Harnessing the Power of PR for success. By Dr T. Vinay Kumar. 

 

Public Relations has become an integral component of corporate strategy and management vision. According to Adrian Falk*, a best-selling author, PR has become indispensable for corporations as well as any other entities craving for a social existence. Credibility, low-cost, improving SEO, brand positioning and widespread reach are the five principles that make PR an indispensable tool for everything connected to an effective communication strategy.

 

Let us dwell on these five principles briefly. Reputation and credibility are the most important ingredients for any corporate entity irrespective of size and origin. In the words of Adrian Falk “Being seen as an honest and reliable company in the customer’s eyes is a great advantage”. Public Relations play a crucial role in this matter by disseminating fact-based information with a focused approach and specific targeting. A PR professional creates the information toolkit based on the company, the business vertical of that particular company, the local and global significance of that business vertical and its risks profiles. In other words, the information toolkit by a PR professional is a SWOT analysis with a difference. If the conventional SWOT analysis concentrates on profit and loss the focus of the PR professional would be on using information for the creation of the corporate and social identity of a business entity.

This brings us to costing, the second principle that makes PR indispensable for corporations. Everybody knows that a PR campaign is not a ‘one-size fits all’ approach. A professional PR campaign is a process that would help in developing communication linkages and benchmarks for the company with different media outlets on a long-term basis. Such long-term relationships make a qualitative difference in gaining the trust and confidence of media outlets professionally.  Compared with the enormous costs for advertising and other promotional activities, the cost of building such a long-term relationship using PR would be extremely competitive and many times more effective. At the same time, let me add a caveat. Please, don’t have any illusions that PR would make advertisement and other promotional activities redundant. PR is only part of an integrated communication strategy that includes advertisements and other promotional activities.

Search engine optimization or SEO has become crucial in developing a communication strategy in the era of digital technology. SEO plays an important role in ensuring the presence of a company or product seamlessly. An efficient PR strategy would ensure the presence of a company or product in the media on a regular basis. The relatively regular presence in the media is a stepping stone for gaining the attention of algorithms that shape SEOs.

Brand positioning is another important ingredient in the PR armory. We know that every major corporation places a premium on its brand identity. But many people often fail to grasp the importance of developing a proper communication strategy for the promotion of the unique brand identity. For instance, every brand is a representation of a value. Trust, tradition, quality, confidence, strength, love, happiness, etc. are some of the values constantly invoked for branding purposes. The job of the PR professional begins after the branding expert completes their work. The PR professional helps in positioning the uniqueness of the brand in two ways. The PR professional is indispensable for conveying the uniqueness of the brand. Secondly, the constant interaction with different media outlets through a PR professional will go a long way in projecting the company as a leader amongst its peers.

Finally, the importance of PR in ensuring a spreading reach in different media verticals and platforms. The spreading of reach has become an increasingly specialized and complex task with the explosion of digital media platforms. Nowadays we have three important media verticals: Print, Television and Digital Media. As I have mentioned earlier, we can’t afford to think of a ‘one size fits all’ approach to these media verticals. The content as well as the strategy for dissemination of the content varies according to the platform. The help from a PR professional is essential for navigating these different platforms without blemishes.  I will go back to Mr. Falk to highlight the importance of professional PR in developing the right communication strategy for a company.  “When you take into consideration how in one PR campaign alone you could be on TV, radio, online news sites and in print media, it’s staggering to think about the millions of consumers you could potentially target all through crafting just one initial news story”. Yes. Crafting the initial news story is the key differentiator. The PR professional becomes indispensable in the art of crafting the initial news story.

The above-mentioned five points indicate the indispensability of harnessing PR to develop a successful business in these days. The five points have universal validity and all PR professionals have no option other than to follow these universal principles. At the same time good professionals will also have to take into account the cultural specificities and nuances while developing PR strategy and plans. The point assumes great importance in a country like India with numerous diversities. For instance, a media content targeting a Tamil or Kannadiga audience cannot be replicated in ditto for a north Indian audience. The content has to be tweaked in accordance with the requirements of the targeted audience. We have many examples of major corporate strategies failing to achieve the required impact due to the failure in addressing the cultural specificities of a particular habitat. The media ecosystem also tracks such specificities and the PR professional would be of great help in handling such nuances efficiently.

The success of an efficient communication strategy depends largely on the ability to identify the right PR model and its successful implementation. The ‘right approach at the right time’ is the primary secret behind every successful PR model. The ability to harness and nurture an efficient PR strategy at the right time has become a key determinant in shaping winners and losers in a fast-changing and highly competitive business ecosystem. As a person in media and communication industry for more than four decades I have no doubt that success belongs to those capable of grasping the importance of harnessing PR at the right time.

 

 *Adrian Falk, a best-selling author, is also the founder of International Agency Believe Advertising and PR.

 

 

– Dr T  Vinay Kumar  

Director & Secretary, Governing Council, Public Relations Council of India ( PRCI ),

Chairman, Kome Vertika, Integrated Marketing Communications, Kochi.