Public Relations and Communicators Blog

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...

Brands exist to meet the needs, desires, opportunities, and vulnerabilities that exist in the world, the fulfillment of which results in human gratification. However, the habitat that brands and businesses exist in is visibly and rapidly transforming. The strategy of navigating the market turf is not easy even in normal circumstances, and when the environment is unstructured and ambiguous, brands often struggle to come to grips with a unifying strategy. The need for a universal approach, which provides options for the diverse stages of a brand’s lifecycle, situations ranging from combative markets to crises, one that works just as well for startups and mature organizations, is perhaps a greater imperative than any other intellectual input needed by the world of brands today. However, to work universally, such a universal ‘String Theory’ of brand strategy must be founded in the elemental ingredients of the brand so that it can address the diverse range of circumstances that ...