WELL THOUGHT PR STRATEGY REQUIRED TO FIGHT THIS CRISIS

The ghastly act of the terrorists to India’s financial capital and the gateway to tourist destinations will further hamper inflow of tourists to this great country. The government and several tourism corporations across India from each states has painstakingly built brand India and through the Incredible India campaign over the last few years in the foreign markets by raising our graph in the tourism world. To the best of my knowledge this brand building exercise has been going on for over 10 years and significant progress has been made by us in the world tourism map for tourists to consider India in their choice of destination when one thinks of going on a holiday. While some of the foreigners did express their views that they would like to come to the lovely city Mumbai and India after they were rescued but at a global level this will take a considerable beating as some of the countries has already issued advisory orders.

All of us know that building brands in foreign markets is a long drawn process both in terms of time and cost. Having reached so far we now need to re visit our drawing board and come out with some immediate measures to fight this crisis. This is a very classical case of CRISIS and PR will have to play a major role to restore the lost glory. India should immediately act, so that whatever equity we have in the tourism space should be closely protected and should not erode further.

How this can happen? A special task force needs to be set up to address this problem to guard our image. India should work closely with all the countries whose people visit our country immediately, before negative word of mouth start spreading though various media and other agencies. Our first strategy is to instantly protect the image we already have before it slides down. We need to go on a war footing to handle this crisis. This will involve a great amount of orchestration with the home, defence, foreign and tourism ministry so that there is cohesive strategy to handle this internally before we chalk out our strategy to hit the global media etc.

All this will cost more rupees and time but at this hour of crisis every Indian should think positive and help India restore the lost shine. We have come out from several difficult situation and I am sure we will counter this and teach a strong lesson to who ever is jealous behind India’s growth both on the economic and tourism front.

The cause related marketing or CSR activities is being deployed by many corporates and companies to strengthen their presence in the media on an ongoing basis. While some companies have been working on CSR responsibility with lot of focus and energy there are others who have not diverted completely towards this. One company that comes top of mind that has been practicing CSR for quite some time has been Godfrey Philips for their RED & WHITE brand in promoting bravery excellence.

The company has been doing this on a national level but unfortunately they are also promoting tobacco. But let’s not take away the credit from them as year after year they have been awarding people for excellence in bravery from all walks of life.

To me CSR has to come from the bottom of the heart if one is keen in promoting it. There are quite a few liquor brands in view of restriction in advertising has been using CSR as surrogate way of communicating their products. This according to me will never fall under CSR as the primary objective is to get the brand visible and not promote the CSR initiative.

Brand fit very important:

Identifying a cause or supporting any CSR responsibility must focus on issues that relate to the business the company is into. If the brand fit is relevant consumers will also appreciate the efforts as it is important that the CSR activity is also meaningful to them in their walk of life. Hence it is important for companies to check the relevance of the CSR activity so that companies don’t support unrelated cause which at times the consumers may feel that the business simply is trying to benefit from the not for profit ‘s reputation.

Many a times this may lead to consumer to stop buying the company products. Hence it is very critical for companies to maintain good brand fit when they venture into CSR activities so that consumers also connect well with the company and also see there is an effort being displayed by the company to promote CSR with more purpose.

Role of Public Relations in CSR:

A few years back a very interesting CSR effort was undertaken by a reputed finance brand SUNDARAM FINANCE in Chennai. I am sharing this example to illustrate as how this CSR effort was initiated and how successful was it. Sundaram Finance as a brand has been a very trusted and dependable brand in the finance space. The brand is almost present amongst most families mind , residing in the south. The brand over a period of time as been part of many families in south by truly demonstrating to its customers its correct brand values corporate vision. The company hardly advertises and it has entered the consumers mind mainly through strong word of mouth marketing and well networked distribution of their products with strong focus on service across South India.

