism, poor performance Technical: technology breakdowns, technical hazards, dangers posed to stakeholders U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Environmental: pollution, mismanagement of effluents, ecological degradation, local community disregard. This is not a definitive list and each company will need to decide areas to audit given the nature of the business and external challenges. The second step in the crisis planning process is to sort out vulnerabilities into high impact and low impact. Experience has shown that there is a class of vulnerabilities that requires very high-level strategic business decisions to fix – and at a very high cost. There are others that need localised adjustments at minimum cost. And several others fall between these extremes. A crisis team must take the necessary decisions on how to respond to what has emerged in the audit, whether technical and functional components can be addressed immediately or whether the situation has to be managed in some other way. Each of the scenarios and worst-case situations identified as posing medium to high risk to business must be given clear response strategies. This is where communication enters as a key element in the strategic framework. A well-prepared crisis plan identifies largely, though not exclusively, the following: Procedure to activate a crisis management team Notification procedure for all concerned including external groups such as local and municipal authorities Crisis phases for each scenario Reporting procedure during each crisis, frequency Communications flows for each crisis scenario Communications statements and key messages Media management plan for each scenario Names of key journalists Contact details for key personnel Database of other authorities to be informed or approached This information is consolidated into what is commonly called a crisis management manual. Its contents run somewhat as follows: Response flows — technical and communication — for each identified crisis scenario How to set up a crisis centre, if the crisis is likely to run for a period of time How to keep a record of media enquiries How to log the progress of the crisis Contact databases for team members, media and other external agencies. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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We know that the worst fear that companies have during a crisis is how the media will react and how aggressive or destructive they might be. Much of this can be eliminated if there are open lines of communication with the media and the team is clear about two or three key messages that need to be put out for any crisis. These should be determined in as much detail as possible and put into the crisis manual so that when the incident occurs there is very little additional work required and no time is wasted in giving the media what they want. It helps greatly to have decent relationships with key media writing on your industry so that during a crisis this cache of goodwill can be used. Perhaps as important, or some might say even more important, is the communication with employees, which theoretically must be same as that with external publics. So, in a sense the message planning for a crisis can be fairly straightforward since it is the same key messages that should be shared with all who need to be or want to be informed. Companies that have good crisis plans are those that are willing to look at their weaknesses and vulnerability with brutal honesty. There is indeed no other way to be prepared for the “worst”. It is important to keep in mind that the public threshold for tolerance on these matters is narrowing fast and as consumer sophistication grows and the right to information plus the right to a fair exchange of value become entrenched in the general consciousness, companies will realise that they can get away with almost nothing. The litigant stakeholder is about ready to arrive in India, as some recent crises have shown. Are we prepared? M AHNAZ C URMALLY T HE
AUTHOR IS A SENIOR
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Working to plan When crisis hits an organisation, it's testing time for the crisis management team.Their approach can make or break an organisation.
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T HAS OFTEN been said that companies actually face crises almost everyday in their lives. They are largely internal technical or functional problems, which are quickly controlled and therefore attract no external attention. Crises that take longer to fix and have a discernible external impact generate interest from the media and excite comment and opinion from other stakeholders, specifically consumers. How well these are managed depends on how well the crisis planning has been done. We discussed some of the planning procedure in the last article. This one deals with a few critical management issues. A “crisis�, like a gathering storm, in most cases, starts with little swirls and eddies that signal an impending
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disturbance. Crisis management starts at this point. Early detection and “raising the red flag” is possibly the first “make or break” moment in the crisis management process. In such situations it is wiser to overreact than to underplay the danger. The crisis team must convene (an alert and responsible CEO will act with caution but without delay) to discuss the implications till every one is certain of how dangerous these disturbances are and how best they can be quelled. The team should revisit the crisis manual, identify the scenario closest to the one in play and pick out the response strategy elements that need to be activated. When the “crisis” occurs because unknown and uncontrollable variables have intervened, it is expected that within about an hour of an incident happening any where in the country the CEO has been notified, has spoken to the crisis team and has asked for the communications machinery to get into gear. The temptation most often is to handle technicalities first and worry about communication later and respond on this front only if some external party insists on receiving information. It is hoped that by the end of the first day, the crisis team has decided on the broad direction for crisis control. The crisis manual should serve as the guide here. It is also hoped that the CEO has agreed to speak to the media as and when the need arises. In a “crisis” technical responses and communication run in tandem. Optimal technical responses notwithstanding, unless communication management is effective and efficient crisis management begins to fall part. This then constitutes the second “make or break” moment in the crisis management process. A “crisis” requires frequent and accurate information updates as a record of progress, as a means of reassurance and as a way of establishing true corporate responsibility. Each crisis dictates its own information-sharing schedule. In a big “crisis” the setting up of a crisis center as information collection and distribution point becomes U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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A “crisis”, like a gathering storm, in most cases, starts with little swirls and eddies that signal an impending disturbance. Crisis management starts at this point. Early detection and “raising the red flag” is possibly the first “make or break” moment in the crisis management process. necessary. In less intense situations, the CEO’s office can serve this purpose. During the management of a crisis, communication falls roughly into four categories: initial, intermediary, on going and closing. Core information for good crisis communication focuses on what happened and is being done to bring it under control. Although this sounds fairly simple to do, in reality crisis teams spend a great deal of time and effort on writing the first holding statement. The pre-planned crisis manual key messages suddenly appear inadequate. There is a frantic hunt for extenuating arguments. Saying less appears to be a better strategy than saying as much as is possible. This is where the divide between being cagey and transparent becomes a chasm never to be bridged. This is also where the debate on what is responsibility and what is culpability gets lost in a legal maze. Clearly, frequent crosschecks with the legal member of the crisis team but this must result in a wall that no stakeholder can hope to breach. How much to say and how intelligently and sensitively to say it, is the third “make or break” moment in the crisis management process. In a crisis more than any other time we communicate in order to clear doubts and concerns in the minds of the public and our stakeholders, not to protect or defend ourselves. Often what goes into an initial holding statement is an insult to even the most gullible. PR professionals contribute to this insult by helping companies write “smart” explanations that hide more than they say. The reason why the media and other groups come after the company is because the holding statement gives no real understanding of what is going on. Very often delay in responding to media is deliberate and the media know this. A crisis can last anywhere from three days to several months to a year and more. Crisis communication management principles remain the same. Messaging evolves. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The frequency of issuing updates varies but stays optimal to the situation. Monitoring systems kick in and analysis of how our information is being received begins to happen with regularity. Interventions are undertaken as soon as required. Audits are undertaken to gauge public and stakeholder opinion and the extent of damage to brand reputation. The fourth “make or break” moment in crisis management centers on the role of the CEO. When should the CEO visit the crisis site, when should the CEO expose himself/herself to the media, how much fronting should the CEO undertake during a crisis, are questions that no company or professional expert has been to able to answer with any degree of certainty. What is clear, however, is that all urgency during a crisis flows from the top. The more visible the CEO is in a crisis the more he/she is able to safeguard the reputation of the company. Rather that he or she come forward willingly than be dragged out by angry stakeholders. At one time, not so long ago, not many believed that brand reputation contributed as much to building brand value as financial performance. But few doubt this any more. Ironically, in a crisis the CEO and senior management have the potential to do two things equally well: completely destroy the reputation built over years of careful corporate action and articulation or add greater luster to a bright corporate image by saying the right things at the right time. At the end of the day how engaged we appear to be with the problem that we know affects stakeholder groups, how intelligently we conduct this dialogue between the brand and its well wishers as well as its enemies is the true test of a well managed crisis. MAHNAZ CURMALLY
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The way forward Recovery from a crisis situation calls for skilful handling.
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UDGING by some of the long running crises, it would appear that “recovery” is a complex word that’s hard to define with any great precision. While bringing media speculation to an end is seen as essential to good crisis management, getting sales back on track or getting a share price to climb back to its pre-crisis level are seen as some other signs of “recovery”. To this must be added the restoration of eroded brand trust and reputation and perhaps then we can talk about a true “recovery”. Recovery calls for the courage to not look back and fret but to accept the damage and go forward to eliminate the worst mistakes of the past and institute a work style and mode of behaviour that demonstrate new intent, deeper I L L U S T R AT I O N : A N A N T K U L K A R N I
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commitment, corporate maturity and a higher level of corporate play. Lingering crises require staying power, fundamental shifts in business strategy and financial investment. Crises that have been managed badly, with poor or delayed communication, leave more scars. Recovery takes longer, as well. Crises that lead to litigation hamper recovery far longer than if there were no legal cases being fought. Without doubt, good planning and good management make for quicker recovery. Recovery requires that we remain consistent with the sharing of corporate information. There can be no communication voids during the recovery phase. Just as media pursuit ends, we need to start a proactive process to tell a new story. If the media have been particularly harsh and obnoxious, the tendency is to stay away, take recourse to advertising and shut down lines of communication with journalists as far as possible. Considered advice here is to do the opposite. Go out and seek the writers who were most cynical and disbelieving and turn their perceptions around. Crisis situations improve over time and there is enough opinion flux for negative stories to re-emerge. Advertising can indeed be used effectively during this period but not as a substitute for having to deal with the editorial channel. Recovery calls for a shift in communication messages. Serving to reassure, recreate and re-establish brand commitment, values and promises remain the core objective in this immediate post-crisis phase. Reiteration and reinforcement are required in a world still filled with cynics and disbelievers. The CEO remains central to communication in this phase, more than ever before. Case after case has demonstrated that when senior management fronted communication particularly with writers and journalists, the “recovery” of brand trust and reputation was faster and more enduring. Recovery calls for backing up words with action, regardless of cost and with minimum loss of time. Recovery challenges include managing product recall and reintroduction. The classic cases of recovery will probably never be forgotten in the history of crisis management. The first that comes to mind is Johnson & Johnson’s highly successful, well-documented and widely acclaimed Tylenol case. What did the company do right? The CEO was up there in the front leading the management of the crisis. His first communication talked about concern and commitment. Product recall was announced without delay. Cost was U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Media can be remarkably supportive during a litigation phase post a crisis. It depends on how well they were fed when the crisis broke. Continuing to state concern for consumers can only serve to strengthen brand perceptions. never a consideration. No wonder it took J&J just a year for sales to get back to pre-crisis levels. No wonder that the reputation of the company suffered no long term damage to the extent that even today it is held as a shining example of quick, sure and socially responsible behaviour in the market. Contrast this with Firestone’s tyre recall, which began reluctantly, was short on information, saw the blame game played out vociferously and litigation was considered the least expensive way out. Take Pepsi for example — when a poison scare some years ago in the US made the company go in for a product recall. Even when the company was unsure about the extent of this problem, it did not hesitate to take the action that it saw as being in the best interest of the consumers. It protected its brand reputation, regardless of the cost. It went beyond what was legally required and it deserves full marks for this, notwithstanding its less than sure handling of the recent water contamination crisis in India. Perrier, on the other hand in 1991, responded too late and only after great pressure to recall its water product after it was found that a fault in the filtration plant contaminated the product. The brand lost considerable market share and is said to have suffered almost an irrevocable loss of reputation. The one aspect of recovery that needs to be emphatically underscored is the management of internal employee communication. Post-crisis traumas can be pretty severe for the work force and not all companies take the trouble to put in place a communication programme that rebuilds confidence in the brand internally. This is even truer in cases in which employees have been held accountable, have been asked to leave or have been reprimanded in any way. It is possible that all this was necessary, but the right case must be made to those who remain and still place their trust in the brand. It is, of course assumed, much of this has been done with the finesse U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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required to ensure that new public enemies have not been created. Recovery includes managing opinion while you struggle with a legal case. Media can be remarkably supportive during a litigation phase post a crisis. It depends on how well they were fed when the crisis broke. Continuing to state concern for consumers can only serve to strengthen brand perceptions. It is often stated that if we say we are sorry we will be hauled to court and be legally liable to compensate for the damage. The advice here is to recheck with a good lawyer on whether sympathy and concern are to be seen as punishable by law. The problem with the legal situation is that sometimes it can last for a year and more. It is like a bleeding sore that keeps opening up and hurting. The right words and attitudes are the salve that can keep it covered till it heals. Perhaps it would do well in all crisis cases to always remember and invoke the power of the media to heal, even as we never forget their power to hurt. MAHNAZ CURMALLY THE WRITER IS A SENIOR PR COUNSEL
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Coming of Age Has Public Relations as a discipline evolved enough ? What are some of the perils and difficulties of the profession ? And where is it headed ? USP Age Collectors Series
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VEN MAINLINE ADVERTISING is a part of public relations,” shares Piyush Pandey, while talking about the larger and the emerging role that this discipline is seeking to play in building of brands. Sounding very upbeat about the profession, he believes it is all about building relationships with consumers and can, indeed, be a very effective tool to compliment other elements of communication. That should sound like good news for the industry at large, for the role of Public Relations, in all its diversity, is finally being recognized. “It is much more organized now than it was 10 years back,” opines Ashwani Singla, CEO, Genesis Public Relations. The importance of PR in building brands is been recognized both, internationally and in India, as well.” There are enough instances to show PR as a vital function – be it in plain vanilla brand building for names like Infosys, and Kerala Tourism, or for crisis management, as in the case of Cadbury’s, or, even political parties using the strategic inputs to ensure their victory in the elections. Sources suggest that the PR industry is anywhere between 100-150 crores in size whereas the print advertising industry is worth nearly Rs 20 billion dollars, so it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The profession has a little under 200 agencies in the country, out of which 75 per cent of the market is with the top 20 players. One important trend internationally and, to a large extent, in India too, is that the advertising spends are on a downslide in terms of growth whereas the spends in other areas of marketing is growing at a very robust rate. “This year, the function is expected to grow at a whopping 30 to 35 per cent, which is huge,” says Arijit Sengupta, vice president, Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick.
“The role of public relations lies in creating credible channels of communication leading to believable communication ’’ — ASHWANI SINGLA,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER , G ENESIS P UBLIC R ELATIONS
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In its current form, Public Relations, in India, is an industry which is little more than a decade old and whose growth is, more or less, corresponding with the globalization of the Indian economy and the entry of the multinational companies. The entry, aided by the technological innovations, has helped in a better understanding of the clients’ and the customer’s needs and “Eyeballs and calibrating them to world standards. As Dr Seema footfalls can give Gupta, incharge of postgradutae programe in numbers but not Public Relations and the depth of the Event management at Mudra Institute of interaction. Research Communications & can also give number Advertising (MICA) says, “PR is a planned effort to of articles or cc space build, maintain and continuously enhance rela- managed but they tions with all the stake- may not be the right holders who are essential for the survival as well as measure’’ growth of the organiza- — P I Y U S H P A N D E Y, tion.” EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN & From a mere media NATIONAL CREATIVE DIRECTOR , O GILVY & M ATHER relations’ activity, the function has started being seen as a strategic corporate tool. Meenakshi Sachdev Varma, CEO and MD, Good Relations (India) Pvt. Ltd believes that the role of PR has evolved from just being a key component of marketing communications. “It has now spread over many areas, commencing from generic press relations that reinforce a brand/client’s position and reputation in the market-place to crisis management, in minimizing negative speculation and managing ‘problem’ stories, to issues' management, in enhancing industry position and directing activities, and so forth.” PR, today, has got a fundamental role in helping a company understand what they should be doing and, more importantly, not doing. “The role of PR lies in creating USP Age Collectors Series
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“Evolved clients have evolved needs and tend to prioritize public relations on par with other marketing tools in the over all mix ’’ — AMEER ISMAIL, P RESIDENT, LINO PINION & A DVENT - L INTAS I NDIA G ROUP
credible channels of communication leading to believable communication,” feels Singla. While PR cannot replace advertising, many companies are reaping the benefits of a well-planned and coordinated PR activity to increase their visibility and enhance their brand building process without spending big bucks or getting a better ‘bang for the buck’ through an integrated communications process, which gives due weightage to all aspects of the marketing communication process. Take the case of Tourism Australia, a brand built largely on PR initiatives – product placements, TV travelogues, celebrity endorsements, on-ground events, wine festivals, etc. The initiatives helped Tourism Australia register a growth of 20 per cent, shares Sengupta. Ameer Ismail, president, LINOpinion & Advent – Lintas India Group feels that “evolved clients have evolved needs and, hence, tend to prioritise PR on par with other marketing tools in the marketing mix.” For PR to play a more significant role in the overall communications mix, then, all PR agencies must have a better understanding of the client’s business objectives. Clients too national and multinationals alike – in their effort to extract maximum ‘value’ must simultaneously brief all their agencies – creative, media and PR – so that all three key elements of communication are aligned towards one common business goal and are not working at cross purposes. “The 360-degree brand communication approach is what is working for us,” says Meenakshi Bhalla, president, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. Clients are very happy seeing us talk and deliver in the same language – a language of strategic partnering, a language of brand USP Age Collectors Series
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speak, a language of understanding the consumer, and effectively influencing these consumers, thereby building worthy dimensions for the brand. N S Rajan, managing director of Sampark Public Relations feels, “The role of a Public Relations consultant is about tailor making solutions that are relevant to the organization (or the brand). It requires adding value without changing the basic brand personality. It's about the professionals wearing a strategic and consultative coat.” The PR function, at the end of the day, is all about creating and maintaining relationships between the various stakeholders of the society – citizens, businesses, governments, etc. It is all about influencing audiences. When performed aptly, public relations can be an organization's most valuable resource for building brand value, maintaining vitality, and establishing credibility. Through areas such as brand management, advertising, media relations and crisis management, PR practitioners seek to foster interest, trust and belief in a product or company. Among the most effective public relations practices used by successful companies is thought leadership, which is the art of communicating a strategic vision to others in an informative and convincing way.
