Client and PR relationships are like marriages, they feud, but can”t stay without each other and more or less work out if both parties give it a half decent shot. There are exceptions on both ends and so let’s not go there today for the sake of the majority. On the specific question of clients not paying or paying too less or other grouses, I see essentially see this phenomenon in two parts.

Product or Services Differentiation

Firstly, it is an ability to differentiate your self in positioning. The PR Firm market has been a commodity market for the longest time with no entry barriers for hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop shows. I saw this happening 10 years ago and today is no different. There is room for both and it is good that entrepreneurship is still a possibility in the market place. What is the big difference in working for the big 5 PR Firms in the country (if you can actually figure out ever who they are by number of people employed or revenue in a transparent fashion, beyond claims) and the home office 2-3 people outfit, one can argue. I am sure there are a lot of differences in offering and durability in time of intense attrition but we who profess to be champions of branding do a rubbish job of its when it involves our own brand characteristics and touch points across websites, corporate identity markers from business cards to collateral branding including electronic collateral like the microsoft power point, the one leg of the one legged, PR Industry are all pretty crap.

How many people can recall different practices in a large popular PR Agency unless they happen to be a specialist firm? If I take names I will be slaughtered as these are all friends, colleagues, ex-colleagues, so I’ll be prudent and duck my tail in on that but there are no many opportunities lost because no one in the leadership is really thinking about it beyond lip service and also-ran measures. Practice differentiation is not something just to do as a business whenever a fat client with a fat retainer demands it or when a project turns  into a reusable solution offering. It too needs the branding and marketing that will differentiate it as an offering and help you charge a premium for the effort in doing so.

Text 100 first changed the retainer landscape in the country in late 1990s with retainer values far in excess of what was then ‘going price’ for retainers in the Tech PR game at least. Again without taking names, there were enough nay sayers who never thought such retainers were possible or rated the survival chances of Text 100 in India. When the dust settled, history had been made with the Microsoft Account and there were many red faces. To be fair Text 100 came with an international mandates, best practices, processes but whatever local clients they picked up too came at larger retainers.

They were leaps and bounds ahead in differentiation, branding, positioning, and clients loved them and paid too. This gave hope and eventually benefited so many other legacy PR Firms who over a period of time started to attain similar retainer values because they moved up the value chain and comparing. This is when they had all along been largely sedentary about the possibility of a retainer being more than a lakh or two. There are many other examples of large retainers in Automotive, Financial Services, and Real Estate etc. 

Let’s talk for a minute about the client perspective here. What clients complain about is a lack of employee stickiness and just getting legs and no brains when they employ a PR Firm. If you sit on the client side which I have many times with multiple PR Agencies, these issues become important, so there are two sides to this coin! Don’t kick what you eat as there is seldom a one sided argument and there is no smoke without a fire!

So it isn’t like clients don’t pay. If you think you have an offering that deserves more (and good old vanilla media relations ain’t going to hack it partner) Pitch it right, be bold, be brave, and state your value proposition up front, brand your offering and you can get away with a screamer for a retainer!

Lack of Employee Stickiness and Intellectual Capital Capture in Public Relations Firms

The second important aspect one would do well to consider here involves employee longevity. Measures that arrest attrition including real dedication to employee training, specialization in vertical or horizontal practices, succession planning and an ability to see the next step-on-the-ladder.

There are philosophical and conceptual question there – what profitability are you after in terms of a gross margin is something that needs to examined in the interest of growth and scaling up. ‘Reverse price arbitrage’, this time in favor of employees and an inconvenient analysis of employee cost-to-company, as compared to retainers will show the employee wage bill as a percentage of revenue. What an owner, or promoter forsakes in terms of pay and work environment can only be good for the business but it is a question of rationale and greed.  I have seen many owners and promoters lash out about a lack of loyalty and commitment in employees while they themselves have zero empathy in return. Why is loyalty and commitment only an attribute expected of the employee and not the employer? If you want your people to stay please take care of them, treat them like individuals with aspirations and pay them right! Pay peanuts get monkeys – sound familiar?

So that is what I meant by garbage in- garbage out. Although there are good things happening out there in pockets, I am inherently in love with the idea of a consolidation based on market and supply dynamics, big names with standard global practices coming in can only mean better things for the industry and things moving to a new equilibrium.

The culture of crony PR firm associations has no done anything for the Industry or maybe I have not seen it and inconvenient issues never surface as these may not be in the best interest of constituents.

