5 things that a Public Relation professional should refrain from:

a.      a.When it comes to pitching for a new business most PR executives love conducting media audits. They randomly call the journalists to get some perception or insights for the pitch. Most often these audits are done at the last minute and the journalist gets irked when he or she is contacted. One needs to understand that these audits will not give any great insights as invariably the sample size is very low.

b.      b.Don’t expect any traction out of press releases. Press release has become outdated and old fashioned. The inboxes of most journalists are always flooded with millions of releases across the country and they invariably miss their eyes as they have other priorities to attend to. Instead one need to be smart and find out is there a good angle to pitch it as a good story and get published. Set your clients expectations on press release as most clients still expect high hits on press releases in both online and print. 

c.       c.Please give the journalists his space. It has become a habit with most of them to keep calling the journalist after one sends some press note or a press release. Let us understand and respect the journalist as they have lot of other things to do and hence it is important to do your follow up in the most understanding and interesting manner by not straining one’s relationship 

d.      d.Never drop a journalists name during new business pitches. Some professional’s likes to demonstrate their media relationship strengths in the meeting by dropping the name but at times one does not realize the correctness of the name and publication and the next thing you get to know is that he or she has moved from the publication. Thus cutting a sorry figure. Also some clients quiz the agency at times, so it is better to avoid mentioning  any names  

e.     e. Avoid outsourcing for authored or placed articles. As a public relation professional the onus lies with the person handling the account to write this as he or she has deeper understanding of the brand. The outsourcing can help you in the short run but in the long run your writing and thinking skills count a lot to build your career in this profession.

Thought leaders are built over a period of time

The word thought leader has been most commonly used in the Public Relations and the communication industry at the drop of the hat. Whether it is an existing client or new prospect one of the key agenda is to get thought leader ship position for their key spokesperson. I fail to understand why people don’t think that there is step by step process to get the thought leader position and especially in the case on a new client. While one can understand that this is the ambition for every client and brand one need to be patient and demonstrate his or thoughts to reach that stature. What is more important is that you need to consistently demonstrate your ability in your field in various forms for the world and media to respect you as the thought leader in your space.

Thought leadership comes from demonstrating great knowledge and leadership:

Name any good leader ,be it in retail, technology, advertising or banking the thought leader in their respective category have not achieved  this overnight. In the case of advertising Piiyush Pandey who began his career in Account Management and then crossed the fence to pen scripts and campaigns demonstrated his true creativity with many path breaking campaigns. Starting from Chal mere Luna for the Kinetic Engineering moped brand to the dancing girl in the cricket field for Cadbury’s to the evergreen and refreshing approach on Fevicol made Piyush very popular. But his consistency in delivering quality work made him the Guru or thought leader when it came to any debate or arguments in advertising not only in India but the world over. Piyush never went to the media; it is media who came to him when became a voice of authority advertising world. That is the true hallmark of a great thought leader.

One more example that I would like to illustrate is retail. Kishore Biyani rewrote the retail story by strongly believing that consumer is the king and came out with his innovative retail solutions. All of us will vouch with out any hesitation that he is the pioneer in India’s retail story and his capacity to demonstrate has earned him the thought leader status in the retail space. We have Narayan Murthy in technology and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw in bio technology who have really demonstrated before they reached the thought leader rank. It is the ultimate goal or ambition for every entrepreneur or founder of a company to be a thought leader but great thought leaders are the one who truly demonstrate their skills and knowledge with a long term agenda and will run with the baton for a very long distance with a strong focus on the future. There are no short cuts to emerge as a thought leader.

Key Drivers for being a thought leader:

Innovation and showing results to me is the foremost factor to say that you are a thought leader. Thought leaders are the people who are always ready to take risks and face challenges. They love to think about the out of the box ideas. The innovation is one of the main characters of the thought leaders. The risk taking ability of the thought leaders is the main drawback at times; however, it is also very much true that if the risk is not taken then the higher achievement will also not come easily. A thought leader must have or must choose an idea which is much more different than the traditional approaches which are very safe. Higher the risk the thought leader takes then he will be seen as a trend setter or a visionary in his own rights. If you see most of the thought leaders who have emerged in our country they are people who demonstrated the ability to take risk and have delivered positive results in their respective field. The examples stated by me in this piece are all people who have demonstrated risk taking ability backed by strong innovation and creativity.  

