Young PR Professional Shubham Saurav Singh, Asst Manager (PR), Power Finance Corporation made a presentation on Managing Effective PR highlighting the issues pertaining to Skillful Communication’ in the Company. The purpose was to understand the challenges faced by PR while performing its duties vis-a-vis the expectations of various departments that deal with PR Unit on almost daily basis.
Everyone has an idea
of what Public Relations is all about whether from TV or movies or just seeing
a journalist spinning a story on a Televised Press Conference. So what exactly
is PR? Is PR Advertising? Is it a 9-5 job? Propaganda? Or is it something super
glamorous?
The two letter word PR is grossly misunderstood
across and is perhaps one of the professions with the widest variety of definitions.
The purpose of this article is to sum up all the key learnings I have acquired
from workshops/conclaves conducted by forums such as PRSI, PRCI and SCOPE in
the recent past.
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| Shubham |
I would like to begin with how The Public Relations
Society of America defines Public Relations: “As a strategic communication
process that build mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and
its publics”. Another way of putting it is “as a sustained planned, deliberate
and professional management of the reputation of an organisation or an individual.
In lay man terms of course, “PR is a two way communication process” where both
the sender and receiver of the message are involved.
Background:
We know that today youngsters are
influencing product purchase as the media ecology is changing. Today there is
Cross Media Ownership and New Media conglomerates have emerged. Indian entertainment
corporations are funding Hollywood production. In today’s mesmerising world of
Science and Technology, where change and speed are the buzzwords, People’s
tastes and preferences have gone for a complete metamorphosis. E&Y for instance
has a PetDay (one fine day all employees take their pets to offices and get
them injections/vaccinations) so much so that an extra leave need not be taken.
Similarly, companies such as Ericson, HSBC,and Accenture have Poll surveys, Flash
mobs and what not. The idea is to say that the outlook of people in and around us
are changing or probably have changed so much already. Media is shaping the
perceptions and attitudes of people. Likewise, society too has its own share of
influence/impact on the media. The media is in an area of Public Affairs, it is
a definition of social reality. Media HAWA
NAHI HAI. It is very much a part of the society; it is very much a part of
the social intuition. Today, people are looking for good narratives/piecesand
that’s why channels have a good story in theend. A House Journal should have
futuristic thinking. Therefore, being just good in your field is notenough. You
got to talk about it. And thus communication becomes critical.
What is the media matrix like? Understanding trends in
Media is of paramount importance. There was only one Doodarshan once upon a
time (which was literally very door from
darshan) but look at the way the
various types of media have emerged. There are videos, audios,bytes, recordings
going viral. South West airlines don’t even spend a single penny on Advertising.
On the contrary, there are brands such as Unilever and P&G (in the FMCG
sector), ICICI, LIC, HDFC in the BFSI sector, Samsung, LG, Sony (in the
Consumer goods sector), NIIT, Amity (in the Education sector) which spend on an
average close to Rs30 lakhs per month on their advertising and soon (Brand
Promotion on New Media in India, India Connected, Sage Publications 2019). And
therefore, there is an understanding/inkling that the ROI from your ad spend is somewhere somehow proportionatelycorrelated
to your business or rather say, your
marketing budget is somewhere driving your sales, profits, inventory etc.
Good Media relations depend on your synergy within the
organisation. PR cannot work in isolation. It definitely requires management
support to function. PR is no substitute for bad work
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But what are you saying is again another big
question. For example; I show you one advertisement-: one person might just
like it so much and the other person might just not like it at all. Creativity
is actually very subjective you see and therefore it cannot be measured
Rather, PR practitioners should see themselves as
Business Communicators or Communication strategists for that matter because
when you do that, communication itself becomes a vertical. . Today there are so
many loud noisesaround. Political Parties are using social media to leverage
political gains. Brands and corporations are always on the lookout for saying
something new and innovative. What is the voice being heard? The Prime Minister of India has been able to
garner the complete database of the country through a small missedcall.
Communication schools have a class on Journo Tracking (where students are
taught how to track media and learn the various styles of reporting):we know
that the way a Times of India does a story is totallydifferent from the way a
Business Standard or theHindu does it for instance.
The other day I was at the coffee house and my
friends told me that they were doing a research study on Communication Audit
and therefore I had to be there to give my inputs. Observe that one may not
have even heard of it but is a new concept which aims at evaluating whether
communication with audiences/ stakeholders is actually turning out to be
valuable or not.
Brand Guru Ramesh Tahiliani of IIMC, Delhi talked of
Points of Parity and Points of Differentiation in his class on Brand Identity.