“Clients are very happy seeing us talk a language of strategic partnering, a language of brand speak, a language of understanding our consumers, effectively influencing these consumers and thereby building worthy dimensions for the brand’’ — MEENAKSHI BHALLA, PRESIDENT, O GILVY PUBLIC
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Masters of thought leadership will not speak above or below their audience, but directly to them and people will listen to them. Understanding their public enables thought leaders to position themselves as experts in their given field while crafting their message in a way that influences their audience in a positive manner. “It is also about creating a surround of honesty around a brand so that it can generate confidence amongst the stakeholders,” shares Pandey. Infosys is a classic case of a brand built on good PR. The idea of the head honcho of an organization leading a very normal existence, living in an ordinary middle-class home and having his wife cook meals for him, came as a breath of fresh air to a lot of people who were used to seeing the jetsetting lifestyles of corporate honchos. It took people's fancy and gave a lot of respect in the eyes of the common man to the brand, Infosys. And, all this without bombarding the newspapers with full-page ads. Increased sales, increased share price, increased sponsorship, funding, or other financial criteria are measurable. PR programmes are not – at least, there is no uniform currency to measure them. And, this is one of the most important issues that the industry has been grappling with – tangibility and quantifiability. Measurement will be the buzzword of tomorrow. Clients will demand accountability and, since it is not easy to measure return on investment, ‘evidence-based PR’ will be appreciated. This is all the more so since PR outcomes many times cannot be converted in dollar terms. Traditionally, PR mileage was measured in terms of column centimetres. But, most agencies are now developing their own proprietary tools to measure efficacy of the discipline, opines Dr Gupta. Singla is of the view that, in order to ‘tangibilise the intangible’, the profession needs credible auditing procedures and also increased levels of transparency. The tools could be immediate output, which would be through tactical measures, medium-term, like impact measurement through awareness levels, etc. and more long-term, like the outcome of an activity carried out. PR can be measured at various levels and each level has a different measure and a different implication. It is very important to evaluate the activity at ‘outcome’ level, which includes measures like share of voice, message delivery, reach, etc. Most practitioners feel, and rightly so, that measuring the effectiveness of a campaign through column centimetres is not the right approach as it doesn’t give any indication of the message delivery or conversion USP Age Collectors Series
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“The role of a Public Relations consultant is about tailor making solutions that are relevant to the organization (or the brand)’’ — N S RAJAN,
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in the right media. Says Pandey, “Eyeballs and footfalls can give numbers, but not the depth of the interaction. Research can also give number of articles or cc space managed, but they may not be the right measure. The impact also has to be taken into account.” The problem with the profession seems to be that it has not many experienced people and many inexperienced people. So the profession is grappling with a people crunch. There are not enough right people; the intellectual bandwidth for consulting, which is actually what this profession is all about, is sadly missing. What is required is to step up the efforts on increased learning and training, towards attracting quality resources. That, believe most PR professionals, is something which has already started happening, albeit slowly, considering the demand in the industry is growing at a rollicking rate. In India, as in every developing country, the educational process has to happen effectively: teaching public relations to both, people who want to practice it as well as to business people who need to understand the value of public relations as part of their operating business. Some of the agencies are also taking steps to institutionalise the process of creating talent pools through establishing places like Genesis school of learning, in Delhi, the Northpoint Centre of Learning, established by Lintas, near Mumbai, and, of course, MICA, in Ahmedabad, which has been around for a long, long time. Another shortfall of the profession is that it does not position itself well, unlike the world of advertising where one constantly gets to see one's work being rewarded, both on a national and international level. “The PR industry as a whole needs to have a platform where campaigns USP Age Collectors Series
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are showcased and talent is recognized,” says Ismail. As an industry, we are not very integrated. Better integration will lead to issues such as these being addressed. Agrees Meenakshi Sachdev Varma, “How many Indian PR professionals have been awarded in the way the advertising folks are? I believe it is time we in the profession commence PR for ourselves!” Specializations in areas such as IT, investor relations, public affairs and healthcare public relations are emerging as focus areas for growth of late. The biggest challenge, however, in the future, is the changing phase of communication space where integrated marketing communications is going to play a far more important role than ever before. It is the PR agencies that are able to play the role of advisors in this area to their clients that will succeed and survive in the long term. Feels Dr Gupta, “PR is no longer a tactical function manned by doers and not thinkers. It is a strategic function which requires planning, implementation, control as well as evaluation.” Agrees Meenakshi Bhalla, “The trends visible indicate – technology, public affairs, financial, luxury and indulgence, health, and CSR as some of the fast emerging disciplines.” Crisis management, as the name suggests, needs quick action and a fair amount of image building a case in point is the recent war and the battle that was being fought by one of the country's larger corporate house with all sides using the various channels of communication. “No more are battles won with swords and bullets; but power of strategically thought-out campaigns, whether they be for a product, personality or nation. PR plays the most significant role in each of them,” says Meenakshi Sachdev Varma. Take the case of the US president, Bill Clinton, and how he had handled the Monica Lewinsky scandal and had emerged a winner. As a reputation management consultant crisply puts it, “You know bad things happen to good people occasionally, and so, I think, the answer to your question is that we, as the public relations people, should not try to hide something from the media because the media is too smart.” Another emerging category is lifestyle, what with international brands, such as Hugo boss, Remy Martin, Paco Rabanne, Evian, Campari, etc., launching in India and looking at targeting non-mass niche audiences. As Tanya Kapadia, chief executive officer of ID8 media solutions, which is handling many such brands, points out, “Corporate lifestyle branding is an emerging and exciting area to be in.” USP Age Collectors Series
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“In developed markets, PR is 90 per cent strategy and 10 per cent the actual event’’ — T A N YA K A PA D I A ,
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER , ID
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Similarly, entertainment is another category, which is looking at newer ways to break through the clutter and position their products differently. In the television space, serials like ‘Jassi Jaisi Koi nahin’ and ‘Indian Idols’ on Sony Entertainment created lot of buzz. Or, the recent serial, ‘Nach Baliye’ on Star One, has given the channel a leadership position through some innovative promotion. Films, such as ‘Dhoom’, ‘Bunty Aur Bublee’ have also managed to break the clutter and, through innovative application of PR, created hype for the films much before they actually hit the screen. CSR initiatives, issues relating to environment, woman and children’s rights, animal rights, etc., are also emerging at the forefront. Issues are being heard and more and more people are participating in the policy formulation through influencing opinions of the decision makers through a sustained use of PR. As Prakash Dubey, chief commissioner, Income Tax, and also a widely travelled nature photographer, feels that where PR can help immensely in addressing such issues is by making the various parties – the social organizations, industry USP Age Collectors Series
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and the government – understand and agree to work together with an inclusive and participative manner rather than having an overtly aggressive approach. This could go a long way in finding practical solutions to the problems and issues – be it the bird flu scare or the tiger poaching crisis. The launch of the largest AIDS awareness and prevention campaign (Dare to Care) in Maharashtra is an innovative campaign for a social cause, feels Ismail of LINopinion. The bottom-line is that the use of public relations for marketing purposes is increasing manifold. Traditional mass media is full of clutter and PR messages are more credible and reach through the desired TG because of innovative ideas and tools that it can deploy. Internationally, PR has been recognized widely, and has gained legitimacy, views Rajan. Margaret Thatcher, the iron lady of Great Britain, is running a public affairs outfit and is probably the best ambassador to vouch for the clout of the profession. “In developed markets, such as Europe, the media is used by companies to not just further their business but to also bring about a change in their respective industries as a whole through a variety of things,” opines Vinod Nair, Clea PR. For any PR campaign to work successfully, it has to remain in the context of the local environment and also take into account the local sensibilities. Else, it can all go wrong. Cross-cultural differences can make or break a PR campaign. It, therefore, is imperative that PR practitioners keep the cross-cultural element in mind always. There are many classic examples of brands falling flat on their face when they failed to recognize the regionality of their area of operations. Pepsodent tried to sell its toothpaste in Southeast Asia with its USP being that it “whitens the teeth”. Little did they realize that the local natives chewed betel nuts to blacken their teeth because they found it attractive. Or, when Ford launched the ‘Pinto’ in Brazil, they could not figure out as to why the sales were dead. Fortunately, they found out that Brazilians did not want to be seen driving a car meaning ‘small male genitals’! Ford promptly changed the name. To give the profession its due credit, one must remember that it is only 10-15 years old and it is going to take a lot of time for people to understand, educate and upgrade themselves and instil a desire among the people to make it a profession of choice. Even in the evolved markets, the public relations industry does not have a culture of innovation or risk and it has operated essentially in the same manner for the past 50 years. It’s only now that there are USP Age Collectors Series
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signs of change visible. In that scenario is much better considering the industry itself is much younger. From a non-entity, it has become a 150+ crore industry and it is only growing. The biggest challenge, however, in the future is the changing phase of communication space where integrated marketing communications is going to play a far more important role than ever before. “It is PR “No more are agencies that are able to play the role of advisors battles won with in this area to their clients that will succeed swords and bullets, and survive in the long- but power of strateterm,” feels Ismail. Rajan points out, “The gically thought- out profession, like advertiscampaigns whether ing, is in a consolidation mode and what happened they be for a product, to advertising some years back is happening here personality or too” It is already on the nation’’ growth track. Kapadia points out, “In developed — M E E N A K S H I S A C H D E V V A R M A , CHIEF OPERATING markets, PR is 90 per OFFICER & MANAGING cent strategy and 10 per DIRECTOR , G OOD R ELATIONS cent the actual event. (I NDIA ) Hopefully, the Indian counterparts will also move towards that.” Bhalla, of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, feels, “Ultimately, it is going to be about understanding all brand perspectives, carving sharp insights, bringing these insights alive and ultimately framing the right excuse to be able to influence the behaviour or attitude.” Finally, the need will inspire the solutions. The market will itself push for more competent solutions. A MIT B APNA
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PR in 360-Degree Brand Stewardship
PR professionals are the guardians and managers of the brands' reputation.The sooner companies recognise it, the quicker they can reap the benefits.
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AVID OGILVY used to say, “Direct marketing is my first love and my secret weapon.” It's certainly my first love, as it is where I started my career.However,there is little secret about the power of direct and CRM these days, and, if I had to say what our secret weapon in our 360-degree armoury is right now, it would have to be PR. It always amazes me how under-developed the role of PR in great marketing campaigns is, in India.What is even more amazing is how little most advertising agencies understand about the relationship between the two disciplines, and the value that strategic marketing PR can add.Too many people think that the role of PR is to get the brand some press coverage, but this is naïve and shallow. The great advantage of PR is its ability to create issues in the minds of the public — whether that public is the consumer, or the CEO’s of top level companies. By creating issues, a debate in the media arena can rouse people's interests in products and services, which they were not previously considering. By creating that debate, other disciplines can furnish the solutions. Well used, PR can soften up the target audience, leaving them attuned and willing to listen to paid-for messages — which, in a world where consumers are bombarded by thousands of messages every day, is an incredible blessing. By maintaining a close dialogue between different disciplines, and by making sure our PR agency always has a seat at the top table, we ensure that this vital discipline is not seen as an afterthought. Indeed, it is my belief that many of the most effective marketing campaigns should start from a PR perspective, as they are often more in tune with the views of opinion leaders and opinion formers. At the end of the day, my PR colleagues are the guardians and managers of the brands’ reputation – and any CEO who doesn’t care about reputation management is skating on very thin ice indeed. PR is a true 360-degree discipline, and should always be treated that way. J OHN G OODMAN T HE
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“The challenge is not output! It is the outcome”
He dabbled in advertising for long, and trained under some of the biggest names in the world on advertising. And, then, he was “forced to switch professions”. Roger Periera has ‘seen it all, done it all’, and still continues to enjoy every bit of it. In a tete-a-tete with Shashidhar V, he brings forth his best on the PR profession in general, and PR professionals in particular.
PR, as a profession, is currently low on reputation. What a re the reasons for it to reach such a level? The industry, today, is as bad as it was during the late 70searly 80s, when I had started off. Or, I should say, it was as worse as it is today. Nothing much has changed. This profession doesn’t attract the best talent. Advertising industry too, in the 70s, didn’t attract the best talent. In fact, in those days, none of the advertisement managers knew much about advertising. A few of us, such as Pradeep Dutt, Suru Sen, Mukul Upadhyay, Gopalkrishna from the Tatas, Amol Bose, etc got together and conducted workshops to upgrade he profession of advertising. Until then, the ad industry too didn’t attract quality talent. The quality of talent in this profession continues to be third rate, to say the least. As we did in the advertising fraterUSP Age Collectors Series
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nity, I tried to do a similar thing here too, by bringing together like-minded people to upgrade this profession. But, I had to give up mid way, since the response was really lukewarm. What ails the profession? The PR industry is basically looking at the output. PR professionals, and many PR set ups, are concerned about getting a write-up about their client in the newspaper or a magazine. But, the challenge is not output! Rather, it is the outcome, ie. bringing about a change. Very often, you don’t need a press release. You need a business result. That should be the target. Let me give you an example. We faced a challenge with HLL during the 80s when it was perceived to be a multinational organisation that was here to take on agri business from the poor farmers. We had to bring about a perception change in the minds of the people that HLL is as much an Indian company as any other. What HLL was doing was that they were educating the local population in the villages on the proper usage of chemicals while farming, etc. And, they never bothered to tell this to the public at large, especially the media. To our surprise, we found out that the local population in those areas were in support of HLL. Now, a normal PR outfit would have just called the media for a press conference and the chairman would have delivered his speech there, about the in-roads that they are making, etc. However, what we did was we began by highlighting the nature of work that HLL was doing in rural upliftment. Who needed to be addressed were not the media but policy planners who were keen on getting HLL out. To cut a long story short, over a period of time, we changed the perception of the powers that be about HLL. What PR outfits need to do is delineate expectations. PR professionals themselves don’t think such. And, that's one of the reasons why they don't attract good talent. The output aspect that most PR professionals are working on today works temporarily. In the long run, it is outcome that matters. Let me tell you, nobody has got any business out of Page 3 stuff. I challenge anybody to show me a case report on that. However, there is a perception that PR is all about media relations. PR involves a lot of marketing. PR also involves a lot of insight, consumer understanding, research. Most of the agencies invest heavily in training. Yet, despite that, there is a lot of movement of manpower. Well, most agencies offer phenomenal amounts for peoUSP Age Collectors Series
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ple with little talent. And, in this age, young people want to make quick money. That’s why you see people shifting from one agency to the other. That doesn't augur well for the industry, and the industry is already facing the consequences of this. It is not just manpower. Even agencies have begun to cut margins to gain business. How do you discipline these people? During my advertising days, I had initiated the Advertising Standards Council in India. Tell me, how many advertising agencies take the ASCI seriously? The concept of self-regulation came due to Rajiv Gandhi. Let me tell you, this is a fun business to be in. Just that some people give it a bad name. Since this profession doesn't attract the best, I don't think there is any point in setting up a council. Speaking of advertising fraternity, how different, or how similar do you find it, as you were associated with both? PR business is unlike the advertising business, which is all about campaigns. In PR, it is always glocal – use a global platform, but deliver locally. Both businesses have lot of commonalities, and yet not so many commonalities. PR can be as creative as advertising. Advertising is like an aircraft — once you take off, it is smooth sailing. However, in PR, it is day-to-day monitoring. It is somewhat like what you in the media do — keeping a tab on issues on a day-to-day basis. I guess that is the connection that PR and the media have. In India, we feel that brand building, strategising, etc are the functions of the advertising agency. The PR fraternity too has come to believe that, and think that all they need to do is feature a client in some magazine or newspaper. However, featuring the CEO is not the be-all and end-all of the game. That is not PR. Most PR agencies do exactly that and leave brand building to advertising agencies. I don’t believe it is either PR or advertising agencies so far as brand building is concerned. It has to be both. What is the way forwa rd for this industry? The only way I see for this profession to gain certain level of respectability is to bring about a change in the mindsets. PR professionals need to look at the outcome rather than the output. Also, we need to get better talent. If there is higher responsibility put on PR professionals, then talent will automatically come in. Hopefully, with the entry of multinational companies and with most Indian companies being professionally managed by young people, the profession is slowly gaining recognition now. USP Age Collectors Series
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Future of PR
The time has come for corporates to understand the nuances of PR and use it to maximise impact
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HE EMERGENCE of ever-multiplying categories coupled with brand proliferation has all combined to make life increasingly difficult for today's marketers. While new categories and brands are throwing up more choices for the consumers, the discerning consumer looks ever so eager to question his own loyalties. Media fragmentation is only compounding the problem and increasingly proving to be a communication nightmare for brand marketers. The corporate image managers also appear to be in the same boat as the brand managers because of this. No wonder, this complexity in the environment will only increase in USP Age Collectors Series
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the days to come and, perforce, challenge both advertising and PR professionals as never before. Already alert marketers have raised a big question mark on the relative efficiency of the ‘marketing rupee’. With efficiency of generic mass advertising under the scanner, the attention has obviously shifted towards, among many other devices, Public Relations, to help fill the void. Which, in turn, has grabbed the opportunity with both hands and has, of late, been redefining its role in the business of communication. Corporates are having to get smarter in the face of an increasingly assertive consumer. They have only become wiser to deal with smarter and more evolved consumer sets. We have every reason to believe that they would continue to get smarter in the days to come. If the PR men are getting rounds of applause today, its more because of the relative efficiency of the PR expenses as compared to spends on mass advertising. Coming from a PR professional, references to declining efficiency of advertising are bound to appear a little contrived. But, the future of PR can’t be assessed properly, unless the competing/complementing communication instruments are put under scrutiny ‘side by side’ with enough rigour. And a judicious evaluation of PR can never be reached unless we keep the most dominant element of communication 'advertising' in perspective. PR exercises, distinctly subtler as compared to advertising, of course, turn out to be more trust-worthy, and less intrusive, believe sensitive marketers today. No wonder they have proved to be more effective in influencing consumer behaviour. Thus, PR instruments have apparently addressed the present challenges better than advertising. The relative variation in efficiency of ad rupee Vs PR rupee is increasingly being reflected in the changing composition of the promotional budgets. The 95:5 thumb rule of the yesteryears seem have given way to a more reasonable 90:10. The consequential and substantial rise in the size of PR budgets is proved by the phenomenal growth of the industry over the last decade. However, this shift in priority may not be quite visible across all corporates. But, the change is certainly on and would be more pronounced in the days to come. Progressive marketers, more experimental in their ways, have led the way. If their experience is anything to go by, we have every reason to believe that others would follow suit. One thing, though, is for sure: PR, no longer, is a mere adjunct of advertising. Instead, it has found its own niche in a marketer's scheme of things by helping address communiUSP Age Collectors Series
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cation needs that otherwise could not have been served by ‘big bang’ advertising. Leave aside its role in marketing communication, which, obviously, is noticed more. PR’s effectiveness in other areas of communication is gaining importance by the day. One area of communication that has come out of the closet is in government relations. Readers might find my reference to the topic a bit strange coming as it does, one-anda-half decade into the liberalized era. But, the fact remains that liberalization on the face of it only pretends to signal the ‘end of the state’. It may not quite be so though. Licence raj may be over, but Government's role as a ‘regulator’ as opposed to a ‘licenser’ has emerged. When key organizational interests hinge directly on regulators’ view on specific issues, it is only imperative that organizations use specific PR tools to educate the regulator to shape decision in a certain way. In the pre-liberalization times, the very nature of nontransparent transactions between the business houses and the government/its agencies did render specific communication exercise with government entities superfluous. But, in a liberal set up, when the systems and processes are more open and transparent, corporates need to discover communication instruments that stand up to the rigours of the new dispensation. PR instruments surely assume immense importance in this regard. Another area of communication that went largely unnoticed till only a couple of years back is political communication. Public relations tools as key instruments in electoral campaigns are, of course, well established in western democracies. However, inertia in Indian political circles and survival of apparently homogeneous media structures for long did delay the onset of professional media relation agencies in the electoral game. Having played a crucial role in Congress victory in the last Lok Sabha Elections in 2004, PR agencies are going to be much sought-after entities in the times to come. Sheer geographical and linguistic diversity of the country and the fragmented nature of media will compel political parties to outsource substantial aspects of communication to more and more kinds of professional agencies. Another area in communication that is likely to see largescale use of PR tools in the years to come will be during a crisis, which, undoubtedly, are going to be more frequent and quite debilitating for organizations and individuals in the years to come. As we move deep into a liberal and transparent set up characterized by intense media scrutiny, the victims will surely need more instruments that are more crediUSP Age Collectors Series
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ble than the ‘paid forms of communication’. Be it a political party president caught on camera (taking cash) or a hyper-active NGO's PIL against a corporate’s alleged violation of environmental laws, or, for that matter, presence of pesticides in soft drinks, entities at the higher echelons are destined to live in a ‘persisting’ sense of uncertainty. Magnitude of these crises will have serious implications for the stock of the entities, be it shareholder value in a corporate or image of a political party in the eyes of voters. They all require credible and trustworthy instruments of communication that only PR can provide. Dent to one’s image, of course, cannot be corrected in a ‘one slap’ action, say ‘high resonance’ advertisements. The remedial actions have to be long, calibrated and, more importantly, perhaps involving several levels of audiences. Internal communication, be it employee relations or investor relations, is going to see a big rise in the use of PR tools in the years to come. Organizations are sure to go through a lot of stress because of falling levels of loyalty among their employees, who will always be prone to being poached by competitors because of a ‘persisting mismatch’ in demand and supply of quality manpower in the market. Similarly, investors will not only be more alert to corporate moves but will also demand highest standards of transparency and corporate governance. Their queries, unless addressed to in time, will surely play havoc in the lives of corporates. We definitely are going to witness an exponential rise in the usage of PR tools, be it in the form of a newsletter or an internal workshop. Use of PR tools is going to cover new areas other than the traditional space of marketing. But, even as the practice enters uncharted territories, the point of reference will, of course, continue to be marketing for some time to come. Understanding the nuances of PR and using them to maximize the impact of advertising is always a marketers dream and we will definitely see more of this in the days to come. Given that some organizations have already started to evaluate PR as a pivotal instrument in their efforts, we are not far from the day when effectiveness of PR is going to be assessed independent of other promotional complements. In some cases, it could even be the exclusive lever driving organizational objectives. D ILIP C HERIAN T HE
WRITER IS CO - FOUNDER AND CONSULTING PARTNER ,
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Who takes us seriously? This inaugural piece is intended to be an invitation to all PR professionals to come together to frame the issues which must be fed and shaped so that we move forward towards consensus on where to take the PR industry in India.