Brand Activation, Social media and Public Relations will play a key role this festive season:

 Brand Managers and Marketing managers will be kind to me but not the Advertising and Media buying agencies. With the slowing down of the economy and unpredictable business climate, marketers will be cautious and will not go full hog spending monies using mass media. Also I have learnt that growth in flat panel TVs, which was rocketing along at over 25 per cent a year back, has plunged to the low single digits. The same is true in the case of air-conditioners and appliances where the sales have shrunk. Some of the brands in the refrigerator and air-conditioner space had a tough period this summer.  All these indicators will force marketers to balance their spends very judiciously before this festive season. As the festivity begins in next 6 weeks brand managers must be evaluating their advertising and media strategy with a tooth comb to ensure that they spend judiciously and get the maximum buck for every penny invested. Companies in the Consumer durables and Auto segment will be using less of mass media as the margins are tight. Instead the emphasis will be to woo dealers with good returns and spend a lot on experiential marketing where they need to keep constantly engaging with the target audience at various touch points. Even in the other segments there will be a dip in the spend levels as efforts may be diverted more towards active consumer engagement programs and promotional contests to keep the buzz alive with the audience.  So let us wade through the various communication tools that will come in action at the market place this festive season.

Mass media may be curtailed:

You cannot avoid or ignore this medium totally as you need to achieve your reach and generate some awareness. We might see marketers using mass media more for promotional offers and tactical announcements. Use of theme or brand communication may take a back seat and the focus will be more towards promotional based TVC’s. One can also expect short duration of TVC’s and smaller size of advertisement in print publications. There are no big ticket sporting events apart from the Olympics for marketers to buy television spots. This will also lead to little reluctance to restrict the use of Television as a medium by brands. Advertising agencies and creative shops will have a tougher challenge of creating interesting creative and impactful communication as marketers will tightly control their media exposure to get great visibility from the various piece of communication that they generate.

 Brand Activation will be used at the right touch points:

The normal yardstick one uses to catch the audience is to be present on high reach program or prime time program when it comes to mass media. Similarly one will have to strategize and identify strong touch points to engage the audience face to face. Again your brand activation will have to be based on strong ideas which will be sticky and entice the audience and at the same time fall under the brand values of the product and its architecture. This year I expect lot of brands tying up with Pooja and Ganesh Mandals in the East and West and engage with the worshippers in the most intriguing and interesting manner. I can visualize ideas such as miniature Ganesh idol of Lal baug Ganesh being marketed as a memento with some brand connect there. Similarly one can look at some ice-cream making session in shopping malls in conjunction with a refrigerator brand. Auto brands may tie up with driving school to give free learning and training session for first time car buyers who needs driving lessons.  More such similar activation is what will drive marketers to achieve their targets and keep their margins intact.

Social Media and Public Relations will play a key role:

Apart from running promotions and contest to engage with the customers on social media we can expect new thoughts and fresh ideas to happen. Budgets will be directed to give consumers better in-store experience through strong merchandising, creative product display and live demonstration. Digital media will also play a very active role in the consumer decision as they will help the consumer explore and evaluate which product is better. This can be in the form of DEMOMERCIALS where a longer version of the product demos produced on low budget explaining the product in detail. This can be telecasted on You tube with the relevant link. Such detailed demo can help the customer to narrow the decision before he finally goes to the dealer outlet and take closer look to test the product. Public relations will also play an active support to address the traditional media. Here again the focus will be more in class II town and downwards to sustain the momentum during the festive period. If marketers are able to bring in innovative products with great features public relations can help them leverage good visibility and mileage for the brand. And for some reasons if there are no great features are benefit for the product to offer then you will have to rope in brand ambassadors to attract media and get good photo opportunity for the brand.

Mom & Pop store will never die :

The good old days:

As a kid when I was staying in a small suburb of Mumbai, I used to see my mom get worried as the 30th of the month approaches.  Simply because she will be eagerly waiting for the sales boy from a distant Kirana store come home and take the grocery items order for the month and ensure that goods were delivered the same day.  This process was religiously followed as there were no other options available and there were not many trusted Kirana shops. As time progressed more and more Kirana shops mushroomed next to the street we lived but my mom was never comfortable to try a new shop for various reasons. Firstly the shop she was buying was run by a Tamilian owner and secondly he could converse in Tamil with my mother which made her all the more comfortable in ordering through this store.  Secondly most of her friends were also placing order with this guy and hence that trust factor played a pivotal role. Thirdly they become part of the family as the store owner is familiar with all the members of the family. This emotional connect further helped in strengthening the loyalty. Now let us explore and find out that what are the compelling reasons for the good old customers to trust the mom and pop store and what is missing with the giant supermarket which has made entry in many cities.