What is one unique thing that a brand is trying to sell about itself? You see
something and it comes to your mind (Unaided Recall).Own a word: Consumers
think in words. Luxury of a car and thrill of an SUV: Mahindra Scorpio. If Friday
Dressing is Allen Solly, then Power dressing is VanHuesen. It is not uncommon
to see that people today like to wear Casual Formals on Fridays to offices. Likewise,
Bata is value for shoes. Maggi is two minutes and Zara and H&M are associated
with Fast Fashion. Go and look at their collection. What I am trying to say is
that PR practitioners need to constantly hone their skills, and be on their
toes and look for what is actually happening in and around them. What are they communicating,
how are brands saying that they stand for a cause or they support an idea? How
does a company say that it cares for its people or it is championing the cause
of Hockey sportspersons or it is standing by the victims affected by Kerala
Floods or Orissa Cyclones?
PR
Policy: At
Power Finance Corporation, the PR policy is like our bible. Not many of them
(organisations) have one. It is a set of policy guidelines (framework) which
governs all the activities and works we undertake round the yearand the
modalities attached with them such as advertisements, sponsorships, Annual Rate
Negotiation with publications, Empanelment of agencies , Publication of
Audited, Unaudited Financial Results, Chairman’s Speech, Annual Report, CSR
film, Participation in Exhibitions, Ministry related works.
Everyone has the same story but who has a different
idea? Survival of PR Industry Depends on Ideation. Innovation needs Communication
(out of box thinking). That is – “One thing can be presented in many ways”.You might
just like to recall NDTV’s Barkha Dutt’s on ground reporting during the Kargil War.
She went into the bunkers and stayed with the soldiers, gave a feel of the “war
like situation” or what our Indian soldiers were going through. Therefore, what
stays with the viewers in the end also matters.
Change
in trends: First, Growing importance of regional
media. Secondly, the Concept of Marcomm has emerged (PR guys are working
closely with marketing guys: it’s become all integrated communication). Third, Print
is here to stay but TV will gradually wash way(advent of Netflix and Amazon
Prime). Fourth, Sensationalisation has emerged. At a point it obscures so much,
that you just want to switch off the TV. Then there is Fake News and dip in honest reporting. Look at the
language of the newspapers today: they
don’t even write correct English. Corporate Rivalry has emerged. There is a hierarchy
within journalists too. Moreover, PR is not just media oriented. Pressure groups
and activists have also emerged. Today more than 80% of the journalists get up
in the morning and surf the net. Even before we shoot our press releases, we
get to know that they have taken the bytes from our Facebook and Twitter
handles. It’s a powerful thought. “Godi Media” has emerged (asking a set of readymade
questions to get the desired answers). SCOPE conducted a training Program on
“Skill Development for CEOs and Spokespersons in PSEs” – a unique initiative.
In one of his sessions, Abhijeet Dutt said:“Never get lured to the notes, when
facing media. Rehearse and Prepare before the media. Cameras never lie, your
body language, your voice, your gestures, your postures, incapabilities, everything
is visible to the camera. Rajiv Desai groomed Rajiv Gandhi out of his
nervousness”. Have CEOs taken the concept of Brand Strategy Seriously? “A CEO
should have sharp reflexes. CEOs have become media reticent, they don’t want to
talk to the media”, says Dr.JaishreeJethwaney(owing to various reasons- one of
them could be the varied and dicey nature of the media itself) but again the
characteristic of the media is to question the most powerful. One cannot
escape.
Burger King recently came up with a Boundary Pushing
Ad campaign “Burn that Ad”: consumers can download the app and burn the ad of
its rival/competitors in lieu of a free whooper. What are you trying to say? Is
it even ethical marketing?
Challenges:
Good Media relations depend on your synergy within the organisation. PR cannot
work in isolation. It definitely requires management support to function. PR is
no substitute for bad work (can’t do bad work and tell someone to do good PR
about it) implying PR is about packaging of the good work done by the company
but it does not imply fake presentation
or stating the wrong information.
It’s the quality and not the quantum that matters
(PR unit issues Press Releases on several occasions and I create a media
dossier of all the published clippings to be submitted to the top brass). Many
a times, ideally the question they ask is “How many newspapers have covered it?”
But don’t you think,it’s equally important to see the kind of story the
journalist has tried to picture.
Understanding journalists’s needs is another important
challenge. There was a Minister’s Press Conference in Shimla. And right from
escorting the journalists to their stay put, we got the wifi, the rooms
everything ready for them. After all, when you give someone your love and
respect, you are bound to get the same in return. However, Journalists are always in the hurry.
