Public Relations and Communicators Blog

It is not every day that a brand gets tested such. It’s an uncanny coincidence that a brand which bears the name Amazon, a name depicting the legendary female warrior race, believed by ancient Greeks to exist on the edge of the known world, comes face-to-face with a modern day social warrior living on the edge of her beliefs.  Like every human or brand battle, this one too is about courage, convictions and beliefs. It is important to bring the episode to fore, lest the discussion become an anesthetized one about a brand and its ambassador. The incident which Swara Bhasker tweeted about is a blood curdling gang-rape of an eight year old, by a man, his son, his nephew, and his friend, repeatedly over four days. The girl was kept alive with this single gruesome purpose and finally strangulated, and her head stone-bashed to doubly ensure her end. Swara tweeted “I am Hindustan. I am Ashamed. #JusticeForOurChild #JusticeForAasifa. 8 years old. Gangraped. Murdered. In ‘Devi’-sthaa...

When a newspaper like The Hindustan Times shuts down its editions, 4 of them simultaneously, letting go of nearly 1000 people (as reported in the media) it does so because it is seriously considering its future options. At the same time there is news of large regional media houses like the Kolkata based ABP cutting down staff by 40%, creating a frenzy of speculations, including many professional orbituary writers inking their pen while anticipating the next business demise to be that of print media. At the same time, there are reports to the exact opposite like the recent World Press Trends Survey 2016 which have globally shown 4.9% growth over last year largely on account of the growth of print in India. Sometimes, these two situations seem quite contradictory, throwing all print media related businesses into a tizzy.  I have been in businesses that are considerably dependent on print media and, if print media were to shut down tomorrow, three of our group's five businesses wou...

(also appeared in Firstpost)  The recent Tata boardroom spat has spawned many faceted discussions, and one of these has been on the appointment and role Independent Directors – an aspect that not only concerns governance, but also Board room expertise. Like many, I spent a considerable amount of time wondering what the boardroom discussions would be like, extrapolating from the little information that was available. To emphasize the need for expertise in the board, the rules for appointment of independent directors of a board under the MCA Act require the independent director to possess appropriate skills, experience and knowledge in one or more fields of finance, law, management, sales, marketing, administration, research, corporate governance, technical operations or other disciplines related to the company's business. It is quite clear that expertise (and not just experience) is one of the necessary qualities of the board. The question that kept coming back to me was...

T he benefits of an information-connected world have been widely experienced by most of humankind. This unbound freedom of expression is giving rise to a new world with information democracy making a compelling impact on the fate of the big and powerful. Governments, institutions, brands, and the influential are all being subject to microscopic scrutiny by the masses, who are armed to unforgivingly ‘share’ unfiltered individual opinions. Every drop of individual reaction now has the potential to unnoticeably but swiftly swell into a tidal wave of mass opinion. However it may be seen, Brand Trust is fragile, like a sparrow chick held in one’s hand – hold it too tight and you’ll suffocate it; hold it too lightly and it will escape. The grip has to be just right, and to keep the bird alive and thriving needs constant nurturing. The brand risks associated with loss of trust in our perplexing networked world makes predictable consequences difficult, but most of us intuitively...

Any brand’s personality is the combination of the way a brand speaks to its audience and reaches out to them, and how it represents itself. So, how are the mass retailer and the e-tailer different? What characteristic behavior patterns of the two are the drivers of their businesses? We look at these two channels and compare the reasons behind their successes and study their behaviors based our group's proprietary models of the Trust and Attractiveness quotient of any brand or category. The brand personality of Retailers and e-tailers that make up the Buying Propensity of each follows: Brand Personality Retailer E-tailer Brand Trust Commanding Respect Commanding Respect Outward Appearance Non-Threatening Ambience Shared Interest Guiding and Helping Brand Attractiveness Oration Oration Self-Control Conscious Effort Positivity Social Maturity There ...

The recent controversy regarding celebrity endorsers being penalized for misleading endorsement has brought to light an old debate. Is spurious brand endorsement merely the responsibility of an endorser? What is the brand's obligation in making a claim? If something goes wrong, where and how does the blame get assigned? All combined, the debate about changes to the Consumer Protection Bill surrounding the penalization of celebrity brand endorsers with misleading claims ought to be conducted on an open platform. There are several layers to the debate and these must be considered carefully before the panel’s recommendations are put into effect. At present, the debate revolves around the suggestions of a parliamentary standing committee on food, consumer affairs, and public distribution, which recommends celebrities be held accountable for the brands they endorse. If the parliamentary panel’s recommendations are accepted, a celebrity endorsing a brand that has a misleading...