The 4 C’s that retains the loyalty factor:

The three factors that primarily attributes for people to stick to Mom & Pop store are Convenience, Cost, Choice if items and Customer service. While there are other factors that support the loyalty factor but the 4 C’s is what drives most for them to retain the customer. Now let us dissect the 4C’s.

a.       Convenience: Here the shop is located close to one’s residence so that one can leisurely go and buy things during any point of the day. Alternatively the shop will not hesitate to give free home delivery even if only one item is ordered. Unlike the big retail chain who insists on placing a minimum amount of order to avail the free home delivery. All this little benefits remain sticky in the customers mind and could be one of the factors that will motivate him not to move from the friendly neighborhood shop. These shops also offer convenient payment facilities ranging from good credit period to accepting Sodexho coupons etc. Some of these shops also maintains a personal ledger book for each customer and settles the payment end of the month. At times due to one’s strong past reputation the credit period is further extended.

b.       Cost: Being a long standing customer he or she always gets the benefit of competitive price. Here there will always be a case to argue saying the big retail shops will offer less price  but some of the trusted customers who have being buying for ages with these mom and pop stores do not always look at only price they also look at  consistency in the  quality of cereals and spices. Especially in the case of the rice, dal and tamarind where age of the products determine a lot.  The consistency in quality also helps the housewives to churn out good dishes to satisfy the taste buds of their loving husbands. Since most of the Mom & Pop stores don’t change their whole sale vendors they have control on the goods they order unlike the big retail chain who switch vendors from time to time to offer value for money offerings to their customers. Also since the mom &pop stores operates in places where they own it for many years their real estate cost and rentals are low. As a result they are able to offer certain rebate on some items which will be a rarity by the organized big retail shops.

c.       Choice: Most of the Mom &Pop stores also offers a wide choice but gives the right choice to their customers unlike big retail chains who only stock reputed brands. These stores also stocks local brands where loyalty has been established by their customers. This is most common in category like beverages (tea and coffee) where savor matters a lot to the audience. At times these stores also go out of the way to get the customer’s choice based on request which the big retail chains will not entertain as they only look at universal taste and cater to a larger population.  The mom and pop stores also cater to wide spectrum of audience and hence they have to offer the right choice to retain these customers. They need not keep huge inventory in their warehouse but to ensure that they don’t disappoint their long standing customers they keep them in small quantity which a large scale retail shop cannot do it with ease. This is because in the case of the mom & pop stores most of his customers are fixed and he is able to calculate his demand supply and choice of products with lot more ease and accuracy.

d.      Customer Care:  Customer care has been the emphasis for most giant supermarket stores but the kind of personal touch that mom &pop stores gives cannot be replaced. The personal equation of the owner is so good that he knows the likes and dislikes of each family member. The shop owner knows the first name of his customer and hence he is able to connect with the customer with lot of ease and thus establishing a good bond. This is missing with the big retail brands as they are more busy clearing the people from the cash counter and finding less time to interact with the customers. Most of these mom & pop store also gives advance tips and trends by asking customers to stock certain cereals or other grocery items as they expect short supply in the near future. They constantly keep taking feedback from the customers to improve the range and quality of products they offer, some stores also deliver free sample for them to try new products or new quality that they get in the store. What’s more they also accept without any crib if defective goods are returned. These little caring qualities only further enhances the bonding with store for the customer stay forever.

Conclusion : Even though we keep hearing about the arrivals of many giant supermarkets chains  with worldwide reputation the Mom & Pop stores are here to stay and will rule the retail world in India. There are several strong selling points which are inherent from the day the store started. And this cannot be overnight changed as the mindset of the Indian customer cannot be easily dislodged. The low real estate costs, low infrastructure costs, low marketing costs are factors that have always been working for the mom & pop stores. This is not the case with the big retail chains as they come with huge overheads and also need to earmark huge marketing budgets to build the brand from scratch. Both the retail format will co-exist for another 5-10 years. But with advancement in the technology and the growth of internet penetration a retail evolution can happen in the form of e-commerce which has already made good inroads in other categories.

