Recipe of PR
By Editor on Sep 2, 2008 in Indian PR industry, PR professionals
It was my first class in PR and as usual I was sitting on the first seat. The professor came in and started the first lecture of the session. I was clueless – what was going on and what they were talking about. It happened because I was not a professional person at that time but just a fresh graduate who got admission in PR (by mistake). Well, that was in the past but I learnt one thing that everybody cannot understand PR properly.
If we will try to make people in other profession understand about PR, they will probably consider us psychos. I was surprised when people started relating PR with other professions like advertisement, marketing, journalism, space buyers, and lot more. Sometime it happens that you give your best efforts to make others understand about PR and at the end they remain confused or end up with wrong conclusions.
My first instance happened during a travel from Delhi to Lucknow for a car launch event. I met with a political member from the UP government. During the chit chat he asked about my profession. After explaining to him for about 10-15 minutes, he considered me as an advertisement agent. When I told him about the media coverage after the launch, he took me as a journalist.
I got another shock when I met with a merchandiser. Again the question came up. I tried my best to make him understand about PR. We talked about all the aspects of PR for more than an hour. Suddenly, it shocked me when he told me that PR is just an extended part of marketing. It was a killing thought when he asked me to help him in some marketing strategies.
If we think in marketing perspective, I think we are quite closer. When nothing is happening on a client, then we start initiating different ideas to pacify the client. Sometimes, the client buys the ideas and sometimes reject the same saying it is a marketing initiative. I was a little surprised to see that one particular idea is a PR initiative for one client but is a marketing initiative for the other.
But the confusion doesn’t end here. When somebody knows that media coverage is one of the output of PR agencies, people started mistaking PR professionals as journalists. This is the worst thing one can think of PR. Some of my schoolmates started calling me media because they are not clear with the concept of PR.
An engineer from Delhi Metro asked me once that they have completed an assignment one month before the specified time. It was wicked when he asked me to get it covered in few mainline publications on his behalf.
It was again scandalous when one of the professors in Delhi University asked me about my profession and she took it as space buying medium.
I wish PR could be as simple (or well known) as doctors or engineers so that others can understand it.
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On Sep 2, 2008, K. Srinivasan said:
Very interesting. I agree that PR is being perceived by different people differently. The impact of PR can be more felt than seen. As a professional who is in this field for over 25 years, i have seen the various definitions of PR by different organizations. In many of the Public Sector organizations in 1970s and 1980s, PR person was sought for liaison, networking, ticket confirmation, etc. In those time, PR Departments used to be occupied with the people recruited under sports quota or people who may not fit in any other job. At that time, Private Sectors were using PR in a different way, more for internal communication and Advertisement. PR is more flexible, that anyone can define according to their needs. It is compatible with all functions. Now we are talking about PR 2.0. In my personal view such flexibility is the strength of PR.
On Sep 2, 2008, Julie said:
Hi Vikas,
I guess it is just a matter of time before PR gets its rightful recognition and respect among general public. It is a comparatively new industry in the Indian market and its role has become more significant only recently with the growth of the corporates.
It is the responsibility of each PR individual to endorse this industry and make sure that we change this scenario of ignorance!
On Sep 2, 2008, Saurabh said:
Isn’t it enough that we have started to understand what PR is!!! or not??? Well, jokes apart I think that PR is slowly and slowly gaining a firm stance in the corporate world and also I have a feeling that true potential of our profession is yet to be discovered…Good one Vikas
On Sep 2, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Hi Srinivasan, Julie and Saurabh
I appreciate your inputs here and totally agree with you. It is the responsibility of PR persons only to to PR for PR. Also we need to accelerate it more as it growing very slowly.
Thanx to all of you.
On Sep 2, 2008, Palin Ningthoujam said:
Nice post, Vikas. PR has been perceived as the wining and dining job and many people still consider it as a press office job. But the image is changing I hope and people are realizing and clients are beginning to see greater value.
On Sep 3, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Thanx Palin.
I believe the image will change very soon.
On Sep 3, 2008, Anonymous said:
Grammar, grammar, grammar.
On Sep 3, 2008, Kevin said:
The mind matters not the language……nice post Vikas
On Sep 4, 2008, rucksana said:
dear vikas,
i think it’s all about one person’s perception of how he/she would understand one profession to be . to my knowledge i think pr is not about public relations at all , instead as per practising it in india , it’s all about “sales functioning”
shocked well yes it remains the very fact.
this is a misnomer , i think public relations doesn’t stand at all for public relation, it’s all about handling queries at to when and where how many pages to be published. simple
On Sep 5, 2008, Vikas Kumar said:
Dear Rucksana
Thanx for explaining me what is PR. But I think tehre is a difference between a sales executive or a customer care executive and a PR Executive. And in INDIA all are considered same. This perception needs to be changed.
On Sep 5, 2008, Free Bee said:
Well said, Rucksana! PR in India is indeed all about “how many pages published!” Amongst the jargon and many posts trying so hard to explain what PR is all about, your simple definition shines through. I bow to you!
On Sep 8, 2008, Michelle said:
Somehow i think the perception of PR is so lost, because of freshers that dont understand the concept, public relations is what it is, relations, rapport, communication…its more belief than selling… Its about time PR people get that recognition rather than face the brunt of being an industry that just wants coverage…We are behind the scenes and make things happen, and that does not occur by selling!!!
On Sep 8, 2008, Free Bee said:
“Becasue of freshers that don’t understannd the concept” – if there’s one thing I hate about IndiaPRB, it’s the oh so patronising and condescending attitude of “seniors” and old fart veterans. Don’t forget – you were also freshers once not very long ago.
On Sep 9, 2008, Michelle said:
@freebee what u fail to catch on to, is that im hardly a veteran or an old fart, but even tho i started out as a fresher i knew the do’s and dont’s and although my PR career started outside India, iv noticed that “newbies” here are failing to get the right trainig, so maybe it just isnt the freshers but the “old farts” who arent inculcating the right direction for freshers, which i think personally is a failure!
On Sep 9, 2008, Bhawna said:
hi, So true. Infact at times I tell people i am into marketing. There is no point telling them the truth. I have tried many a time, explained in the most layman language, I could, but these people failed me.
On Sep 17, 2008, PRaspire said:
Hey guys, I want to enter the PR field. I am about to finish my graduation. Just wanted to check which college according to you is the best in India for a one year course in PR. I dont want to give more than a year as i also want to spend atleast 6 months as an intern with a bag agency before starting my career. I’ve heard about
FMCC, Delhi
EMDI, Mumbai,
MICA, Ahemdabad
IIMC, Delhi
I am sure you all will be a big help
Thanks in advance..
On Sep 17, 2008, PRaspire said:
Hey guys, I want to enter the PR field. I am about to finish my graduation. Just wanted to check which college according to you is the best in India for a one year course in PR. I dont want to give more than a year as i also want to spend atleast 6 months as an intern with a bag agency before starting my career. I’ve heard about
FMCC, Delhi
EMDI, Mumbai,
MICA, Ahemdabad
IIMC, Delhi
I am sure you all will be a big help
Thanks in advance..
On Sep 17, 2008, K. Srinivasan said:
Hi PRaspire
You can download the ezine and also the list of institutions which offer PR courses from the following iink
http://www.corpezine.com/2007/09/march-2007-pr-education-in-india.html