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HE AMBITION WAS to position us as central players and respected partners in a company's quest for a great reputation and a shining image. Some 15 years down the line most of us are still just measuring how much “free, cost effective” media space we are able to get for a client. Clients still compare the professional ability of PR firms largely on the basis of how much media ink they offer as part of a contract. To be fair, this is largely the case in the rest of the world as well. In fact the more sophisticated the PR market, the more time and energy is spent on “strategizing” on how to get this media ink. I believe that the PR professionals in India can no longer avoid taking stock of where they are today and where they want to be in the future. Do they want to step up to a higher more sophisticated playing field? Or do they want to stay where they are today at street level scrabbling for low value, high volume media relations work that clients throw at them? The stepping up will have to be done together as an organized industry, while the street fighting can go on singly and separately U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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and somewhat painfully I might add. So here are three questions for my senior colleagues, those who have helped create this industry, give it the shape it has today and carry the responsibility to change its shape for tomorrow: Can we reposition PR as a management function, which helps companies view, issues from the public’s point of view instead of focusing on the organization’s interest as happens today? Can we base our thinking on research at all times without compromise, walk away from clients who will not invest in research for PR projects but will spend vast amounts in marketing and advertising research? Can we measure everything we do and measure output as well as outcome without compromise? Theoretically the answer to all three must be yes and I am certain that the most senior professionals in PR will indeed say yes, but I know and they know that unless organizations cooperate there is no going forward. Today, the most enlightened, market savvy, successful organizations call in PR firms and the brief handed out is to get huge amounts of media ink at the lowest possible cost.…quite like buying onions and potatoes. Today, measuring is done only in terms of the advertising cost equivalent of media coverage since that is a familiar measure…quite like comparing oranges with apples, but never mind. Research? Why do you need research if all you have to do is to sell stories to the media? The responsibility for making all this happen into the future must be shared by companies and their PR firms. CEOs think they know it all when it comes to telling the corporate story. Who are these PR people to make such a fuss about key messaging? Isn’t this key messaging thing U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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slicing it too fine? Won’t the media understand the “moti moti baat”? And then they wonder why they were misquoted and why what they said did not come out quite the way they wanted it. What we have failed to establish with client companies is that a senior consultant in a reputed PR firm, who has spent years in handling corporate communications problems across disparate industry areas, under challenging circumstances must be able to give strategic “advice” which is beyond all value that advertising cost equivalent delivers. This inaugural piece is intended to be an invitation to all PR professionals to come together to frame the issues which must be fed and shaped so that we move forward towards consensus on where to take the PR industry in India. IN PASSING…
A question that was asked of me many times in the recent past was what I thought of the way the cola companies handled their recent run in with an aggressive NGO. Here are my views: Too much aggression and not enough concern voiced for the public. Too little consistency in what needed to be said….no key message that was reiterated enough times for the public to clearly understand the company’s view point Splitting hair on which norms are relevant and which are not….this is almost never the heart of a corporate crisis which impacts external publics. It is almost always: if this is true what will they do to fix the problem and protect me from this point on “The lets go to court” knee jerk reaction…..clearly a step taken in the company’s own interest, providing no reassurance to the general public. As young professionals we were taught that when you are faced with an aggressive and irate activist group, your strategy should be to engage them and not antagonize them further. Engaging them does not mean capitulation or admitting culpability. And it might even mean a quicker end to the debate. When a “not for profit” organization collides with profit making one, the moral advantage is almost always on the side of the former. And you adopt a threatening posture at you own peril. M AHNAZ C URMALL IS A SENIOR
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The season of crisis Companies that invest time and money in crisis planning will be able to surmount a crisis when it hits them
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HE PAST SIX months have seen several popular brands go through market and consumer crises, the impact of which is likely to take a while to wear away. Could these have been avoided? I think there is professional agreement on the point that all crises and incidents can be anticipated and most of them avoided. The harsh truth is that the seeds of almost all crises, barring natural calamities and acts of God, lie inside the company. When a crisis hits, sometimes it is possible to see direct links to derelictions of the past. At other times the more complex web of delayed responses, non-action and negligence makes it harder to put a finger on just what went wrong. More dangerously however, in the latter situation companies often live with the risk, gambling on nothing going wrong, except that the dice rolls against them sooner than expected. The traditional dichotomy of high and low risk business segments is no longer relevant today, faced as we are, with a rising tide of consumer activism, a tide fed by the growing strength and professionalism of non-state and state led regulatory mechanisms and the universal concern for the environment. Today brand transgressions are likely to be judged swiftly, harshly and conspicuously. Taking legal action as the first response is not a good idea. It may protect companies on technical issues but stakeholder retribution is bound to be harsh unless concern is vocalised and response is visible. The long term strategy undoubtedly should be to go beyond minimum mandatory compliance — the current high point of enlightened corporate action — to visible voluntary behaviour patterns that serve to reassure U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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consumers, investors and regulators that the brand’s social conscience is well and alive. Many companies in the past have chosen to see themselves as relatively less risk averse and consequently have been less willing to invest time and money in crisis planning. There are three erroneous beliefs at work here: the belief, “It will not happen to us”; the belief, “We know that the law can protect us and we know what to do if something happens”; and finally the most pernicious of all beliefs, which states that as long as we can keep it out of the media we are okay. When a crisis happens, while all companies swing into action to minimise financial and physical loss, which is how it should be, the need to let external stakeholders know quickly what happened and why is something most companies find very hard to do. The axiom here is that acceptance of responsibility is not an admission of
The harsh truth is that the seeds of almost all crises, barring natural calamities and acts of God, lie inside the company. When a crisis hits, sometimes it is possible to see the direct links to the derelictions of the past culpability. Crisis planning, risk assessment, formulation of response strategies, principled management of media must become integral to the annual business planning cycle for all industries and brands. IN PASSING…
A crisis is a cruel test for the top management of any company. The common response is to avoid contact with external publics, particularly the media, while the need of the hour is to be open and available despite the fear and anger. In the best interest of the brand and its long term future perhaps there is no choice but to be available at all times and to put this availability as the top priority until the first stage of crisis is brought under control. No one is believed more in a crisis situation than the CEO. M AHNAZ C URMALLY T HE
AUTHOR IS A SENIOR
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No soap opera this A sophisticated public affairs campaign generated considerable debate that ended with the government yielding
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N 1978, THE government “threw out” Coke and IBM. That year too, it im-posed a 120 per cent excise duty on toiletries and cosmetics. They were dubbed items of luxury consumption. Their manufacture or import was restricted. Indian consumers had little choice. For 15 years the industry stagnated, even shrank. In 1993, the government slashed the duty to 70 percent. With each successive budget the levy came down. It is still too high at 16 per cent . The 1993 budget charted new territory. Ten years later, the industry is big business. There is even a growing luxury segment. As a bonus, India has a better groomed, more assertive and self-confident middle class. One of the most interesting aspects of the 1993 budget was it redefined the relationship between business and government. Once adversarial, today it is far more harmonious. In the case of the excise tax on toiletries and cosmetics, the finance ministry and the industry association, Indian Soaps & Toiletry Manufacturers Association, put their heads together. What ensued was a sophisticated public relations campaign that generated considerable public debate, mostly in favour of cutting the levy. The campaign sought to showcase influential voices in support of duty reduction. Between December 1992 and February 1993, respected economists and editorial writers spoke out in the press, arguing that gov-ernment revenues from the levy would progressively decline as the industry shrank. They averred that lower rates would stimulate the industry and the growth would, in turn, generate higher revenues from the duty. Consumer groups joined the debate, pointing to the high incidence of smuggled and spurious products in the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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market. Since these products did not come under the government’s purview, consumers risked using unsafe and spoiled toiletries and cosmetics. As such, they were a public health hazard. Women's groups and eminent women personalities weighed in. They challenged the populist assumption that such articles of personal care were not in the Indian tradition. All these groups signed petitions that the industry association mailed to senior officials in the finance ministry, members of the Parliamentary consultative committee on finance and other influential public figures. On February 28, 1993 finance minister Manmohan Singh cited these rep-resentations as evidence of wide public support for his proposal to reduce the excise duty on toiletries and cosmetics. The successful campaign sparked off a boom in the toiletries and cosmet-ics industry. Equally important, it demonstrated that a government — industry partnership could result in winning situations: for the government, for the industry and for the consumer. Effective public relations practice begins with a vision, a point of view. In the ISTMA case, both the manufacturers as well as the government believed that a duty cut would stimulate the business. Next, it is important to recognise the power of public opinion; to identify, seek out and persuade potential allies to provide the all-important third-party endorsement. The ISTMA campaign sought out liberal economists and journalists as well as consumer and women’s groups. Finally, it is critical to know what to do and when. The orchestration and the timing must be right. In the ISTMA case, the government had already decided to cut the levy. The manufacturers used the two-month period from December 1992 to February 1993 to drum up visible public support for the budget proposal. The campaign was well timed and well orches-trated and was therefore effective. Postscript Public relations practice is closer to law than to management consulting. We act as counsel to clients. The ability to provide counsel comes from experience and knowledge. It is important to develop case studies, a body of knowledge from which precedents and outcomes can be cited. This column is a small step towards achieving that goal. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
AUTHOR IS THE FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF
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Partner trouble Effective lobbying calls for a mastery of the details
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OR THOSE FOND of resorting to lobbying tactics, at the drop of a policy proposal, it is worth remembering that lobbying is least effective when you are in a closed loop. Those within a circle of the affected are often best placed to figure out the tactics. Attempts to propel a project forward or efforts to stall someone’s prospects are, after all, the basic objectives of any lobbying effort. Because almost all projects have several regulatory issues, and because it's in the maze of such issues that the starting point for lobbying is embedded, the essence lies in the detail. Arcane as this may sound, the seasoned lobbyist will always start his groundwork by clearly delineating the nature of the battleground. It’s not just enemies who need to be listed; it’s also one’s compatriots and friends. Ultimately it's about the details, much of which may be commonplace as far as those within the loop are concerned. Take a situation in which you had a motorcycle maker batting with his Japanese technology
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The best lobbying efforts involve hard work.Those doing the lobbying must know all the positions and all the answers. and brand partner. It was essential that the tracks were examined in some degree of detail before any action could ensue. The Japanese firms in India have always opted to work with multiple partners. Only part of the reason for this otherwise obscure mode of corporate partnerships is that the Japanese firms had figured out, a long time ago, how India works. Given that the Japanese prefer to work with insiders, the obvious answer was to co-opt into the fold, those who could help. Among the several reasons for multiple jointventure partnerships by the same company, this one must stand out as the most important. The result of such careful ring fencing was a series of marginally interacting circles of influence. The boys from Tokyo then learnt how to use this to their advantage. Lobbying complexity, from an outsider perspective, is always reduced if multiple perspectives can be procured. Of course, it’s a mere given that perspectives have to be authentic and accurate. But they also must be unbiased and confidential. This last bit is a tad difficult if you are relying on outside sources of information. This is not often a priority that European and American companies recognised even in the days of incipient government harassment. The Japanese model worked well and as a consequence, several firms managed to swing sweetheart deals. It’s a different matter that their local partners discovered years later that, in some cases, the deal did little for them. Partners who wanted out of the deals they were stuck with, realised that exit routes were blocked. Their discomfiture was made worse because wherever they went to plead their case — to lobby — they found they were being second-guessed into oblivion. Consequently, for tactical reasons, those who felt their businesses were in peril had to move more aggressively than they would have otherwise. What worked for the partners who got away was a tactic of utmost brinkmanship. They lobbied hard enough to risk some of the ground being swept away from under their own feet. D ILIP C HERIAN T HE
AUTHOR IS CONSULTING PARTNER AT
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What they should teach at B-schools The study of public affairs is an essential part of the management brief
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N THE LATE 1980S, when I set up IPAN, we got involved with very high-profile cases, such as Pepsi and Citibank. As word spread of the wildly successful campaigns we ran on behalf of these clients, the practice of public affairs began to enjoy a reputation as the hot, new, happening career. Many of the young people, who flocked to IPAN in those days, are today well regarded professionals. About that time, a premier management school invited me to deliver a lecture on the practice of public affairs. In my presentation, I sought to convey that in a statedominated and highly-regulated economy like India, managers must develop the skills to cope with the environment, especially the media. In the event, my lecture did not really excite the students, who appeared more interested in “pure business� case studies. Many of them were looking to get into investment banks and management consultancy firms. This explains why so many straightforward business propositions have run into media problems. Indian managers are focused on domain knowledge. The fact is, however, that not all the financial or marketing wizardry can help overcome political, cultural or social challenges that a business organisation faces in India. Just look at the television business. In the US or the UK, the process is very straightforward. You bring in the programming and marketing professionals and sell your channel or show. In India, however, you have many capricious obstacles. To begin with, the government does not understand the media except in terms of propaganda and censorship. All content is, U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The fact is that not all the financial or marketing wizardry can help overcome political, cultural or social challenges that a business organisation faces in India. therefore, subject to the whims of politicians and bureaucrats. Most of the corporate affairs professionals the television companies now employ look to fixing things with bureaucrats and politicians rather than as we did in the early days when we launched Star TV and brought to bear the power of public opinion through carefully orchestrated public affairs campaigns. Today, the television companies, by and large, have a massive credibility problem where before they were seen as a new and exciting development, a deliverance from dull government fare. Likewise, in the IT sector, there is the celebrated case of a major international firm that launched its exciting new product with a map that showed Kashmir divided between India and Pakistan. The launch was overtaken by a controversy in which the media focused on the political correctness of the map. The company’s managers spent more time explaining away the glitch than selling the product. The trouble is that since the opening up of the Indian economy in the late 1980s, management schools in India have not woken up to the public affairs issue. Even today, there is no course dealing with the subject. Ironically, these ivory towers are themselves faced with a public affairs problem in dealing with a messianic education minister, seeking to control their admissions policy, their fee structure and, soon enough, the courses they offer. To deal with the challenge, management schools have recruited their influential alumni to counter the government assault. The fact is they will go nowhere, just attempting to influence the government. They need to talk to opposition political parties as well. They should take their cue from the Left, which has dominated higher education in India. The study of Public Affairs is, undoubtedly, an essential part of the management brief. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
AUTHOR IS FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF
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PR tips The study of public affairs is an essential part of the management brief
