Public Relations and Communicators Blog

If language is the liberator of human beings, the Communication function is the liberator of an  organization. It frees businesses from the constraints of time and space and the incarceration of their own mindsets. Of the various communication tools an organization uses, Public Relations is the one that comes closest to taking on the role of a mind-liberator, almost like a spiritual guide. PR is a versatile communication tool which serves the organization by serving the needs of the community and society. It is the only such tool that was created for the sake of the public, in response to their needs, facilitating “public understanding and acceptance”. One definition of Public Relations has the following words:  “Public Relations helps our complex, pluralistic society to reach decisions and function more effectively by contributing to mutual understanding among groups and institutions. It serves to bring private and public policies into harmony.” Sounds more like a mes...

In a country like India where population can be termed as plenty and human resources, immense, an Industry like PR always must have a bright future. Flamboyant marketing, effective advertising and intelligent PR are sure to hold importance in the second most populous country and the 4th largest economy in the world. Public Relations in India is fast becoming a growing component of the enterprise marketing budget. Often bordering on business consulting, the scope of Public Relations firms is getting more and more complex. It no longer seems strange to see companies hiring firms for managing the image specifically of their C-Suite, public advocacy campaigns or litigations. According to the recent Holmes report, the western growth of PR is almost plateaued in the range of 9% to 11%, with India (as China too) growing at 4 times that pace. To quote the report, "The greatest future in growth is expected to come in China and India, with good prospects for growth in Eastern Europe (pa...

Brand Equity, the popular supplement of India's leading financial daily has a small snippet in today's Bawdy Copy (BC) column titled 'PR Kiya Toh Darna Kya' that almost makes an individual feel bad about hiring a PR agency. I'm equally sure that this small BC piece will actually cause the PR agency that Kurup hired to be hauled up, and if you ask me, its only for doing their job well. Lets understand one part. As much as corporates hire PR agencies, individuals too, the world over hire PR agencies. Doctors, Artists, Politicians, Actors, Authors, Creative Directors, Lawyers, and any other professional (or not) who've achieved something in their lives thinks of PR at least once in a lifetime. Its an excting proposition to see one's name in the papers after all! So, if that is true, what did Kurup do wrong? Is it wrong for an individual to hire a PR agency? Should individuals be quiet or even covert for having hired a PR agency? Most need and use PR, including ...

With over Sixty million blogs floating around in the cyberspace, what difference could another blog make? Quite a bit, if you’re to go by what industry analysts say. India, still new to the blogging phenomena, is poised to take off in this sphere too opined some communications expert when spoken to recently. Blogging is about connecting & sharing with your own sub-cult, a sub-group, something more akin to a Special Interest Group. Subjects as varied as technology, healthcare, personal finance or shopping, or a specific geography, dot the list of the most popular blogs in the world. The influence of blogs in India too is increasing rapidly following closely on the lines of the TIME magazine’s list list of bloggers who are impossible to ignore today. Management of the internet blog environment with relation to a company’s image has become even more essential because left unmanaged such mass movement blogs can fuel and propel negative perception. Managing the blog ecosystem requires o...

You know the maxim of bottles & wines right? I have a theory that says that old wine in any bottle has to taste better. If the taste is not to your liking, chances are that its time to change your drink. Public Relations agencies take pride in old and steady relationships. We do too! But a spate of recent pitches that we were invited to, shock-struck my eyes open. Thrilled as we were to participate in these pitches, we were gloating in the fact that Blue Lotus was making dents into decade old relationships. We were also excited to explore how help change the way PR can be used for these ‘rock-steady’ organizations. Just a few weeks ago, we’ve replaced an agency which had a 13 year old relationship, and another pitch we were invited for where the relationship had soured progressively over the last 10 years!! During one of our pitches (in the penultimate round) I was while casually conversing with the client on their rationale for change of agency after so many years and I got enligh...

The Essentials of Managing Ethics in Financial Public Relations The world has woken up to ethical issues in corporate governance & accounting practices. Corporate heads that were not guillotined were forced hang their heads in retrospective shame. The heads that fell were the victimizers, and the axe that fell, fell too late, and the punishment received, was way too little compared to the suffering, pain and financial losses that the organizations’ stakeholders suffered. Trust of millions of investors was lost overnight. Ethics in governance is one part of the story, the other link in this dubious chain of deceit is usually the professional services like auditing, legal and public relations which work closely with the organization. Such large scale deceit becomes possible only with the active collaboration of these so-called ‘professional’ services. Hardly professional, really! The Indian investor has been victim to a lot of companies attempting to make a quick buck in the markets....

Indeed, these are wonderful times we live in. I prefer to call this the Disruptive Age - an age where almost anything, anyone (and not to mention, any country) can disrupt even century old concepts, beliefs and businesses. An era where the old gives way to the new with ease, a time when anything is possible! This era has also seen a resurgence of some old business concepts like public relations which have reinvented themselves and have taken a prominent central stage in all other businesses. Till some years ago, it was rare to find someone who understood public relations, and today while many understand it, not everyone who does uses public relations to do what it is meant to do, viz to build brands. Reputation is the most basic building block of brand image, and public relations is arguably one of the most reliable tools of reputation building, making it indispensable to brand building in the current disruptive era. For practitioners of PR in India, 2006 will be considered a watershed...

The business of building and maintaining positive public perception rests of fundamental pillars of Passion & Purpose which are fanatically pursued at Blue Lotus. This article attempts to decipher the elements that go into the making of a successful public relations agency. The power of Passion Passion is an extraordinarily powerful spring. Without it religion, history, romance, and art are useless. Likewise, Public Relations too becomes completely deflated without the essential ingredient of Passion. It demonstrates avowed belief, everlasting appeal and steadfast loyalty. So why does passion become so much more important in the business of public relations as compared to any other service industry? To convert others to your way of thinking, being a believer first is essential. It is then that you can take a convincing stand with people of different attitudes, perceptions and sensitivities. It is necessary to have an obsessive faith in your client’s business & philosophy and yo...

Think for a moment! If you were to do a business, be in a profession or a job that you loved, something that was a passion and you considered worth doing; would you ever think early retirement or rush home early from work? ‘Doubtful’ is a certainty, to say the least! A few years ago, I perchance drifted across a book titled ‘To Sail Beyond the Sunset’ in which Robert Heinlein’s character, Jubal Harshaw, said something that left a lasting impression on me, and ergo, naturally, on the way I look at life. Jubal says “Happiness lies in being privileged to work hard for long hours in doing whatever you think is worth doing. One man may find happiness in supporting a wife and children. And another may find it in robbing banks. Still another may labor mightily for years in pursuing pure research with no discernible results.” “Note the individual and subjective nature of each case. No two are alike and there is no reason to expect them to be. Each man or woman must find for himself or herself ...

Background The organized PR industry is just over a dozen years old in India and over these years, PR is slowly evolving to become a critical tool for Indian businesses. Currently valued between Rs. 175 & Rs. 200 crores the industry is estimated to be growing at robust pace of approximately 40-45% p.a. Estimates show that the top 15 to 20 PR agencies in the country contribute upto 60-70% of the total sector turnover; the balance 35 to 40 odd agencies form the middle segment and the balance 1000 to 1100 odd agencies are one-man shops set up (usually) by ex-journalists/ex-professionals. The total number of professionals working in the PR industry is estimated to be between 10,000 to 11,000; with 25%-30% of them working with the top 20 agencies. The Indian PR market is burgeoning into a force to reckon with, and the world’s focus on India, and India’s focus on the world will make the communication imperative impossible to ignore. The real challenge The biggest issue that faces Blue Lo...