As a part of their CSR push the company along with Ogilvy PR came out with the novel idea of promoting carnatic music among kids in Chennai. This move was initiated, as it was found more kids in that part of the world were getting hooked to computers, chats and TV shows and little recognition was given to the classical carnatic music. The company saw a great opportunity here and branded this CSR program as SUNDARAM FINANCE SUNDAY KUTCHERI ( Music concert ).The program was held in a park and the concept was developed to provide young kids aged under 15 to showcase their music talent .The idea was more to give a little back to the society as a CSR effort. High on recall. Low on cost was the motive on this CSR effort. The audience for this program was the young and aspiring musical talent, music connoisseurs and morning walkers in the park.

How did this CSR Program work?

* The program was held every first Sunday between 6.30 and 7.30am
* Kids were selected through audition tests
* Kids with good flair in music with basics were given opportunity
* Group of kids display their musical talent at the park with great ambience
* After the first half a dozen Kutcheri the concept caught on
* News papers and channels came forward to cover it

So what was unique about this CSR?

* One of its kind showcasing musical talent
* Age was the only criteria ( kids under 15)
* Open environment ,perfect and colorful settings
* No microphones. No loudspeakers
* Kids were the stars. No chief guests.
* Minimum branding from the company

The End Result:

* Zero advertising for the event. PR got the registrations.
* Entries came from neighboring cities also.
* Vast coverage on the event. Pre and Post.
* More audience participated
* Pressure was mounted to increase the frequency
* More parks wanted to hold the musical concert
* Boosted the confidence of the kids to perform
* Parents were thrilled and devoted more time on music with their kids.
* Finally the brand fit was also perfect as it connected well with the event.

Thanks to the revolution in technology it has now become easy sending greeting cards. PC’s and mobile phones have really made great inroads in this segment. The consumers find these as very simple and cheap means to send his or her good wishes to his friends. In the case of computers one can create a design of one’s own choice and send it. All one has to do is send an E-Greetings, SMS or MMS. In today’s world where time is of paramount importance people cannot set aside time to write addresses, go to post office, buy stamps, and post them. The inertia to send card has become low on the priority list, as there are other simpler and easy means to send good wishes and still enjoy and celebrate the festivals. The cellular operators also encourage and woo users during festivity to send good wishes messages at very attractive rates. The prices are down to earth and so tempting that even somebody who does not send social messages join the messaging bug during festivity.

Government is one of the looser :

The postal department has had lost a considerable amount of revenue as purchase of stamps has dropped over a period of time. Also some of the private courier brands have to face loss in billings. Many local brands and national brands have also seen the drop in the sales of greeting cards as simpler and cheap substitute option is available to customers. Small time designers and paper companies have also been affected. Big time social organizations that earn considerable revenues marketing cards have also been affected to some extent. The revenues of press, magazines and to some extent the electronic channels have come down as marketing efforts to push greeting cards have dwindled. Although there are some corporates who still oblige the social organization a majority of them have moved away from this as it also involves considerable amount administrative machinery and expenditure to dispatch the cards on time.

Emotional connect missing:

E – Greeting cards and SMS’s have been easy means for people to send their messages. Not only is it easy but it has become cost effective for many. But what one does not realize is that sending greeting card messages through SMS’s etc is like talking to an answering machine where the emotional touch is missing. In the case of the greeting card, the sender invariably takes lot of trouble and planning to hand pick the right greeting card with the right choice of message before he or she sends it. By choosing the card with right message and visual gives he or she to express the emotional feelings of celebrations from the bottom of the heart. This is where greeting card brands have been very forward in their thinking by coming out with newer designs that will touch the receiver. Technology will never be able to fill this gap. Emotive expressions through a nice greeting card attach more value and touch the human chord. The chances are that with messages flowing from various well wishers one may tend to not read the messages as most of the times the message content is very boring, mundane and monotonous. That does not hold good when you receive a greeting card. You will receive different types of cards and one will make it a point to take some time to have a look at them. In some case if the card is unique and eye catching one tend to preserve it for some time.