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N AN ERA where an all-pervasive media seeks to take the information age to higher levels we have to come to terms with existing in an increasingly perception conscious environment. Every audience is aware of this, and has become part of a chain of people seeking to influence public opinion through public relations. At the apex level the PR function of any organisation seeks to address communication requirements through well thought-out treatment and strategy. While strategy and planning form an integral and critical part in planning a PR campaign, the shine that really delivers results lies in execution. Execution is the “crux of the biscuit” in the business of managing public opinion, and way too often, PR practitioners end up paying too little attention to detail. Public relations practice, the art of managing perception, can be described as a discipline that looks after reputation with the aim of earning understanding and support, and of influencing opinion and behaviour. It is a planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and understanding between an organisation and its publics. The important key words to reckon with here are “planned” and “sustained”. PR is definitely strategic in that it decides the structure of a successful communication programme between a client and its target audiences. Or, it could be a programme that earns public understanding, goodwill and acceptance (doing good and getting credit for it). Whatever be the treatment involved, successful PR is about planning. No one can dispute that, right? But, it’s paying attention to detail that pays off. It's the blueprint stage that takes into account the many scenarios that your programme may be faced with, and it's thinking out the broad outlay of how you're going to deal with it that counts. The thing to keep in mind here is that often the PR medium throws up situations that are unpredictable. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Apart from detail, good PR strategy is also about improvisation — having the flexibility to effectively change your strategy as a scene unfolds. Advertising has always had the advantage of allowing an advertiser complete control over when and where a message will appear and exactly what it will say and look like. However, no one can guarantee that news about a particular business will attract the curiosity of a local newspaper or magazine editor, or whether a TV news station might happen to have a camera crew available for your event. This is what makes PR less predictable than advertising and, apart from detail, good PR strategy is also about improvisation — having the flexibility to effectively change your strategy as a scene unfolds. The second most important criterion is “sustained”. For a PR campaign to be effective, it cannot be ad hoc. The individual activities are like parts of a jigsaw that you’ve kept aside ready to fall in place, but it’s the timely placement of the pieces that matters here. This is because perception is managed brick by brick and it is the timely and sustained execution of those elements that contribute to the greater cause — the holistic image management strategy that was put together on the drawing board in the first place. An oft-touted misconception about PR is that industry leaders mistakenly perceive it to be a vehicle that generates free publicity. Getting good PR can be timeconsuming and frustrating. There’s no such thing as free publicity. But, for credibility, nothing can top a positive story in a newspaper or a TV news appearance — and nothing can equal reputation as a good neighbour in the community. We need to remember that the PR discipline is more than just a P.T. Barnum gag or a crisis-to-crisis damage control or planting newspaper articles about clients. In its entirety, PR is overall reputation management. It is really all about flawless execution, which brings me back to that old cliched saying, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an art, but a habit.” SAGARNIL SARKAR T HE
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The election hoopla It’s not about brands, but leadership
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ACH TIME AN election rolls around the media go into a feeding frenzy and start to ob-sess with marketing jargon. Perhaps the most bandied term is “brand.” I often get queries from the media, wanting to know about “brand-building” in the electoral context. Over the past several years, it seems to me, the focus has shifted from traditional stories on caste and communal calculations to hip concern about lifestyles and fads. My response to them has always been unequivocal: perish the tho ught. Politics is not about brands but about leadership. Elections are not about media advertising but about leadership. When you start to analyse politics in terms of brands and advertising you trivialise it. Thus, the media gush on breathlessly about advertising budgets and slogans instead of focusing on issues. In recent years election coverage in the media has included stories on fashion, astrological predictions, betting and film stars. Soon we will have stories about election cuisine; why, there may even be stories on election fitness (an exercise regime) and remedies for ailments such as sore throats and fatigue. Meanwhile, no candidate gets asked for his views on agriculture, trade, investment, foreign policy, labour laws, education, public health and fiscal responsibility. Trading as they do in the superficial and the sensational, the media are partly responsible for the failure of Indian political parties to discuss real issues: their vision for the future and their past accomplishments. Instead, we get salacious scandals and fluffy lifestyle features. This mindless focus on “brand-building” over leadership and organisation can only have a detrimental effect on the future of India’s carefully nurtured democracy. “Democracy,” Rajiv Gandhi once told me in the course of an interview, “is about consultation.” In that sense, it breeds an inclusive mindset rather than an U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The Indian media have overlooked perhaps the most significant new development in the world of business: the emergence of leadership studies as a 21st century discipline. exclusive bias. Given the mind-boggling cultural diversity of India, wide consultation is the only option available to reconcile competing interests. As long as people perceive political parties to be inclusive of a variety of interests and opinions, they enthusiastically support democracy. Thus, democracy has worked and taken root in India for more than five decades since independence. That’s why I am concerned about the current obsession in the political classes as well as the media with “brandbuilding.” This will diminish the political process. Instead of an inclusive approach that takes into account the widest possible diversity of opinions the leader-as-brand and leadership-as-brand-building hype will convert the political process into a buy-and-sell activity: political parties sell and the voter buys. But politics and elections should be about leadership that reaches out across the complex diversity of India to understand and mediate competing demands. The Indian media have overlooked perhaps the most significant new development in the world of business: the emergence of leadership studies as a 21st century discipline.The media ought to focus on: how to measure the emotional intelligence of candidates. This, according to Daniel Goleman, a Rutgers University psychology professor, who authored a 1998 study in which he conducted research at about 200 global organisations, “includes self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skill.” If you cast a look around at the leaders who stride across the political stage in these upcoming elections, you will see that many of those who find prominent mention in the media have zero emotional intelligence. Finally, election campaigns and the manner in which the media cover them would become a lot more relevant and useful if the focus was on leadership rather than lifestyle and advertising. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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Out of sync Political campaigns in India have become a Page Three event
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INCE 1989, I have been involved in several political campaigns to sway the vote in five parliamentary elections. Except for 1991, I have been associated with the losing side. Since 1988, I have been involved in several lobbying efforts for companies and industry associations. In each and every case, I have been part of the winning campaign. So what’s the difference? The first difference is professionalism. There is none in the political sphere, where small minds and huge egos complicate the situation. Everything is done in a casual manner. There is very little research, preparation or training. The approach tends to be whimsical. Take, for example, the advertising component of the campaign. Typically, the political party invites agencies to make a presentation. They give them no brief but critique what is presented in such humdrum terms as “you must appeal to the poor and the dispossessed.” As it turns out, the media do not reach this segment of the population. Universally accepted statistics show that this segment of the population earns less than a dollar a day. They are not likely to be television viewers or newspaper readers. On the contrary, media audiences tend to be upwardly mobile or, at the very least, aspire to improve their lot. The “poor and dispossessed” messages are lost on them. Why would they vote for a political party that seeks to give them a tried and failed regime of sops as opposed to a party that gives them hope? When it comes to media relations, political parties try to win over journalists through junkets and inducements. This worked well in the past. Today, journalists can hold their own without fear or favor. Most recently, at the launch of the Congress Party’s manifesto, Sonia Gandhi had to confront what in the past might may have considered impertinent questions. “Why Rahul and not Priyanka,” one journalist asked. “Why is the Congress dynastic,” asked another. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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When it comes to media relations, political parties try to win over journalists through junkets and inducements.This worked well in the past, but not anymore. Today’s journalists are brash and, at times, crass. They are not in awe of political power. On the other hand, they are not equipped intellectually to deal with issues of political strategy. It is incumbent upon the political leadership to deal with their queries: not by pandering to their ignorance but by educating them about the larger reality. Instead, political parties have chosen to showcase celebrities and film stars to demonstrate their acceptance. This is patently stupid. Their appeal should be based on programs to deal with the economic disparities in India. It's all very well for the ruling party to use taxpayer money to advocate the country's prowess while glossing over serious problems of governance. Likewise, it is difficult to swallow the negative message of the opposition that India is not shining. Political campaigns in India are amateurish at best. The people who run them seem to be more interested in projecting themselves rather than the cause. We have the unedifying spectacle of undisciplined communications in which conviction and commitment are sacrificed at the altar of expediency. The people in charge of the campaigns are deified more in terms of their access to the supreme leadership than their competence. The bottom line in analysing political campaigns is that party managers are basically amateurs. They have no clue how modern political campaigns are run. They think they can buy or intimidate the media. Obviously, that is a losing proposition. Eventually, when the results are declared and they go against them, they resort to Neanderthal ways, blaming the media, opinion polls, booth managers and everyone else except themselves. In the upcoming election, the debate does not address the reality of India’s serious problems. Instead, the focus is on advertising budgets and celebrity endorsements. Proud as we should be about India’s tenacious democracy, we should hang our heads in shame that the world’s largest exercise of universal franchise has been reduced to a Page Three event. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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PR as advocacy The entry of fixers into the public relation business has subverted its original advocacy role
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FTER LIVING IN the United States for close to two decades, studying, teaching and practicing journalism, I returned to India in the late 1980s to set up IPAN, a public relations consulting firm. One of our early clients was Citibank. Before the launch of their credit cards, a senior executive presented me a fact sheet that detailed the advantages of owning and using a credit card. “We need this to appear on the front-page of every business daily and the business sections of every general interest newspaper,” he told me. The Citibank offering was the first serious attempt to create a credit card business in India. Somewhat stunned by his demand, I told him he was better off asking an advertising agency to buy space in newspapers and magazines. “We are in the news business,” I told him and explained that to make it to the front pages, we need to make front-page news. Together, we worked out that the early users would be people who travel abroad. I told him that the media would take note if Citibank could persuade Indian customs to accept credit cards in lieu of cash duty payments and if they could convince the Airport Authority to create special lounges for credit card holders in various airports. We further agreed that car owners were another target group and if Citibank could get petrol pumps to accept credit cards, it would further business prospects. Citibank did all these things and made big news. This was in 1990 and the rest is history. Car loans, ATMs and various other consumer financial services followed. That year too, a bright young executive from Hong Kong came to see me and asked if I could help fulfill his mission. He said he represented a company called Satellite Television Asia Region (STAR) and his company’s plan was to beam television programmes into India via satellite. He asked U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Our work with Pepsi not only ensured competition in the soft drinks business but it fuelled the boom in cricket for our help in identifying potential cable operators who could transmit the signal to viewers. We went to work and in six months STAR TV was up and running. The operation ran into all sorts of problems as the government tried to put spokes in the wheel. In the end, because it was a huge business opportunity for the cable operators and a source of entertainment and information for television-starved viewers, and because we undertook a high-profile advocacy campaign on its behalf, STAR TV survived and thrived and changed the face of television in India. In 1992, the Indian Soaps and Toiletries Manufacturers’ Association (ISTMA) approached IPAN for help in reducing the prohibitive 120 per cent excise duty on their products. We persuaded them to use the advocacy approach that targeted key allies, such as women’s groups, consumer groups, taxation experts and the media. They agreed and, to cut a long story short, they succeeded. There are plenty of other stories to tell about the role of PR advocacy in the resurgence of hope in India. However, the point is that, today, the entry of fixers and ‘suits’ (faux management types) into the PR business has subverted its original advocacy role. Instead of being advocates in the court of public opinion, many of today's practitioners operate on the margins of the great media circus. These poorly educated men and women “want to work in PR because they are outgoing and like to meet people”. They believe PR is about knowing journalists rather than what's news. Over the years, thus, PR has become transformed into a commodity offering. Increasingly, PR companies sell access to the media as their raison d’etre. I believe that this is why some media companies have responded with rates on editorial coverage. It is time for sensible journalists and public relations people to put their heads together to save both their professions from being crucified on a cross of gold. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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The power of advocacy If the government is keen to establish National Horticulture Mission,then its communication strategy must take the advocacy route
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NE OF THE least noticed aspects of the recent budget presented by the finance minister P Chidambaram is the proposal to establish a National Horticulture Mission. It is also perhaps the most far-reaching idea incorporated in Chidambaram’s document. The concept of the Horticulture Mission is rooted in the findings of an expert committee in 1985 chaired by Dr S S Johl of the Punjab Agricultural University. The committee put forth the simple proposal that the Punjab government should encourage farmers to diversify their crops by allocating at least 20 per cent of their cultivable land to value-added crops such as fruits and vegetables. According to the committee, this could double farm incomes. Trouble was that farmers had an easy time of growing wheat and rice. Since the Green Revolution of the 1970s, the government had encouraged the cultivation of these vital food grains. Each year the government announced higher and higher support prices and virtually provided them with a ready market. Over the years, as the land under wheat and rice cultivation increased and spread outside Punjab, the support prices came under pressure. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The National Horticulture Mission is intended as a long-term solution to the crisis in Indian agriculture. Under its umbrella, farmers will be encouraged to grow fruits and vegetables while the government provides incentives With more and more wheat and rice available, market prices trended downward and the government found itself buying these cereals at prices that were considerably higher than the market value. Increasingly, the government’s price support became a subsidy. And we had the untenable situation of grain overflowing and rotting in government warehouses with the public distribution system clearly inadequate to provide the poor families. The Green Revolution came to a crashing halt and farmers found it impossible to increase either yields or area under cultivation. Meanwhile, as prices of inputs such as diesel and power skyrocketed, reports of debt-strapped farmers committing suicide began to hit the headlines. The National Horticulture Mission is intended as a long-term solution to the crisis in Indian agriculture. Under its umbrella, farmers will be encouraged to grow fruits and vegetables while the government provides incentives to develop the infrastructure that farmers need to take their crops from the farm to the market. Today, it is virtually unviable for farmers to devote either land or effort to horticulture. The absence of infrastructure for the produce as it travels from the farm to the market results in wastage of huge dimensions. Though India is among the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world, nearly 30 percent of the crop rots on its way to the market. The resultant high prices are a damper to increased consumption. Per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables in India is among the lowest in the world. Without a market, Indian horticulture has languished in a nether land of low yields and obsolete practices. Chidambaram’s announcement is expected to change all that. As a chain of cold storage and processing facilities comes on stream, the cultivation of fruits and vegetables is expected to increase both in terms of land area and yields. With a stable market, more and more U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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technological and scientific inputs will find their way into the fields. The Green Revolution will give way to a new value-added Produce Revolution with fruits and vegetables of all colours and tastes coming into market. With it, the long promised spread of the food processing industry would increase farm incomes and bring prosperity to the vast majority of Indians in the countryside. You don’t have to be a Norman Borlaug, the genius who inspired the Green Revolution with his insightful research on hybrid farming, to realise that the Produce Revolution cannot happen without steely determination and political will on part of the new government. There is a precedent. Faced with “ship-to-mouth” PL 480 grain shipments to India from the United States, Indira Gandhi’s government embarked on a new course to help Indian farmers and that is how we had the Green Revolution. It’s been done once and can be done again as Chidambaram has indicated in his budget proposals. So what does any of this have to do with public affairs? Since its establishment in 1987, my firm, IPAN, has carved out new space in the communications business. My view is that to be effective, communications strategy must take the advocacy approach. IPAN has notched up several case studies to show for it. Among them was the very first assignment in December 1987, when Pepsi approached me. This was within the first few days of my relocating to Delhi from the US. Thereby hangs a tale that finds an echo in Chidambaram’s budget proposal to set up the National Horticulture Mission. The story begins in the fields of Punjab, where India’s celebrated Green Revolution took place in the early U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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1970s. The state’s progressive farming community took to advanced technology, using tractors, fertilisers, hybrid seeds and economies of scale to increase yields dramatically. Rice and wheat began to be abundantly available. From being the “ship-to-mouth” basket case, India became self-sufficient in food grains. In the 1980s, the Green Revolution reached the point of diminishing returns. Sensitive to the situation, the Punjab government set up the Johl expert committee in November 1985. Johl proposed a crop diversification strategy under which at least 20 per cent of the area under cultivation would need to be shifted to value-added crops such as fruits and vegetables. Punjab's case for crop diversification was the justification for the Pepsi project. The multinational company agreed to the condition imposed by the Indian government so that it could bottle and sell soft drinks in India. Accordingly, it agreed to set a food processing project in two backward areas of Punjab. The company introduced new farming techniques and managed to improve both yields and the quality of tomato and potato farming in the state. Above all, it brought in the concept of contract farming that guaranteed a market for producers. We projected all this through an intensive advocacy campaign in which we got endorsements from politicians across party lines, agricultural experts and farmers’ unions. Pepsi’s embrace of the Johl committee recommendations helped crop diversification in Punjab and boosted yields and farm incomes. It took nearly 20 years after the Johl recommendations for the government of India to recognise the need for crop diversification. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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True lies Why are transparency and truth so under-rated by the PR industry?