They have to cover so much. It is PR’s
responsibility to assist them in filing their stories (not uncommon to see them
doing this instantly on their mobile phones and laptops during a press
conference). Also, know that all press releases don’t convert into stories. The
story they file goes through the News Editor or the Bureau Chief and then it iscrucial
to understandat the end of the day that different media houses have different
polices.
Interdependence of media and Corporate
Communication.We expect so much from the journalists. And what do they expect
from us? Up to date information and facts, honest and accurate replies.
Opporunities:
Develop your organisation as a beat (improving customer service , how to stay
ahead in the market? think like a journalist or may be twice their speed). You
can’t just split ink on somebody’s stature or play around with a company’s
reputation. PR guys work so hard day in and day out building the same. Good
reputation has got its own benefits too: good manpower,
good inventory, good sales, word of mouth etc.
Interactive news rooms (there are many benefits of
having a healthyrelationship with your media friends- be it facilityvisits,
brand demos, third party endorsements etc.… today they give us editorial
packages with ad bookings.
Maintain media archives (always keep a repository of
stories both hard and soft). DMRC does it very wonderfully.
Through this presentation, we also want to make a
point that in our workplaces if all units coordinate well in time , then PR can
function more effectively. There have been times when we have to sit late
because someone sends the Press Release or a tender Advertisement very late
(like around 6 pm) and then expect it to appear in the print the next day.
Remember: Press has its own deadline. Cultivating relationships with agencies
and journalists is not an easy task. Ideally the format of a Press Release
should be the “Inverted Style Pyramid”. They say that the press release should
ideally be like a 30-40 seconder short story you can share with a friend.
Remember the 5Ws and 1 H
Social media (New models for New Media) :The
internet is a democratic platform and technology is the game changer. Social
media is about humanising the story and not statistics.More than 1 billion
pages are added on Facebookevery day. There is conflict of interest on Facebook
and Twitter. Somebody is supporting one idea, the other person is not. Don’t
forget how random people or in some cases aggrieved consumers might just tag us
and bashtag brands (if they are not happy with something). At the same time, Accidental
opinion makers such as brokers, analysts, lawyers and brandactivists have
emerged. Organisations are commissioning expert agencies to track their image
on the internet.
Branding
is more powerful with employee advocacy.Our Employees are ambassadors of
our brand PFC and everything that our business stands for. As members of the
company, they are closely acquainted
with the products or services that PFC offers, as well as being keenly aware of our customers’ needs. Since our
employees are already familiar with our customers and target audience, it
becomes crucial to elicit feedback
from them. As ambassadors for our business, we need to train/encourage our
employees to actively engage with PFC online, particularly on social media. If
each member of staff is regularly
engaging and sharing content
from our branded social profiles, we will likely see engagement as a whole increases – that’s just how social
algorithms work (advocacy adds credibility). This can be in the following ways:
·
Sharing or retweeting company posts
·
Liking or following each of the company social
media accounts
·
Engaging with company content, whether it’s a like,
a share, or a comment
·
Listing the company as their official employer on LinkedIn
·
Inviting others to like and follow your company
pages
·
Soliciting recommendations or reviews, and
providing one themselves
·
Generating e-mail sign-ups using
Fb/Twitter/Instagram
Also, we
feel that there’s room for new ideas in marketing/PR and each of our employees
has a different specialism and different content ideas to pursue. Welcoming
them on-board will not only contribute to a healthy working culture in PFC but
a richer and more varied marketing strategy as a result. NTPC
has an app by the name of Samvaad. Employees can download it and login through
their phones to see latest communication updates. Remember, Good PR starts with
Internal PR. Today, Google has prepared legal aspects. Thebottom line is:
“Whatever medium you be using, one should know, where to stop!”
Cause driven communication:Corporate
Social Responsibility is My Social Responsibility says M B Jayaram, meaning CSR
is not just a corporate job alone. People are voicing their opinions about
societal causes. Employees are so proactive at PFC. (They talk about planting trees,
run for a cause marathon etc.) and therefore Media should spin positive stories
and try to glorify less talked about things. Today, there are lots of start-ups,
agriculturalstart-ups, apps coming in., The plight of the Indian farmers is
known to all of us. Agriculture should be the biggest “make in India”
component. (Shubham
is Assistant Manager, PR, at Power Finance Corporation Limited, New Delhi. He is
an economics graduate from SRCC and an IIMC alumnus)