Marketers adapt to the change:

A quick shift has taken among many players. Greeting card companies have been very forward looking in their approach and have moved to the gifting segment, which constitutes a huge market. With a growing affluent society and opening of malls and multiplexes the aspiration and desire of the Indian consumer has prompted many companies and brands to move towards gifting from the social expression card segment. Some of the companies have tied up with several international brands to bring gifting in a big way keeping in mind the nuances and the flavor of the Indian market and the Indian consumer.

New ideas have also been explored in the area of cards. Specially designed cards have been created through niche positioning to market cards for occasions such as friendship day, valentines day, father’s day, mother’s day, teacher’s day. While these may not deliver great volumes but in terms of value some of the brands will be able to reduce their revenue gap for their shortcoming through traditional and conventional greeting cards. While technology has eaten in to the greeting card business but there are still some loyal and die hard customers who will still use the greeting card medium to express his or her wishes. These may be mostly in the smaller towns for whom emotional connect and expression is bigger then technology.

I was fortunate to attend the awards ceremony of the Pink slip awards last year where creative awards were given to agency and companies for creative excellence in recruitment advertising. This is a new and interesting initiative from the Times Group to encourage both the clients and the advertising agency to produce great work in the field of recruitment space which helps in companies to draw good talent especially in today’s employment market where there are ample opportunities but limited talent available.

The excellence awards are given across various industries such as finance, banking, pharma, BPO, technology and software etc. What is disturbing a bit here is that the big agencies are not involved in creating communication on recruitment ads and you mostly find mid-sized agency do this of which some of them has become specialist in creating only recruitment-advertising campaign. The larger agency does not recognize this has a major revenue earner and exciting opportunity for their creative team to do inspiring work. Hence invariably designing the recruitment advertisement takes a back seat. I only look forward with the introduction of Pink slip awards we get to spot larger agencies also create purposeful communication with strong idea for their clients and brands in the area of recruitment ads. Lets also remember recruitment advertisements is one of the most powerful way of building the corporate image of the brand internally, externally and to the company stakeholders.

Corporates ought to focus on creativity and original ideas:

In the 80s and in even in the 90’s corporates used print media with powerful communication to sell their companies to attract good talent. Since the only means of communication available was the daily press and business magazines limited space was allocated by media companies to release ads. Most publications earmarked some space and special dates in a week to release these recruitment ads and as a result the recruitment space was cluttered. Most of the appointment advertisements appeared in the supplements of the main issue in black and white for senior positions and you had the classified ads, which permitted companies to release ads for junior posts and walk in interviews.

The country is today in its growth path and industries have started flourishing across category and the need for quality talent is required on a continuous baisis. Earlier we had very few industries that used to advertise for manpower. That has taken a quantum leap and today the industry has grown leaps and bound beginning from BPO, Healthcare, Finance, Banking, Advertising, Media and Entertainment, Insurance, Software &Technology and the growing FMCG and Retail segment. All these up-and-coming industry are giving sleepless nights to the HR team and Search consultants, as there is a huge gap between demand and supply. The HR team is pulling all stocks and strategy to get the right candidate through various communication tools and headhunters. In doing so companies have forgotten the pivotal role and significance on the role of PR and recruitment advertisements, which has a strong pulling power for job seekers to respond. Companies now have realised this and are actively engaged in infusing newness with original idea and creativity on recruitment advertisements to beat the clutter and draw quality talents to their organisation. Also more companies are waiting for opportunity to get their companies covered on HR stories to supplement their image and credibility

What drives to create great recruitment ads?