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HERE’S AN OLD story about two gangsters trying to get one of their accomplices to reveal where he'd buried their stolen loot. The first, one of your sensitive, new-wave gangsters, spoke softly of the importance of team play; he cajoled and pleaded to no avail. Finally the older gangster leaned in and said, “Tell us where the money is or I'll kill you.” The man immediately told. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?” the kinder, gentler gangster asked. “Well,” said the man, “you didn’t explain it as well as he did.” Today, more than ever, we need blunt, frank, and open communications. Look around at the problems of the world, and more than likely you'll find at the root a breakdown somewhere in basic communications. Influenza. SARS, mad cow disease, criminal prosecutions — and even imprisonment, in some cases — of corporate executives, breakdowns in trust between nations, these stories that demand the essence of candor often fall victim to blame-placing or just pure, oldfashioned spin. As the world grows smaller, many of its people seem to grow further apart. “Trust is like the air we breathe,” Warren Buffett said once. “When it’s present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices.” Trust and understanding is what PR is all about. In this complex world, communications become technologically easier by the minute, but the actual communications process seems to get more difficult. Great PR, like the air we breathe, is transparent. And, like air, the absence of PR becomes U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Trust “is like the air we breathe,”Warren Buffett said once.“When it’s present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices.” immediately noticeable. Nature fills vacuums, a fundamental law of physics. Communication vacuums are filled with innuendo and misunderstanding. Sadly, such confusion creates disharmony and stifles the healthy exchange of ideas, the bedrock of democracy. About 85 percent of Americans think executive punishment, not penmanship, is the key to reducing corporate scandals, according to the most recent credibility survey by PRSA and Equation Research. Most Americans perceive executives as weak and lacking in ethics, according to the same survey. Another survey says 54 per cent of professional investors say recent scandals are not just the work of a few “bad apples,” but represent the broader scheme of corporate governance. And according to a recent Gallup Poll, the perception of the honesty and ethics of business executives is just above that of telemarketers and below congressmen and building contractors. All of these negative ratings arise out of 23 indictments. There are many manifestations of these ethical aberrations. But the greatest negative impact has been on institutional reputation. Damningly, they also arise out of the silence of executives and institutions, voices that have remarkably failed to refute misperceptions. It requires CEOs of American institutions to speak out. This could, in fact, be the quickest route to re-establishing a positive perception of institutional ethics. Institutional silence begs one final point — if CEOs and CFOs are fearful of where candor might lead their companies, consider where the lack of candor has led the economy, the stock exchanges and the reputations! It will take real leaders to turn this situation around. My hope is a few CEOs and political leaders or even a few institutions might just want to take the risk of exposing the real truth about American business and its ethics. But, it will also take some commitment from the relevant PR consultancies. Truth, transparency and timing are the deadliest weapons in the Public relations arsenal. More often that not, I have found, clients tend to colour the truth or modify it hoping for a positive PR. Much to their chagrin U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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and to a greater loss of face by the PR agencies, it often results in reverse. A truthful and honest confession has often known to reverse negative mindsets in some inexplicable, miraculous bizarre ways. There is no greater conviction that the conviction of truth and somehow audiences relate far more positively than expected. The PR profession helps our complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and to function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions. It serves to bring private and public policies into harmony. The problem in the past has been the lack of understanding by both client and the ad industry of what relevant PR angles are. But this is changing fast. PR has become a strategic part of the total plan and input from our industry is being sought at the planning stage. There is greater demand for PR services within the marketing mix. Editorial matter in the media is generally reckoned to be worth a multiple of a paid-for advertisement occupying the same amount of space. Though there’s no definitive way of valuing this, a Harvard Business Review study reckons that editorial content is worth up to 6-10 times as much. Often, PR can work in tandem with advertising, each providing a different quality of communication. The wellknown Johnnie Walker whisky “Keep Walking” advertising campaign has been successfully leveraged by PR. The campaign comprises a series of inspiring or thought-provoking quotes from famous people about walking or moving or making progress, accompanied by the Johnnie Walker “walking man” icon. This has inspired ordinary people to achieve extraordinary feats, and personal vignettes of these personal journeys have been featured in short TV documentary fillers around the world. Because it has more credibility than advertising, editorial is more effective and economical. Advertising is you saying you’re great; PR is someone else saying you’re great. Favourable cover stories on Steve Jobs and Apple in Fortune and Time are worth millions of dollars because readers accept they are truly the opinion of the journalist. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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What is needed is an integrated approach between marketing and communications, where both support the other for the benefit of the bottomline. It’s over 10 years since it was first said that marketing focuses singlemindedly on the customer while public relations sees the organisation in relation to its total environment. Since then, the folly of focusing single-mindedly on any one group of stakeholders, to the exclusion or detriment of others, has been played out again and again in the media and is reflected in bankruptcies, falling share prices, hostile takeovers and endless corporate disasters. Despite all this, in commercial terms it is the Cinderella of corporate communications, often because organisations tend not to bring in PR expertise until the situation has gone wrong. They don’t understand what a delicate task communications is and how long it takes to rebuild a dented brand or damaged reputation. Most particularly, they overlook the fragile nature of the human relationships that lie at the core of every reputation, corporate or personal. PR means telling the truth and working ethically — even when all the media want is headlines and all the public wants is scapegoats. Public relations fails when there is no integrity. PR has gone beyond being a support function for marketing or being a poor relation of advertising. PR is now a respected tool in every company’s marketing armoury and an important contributor to profits and the bottomline. Companies that do not include PR as part of the marketing mix are missing out on one of the most powerful marketing tools. During my 20 years plus experience in the arena of public relations, the profession has taught me the single most crucial PR axiom: that there’s no better PR tools than truth and transparency. In a religious demographic study, its believed that around 2 billion people follow the faith of Christianity all over the world, followed by Hinduism practiced by almost 900 million people. I call them the greatest PR successes ever, and it is only thanks to the Truth that they represent and the willingness of the representatives to tell that truth. There’s a lesson there for all practitioners of public relations! SUNIL GAUTAM
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Pitfalls of Selling Editorial Space When a media group launches a rate card for editorial space it throws up issues in a triangular nexus between public relations firms,the media and the corporate sector
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IXTEEN YEARS AGO, when I set up IPAN, I faced many questions from companies and the media about the role of companies like mine. Executives and journalists alike asked me why IPAN should exist. The business end of the queries was simple: we pay this or that media outlet so many crores in advertising, so why should we pay you anything. The media saw IPAN as a nuisance: we can meet anyone we want in the corporate world, so who are you to come between us and corporate decision makers? Well, despite both of the rather discouraging views, IPAN has grown from one man and one manual typewriter to 100 people in four offices and 19 associates that cover the country. The reason for IPAN’s growth is that companies realised public relations plays a strategic role in business success. The media began to understand that public relations professionals can smooth their way to getting a story and that business stories are important. Over the years the media have told many stories about success in business and have revealed several unsavoury truths about companies. For their part, companies have become more forthcoming and transparent in the realisation that corporate success is not just about I L L U S T R AT I O N : S A N J AY G H O S H
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Some journalists have conspired to subvert the legitimacy of PR firms, the media and the corporate sector marketing and sales, revenues and profits but also about reputation. Crucially, both the corporate sector and the media came to realise that public relations are not just about facilitation and hospitality; they are a critical element of any business enterprise. Just as this sophistication began to set in, a new and cynical practice has been introduced: the selling and buying of editorial space in the print media. There have been some public relations firms that have made it a practice to buy and thus guarantee coverage for their clients. Some journalists in key publications have conspired with such unscrupulous elements to subvert the legitimacy of public relations firms, the media and the corporate sector. Mercifully, the ugly phenomenon has been confined to the fringes. But now with the decision by a major media company to charge for editorial space, this practice has been dragged out into the open. In a way, the controversial decision helps by focusing the spotlight on such unsavoury practices in the public relations discipline as well as among media and the corporate sector. Nevertheless, a curiously amoral cynicism is at the root of the media firm’s decision in that it simply assumes that all public relations are about buying editorial coverage — the discipline is nothing but advertising on the cheap. In the political sphere there is no denying that large swathes of coverage in the media are inspired by a political party’s propensity to mollycoddle journalists with all manner of gifts and favours. I can recall an incident at a media conference in Ahmedabad, at which we represented a financial services firm. Several journalists walked out to protest the absence of “customary envelopes.” In the event we lost the firm’s business because we would not go along with the tradition of slipping a few hundred bucks to reporters in the hope of getting good coverage. However, when a major media firm launches a rate card for editorial space it throws up several issues in the triangular nexus between public relations firms, the media and the corporate sector: � Editorial space or time is about news and opinion. � Companies should seek coverage for new initiatives and key events by making them newsworthy. Or they U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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might seek to influence opinion. Public relations firms need to point out to clients that media coverage depends solely on the merits of the story or opinion. When a company seeks editorial coverage for routine activities that are not newsworthy, it pressures its public relations firm to use contacts and inducements. When the firm gives in to the client demand, it seeks to subvert the legitimate process of news gathering. I have always told my clients that inducements are out of the question and that using “contacts” is a short-term approach that works once or twice. Even when it comes to the traditional junket in which journalists are sponsored to visit foreign destinations or holiday resorts, there is a thin line between legitimacy and malpractice. How do media in other countries respond to such issues? Several years ago, when I lived in the US, an Indian government official offered a friend of mine, the travel editor of a major daily newspaper, an expensespaid trip to India. Although he politely turned down the offer at the time, my friend raised merry hell with me later. He was offended because he saw the offer as an inducement, a payoff to generate coverage. In my opinion the refusal by journalists to accept inducements is the best practice. Some media organisations let their reporters accept junkets and qualify the coverage that results by adding a disclaimer, saying the reporter visited such-and-such place as a guest of such-and-such company. Still others may accept such invitations but pay their own way. I know the extreme case of a friend, who writes for a major international business publication, who won’t even accept a cup of coffee from anyone. The point about the foregoing discussion is that in the critical area where the interests of public relations firms, companies and the media compete, it is important to work out a charter of acceptable and unacceptable practices. Indeed such a consensus has been on the anvil for some time. However, if media organisations begin to sell editorial space, it will become difficult to regulate the triangle of interests. And that will be to the detriment of public relations firms, the corporate sector and its communications departments and ultimately the media. Credibility hangs on slender threads woven from ethics and morality. These threads must be preserved with care and diligence. � �
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Family Feud
The Reliance crisis is harbinger of major economic changes in India. The Ambani brothers can lead a progressive Indian response to corporate restructuring in keeping up with changing economic realities
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HIS BOOK, TRUST: the Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Francis Fukuyama notes, “Industrial structure tells an intriguing story about a country’s culture. Societies that have very strong families but relatively weak bonds of trust among people unrelated to one another will tend to be dominated by small, family-owned and managed businesses. On the other hand, countries that have vigorous private nonprofit organisations like schools, hospitals, churches and charities, are also likely to develop strong private U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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economic institutions that go beyond family.” Fukuyama concedes that virtually all economic endeavors start out as family businesses but “family businesses are only the starting point for the development of economic organisations.” As a business grows, its “increasing scale usually outstrips the capabilities of a single family to operate it.” This is what has happened in the case of Reliance. So vast and complex is the company’s business that it is virtually impossible for a single family to control and manage it. Fukuyama suggests that internal stresses often add to the pressure on such businesses, noting that “the equal status” of brothers can lead to “considerable rivalry and stories about the conflict and jealousies that arose between the brothers’ wives are legion. Indeed, the traditional living arrangement for well-to-do joint families with the families of the different brothers living under the same roof, was often an explosive recipe and many such families dissolved into nuclear ones because they could not contain the tension.” Fraternal conflict has captured the imagination of Indians for millennia. In both, Ramayana and Mahabharata, brother squared off against brother. The lessons from these stories virtually spelled out a charter for Hindu philosophy and ethics as Hindu society was being transformed from nomadic tribalism to the mighty Gangetic culture. In many ways, the current conflict between the Ambani brothers comes at a time when India’s business culture is at the beginning of a transformation in which family-dominated firms and government-owned companies are under pressure given the faster and increasingly free flow of capital and labour as well as remarkable technological advances in communications, transportation and information technology. The widespread, persistent and shrill media coverage may create the impression that the fraternal crisis spells the end of India’s largest private sector firm. Reliance has come to be a cult of sorts. It is suspected of being the moving force that influences various policy decisions to its advantage and at the same time, it is revered as a wealthgenerating machine for its three million shareholders. However, viewed from the larger perspective, the Reliance crisis is the harbinger of major economic changes in India. Even as the company assets are disputed and divided, each of the brothers has the chance to build a professionally-managed, globally-competitive company in India’s sunrise areas of energy and U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Fraternal conflict has captured the imagination of Indians for millennia. In both, Ramayana and Mahabharata, brother squared off against brother.The lessons from these stories virtually spelled out a charter for Hindu philosophy… telecommunications. Should either or both the brothers succeed in transforming Reliance, they will have achieved a remarkable feat that will be noted in the history of Indian business. As Fukuyama observes, the transformation is evident from organisational changes: “The often ad hoc decisionmaking structure of the family-owned business gives way to a formal organisation chart with structured lines of authority. Instead of everyone reporting directly to the firm's founder, a hierarchy of middle managers is created to insulate the top decision makers from the overload of information coming up from below. Ultimately the sheer complexity of running very large-scale businesses requires the evolution of a decentralised form of decision making centered around separate divisions, which top management treats as independent profit centres.” Traditionally, many social scientists have viewed both the family and the state as an obstacle to modern economic development. However, recent scholarship allows that different societies and cultures have taken different paths. Thus Japan has modernised differently than the United States. The growth and success of Japanese firms has shown that there are different U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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organisational responses to achieving economies of scale. Their keiretsu system is based on networks rather than hierarchy and achieves economies of scale without creating giant hierarchical organisations. As such, these organisations are more flexible and innovative than their American counterparts. Similarly, recent research has shown that the impact of the family on economic life and business organisations is a complex and contradictory subject that needs to be addressed with sensitivity. The American advocacy of a nuclear family has mutated into a social vacuum in which growing divorce rates and consequent alienation have touched off a revivalist search for “family values.” Nowhere has this been more evident than in the recent presidential election in which George W. Bush was reelected by a conservative majority focused on “family values” and overtly opposed to divorce, infidelity, homosexuality and secularism. Since all the established wisdom on society and culture is under challenge, the Ambani brothers can lead an Indian response to corporate restructuring in response to changing economic realities. Both the Japanese and American models have been shown to be inadequate to the challenges posed by the need to reconcile the pursuit of economic growth with the quest for social equity. What is tragic is that in their feeding frenzy, the media have completely missed out on the larger story that affects not just the future of one company or one family. The Reliance crisis is India's crisis. It is about the need to create new forms of economic organisations that can mediate the demands of growth and equity. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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PR’s Bold New Future
In an over-demanding business environment,the PR professional will have to grow out of his conventional role
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R IS ABOUT telling stories; stories that are interesting; stories that are, above all, believable. One of the great PR successes of all time is the Catholic Church. And what a story they have to tell: the birth, crucifixion and resur-rection of Jesus Christ. It is called the greatest story ever told and has survived because it encapsulated a simple and very powerful idea: that the Messiah will deliver the poor from injustice and oppression. That’s why 2,000 years later the Church survives and indeed increases the number of its followers. In India, too, we have powerful stories that sustain our beliefs. The Mahabharata and the Ramayana, though allegorical, virtually defined the set of beliefs, norms and values that built the great Indian civilisation, which has survived hundreds of years of assaults and conquests. These were stories woven around the transformation on the great subcontinent when the nomadic hunter gatherers established roots on the Gangetic plain to become farmers and traders. They fashioned simple tools and primitive markets but most important, they offered a U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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code for the new civilisation to live by. These stories have survived all these millennia because they were inspiring. Their fundamental message was that individuals must live by a sense of duty that transcends all other bonds. But it’s not just the stories that survived. Their ancient city, Benares, has outlived its contemporaries, Babylon and Nineveh. The stories of yore had a powerful hold over the people. Elsewhere in the world, in more modern times, stories built around powerful ideas have helped transform societies and cultures: democracy in England; liberty in America and France; communism in Russia and China; national-ism in India. Their impact has been long-lasting and comprehensive. Whereas other tinpot revolutions in Africa, Latin America and Asia degen-erated into sordid and violent power struggles that count their impact in death and destruction. In Thomas Kuhn’s seminal book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, he talked about “paradigmatic shifts,” in which all established norms and values are challenged, resulting in a new hierarchy of priorities. Crucial to such paradigmatic shifts is the spread of new ideas. This occurs by word-of-mouth and through the media. More important, the articulation and acceptance of new ideas comes from strong advocacy by people who believe in them. In that sense, the role of public relations as advocacy is far more critical than that of journalism. It is important to understand the difference between advocates and journalists: the former are full of passion and conviction; the latter prize objectivity and accuracy. On the other hand, even journalism can embrace advocacy of a cause. Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru founded newspapers to advocate the cause of Indian independence and social change. It is instructive to look at how the Indian press has evolved over the years. Tracing their history back to the 1800s, Indian newspapers came of age at a time when the