Let us embrace change and not stay shackled to the hackneyed tenets of a accidental birth, as India moves into the spotlight with its integration with the world economy, the future is bright for all of us!

Just one thing I forgot to mention. Surveygizmo is collecting your IP addresses along with your inputs. I found couple of repeated feedbacks from the same address. On the other hand, it could be also be 2-3 different people sharing a same computer. But I suppose I should count these as one feedback only.

For all those who haven’t voted yet, let’s put the survey out till Friday. One last day.

Big thanks to all those who have participated.

UPDATE: Survey closed. Please see results.

Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India, India PR,

What is this survey all about? It is a survey about perception. Of what professionals in the industry think about the agencies. Let’s not go too deep into the turnovers and clients list, etc., etc., and complicate it. Let’s focus on the image- what people in the industry feel about particular agencies. After all, are not we in the business of image. It’s just like you go up to certain professionals in the industry and ask them which agencies are the best. The answers might depend lot on which agencies those people have worked for. But ask the same question to two dozen people and you get a feedback that you might perhaps use.

So this is just a gentle reminder to those who have not voted yet but want to, before the results come out. Cheers.

UPDATE: Survey closed. Please see results.

Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India,India PR,

Can we share our experiences and find out? Spend two minutes in this new survey -Top 5 PR agencies in India, and we will soon find out what the many PR professionals in India think. This is again a collaborated effort and we need everybody’s support in making this survey a success. We can have the results in say 2-3 weeks or so, depending on the responses. Let’s see how it goes.

In July we conducted the 1st unofficial Indian Public Relations Survey and rocked, despite some of the brickbats on the email. There were great responses too and it was worth it.

To participate in the survey, you can visit this link, or submit your responses here on this page itself. Time to rock again. (And by the way, thanks to Kami Huyse from Communication Overtones for letting know about this great survey tool)

UPDATE: Please leave the name and email part blank if you want to.

UPDATE: Survey closed. Please see results.

Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India, India Public Relations, India PR,Marketing, PR Survey,

We have Text 100, Ogilvy, Perfect Relations, IPAN, 20:20 Media, Lewis PR, Bluelotus, Genesis, and Vaishnavi being voted by participants as the agencies with the best working culture.

Under the agencies with the worst working culture, we have Perfect Relations, yes again, Corporate Voice, IPAN, Genesis PR, and Prism PR.

Category with the highest number of votes received for the salary package for a trainee per month is Rs. 5-10k, for a Jr. Executive and an executive is Rs. 11-15k, for a Sr. Executive is Rs. 16-20k, for a Manager is Rs. 26-30k, and for a Director is Rs. 50-60k.

An average salary for a VP/ Branch Head is Rs. 1-1.5 lac, lowest being Rs. 50k, and highest being Rs. 2 lac. An average salary for a CEO I Rs. 2.5-3 lac, lowest being Rs. 70 k, and highest being Rs. 24 lac.

Read on…

Best PR agency one has worked in and why.

• 20:20 – culture, people, management, growth, exposure, mentors, HR, great role models who respect your views
• Text 100 – professional culture
• e,Lexicon – strategic insight on PR
• Perfect Relations – they raise upto the client’s expectation and deliver their service in style and in time, professionally managed organisation
• The PRactice – exposure and opportunity to grow is good
• Hanmer&Partners – freehand given by the mgmt, scope for initiatives, absence of strict adherence to hierarchy
• AceBrandwidth & Pulse – allowed to learn very fast and grow, challenging working environment compared to a big agency – hence one need to grow to survive
• Ogilvy PR – as they treat brands pretty much the same way they do in advtg, think brands think insights, think insights think ways of influencing people with the relevant insights, one of the rare agencies that tries to ensure every activity on brand leads to a “sum of more than the total”
• Vaishnavi – good clientele, great pay package, and freedom at work
• Also, ISRO, National Dairy Development Board, Anand – freedom to conceive and implement various PR activities specific to the needs of the organisation

Worst PR agency one has worked in and why.

• Perfect Relations – bossy culture, didn’t like the existing culture in the organisation
• Genesis – on New Holland Tractor account, agri business and the target customers – farmers – do not match with stilettos clad girls; also absence of culture, people, management, growth, exposure, mentors, HR
• Percept Profile – initially there were only 2 people in Delhi
• Hanmer&Partners – very unprofessional, very biased
• Corporate Voice – terrible work atmospehere, unnecessary interference from management with no responsibility taken by them, undue pressure on employees

What is a good salary package for a trainee per month?