If you pick up any newspaper containing recruitment ads you will notice high clutter and the paper is filled with a whole of lot advertisements without any differentiation. This has been the perpetual problem even decades back when we did not have job portals. Since most advertisements were in black &white it was all the more challenging for brands to shout and stand out. With the advent of colour the scope to increase one’s bandwidth in terms of creative opened up. To create great communication in the recruitment space the first and foremost objective is to speak truth to your prospects. You should not promise them the moon and disappoint them. Give a complete run down of the company right from its values, culture and the vision of the company. In your communication you must enlighten about the entire structure and the person to whom the prospect would be reporting in the work function. This is most critical as attrition rate invariably occurs due to lack of job satisfaction or the wrong chemistry with the boss. Many companies to create a strong image and build credibility release full-page advertisement to attract talent. This is one way of showing the bigness of the company and communicating to the prospects that we are a large conglomerate with strong guiding principles. Some MNC’s also try follow to create a design & grid with the right tone and style and use them as a template. This holds good if the post one is advertising for is at middle level. But it is always better to try and be different even within that template to catch your audience’s attention.

PR plays an important role in building credibility and image:

While through advertising you are able to get prospects to respond. It is PR with the help of stories in HR is what helps company to establish credibility of their company. Today more and more companies are looking for opportunities to be present on exclusive and industry related stories on HR topics. With huge attrition rate and shortage of talent , stories on HR has been keeping corporates on their toes to bring in attractive and friendly HR polices to nurture and retain talent. Being present in various articles and forums by brands is also being noticed by prospects to get better understanding of the corporates before one deicide to work with a particular company. Since HR is a very important tool in building the corporate image of any organisation companies needs to be more pragmatic and innovative in evolving their PR strategy to attract and retain good talent and thereby strengthening the equity of the corporate brand in the employment market.

Adds values to the corporate brand:

A well thought out communication for a recruitment ad has direct bearing not only on the future prospects but also the stakeholders, business partners and employees within the company. A good recruitment ad also builds credibility and image of the organisation so long as the company paints the correct picture and information of the organisation. The power of recruitment ads also helps in enhancing the position of the company in the prospects mind by maintaining the right style and tone consistently in their communication. This is where creative excellence for recruitment ads will play a major role as that will motivate clients to think out of box and get their brand across in the most unique and outstanding manner instead of churning out the run of the mill formatted ads. Any piece of communication to attract talent must exhibit a good career path to entice the job seekers to respond. If that promise is delivered through strategic recruitment ads we will be able witness more and more HR personnel pushing their communication partners that much extra to create advertisements and implement hard working PR strategy to deliver great value to the brand and motivate and attract quality talent to the organisation.

Some of world’s best brands have been built with PR.

With rising media costs and lack of deep pockets to spend, many brands are seriously considering using PR in a big way to promote their brand in the most cost efficient manner. Recently I was chatting with few of my friends who are working on various brands starting from FMCG to Consumer Durables to lifestyle. During our intense conversation, most of these people felt that new and innovative options need to be discovered to promote brands as returns on spending huge money on mass media is not delivering the desired results.

Now why are these people questioning the ROI? The answer to this is very simple. Today with the increase in the number of channels and audience fragmentation; marketers are not able to catch their audience that easily. They need to increase their promotional budgets to reach a larger audience but the results are not satisfactory. Even the print and the outdoor medium have become equally expensive. One cannot get a great impact by taking a few hoardings in any city. Even if you take a good number of sites the sustenance factor steps in. How long I can continue the campaign? Marketers are looking answers for these. Do we have an answer? The answer is yes. Marketers need to start innovating to fight this rise in media prices, media fragmentation and high clutter levels by just revisiting their communication and media strategy.

Powerful Public relations strategy is one way to look at:

Some of the world’s best brands have been built though PR. Our own software company Infosys is both a leading Indian and global brand which has grown in manifolds by brilliantly planned PR strategy. We must also remember that the company has delivered value and has consistently performed. Apart from some advertisements during the IPO, this brand has been build brick by brick purely using public relations in the most effective manner. The brand has become almost a familiar brand amongst software engineers and aspiring engineers. We have more such examples of brands that have build their corporate brands through PR.

Google is another brand which is in everybody‘s mind starting from today’s teenager to the senior citizen. This brand has never advertised in India but the brand has grown in leaps and bounds to have the largest email service in India, Gmail. The brand Google has become so familiar and friendly that people use the phrase ‘Google’ it to get any information on the net.