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Organisations that hitherto used the media to address a wide swathe of audiences will now have to focus on reaching specific audiences.The PR consultant will have to pin down these targets, understand their need to know and develop specific communications packages for them extravagances of the East India Company came under the Crown’s scrutiny. In the event, the Crown assumed control of the colony in 1858 and in 1877, Queen Victoria proclaimed herself Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar. In the interregnum, the Indian press was born in liberty. This was largely because of the relative vacuum in central authority in India between the decline of the East India Company and the ascendancy of the British Crown. The cost of liberty was commerce. Thus, without patronage of any kind from the central authorities, the Indian press willy-nilly started off as a commercial enterprise. It thrived as a commercial enterprise through the 19th century. The tradition of objectivism and accuracy also took root during this phase. The rapidly growing nationalist movement in the early 20th century saw the rise of advocacy journalism, with Gandhi, Nehru and various political parties using the medium of newsprint to push various causes. The most inter-esting thing about the nationalist movement was that there were compelling stories to tell and towering personalities to cover. It should have been a foregone conclusion that the nationalist movement would be a huge success. The tradition of commerce and advocacy survives to this day and it was against this backdrop that the business of public relations and public affairs consulting was born in the late 1980s. It was a time of rapid change, almost as sweeping in scope as the nationalist movement. Statist ideas of economic growth and social change came under challenge and new concepts of liberalisation and reform found their way into public debate. Again there were interesting stories to tell, colorful personalities to cover and growing international interest in India. It was boom time for public relations and as the stories got told, India changed perceptibly. In the past five years, as India absorbed and played out U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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those changes, there were fewer and fewer stories to tell. The media became a battleground for hype and hoopla with brand ambassadors, celebrities and confidence tricksters. The denouement of this trend came in 2004 with the “India Shining” ad campaign by the BJP government. However, despite crores of rupees spent on the campaign, the BJP went on to lose the election. Within months of the installation of the new government under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh, a sense of impending change began to manifest itself. What was evident to many people outside India became a matter of growing conviction in India: that the country is among the fastest growing countries in the world and that it has the wherewithal to lick its age-old problem of poverty. Clearly, as the change begins to manifest itself in real terms, there will be stories to tell once again. The PR consulting business will shake off its in-fatuation with hype and begin to play the constructive role it played in the first flush of reforms in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Except that it will have to make a significant change in its approach. Organisations that hitherto used the media to address a wide swathe of audiences will now have to focus on reaching specific audiences. The PR consultant will have to pin down these targets, understand their need to know and develop specific communications packages for them. Over the years, the PR consulting business will take the role of communications management. In the first few years of the millennium, the public relations consulting business has a specific task cut out for it. I am confident that we have entered the age of communications management consulting. R AJIV D ESAI T HE
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In search of knowledge
Communication professionals must constantly strive to update their knowledge “I asked an indifferent copywriter what books he had read about advertising.” He told me he had not read any; he preferred to rely on his own intuition. “Suppose”, I asked, “your gall-bladder has to be removed this evening. Will you choose a surgeon who has read some books on anatomy and knows where to find your gall-bladder, or a surgeon who relies on his intuition? Why should our clients be expected to bet millions of dollars on your intuition?” David Ogilvy in Ogilvy On Advertising
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SUALLY PEOPLE learn through trial and error. But with a client brief and a deadline, which is always the previous day, a communications professional must be different. One needs not only to absorb information but also reflect and conceive strategies in a very short time. Hence, for the communications professional, there is no scope for trial and error. Getting a job is neither an end to education nor a guarantee of a blissful future. In the book, The Three Boxes Of Life, the author observes that we compartmentalise our life into three boxes. The first box U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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is that of ‘education’. We study assuming that education will invariably fetch a good job. Little or no interaction with the outside world leaves one clueless about the functional-‘hands on’ skills and knowledge required to excel. The second box, ‘work’, results in no thought absolutely of either education or leisure. The third box is ‘retirement’. In this stage one doesn’t know how to spend time. The author says one needs to strike a balance between the three boxes. Doctors constantly keep themselves abreast of the latest in the field. They have the concept of Continuous Medical Education (CME) to keep themselves in the know of things. They have regular CME meets in their respective cities and an annual conference each year. The Advertising Club organises many workshops for continuing education of advertising professionals. The Public Relations Consultants Association Of India (PRCAI) also organises programmes for PR professionals. The onus is on people working in these fields to attend these workshops and seminars. Besides, one can update knowledge through magazines, journals and, of course, the Internet. Although professional associations organise events periodically there is a pressing need for a comprehensive knowledge structure and skills matrix so that a professional would know about knowledge and skills requirements to move to the next step of his or her career. Expertise, not experience, will be the qualifications in coming times. It is not an organisation’s job to impart training. People assume the HR department will undertake career mapping for them. Absurd. The HR department exists to get the best out of the staff. You are responsible for shaping your career because only you know what you want to become. Continuing education is not only important for your career growth but also for your business dealings. Many organisations organise in-house training programmes or sponsor staff to events organised by professional bodies or academic institutions. Often employees are not keen to attend such programmes but are pushed by their seniors. The apathy is visible in the body language and tone. “Not on a Saturday” is a common refrain.So unless a professional is self-motivated, continuing education and professional development will only remain topics of discussion, not action. Continuing education is every communications professional’s personal responsibility! N OUMAAN Q URESHI
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Epitaph of a PR Consultant Has PR become obsolete? Are companies happy with front-page stories? Probably not. You are dead, at least for all functional purposes. You were the cell phone toting yuppie who mesmerised clients with your fake enthusiasm. You pumped hands with unwilling journalists and palmed off your bland press releases. You taught your clients to floss their teeth and propped them up at staged media conferences. You bragged about ‘strategy’ and served apple sauce in your columns. You were the ultimate masquerader, the brilliant sycophant, and the expert contortionist. You sold your soul to lucre and mediocrity. You were the quintessential PR Consultant. And your time is up. Clients don’t need a glorified peon juggling faxes and paperwork. They need a person who can add value to their brands and organisation. Clients don’t need a wheeler-dealer who adds column centimetres in media. They need a third party input that brings profound accretion to their vision and mission. Clients are not looking for 15 minutes of fame, for edifying jargons and snafu fixers. They are searching for partners in progress. How did it come to this? Why did articulate, intelligent, young men and women plunge into the black I L L U S T R AT I O N : S A N J AY G H O S H
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void called PR? Trawl through the books written by PR professionals and you would find the same guilty, apologetic tones everywhere. ‘People don’t understand what we do for a living’ or ‘they think we are swatting flies’ goes the lament. If people don’t understand the role of a PR firm, it’s because the PR ‘experts’ themselves are clueless about their real job. Come to think of it, when was the last time a PR firm boldly declared its mission statement? What real, tangible goal does it seek to realise? What is the bold, intrinsic vision that propels it forward? Does it have the hunger to stake its place in the sun? Silence. Al Ries and Laura Ries in their seminal book ‘The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR’ make an interesting point about why PR can be so credible: “Ideas move from the media into the mind of the prospect with little chance of rejection…if you don’t know anything about a new product or a category, then you will believe anything you read about the subject.” So now you know. The PR hucksters are sitting inside your morning paper. They catch you when you are most vulnerable. Slowly but surely, they have corrupted the integrity of the media. Injecting their little tit-bits, manoeuvring the news slants, sucking up to the journalists, they have ‘redefined truth’. So what happened? You don’t trust your newspaper. You know television news is pop entertainment. Your kids think news magazines make for great wrapping paper — yellow pages, purple prose. What is the career high you can achieve in this line of business? Who are the icons sitting at the top of this profession? Max Clifford, the reigning king of PR Consultants, makes a living by trashing the reputation of the rich and the famous. An online magazine calls him the “Modern Mephistopheles. His business is tempting people to sell their souls.” Some choice nuggets from Clifford’s tabloid repertoire: ‘Cherie Is Pregnant’, ‘Mellor Made Love in Chelsea Strip’, ‘Di’s Secret Love Trysts with Carling’. Would you like to emulate Max Clifford? Would you like to be the next agent provocateur, selling flaky stories to papers and reaping the rewards? You do? Join the cortege. Corporate PR is an altogether different ball game. Here, “Take the Money and Run” is not just a Woody Allen film; it’s the credo of the consultant. The PR Consultant should have an essential attribute — he/she should know how to dance. Yes, tap-tap to impress your client and hide U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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If you don't know anything about a new product or a category, then you will believe anything you read about the subject behind a veil of mendacity and street-smart savvy. What does the client-company gain in the final run? Some cheap publicity, a few glamorous photo-ops and a gilded media dossier! This practice has become so ingrained that CEOs determine the efficacy of their PR Consultants on the basis of print acreage! Having plumbed the depths, what can a PR Consultant do? You want my advice? Take a long hike. Change your line of business. Or, better still, go back to the basics. Learn from the great companies. Pore over the fine print. Think about a company like Microsoft. A giant of a company, a world leader, yet perceived as arrogant and standoffish. A perception the intrepid Linux exploits to slowly chomp the market share. What can Microsoft do to change this perception? Come out with a press release? A contrived photo-op where President, Microsoft India shakes hands with children from slums? Or something more basic, something that goes to the foundation? A change that reaches the roots of the company, a farreaching programme that must touch every Microsoft employee. The solution invariably should come from within, and the Consultant should provide the healing touch. Not just when the mess hits the fan, but as a preventive deterrent, ensuring the client never takes a wrong step. The consultant doesn’t drive an ambulance; he is not your band-aid. He stands shoulder to shoulder with the client and scripts a transformation from within, taking a revolutionary leap in achieving the core objectives. So what’s next? Is it `PR is dead, long live PR’? No, this time it's PR-- R.I.P. Rest in Peace. Period. In the paragraphs above, you will find some kernels of insight; a way to radically alter the dynamics of our management philosophy. I practice it; I live by it. As Steve Jobs said to John Sculley in a not-so-different context, “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” Do you want to flog the dead horse of PR or do you want to open your eyes to something fresh and meaningful? Choose. Decide. And watch this space. AVIS T HE
WRITER IS CHIEF DREAMER AT IMAGEQUIT Y +TM, THE WORLD ' S ONLY
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This piece is the concluding and final part of the article.
A Time to Heal Reputation is an asset.Building it takes time,and maintaining it takes all your life.
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LL IT TOOK was a gently sceptical article from Fortune magazine’s young reporter, Bethany McLean. “Is Enron overpriced?” (March 5, 2001 Fortune) pulled the plug on the biggest star in the corporate horizon and started the avalanche that would mow down the energy giant. The hubris of ‘the smartest guys in the room’ — as a hit documentary characterised the leading players of Enron — would bite dust. A pinprick would bring down a mammoth company like a pack of cards; a sober reminder that those who live by the media, die by the media. A classic counterpoint. In the fall of 1982, several people in Chicago’s West Side died mysteriously after ingesting extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide. Faced with an escalating crisis that threatened the very existence of the company, the legendary CEO James E Burke took a courageous decision. He pulled Tylenol, the company’s biggest selling drug, off the shelves and took a hit of $1 billion along the way. Was it I L L U S T R AT I O N : S A N J AY G H O S H
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A great company reaches out to all its stakeholders and has a strong, almost cult-like corporate culture built upon ferociously-held core values. A great company and brand is one that has a great and enduring reputation. a smart PR ploy, a swift strategic move? No. Burke represented Johnson & Johnson that firmly believed in its credo: “We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.” It didn’t need to debate whether customer safety outweighed short-term financial concerns, because the debating was already done. A potentially devastating incident became a blip on J&J’s corporate radar. By being authentic in its concerns, by tapping its reservoir of goodwill, J&J bounced back. What is the difference between an Enron and J&J? Why do we think of Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling as hucksters with their eye on the main chance, when we trust, admire and respect a company like J&J? You won’t find the answer in the fine print of PR. Nor in the quick fix solutions of media management. Central to this new axiom is the fact that markets and technologies come and go, but a great company with outstanding people can evolve and adapt for decades, perhaps even centuries. A great company reaches out to all its stakeholders and has a strong, almost cult-like corporate culture built upon ferociously-held core values. A great company and brand is one that has a great and enduring reputation. This is the philosophy of Reputation Management. Why does Reputation matter? Reputation is like a magnet. It helps attract resources that propel the company or brand. It influences the decisions of employees about which company to work for: it makes jobs more attractive and motivates hard work. Good reputation influences customer decisions: it encourages repeat purchase and builds market share. Good reputation influences the decisions of the investors about which company’s share to accumulate: it attracts new investment and lowers capital costs. Good reputation U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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affects the judgement of the media and financial analysts: it generates more favourable press coverage. A good reputation matters, because it is a key source of distinctiveness that produces support for the company and differentiates it from rivals. Globalisation has fostered increasing homogeneity in products and services offered across the markets. When product and service differences between offerings are slight, reputations become a powerful and salient source of differentiation. More so because traditional advertising and plain vanilla public relations have lost its edge over the years. Reputation Management is not just for huge companies like GE or IBM. It is as relevant for mediumsize businesses, as it is for the corner-shop or the panwallah. Sceptics would be well advised to remember the case of Ben & Jerry’s, a small Vermont-based icecream maker known for its community driven business, egalitarian management practices and bohemian leadership. In 1999, Ben & Jerry’s took the fifth place behind J&J and Coca-Cola among the world's most reputed companies. For large firms, Reputation Management is the basis of continued competitiveness. For smaller, younger firms, they are the foundations on which to build business. How to build Reputation? Corporate reputation is not manufactured wholesale by corporate communications staff seeking to gain a foothold in the executive ladder. They are a reflection of the company's actions and initiatives as they come to be mirrored in the eyes of the stakeholders. As such, they come from within. To build a company’s reputation, or to rebuild it, requires far more than old-fashioned PR spin or advertising. It requires a deep-seated change. That’s why reputation initiatives have gained so much visibility in recent years. They cannot be sectioned into traditional domain of PR or Corporate Communications. They invariably require a collective effort across multiple functional areas in the company. According to Prof. Charles Fombrum, the Guru of Reputation Management, “Reputation building means identifying the discrete elements that make a company distinctively different from rivals in the marketplace. These differences are then expressed in communications and integrative initiatives that address the stakeholder concerns of employees, customers, investors, communities and the media.” U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Reputation Management is not something you do once and then forget about. Because reputation is a relative thing, it must be earned continuously and competitively. What does the Reputation Consultant tell you? A Reputation Consultant teaches you to mark your presence, to be more visible. She emboldens you to stand out and stand apart. She helps discover your own brand identity, your unique corporate persona that will be a key differentiator for your products and services. She teaches you to build a legacy, to reach out to your stakeholders and create a shared identity, to train employees and partners to communicate messages that are consistent with the company’s reputation. She, unlike PR Consultants, counsels integrity as a totem pole of corporate behaviour. Because, as my favourite saying goes, ‘Have integrity of purpose, all else will follow’. She is intelligent, cool, creative, with the sagacity of a CEO, the spirit of a doer, and the nimble-footedness of a pavement pounder. She holds a mirror to you, for better and for worse, helping you walk the talk. It would be instructive to go back to the J&J example. J&J was named #9 on Fortune’s 2005 Most Admired Companies list and ranked as the number one company in the annual survey’s Pharmaceuticals category. An annual reputation poll conducted by Harris Interactive and published in The Wall Street Journal in December 2004 cited J&J for having the best corporate reputation in America for the sixth straight year, since the inception of the survey. The company stands on the bedrock of strong reputation. No wonder, Tylenol was back as one of the biggest selling over-the-counter drugs in history. Reputation is an asset. It is your good name. Building it takes time. Maintaining it takes all your life. It is the tough road, but it sure is the road to greatness. As Jim Burke knew, the transformation comes from within, not from column centimetres or reams of newsprint. The age of PR is over. Let the healing begin. AVIS T HE
WRITER IS CHIEF DREAMER AT IMAGEQUIT Y
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PR par bas to nahin!
Public Relations has,today,evolved and is playing a much larger role in building brands.However,will the romance last?
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HE RECENT WORM crisis that one of the biggest chocolate brands in this country (Cadbury’s) had to face is still fresh in our minds. However, what is important here is how effective PR played a vital role in ensuring that the company retained their leadership positioning in terms of consumer confidence and image. With an average annual growth of eight per cent, the Public Relations industry, worldwide, not only seems to be one of the most promising industries but has also become an indispensable facet for brand management. In a report commissioned by the Council of PR Firms, economist Jaime de Pinies noted, “Despite the budget cuts, it appears that public relations as a discipline is U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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increasingly valued by the firms in this server. By contrast, advertising revenues have declined in the past decade.” Spin Doctors’ Brigade A spin-doctor…that’s what a public relations professional was termed as! Earlier, PR meant merely getting information into media without actually paying for it…except, maybe, a gin-and-tonic for the journalist. PR professionals were merely known as the ‘Gin-andtonic Brigade’. Over the past decade, though, the PR industry pedestal has been cracked by less than benchmark standards due to old school practices and was synonymous only to press relations in earlier days. Since the target audiences of an organization today cover a very wide spectrum, the conventional form of PR is not enough. We need a variety of activities and integrated communications to support them, all working in synergy. The current decade is a period that will spell change for the profession, and this is now being witnessed in India. It is no longer just the sweet-talking ‘spin doctors’ who can achieve results. The next decade is going to call for PR to redefine its path and roles within organizations. Public relations lacks an identity because it means so many things to so many people. With almost anyone getting into PR, it is time it evolved into a genuine profession. Till date, PR professionals were more of ‘technicians’ who were concerned with the job of communication. The new role will call for a 'strategist' who can think business. The move will gradually be towards more strategic thinking, rather than technical issues like what to say and how to say it. The role of research and counsel will become more important. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Public Relations…Now The role of PR, today, is like that of radar on impending problems and opportunities. A PR professional is an interpreter of change and environment and that of a motivator and catalyst to make others better communicators. Innovative PR firms are opting to break the old PR model of deep hierarchies, big egos, and humongous retainers. Savvy firms are beginning to realize that seasoned professionals with strong business backgrounds will take the PR bull by the horns. Not only do these revered executive practitioners treat editors and reporters with respect and provide them with the services they need in a fast, professional manner, but they are earning a special place at the elbows of corporate executives by providing much-needed strategic counsel. The fee structure is getting more market driven and result oriented. Measuring the value of PR services isn’t easy. But it can be done. Although counting articles and clippings demonstrate that a client is appearing appropriately, frequently, and in a targeted fashion, they don’t show changes in attitude relevant to the client's brand and reputation. What clients really want is to be shown the money. When their most important customers are influenced and their behaviour changes in a way that directly affects the company’s ledger, then that is great PR! Increased sales, increased share price, increased membership, increased sponsorship, funding, or other financial criteria are measurable, and depend on strategic business planning and implementation best handled by senior public relation strategists. That’s how it really works! PR can help brands cut through the “message clutter” of today’s advertising and establish a priority position in the consumer’s mind. It helps creates a positive selling environment by shaping a brand image, creating
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awareness, and establishing credibility, while advertising has its own merits. In pure marketing terms, we say PR helps build market share and categories while advertising works to retain market share. Asia being one of the greatest melting pots of people, culture and business, it holds tremendous potential for PR professionals. As a result, a host of multinational companies are setting up operations in the Asian countries. In Southeast Asia, in countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others, this trend is now more or less established. However, in countries like India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, where the economies are being liberalized and reforms being introduced, the action is just beginning to take place. MNCs are setting up operations, investing in joint ventures and sourcing for products, in a large number of industries and fields. Asia is the emerging leader poised to lead in global affairs, which will increasingly be dominated by economic rather than political considerations. The India Story The Indian PR industry is estimated to be around Rs128 crores. It constitutes around 0.7 per cent of the global market. While the average annual growth rate of the industry globally is said to be around 8 per cent, the Indian PR industry is growing at the rate of over 30 per cent. The industry perception about the profession too has matured over the past decade. The ratio of distribution for marketing mix amongst the various tools of communication, such as advertising, public relations and events, has become favourable for the PR industry. For example, in the 90’s, Hindustan Lever’s marketing budget was divided between advertising and public relations in a 70:30 ratio. This has today evolved to a 60:40 ratio. This provides evidence to the growing importance of public relations as a tool of marketing communications in the Indian scenario. One of the other important reasons for PR firms mushrooming in our country is the need of PR in times of crises. The media is now treating PR as an ally. PR professionals, with the support of the print and broadcast journalists, are devoting themselves to creatively developing and putting across the right message through better quality programmes and positive writing — especially stories on development.