• Below 5 k – 32.26% votes
• Rs. 5-10 k – 64.52% votes
• Rs. 11-15k – 3.23% votes
• Rs. 11-15k – 3.23% votes

Salary package for a Jr. Executive?

• Below Rs. 5 k – 12.90% votes
• Rs. 5-10 k – 35.48% votes
• Rs. 11-15 k – 48.39% votes
• Rs. 16-20 k – 3.23% votes

Salary package for an Executive?

• Rs.5-10k – 12.90% votes
• Rs.11-15k – 45.16% votes
• Rs.16-20k – 35.48% votes
• Rs.21-25k – 6.45% votes

Salary package for a Sr.Executive?

• Rs.11-15k – 16.13% votes
• Rs.16-20k – 38.71% votes
• Rs.21-25k – 32.26% votes
• Rs.26-30k – 12.90% votes

Salary package for a Manager?

• Rs.11-15k – 19.355 votes
• Rs.16-20k – 9.68% votes
• Rs.21-25k – 22.58% votes
• Rs.26-30k – 25.81% votes
• Rs.31-35k – 22.58% votes

Salary package for a Sr. Manager?

• Rs.16-20k – 29.03% votes
• Rs.21-25k – 12.90% votes
• Rs.26-30k – 19.35% votes
• Rs.31-35k – 12.90% votes
• Rs.36-40k – 25.81% votes

(Here we have Rs. 16-20k getting the highest number of votes surprinsingly, lower than a Manager’s highest a boomer)

Salary package for a Director?

• Rs.30-40k – 38.71% votes
• Rs.41-50k – 16.13% votes
• Rs.50-60k – 29.03% votes
• Rs.61-70k – 16.13% votes

Salary package for a group manager?

• Rs.41-50k – 38.71% votes
• Rs.50-60k – 19.35% votes
• Rs.61-70k – 16.13% votes
• Rs.71-80k – 16.13% votes
• Rs.81-90k – 3.23% votes
• Rs. 1 -1.5 lac – 6.45% votes

(Again here, we have Rs. 41-50k getting the highest number of votes, lower than a director’s highest a boomer)

Salary package for a VP/ Branch head?

• Lowest quote – Rs. 50 k
• Average quote – Rs. 1 – 1.5 lac
• Highest quote – Rs. 2 lac

Salary package for a CEO?

• Lowest quote – Rs. 70 k plus
• Average quote – Rs. 2.5 – 3 lac
• Highest quote – Rs. 24 lac

Agency with the best working culture?

• Text 100
• Ogilvy
• Perfect Relations
• IPAN
• 20:20 Media
• Lewis PR
• Bluelotus Communications
• Genesis
• Vaishnavi

Agency with the worst working culture?

• Perfect Relations
• Corporate Voice
• IPAN
• Genesis
• Prism PR

Participants’ years of experience in the PR industry

• Under 5 years – 40%
• 5-10 years – 23.33%
• 10-15 years – 10%
• 15-20 years – 10%
• 20 plus years – 23.33%

Disclaimer: The results above are the outcome of the 1st Unofficial Indian Public Relations Survey that was conducted for experimentive purposes only in the Public Relations India Open Source PR blog from June 26 – July 25, 2006. The results are indicative of only the votes given by those 30 participants who visited this blog and chose to participate in the survey. These results might not necessarily reflect on the true workings, image, status, or ranking of any PR agency or other organisations in India. Readers who read this are advised to treat the results as opinions of some select PR professionals from the industry, who willingly shared their inputs on conditions of anonymity, and should be awared that these inputs might be subjective.
Also,

• Inputs from participants on the first two questions were removed if they didn’t provide valid reasons why they chose that particular agency.
• Agencies mentioned in the results of the first and last two questions are in random order.

My advice- just read it for kicks, smile, tell a friend, and don’t read too much into it. I wouldn’t have said this had we got hundred plus participants. But are these results all crap? Is there an element of truth somewhere in the results? We have many industry professionals with years of experience giving in their inputs to this survey. Maybe somewhere, there might be. I leave that to each reader. I have done mine.

All said and done, thanks a lot to all participants. We know at least you care about the industry.
Technorati tags: PR, Public Relations, India, India Public Relations, India PR, PR Survey, Open Source PR,