TCS is also another brand that has taken its brand to new global heights through PR. While TCS has the support of the TATA name but to become a global brand on software space PR has played a pivotal role for TCS. The secret of success for all these brands has been their focused vision and commitment which PR has leveraged at every stage of the growth of the company. Also with PR this brand has managed to build credibility and faith with their stakeholder which has in the end resulted in raising the equity of the brand both domestically and globally.

It’s misnomer to think PR is just press release:

About two decades back PR was just about disseminating news via press release or through press conference. But over the last few years that has radically changed. More and brands are placing their faith on PR to build credibility which is difficult to achieve through the conventional advertising and publicity. While some of the reputed brands spend a lot of money on advertising but they still use PR to restore faith and confidence among its audience.

Two great launches or event in the recent period that has implemented PR effectively has been the announcement of TATA’S NANO. There was great PR build up before the official announcement and showcasing of the product at the AUTO EXPO. This was possible because there was a great story to talk about in terms of a ONE LAC car which was a great dream and aspiration for many Indian consumers to own a car. It was a good strategy on the part of TATAs to use PR as it is PR that built confidence and credibility among the prospective consumers to reassure yes we are giving you a car for ONE LAKH. Public relations in t his case could play a very important role as there was a great story to tell. In fact I hardly could see any advertisement on the day of the launch. The PR really overpowered the print campaign. And the reason for the same is that consumers need to know more about the product and PR was the best tool to sell this revolutionary concept in car. If you have a great story to tell then brands must strongly move towards using PR as a weapon. In case of TATA NANO if we count on the coverage they got through PR and convert it to advertisement rates it would be quite substantial may be even match the budget they spend on advertising.

Even the success for IPL must be attributed to a large extent to PR. While individual teams and brands did some advertisement what really caught cricket fans is this new concept which had great news and story to talk about. Today post the first IPL league many teams are seriously considering to revamp their image through PR before the champion’s league. All of us know cricket is a religion in our country and the hype generated through the press will create more excitement and interest than patriotic HINGLISH jingles and use of celebrities by various teams in their campaign. IPL really drew more viewer ship on channels more crowds to the stadium but more than this there was great buzz around in the social network media where different community groups were formed to track the matches with their own views and criticism. This is where social media network as a medium is being used to drive PR.

Use of new age media and innovative media opportunity in PR:

The advent of new media like blogs and social network has made PR more innovative and interactive. Facebook, My space and Orkut are some of the few social network media which are being used by many brands to touch the younger audience. Various movie reviews and play reviews are available if you are part of any community in the social media network. The audience you converse through this social network are becoming strong testimonials to tell you or give you more information of a movie or purchasing a music gadget. This of course is supplemented by the news that appears in the dailies and other media which helps in getting brands closer and into the consideration set.

I am told most of the electronic products such as the laptops the final decision in buying is made by the consumer only using the mediums like the internet by reading their product reviews etc. This also holds true with automobiles where the prospects reads reviews about the brand and product from various auto journals before they decide to arrive on the brand to buy or test drive it.

The other innovative ideas to get your brand promoted are product placement opportunity in various media which is relevant to the brand. For e.g. TV show featuring on real estate one can promote a microwave by displaying the product in such shows which is part of the accessories customers look at buying for their kitchen. Brands could also tie up with construction houses to get write up about their product in their brochures and website.

The use of PR needs to be tactically applied and one must have a good story to pitch for the media to talk about. In the coming years Public relation will move faster and more brands will seriously consider to use this communication tool to build the credibility of the brand as costs on the media front is just going up and up. With increase of more GEC in the electronic medium and TRPs fluctuating as channels are bringing freshness in the programming marketers are need take lot of risks to place their brand in these channels without knowing the right ROI from these programs.

Public relations will play a great role in providing marketers to infuse good strategy which will get them stories and credibility. One also needs to think beyond just coverage and come out with out of box thinking to get qualitative message through PR.