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PR Industry While the consumer sector still regains the maximum share of 30 per cent, the healthcare sector has seen the maximum growth from the past couple of years. The corporate and the finance sectors show a growth of 20 per cent. The IT sector shows a remarkable growth of 25 per cent. The life cycle graph of PR firms, has shown growth and the growth in the industry shall lead to the growth of the PR firms. Propellers for Growth The country is already awash in newspapers: Some 55,000 published in two dozen languages, and nearly 2,000 of those are dailies, according to government statistics. Although most are tiny locallanguage operations, the biggest are substantial by any standard. Dainik Bhaskar has 18 editions and a combined circulation of 1.7 million, while The Times boasts eight editions and total circulation of 1.3 million. Indian radio is expected to boom following regulatory corrections in the present license framework. Availability of a larger number of frequencies is expected to drive the segment by 22 per cent annually during the next five years. Integrated media companies will rule in the next decade. Case Study — Tourism Australia Objective: Tourism Australia’s (TA) objective was to showcase ‘Australia’ as an aspirational destination with a variety of experiences. Challenges: One of the major challenges that we had to face was that of SARS. Couple of other challenges were, it was perceived as an expensive destination, low awareness among the Indian travellers, and so on. Key Messages: Australia offers thrill and adventure to the traveller, vegetarian options in most of the restaurants, soft adventure activities, etc…
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Execution: It was executed through feature stories, drama series, tie-ups and promotions, celebrity endorsements, etc. Highlights: In the year ending 31st December 2003, there were 45,600 visitors, which was an increase of one per cent compared to the previous year in spite of SARS. The exercise also led to an increased visibility of brand Australia amongst the media It was listed in the MICA journal. The evaluation of the PR exercise undertaken for Tourism Australia generated remarkable results: In the year ending 31st December 2004, there were 55,600 visitors — an increase of 22 per cent compared to the previous year. CADBURY’S INDIA — A CASE STUDY Campaign Title: Cadbury Crisis Management Campaign Summary: On October 3, the Food and Drug Administration Commissioner received complaints about infestation in two bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury India’s flagship brand with over 70 per cent market share. He ordered an enquiry and went directly to the media with a statement. Over the following 3-week period, resultant adverse media coverage touched close to 1000 clips in print and 120 on TV news channels. In India, where Cadbury’s is synonymous with chocolate, the company’s reputation and credibility was under intense scrutiny. Sales volumes came down drastically in the first 10 weeks Objective: Cadbury’s Dairy Milk being synomous to chocolate, the main objective was to restore confidence in the key stakeholders and build back credibilty. Challenges: The challenge was to restore confidence in the key stakeholders (consumers, trade and employees, particularly the sales team) and build back credibility for the corporate brand through the same channels (the media) that had questioned it Andrea DawsonShepherd, global corporate communication counsel, Cadbury Schweppes called it ‘the worst worm infestationrelated crisis anywhere in the world’. It was a nationwide crisis. Key Messages: Infestation was a storage-linked problem, not manufacturing related. Cadbury Dairy Milk continued to be safe for consumption. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Consumers must exercise the same care in purchasing a chocolate as they would when buying any food item. Execution: A focused and intense communications program was implemented over the next six months to rebuild credibility and restore confidence among the key stakeholders. It was decided from the start to address the issue head-on and take whatever steps were necessary to restore confidence. Highlights: Two weeks after the first incident was reported, Cadbury announced significant steps to restore consumer confidence through a project called ‘Vishwas’ (Trust) which entailed a retail monitoring and education program undertaken on a war footing to address storage problems. The day the crisis broke, the agency set up a media desk to ensure that no media query went unanswered The new ‘purity sealed’ packaging was launched in January 2004. This entailed double wrapping for maximum protection to reducing the possibility of infestation. This was a big step involving investment of millions of dollars and getting on stream a production process in eight weeks, that would normally take about six months. They brought it along with Amitabh Bachhan as the brand ambassador to reinforce the credibility that the company had demonstrated through its actions.
Result: Consumers respected the brand for not skirting the issue but acknowledging it and giving a solution to the problem. From the start, all media reports carried the Cadbury's point-of-view. Sales volumes, which declined drastically between week 1 and week 10 of crisis, climbed back almost to the pre-incident levels by week, within eight weeks of introduction of new packaging and communication. This is a clear reflection of restoration of consumer and, hence, trade confidence in the corporate brand. While the new product introduction and advertising had their role to play in the changing consumer perceptions, the media’s positive coverage and the trade’s positive pre-disposition played a huge part in helping Cadbury regain its reputation in the market. A RIJIT S ENGUPTA T HE
WRITER IS A SENIOR
PR
PRACTITIONER AND VICE PRESIDENT,
C ORPORATE V OICE I W EBER S HANDWICK
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“In India, there is less recognition of PR as a strategic tool” Anthony Good (72) has mastered the art of walking the walk,and talking the talk! He has learnt the nuances of the PR industry by working his way up the corporate ladder.Starting off as a journalist,he today holds the rare distinction of having founded the first public relations consultancy to have become a fully listed company on The London Stock Exchange — Good Relations Group plc.His association with clients,such as Marks & Spencer,Distillers Group,Adam & Company,and Scottish & Newcastle,to name a few,speak abundantly about the kind of work he has managed to output over the past 40 years. In a tête-à-tête with Amit Bapna,he unspools on PR as a discipline and its emerging (and bigger) role in the entire communication pie. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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You have been associated with Public Relations for a very long time now. How has it evolved as a marketing function over the last 10-15 years? PR is now increasingly been seen as a marketing function separate and distinct from advertising though not a substitute for it. The concept of ‘third party endorsement’ is now more clearly understood and there is less emphasis on advertising as a ‘tangible’ marketing function. However, not all PR is marketing-related. How would you compare the profession the way it is practiced in the UK vis-à-vis India? PR in India is in a state of evolution. By this I mean, it is at the stage where we were in UK almost 10 years ago. Today, PR in UK is much more than newspapers and magazines and is more focused towards strategic and expert counselling. It has gone global as campaigns are run simultaneously across London, New York, Honk Kong, Singapore, Sydney etc… In the UK, during the early 80s, it was less common for journalists or PROs to work in each other’s profession. Today, some of the best PROs in the UK are former journalists and, in addition, the media has undergone what I call ‘democratization’, which means that viral marketing and blogs make PR reach opinion leaders more directly. Blogs have become an extremely powerful and cascading mechanism of PR. There is a visible move in the business from PRO (Public Relations Officer) to a PRC (Public Relations Consultant). Unlike in the UK, though, where PR is perceived as a very strategic investment for corporate and brand reputation, in India, the view is investment to the tune of how much money a company can afford to loose. Coming to the business of communication, how is it practiced in more evolved markets like yours as compared to India? Crisis management has become a critical part of any business and has reached the boardroom. CEOs are getting actively involved in communication as they are recognizing that business reputation is often fragile. In addition, in-house PR has also come of age; in fact, public relation features amongst the top three career choices for UK graduates. This is an area which, I believe, needs to be nurtured and built in India. Today's PR practitioners are viewed at par with, say, a professional lawyer. And, so, PR professionals need to have the capability to judge and advice clients on events such as the right time to going to court, etc. As we operate U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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in the global village, we will see an increase in privacy, intellectual property, copyright and liable cases and this specialized skill will take clients through these minefields and when or not to sue and get the desired results. PR and public affairs have penetrated the domain of policy and decision-making in the UK and this where I would want India to be. How do you see the attitude towards Public Relations amongst the brand managers? When it comes to brand managers, budgets play an important role, unlike the past where PR used to be a cost-effective medium. Today, most of the brand managers are open to integrating PR as a strategic marketing tool without compromising on the cost factor as strategic PR largely contributes to brand building. PR is an integral part of brand building and it reinforces the positioning after an advertisement announces it. Brand Managers, today, view advertisement and PR as a hand-in-hand medium for effective communication. How can the function evolve beyond the perception of being seen as largely a media relations activity and thus, often, featuring at the bottom of the priority list? PR has moved beyond media relations and the valueadd provided by the function come in the form of internal communication, public affairs, investor relations, M&As, non-media initiatives, CSR, the list is endless‌The
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The biggest issue in India is that of clients not being able to gauge the effectiveness of PR.They fail to understand that good PR will help them achieve it only if the company’s strategies and services are aligned to deliver the desired value it promises. examples above are not just about media relations, although one must not forget here that the media is an important communication vehicle and, thus, can not be ignored. How does one attend to the credibility issues of the PR discipline? PR is a professional service on similar lines like a Doctor, Chartered Accountant, and Lawyer, etc. Globally, PR professionals are paid on an hourly basis like in any other profession and I am sure that, with time, this transition will be evident in India too. We will be able to come off this perception only if the practitioner(s) is as much involved in the foundation of the message as the transmission. What are some of the issues being faced by PR — from the client's end? The biggest issue in India is that of clients not being able to gauge the effectiveness of PR, as there is no medium of evaluation. Clients in India are looking at PR to impact the bottom lines while they fail to understand that good PR will help them achieve it only if the company's strategies and services are aligned to deliver the desired value it promises. There is less recognition of PR as a strategic tool. What are some of the emerging trends in the PR discipline? Some of them are: Clients are looking at value-adds and not restricted to press clippings’ only. There is a constant demand of good/experienced PR practitioners. PR is viewed as a good career opportunity amongst the youth.
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THE HUMAN FACE
A PR Oppurtunity Public Relations outfits can help companies “get the right mileage� by focusing on the human face of the company
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ORPORATE SOCIAL responsibility, or CSR, as it is often referred to, is nothing more than just plain and simple common business sense. This is not to deny the good intentions of, or discount the good work done by various companies, but, essentially, it is a summing up of the outcome of CSR, directly or indirectly. With PR emerging as a significant component of overall business strategy for every progressive organisation, PR firms have a very important role to play in publicizing the socially responsible activities of companies, albeit in a subtle, unobtrusive way. Advertising such activities is often looked at with condescension. Unfortunately, though, many companies still tend to spend more on advertising such acts than they have spent on the act itself! What is important is that it is always impressive if the praise comes from others. But, if we presume that the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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good work will get noticed in the long run, then we are living in utopian world, cut off from realities. PR of the good deeds done by companies, then, is letting the world know, in a subtle, unassuming manner, about its socially responsible activities. As is the case with every PR initiative, for CSR too, PR can be effective only if this is done for genuine acts. Superficial, or patch-up deeds, will only earn as much respect as they deserve, in the long run. Having said that, the role of PR in “getting the right mileage” out of well-intentioned acts of goodwill, cannot be denied. In fact, there is absolutely no harm in doing so, if one does it to acquaint and appraise both, internal and external entities, about the community support activities being done by an organisation. Besides creating awareness, PR support can even play a contributory role by highlighting a company’s various ongoing projects and campaigns, especially in the initial stages. But, then, all good and well-planned projects do move beyond the initial stage. CSR, by definition, is a continuing activity, and is not done in jerks and starts, though some organisations practice it when they feel that their brand image needs some boost. But, if organisations remember/care for employees and their surrounding community during good times, chances are that the good times will prevail forever. And, by extension, it also means that even if bad times fall upon the organisation, the public may tend to ignore and forgive one or two lapses. With increasing private participation in areas that were hitherto under government control, companies cannot afford to enjoy the privileges and advantages doled out to them without giving something back to the society. They have to take up new initiatives in the areas of environment preservation, health awareness, consumer rights issues and spreading education. They have also to share the responsibility. Implementing this logical conclusion has certain added benefits, as one can flaunt it without any traces of modesty. And, that is where PR comes in — gaining mileage from actions, since CSR is no longer an option but a necessary requirement. A CEO once aptly remarked: “The basic goal of private enterprise remains what it has always been — to produce goods and services that people need, earn a fair return on their investment, and succeed as an economic institution. But, the new dimension that must be observed — a new ‘bottom line’ for business — is social approval. A U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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The role of PR in “getting the right mileage” out of well-intentioned acts of goodwill, cannot be denied. In fact, there is absolutely no harm in doing so, if one does it to acquaint and appraise both, internal and external entities, about the community support activities being done by an organisation successful business organisation must possess a moral sense as well as an economic sense.” As Arthur W. Page once said, “All business in a democratic country begins with public permission and exists by public approval.” Profit-making, or increasing shareholder value, is the prime concern of modern corporations. In such a scenario, certain CSR initiatives having implications on the profitability of the enterprise can be misunderstood and misinterpreted by the stakeholders. For example, suppose a corporate house procures costeffective raw material from another firm and, under its new CSR policy, it stops procuring the same as the firm was using child labour. Then, questions may be raised over its decision to procure costly raw materials based on its newly-found goodwill streak. At such times, PR has to pick up the gauntlet, and come out with a well thoughtout and elaborate strategic plan and put it into action, to succinctly bring out the facts before the public, and to acquaint them with the pros and cons of such decisions. By opting to publicize its CSR activities through PR, an organisation does what it has not dared to do before: put its actions and plans in the CSR arena, into public domain. It, in a sense, sets benchmarks for itself and for others to follow. The organisation can neither afford to go back on its publicly proclaimed plans, nor can it not improve upon the existing plans in subsequent years, as the expectations grow incrementally. With the watchful eyes of the public, and the curious cameras and pens of the media men hungry for stories, CSR has to be practiced very responsibly, literally. Because, at times, actions do speak louder than words. S ANJAY G ORA
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Wanted:
A PR Partner! It is time that companies started looking at their PR agencies as partners,and not mere outsourcing vendors.