Public Relations is a powerful tool to build Tech Brands

Early days of Technology:

The early 90’s saw the beginning of technology entering the Indian market. This was in various forms starting from basic PC’s to Mainframe computers to Mini and Super Mini computers. The technology jargon and concepts were alien to many people and most of them learnt their basics on the job through training and education run by many computer institutes. Companies made it a point to enroll their employees with the computer institutes to make them computer literate. Most corporates slowly started investing in the hardware and software aspect of computer and these departments were called the EDP department which basically helped in undertaking data processing jobs primarily in the accounting areas to begin with. There was always a fear amongst many that how accurate is a computer.  Can it really replace human brains? Will it increase unemployment by replacing human hands? Then the constant threats from trade unions for employing computer technology in the companies.  There were very few brands in this space that people were aware about. Some of the brands that were know were Hinditron, Zenith, ICIM, IBM, etc. There was a strong need for people to be told and educated about technology to bring in credibility and benefits of the technology. While advertising campaigns were released in business dailies, business magazines and computer journals but that was not sufficient to create a pull for the brand as the pace of technology was changing rapidly and many new players were entering the market.

How tech brands benefitted from Public Relations?

When technology brands entered India in the beginning of 90’s Public Relations as a tool was gaining some respect and popularity.  There was no beat that was specifically writing about technology but publications and media companies started opening up and encouraged journalists to write more on this new vertical. The government also opened doors to lot of international technology giants to invest in India and in a matter of few years we could see big guns like Microsoft and Intel pumping huge monies in India. Since technology was rapidly changing there was a need to create awareness and educate the audience both B2B and B2C on the benefits of new technologies. And the only easy way was to use strong PR driven communication strategy, as advertising had its limitation to explain technology in the most detailed and friendly manner.  While advertising campaigns generated awareness amongst the CTO’s and CIO’s but it is  credible stories with meaningful and relevant information about  the  emerging new technologies is what helped the decision makers  to narrow their decisions in buying new products and  implementing  new technologies  . The CIO’s and CTO’s had to compare lot of notes before placing an order for a new technology or hardware as  there was always a fear that the technology will become obsolete soon. And of course there was limited IT budget earmarked and therefore the decision has to be sharp and correct.

World’s best brands built through Public Relations:

Some of the world’s best brands have been built though PR. Our own homegrown software company Infosys is both a leading Indian and global brand which has grown in manifolds has very intelligently used PR as their key communication tool both in India and abroad. The secret of their success was they delivered value consistently which helped in creating strong belief and shaping positive opinions’ both with the stake holders and the media. Today both the brand and the spokespersons of Infosys have built a good reputation as thought leaders in the IT industry.

High tech companies like Amazon.com, Yahoo!, and eBay, Google, Microsoft, Intel and BlackBerry are great examples of tech companies that built their initial identities through Public Relations. Other tech giants like SAP, Cisco and Oracle strongly believed in PR has their primary communication tool before spending big bucks on advertising campaigns.

Google is another brand which is in everybody‘s mind starting from today’s new generation kids to senior citizens. This brand has never advertised in India although recently they started to spend some monies on advertising .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 lingo ‘Google’ it to get any information on the net. Since media is always hungry for exciting news and innovation on the technology front they always loved tracking Google’s road map and growth path 24X7.

Today most of the startup companies especially in the technology space trusts PR to create awareness as it is cost effective and lends credibility. Most of the startup companies have sharply defined audience which is all the more reason they place their faith on PR to do their job. Brands like Flipkart and Snapdeal has really combined PR and advertising so cleverly to reap maximum benefits in the last couple of years.

Role of PR and how it worked and the future:

The PR specialists had an important role to play here. It was not just pushing press releases but doing lot of proactive interaction with the media. Clients have also taken lot of pains and have been kind  to educate the agencies by conducting periodic training sessions to understand better on the technology aspect. Investing quality time through bridge meeting between clients and journalists regularly has helped journalists gain lot of knowledge and information in the category. This engagement model both at local and global level kept the media always on the toes to know more about the client and the category. Multinational technology giants made it a point to invite experts from their headquarters to collaborate and share with the media on global trends and about their new product and technology offerings from time to time. Associations like NASSCOM also laid a strong platform for tech companies to meet, share and discuss challenges with all their stakeholders. Beside this, editors from many media houses made it a point to participate in international technology summits and conferences for deeper understanding in the technology space.  And now with the advent of internet and video conferencing, accessing news has become far easier for media companies and journalist’s as they are able to access information instantly, which in turn helps them in writing some interesting stories. While traditional PR is still the bread and butter for many tech brands but action in the social media direction has increased the engagement levels of CTO’s and CIO’s with journalist through several community groups. These community groups supplemented by several blogs and new social media tools will very soon bring in paradigm shift in the way PR will be used for technology brands.