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N TODAY'S MARKET environment, where consumer skepticism remains at high levels, majority of the companies are acknowledging the importance of investing various tools not only to maintain their reputations but also build it to the maximum. A good reputation is considered the most vital corporate asset and a definite business attribute. Companies with a good corporate reputation enjoy benefits, such as word-of-mouth endorsement, market dominance and ability to charge premium prices for their products and services. Amongst the various tools employed, the most important role is played by the organisation’s PR firm. There are innumerable factors which have to be considered before employing a PR firm. But, majority of the times you would find big names going for the wellestablished PR firms, though this is not a hard and fast U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Finalizing which agency best fits your need, budget, and style is crucial to a productive relationship.Take time to explore each agency's strengths, weaknesses and proven capabilities. A compatibility test with people who would be working on your account is vital. rule. Perhaps, the most important criterion for selecting a PR firm would be that of good credentials and the reputation the firm carries in the market. An important point to consider is that your PR agency has to serve you as your partner and not just as your vendor. Finalizing which agency best fits your need, budget, and style is crucial to a productive relationship. Take time to explore each agency's strengths, weaknesses and proven capabilities. A compatibility test with people who would be working on your account is vital. You can have a great public relations firm, but a poor account executive on your account. Visiting the office of the agency narrowed on, and talking with senior members should give you a fair idea of what is in store for you. Says K Seshasaye, assistant director, Walt Disney, “Apart from checking on the credentials of the agency we were hiring, we were also particular about the team who would be working on our account. Another factor we kept in mind was the experience of the agency in handling brands related to the entertainment industry and the agency’s presence across India.” Commenting on the role their agency — Corporate Voice|Weber Shandwick — is playing for them, Seshasaye adds, “Today CV|WS is a non-detachable extension of our internal corporate communications team and a firm that provides insights beyond our core business to add creativity to our communications.” Says an ex-journalist who is currently a corporate communications professional for a well-known corporate advisory firm, “The first step towards identifying a public relations firm is to discover and highlight your organisation’s corporate goal and business objective. These have to be then shared with the PR firm as they form the basis of various strategies, plans and tactics which would be employed by them. Most often than not the organisations themselves are not too clear about their U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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objectives and goals and this leads to a confused brief being given to the PR agency, which, in turn, would not be able to deliver hundred percent.” Adding further, he advises, “Before finalizing on a PR firm, call reporters who cover your organisation’s field and ask about PR firms from whom they receive the most accurate and professional information. A meeting with the servicing team is of utmost importance as majority of the times lack of relevant experience of the client servicing executives can leave you dissatisfied and put your business into jeopardy.” A good PR agency works with you and not for you. Hence, it is of utmost important to note how pro-active your agency is in helping you with ideas and other opportunities. Pycnogenol — a UK-based product from Horphag Research (UK) Ltd., recently launched themselves in India. They attribute a part of their success to their PR agency — Paradigm Shift Public Relations. Says Hectar Bandelier, director of sales, “Through PR, we wanted to create awareness about Pycnogenol in India, which is a unique super antioxidant with numerous health benefits. As Horphag Research (UK) Ltd does not have an office in India, we wanted an agency who would serve as our eyes and ears in the country. We take our PR agency to be like our partners in planning, ideating, providing insight for growth and proactively carrying out the plans.” Commenting on the role played by Paradigm Shift Public Relations in helping their business objectives, Bandlier says, “So far our PR agency has been highly proactive and has also doubled up as a marketing firm for us. We took their assistance in getting a number of appointments facilitated with doctors in the major metros as well as smaller cities all over India. They also helped in business development by introducing us to the top pharmaceutical companies in India who have already started using Pycnogenol in their products.” Before finalizing a PR firm, it is mandatory to look for a firm that is growing and has clients whose businesses are similar to yours. A look at the agency’s past list would U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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also give a fair idea on how experienced the agency is. Says R C Juneja, managing director, Mankind Pharma, “We wanted to start up the PR activities to build up Mankind’s brand awareness and visibility in the Pharma sector. So, we were looking for agency with a good reputation in the industry and the relationship they shared with the media. The more the number of big brands the company has in its portfolio adds up to its reputation. Besides, we wanted an agency with excellent creative talent to help us be in news always and provide us with ‘out of the box’ ideas.” Learning about the PR agency’s account-management process and quality-assurance procedures helps in maintaining a healthy and long-lasting relationship. The length of a relationship shared between an organisation and PR firm is volatile, but the impact it has on an organisations’ business is hampered in that process. Briefing a new agency time and again is a task in itself and the process of starting work all over again is not conducive either. Deciding at the beginning of the relationship about when the contract would be renewed and work be reviewed serves beneficial to both the parties. Fabmall.com has stuck with its PR agency for over seven years. According to K Vaitheeswaran, COO, Fabmall.com, “We were looking at an agency which had a good access to media and had a good network of offices across the country. We take our agency as our marketing partner who helps us position our company correctly in the minds of consumers, vendors, associates and in line with our overall marketing plan.” In spite of the various benefits that a PR agency offers, unlike the West, the Indian market is yet to see and employ the true potential of their PR firms. Not all organisations and companies in India consider their PR firms as their partners who are as much a part of them as any of their other employees to strengthen their business objectives and achieve various goals. At most, a PR agency in India is looked at more as an outsourcing tool for either press release dissemination or as an organisation of press conferences to announce new products, services and other investment or expansion plans. Considering a PR agency as an integral part to build a corporate reputation is a far fledged thought for some. Z AINAB M ORBIWALA
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United they stand
Despite their core differences, advertising agencies and PR outfits are realising that they need to come together to survive.But,who is willing to take the first step?
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DVERTISING IS OFTEN referred to as the “use of paid-for media space to inform and persuade”. On the other hand, public relations is looked at as the use of third party endorsement to inform and persuade. Clearly, the use of paid for space means you have control over content, tone of voice, timing and so on, while with third party endorsement, you don’t. The net result is that advertising believes that public U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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relations is an ‘inferior skill’ due to it being risky. Public relations, on the other hand, thinks advertising is grossly inferior because it is so absolutely easy. A very similar thought had been echoed many years ago by Sir Tim Bell, the renowned communications consultant, which succinctly brings out the love-hate relationship between the two, viz. Advertising and PR. However, times are changing fast and with ‘Integrated Communication Strategy’ becoming the biz-mantra, the two are embracing each other after realizing their complementary strengths. So, in this ‘age of communication’, what are the factors that really differentiate them, and what are those distinctive features that are supplementing each other’s efforts? We know that advertising has been, and shall remain, the Big Brother so far as comparison to PR is concerned. And it seems improbable that, in near future, PR would outgrow advertising in absolute numbers. The size of the PR industry in terms of earnings is merely around 10 per cent of the advertising revenue. Having said that, it also needs to be mentioned that PR is growing at a much faster rate than advertising, and the net margins in PR services are also better than those in case of advertising. In an article in a recent issue (Jan. 26, 2006) of ‘The Economist’, it is stated that “Spending on PR in America has been growing strongly and reached $3.7 billion last year….PR spending (in America) will grow by almost 9 per cent a year. This is faster than the overall market for advertising and marketing, now worth a colossal $475 billion and growing at 6.7 per cent a year.” In India, the growth rate of PR is estimated to be around 30 per cent as the PR setups, till very recently, were in a nascent stage, and the growth scenario in other parts of the world is not very different. The same article in ‘The Economist’ points out how PR communication is getting an edge over advertising. “The fragmentation of media has seen an explosion in the number of ways people seek news and entertainment, with many turning to websites, cable TV, satellite radio and podcasts. Yet, a consequence of the proliferation of media is that original content becomes even more sought after. Hence, crisply-written or well-produced PR material can more easily get an airing. Media commentators have noted how PR material is now being published by some local newspapers virtually unedited and unchecked. Some branches of journalism have come to depend on a drip feed of information and products from the PR industry. Journalists focussing on electronics, U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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We know that advertising has been, and shall remain, the Big Brother so far as comparison to PR is concerned. And it seems improbable that, in near future, PR would outgrow advertising in absolute numbers. fashion, travel, beauty and food have a huge appetite for free samples. Gossip about celebrities is also largely mediated by the PR industry.� So, the distinction that is most obvious is that of veracity, or credibility. People are more likely to believe what they read in an editorial or newspaper story, or see or hear in a regular audio-visual programme, than what they get to know through paid-for advertising messages. This being so, equal expenditure incurred on advertising and PR shall, in all probability, result in more value-for-money in case of PR communication, in the long run. Advertising, on the other hand, can offer immense reach and repetition of message, which is not possible through PR. PR is also distinct from advertising in that while most of the latter aims for an immediate sale of a product, service or idea, PR adopts a more subtle approach with a view to the long-term gains accruing from the generation of public goodwill. As is already mentioned earlier, advertising is controlled communication. Hence, what remain to be measured are the response of the target audience, and the fulfilment of the objective for which the advertising was meant. However, in case of PR, once the message has been communicated to the medium, the sender has no control over when, how and the form in which the message will be released. Till a couple of years ago, the area where PR was clearly lagging behind advertising was the impact assessment, or research and evaluation of PR processes. However, progressive PR professionals seem to have realised this shortcoming, as the outcome of their activities or the effectiveness of communication tools used by them has become all the more important for the purpose of justifying the costs incurred on these processes. At a time when businesses are cutting corners on all activities, showing measurable results, in spite of practical difficulties and genuine constraints, has become U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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sine qua non for rapid growth of the profession. This explains the coming into existence of several Media Research Outfits dedicated to scientific analysis of PR tools and processes. Industry-wise, PR can make a better contribution in specialized industries, such as Biotech, Healthcare or IT, because the technical intricacies and near intangibility of the service offered makes it difficult to get the message across through advertising. Robin M. Sachs brings out this point clearly when he says, “PR is most important and, therefore, should be better funded, for companies with a high FUD factor. FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt — an aspect of business that will influence how you approach a communications program. The media, as well as the public experience FUD when introduced to a new company, product or service. Technology is one of those industries that benefit from PR over advertising because of the general uncertainty about the products in the market….Companies with a pricier product also gain more return from public relations because the public is more likely to purchase a big-ticket item from a company that has been validated by the press.” What the above implies is that as far as adaptability to specific target audience is concerned, PR has more flexibility. And who else can put this into words better than Richard Edelman, who says “Advertising is like driving a sedan on a superhighway. Public Relations, on the other hand, is an SUV that can go off-road and adapt to various kinds of driving conditions very quickly. That adaptability is essential in today’s minute-byU S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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minute communications world, where people issue challenges on the Internet that are not always substantively based. For more complex products, a message wrapped in a 30-second commercial is not sufficient to get a consumer to act.” He further adds, “Advertising works very well using simple, associative and repeatable messages…Public Relations should be seen as a long-term commitment to engaging all publics throughout the product life cycle.” Another difference between the two is possibility of client continuity, where, in case of advertising, an international firm can service the same MNC in all the regions. In case of PR, the same cannot be applied. So, client continuity is less of a possibility as far as PR is concerned. This explains the preference of some agencies for going solo, in spite of the expertise, infrastructure and experience that can be utilised in a tie-up. In an interview to Business Standard (May 26, 2006), Lokesh Tiwary, group president, PR, Rediffusion DY & R, said, “Firstly, in advertising, relationships tend to get project-centric, even if one tries to build long-term relationships, but in PR, it is essential to maintain such relationships for the creation of good brand value. Secondly, nothing has better recall value than good content, while a good ad can still be forgotten. Thirdly, in advertising, while the creative content rests with someone else, in PR it is done by the strategic planning cell or the person directly dealing with the client. And, finally, in PR, cost is not a deterrent, unlike in advertising.” But, each of the two has its own strengths and limitations. At times, one becomes essential. Lee Iacocca, the renowned CEO who revived Chrysler Corp had this to say about the significance of PR during the crisis period for Chrysler, “A lot of people can talk about what PR can do for business. But, I can tell you about what it can do for your survival….Effective Public Relations was our life support for a while, and believe me, I am not overstating the case. We were not running on fumes (referring to automobile sales) anymore, we were running on faith.” Conversely, at times of malicious campaign against a firm by certain vested interests with hidden agenda, it can better be addressed pronto through well-planned advertising campaign only. One can think of plenty of examples when full-page newspaper advertisements were issued by firms to counter allegations and clear confusion. Following international trends, most of the ‘big’ advertising firms in India have diversified into or have U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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plans to expand to include PR services in their portfolio or offerings. This, in fact, is no longer a matter of choice for them. Rather, it is a compulsion, because clients now prefer a one-stop-shop which can offer them comprehensive services encompassing the whole gamut of integrated marketing communications. India is also attracting foreign firms which are facing saturation levels in the Western hemisphere, and are, therefore, looking east. The fact that the market size and fee levels in India are gradually moving towards international benchmarks is also a contributing factor to this phenomenon. In fact, the overlap in services offered by advertising and PR firms, where they are separate, is increasing day by day. Event management, brand management or direct marketing are no longer in the exclusive domain of one or the other; the boundaries are thinning. Howard Stephenson provides an interesting real-life analogy on the relation between advertising and PR. He says, “PR and advertising are not parties to a forced marriage or even a marriage of convenience. Nor are they identical twins who merely wear different clothes. They are more like college room-mates, wearing each other's coats and ties on occasions, dating the same girls once in a while, but alike in their loyalty to alma mater.” Touché. S ANJAY G ORA T HE T HE
AUTHOR IS THE DEPUT Y MANAGER ,
SAIL.
VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE PERSONAL .
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An outside job It is not necessary to set up a full-fledged public relations outfit. Outsourcing could be just as effective.
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S OUTSOURCING MATURES as an industry, the list of services that use outsourcing or offshoring as an effective tool keeps growing. Recently, we have covered legal, design, pharma, animation and even teaching. Now a new service that has been added to the list is Public Relations. PR requires strategic skill and not just rudimentary language/writing skills. If understood well by a consultancy that is locally based, PR can be handled if the company is not based in that market. PR is also a long term return tool for brand building, shareholder communication, perception management and media advocacy. The company/organization needs to have confidence in the local PR team to carry out the brand building exercises, have a brand understanding and also recognize the corporate objectives. Spokespersons are identified from the consultancies and are trained to carry U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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out messages pertaining to the company in the local market. Credible PR agencies are an asset to the organization as an extended local arm and are an indispensable facet for brand management. PR professionals are contributors to achieving the corporate goals constantly. There are a few companies who think that by hiring a PR agency, they have created and accomplished the role of Public Relations in the marketing mix. On the contrary, this is job half finished. PR takes investment from the client company in terms of commitment and is much more strategic than merely arms and legs of a marketing plan. It depends on the understanding of the client who might not have routine PR people and position, in which case the agencies do everything. Then it is PR outsourcing. Obviously, this depends on whether you are outsourcing the press office in its entirety to a PR consultancy or, alternatively, bringing a PR consultancy on board to assist the existing press office with some of its functions. The preferred approach frequently depends on the size of the company and a management’s view of PR as a business function, with the MD taking responsibility of PR in a smaller company. An outsourced firm offers a variety of dedicated and targeted services — companies are able to benefit from an agency’s broader experience, expertise, industry contacts, perspective and resources to fulfill the company’s immediate needs. Hence, importantly, companies outsourcing PR find it easier to focus on their operational tasks without having to sacrifice communications goals and objectives. Many reasons exist for outsourcing any activity within U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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PR takes investment from the client company in terms of commitment and is much more strategic than merely arms and legs of a marketing plan. It depends on the understanding of the client who might not have routine PR people and position, in which case the agencies do everything. Then it is PR outsourcing. your business. For PR, it could be that you don’t have a designated person to handle the function. Maybe you are the function and you are overwhelmed with activity. Or, maybe, you keep a PR agency or an individual on board in the event of a crisis. In any case, the relationship between an organization and a public relations agency or consultant can be a tenuous one when not managed appropriately. Understanding how PR agencies work can go a long way toward helping you appreciate the void they can fill and why they function the way they do. Outsourcing PR is very cost-effective — Every initiative that a company/organization takes up in any other country other than the home country, the company officials do not have to travel down to execute the same; it can be done by the PR consultants operating out of that country where the initiative is being taken up. This also implies that the message the company wants to give out is done and, at the same time, the local presence is not missed even though they do not have a large set up. This is as opposed to advertisements wherein the message is customized to suit the local flavour. In the case of PR, the key message is usually universal. In pure marketing terms, PR helps build market share and categories while advertising works to retain market share. When the client decides to consider outsourcing, the following criteria comes to mind as the most important drivers in making that choice: Focus on core business. Improve service level. Reduce cost. Reduce capital cost. Third party consultancy from a macro view. U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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Specialized PR firms with industry focus offer a full staff of experienced personnel who can strategically and effectively help develop and/or deliver a company’s message to the right audience in the right time frame. By outsourcing the process, the company gains expertise and a virtual staff who understand technology, know the market and can prepare and launch the company or product in a shorter time period. Specialized PR firms with industry focus offer a full staff of experienced personnel who can strategically and effectively help develop and/or deliver a company’s message to the right audience in the right time frame. By outsourcing the process, the company gains expertise and a virtual staff who understand technology, know the market and can prepare and launch the company or product in a shorter time period. Whether the PR relationship is retained or project-based, outsourcing increases any company’s access to valuable resources who utilize a variety of tools, industry contacts and methodologies to manage day-to-day activities. Companies that take advantage of such a firm’s expertise, experience, contacts and insight are taking an important step toward increasing market awareness while maintaining focus on company performance. For outsourcing PR, one of the advantages is that the standards of its profession is at its best because most outsourced PR firms already have enormous experience in different fields (IT, government, business, medicine, etc.). And, if the company is on a shoestring budget, it is best to acquire an outside PR outfit, because the expense only limits to one payment — that of the PR firm only. What is best in an outsourcing PR is that it has a good grasp of the outside world. It has a better knowledge on what strategy to use. In addition, PR firms offshore have a wider connection to media, enabling a better PR campaign. When appointing a PR consultancy you are outsourcing the management and, in some cases, the U S P A g e C o l l e c t o r ’s S e r i e s
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development of what can be one of your company’s most valuable assets — the brand. You have to be certain. Chemistry is the key, as is trust. To really maximize the benefits of a PR consultancy, the account team must really be viewed and treated as an extension to your own in-house team. Team morale breeds creativity and engenders a greater desire to achieve results. Account teams which always stay outside of the client company and are cast titbits of jobs to perform will undoubtedly be less motivated. In his most recent book, Living On The Fault Line, technology marketing and management expert, Geoffrey Moore, declares that the companies that will succeed in the Internet era are the ones that focus exclusively on “core” (i.e., why customers hire them) and outsource “context” (i.e., everything else a company does to stay in business). The PR tasks in enterprises can be accomplished in a variety of ways. First of all, many firms establish special PR departments. Secondly, firms which do not have a PR department, often employ a “PR specialist”. If none of these two solutions are suitable, firms use the services of an external agency or an external PR advisor (Outsourcing). In practice, however, it is often so that PR tasks are accomplished, so to say, “in passing” by employees of the advertising or marketing department. It is also frequent that firms apply more than one of these options, i.e. some PR tasks are carried out in-house (by the PR department, PR specialist or marketing department), and other tasks are outsourced to advisors or agencies. Identifying the right outsource service provider requires time, due diligence and clearly established and communicated goals and objectives. A successful relationship will be one that lowers your costs, increases your service levels and improves satisfaction among your constituency — a “win-win” for you and your most valuable contacts, your customers! Outsourcing PR is just as popular as handling it inhouse. A RIJIT S ENGUPTA T HE
AUTHOR IS THE VICE PRESIDENT,
W EBER S HANDWICK .
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© BRAND VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD USP Age Collectors Series
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W R I T E R S Aarti H. Sabhaney Arijit Sengupta Avis C. Chandra Mouli Dilip Cherian Hepzi Anthony Kavita Lakhani Kerman Kasad Kishore Ravuri Madhavi Mukherjee Madhuri Sen Mahnaz Curmally N Chandramouli Noumaan Qureshi Prabhat Choudhary Raghuraman Balakrishnan Rajiv Desai Sagarnil Sarkar Sanjay Gora Santan Rodrigues Sunil Gautam Sushil Bahl Veena Gidwani Zainb Morbiwala
I L L U S T R AT O R Anant Kulkarni Jain Kamal Sanjay Ghosh
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