As we know that Public Relations is as an important and vital communication tool. In my opinion, the Public Relations as an industry, is facing major problem of scarce talent pool of trained professional.
Most of the aspiring yougsters entering the PR profession have the perception that they are fit for the profession because "...I love meeting and interacting with people" .
People are pouring into this profession with different backgrounds, which I consider healthy for the industry, but are we really moving in the right direction? There are not many institutes, which may train and create quality resourse pool for Public Relations.
This may be the issue which we as PR professionals would like to address, so that more aspiring young talent can be attracted to join the industry.
Together, we need to create and promote talent pool of mature, experienced and seasoned PR professionals so that Indian PR Industry can make its mark in the global PR Industry.
Incase, we fail to address the problem at this stage, there will be tough times ahead for PR as an industry in this country!
August 19, 2007
Writing a communication plan
How to write a PR or Communications plan for a Corporate entity
Let's analyse:
Any PR or communications plan has to ask the fundamental questions, "Why does this organisation exist?", "What is it trying to achieve?", "What are the key objectives?" This will provide the grounding to enable you to construct your plan.
Having done this you need to ask yourself how aware are the public /TG, of your work and what their opinion is? In order to get an objective view, some research/ feedback will probably be required – often a quick questionnaire or phone call to a reasonable selection of people will do. This will help identify your ‘image’ in people’s minds.
Define objective:
Where do you want your organisation to be seen within a certain time frame, say a year, three years or perhaps by the end of a campaign? Do you want more people to know about you, and if so, why? Do you have the capacity to handle larger numbers of users/clients/visitors?
Let's say key message:
Narrow down what you want to say as much as possible. Key messages are usually very simple and rarely involve policy statements.
You should ask yourself "why should our target audience come to us?"
The answer "because we are good" is not good enough.
Why are we good? "We are trustworthy", "we know what we are talking about", are both key messages. You need not always spell out a key message in actual words. For example, it may be incorporated into the design of your newsletter.
Who do you want to talk to? (your target audience)
Which section(s) of the community are you trying to reach? The ‘general public’ or ‘everybody’ is too vague. The more you narrow this target down the more effective you will be. Targeting does not mean excluding everybody else, it just means knowing the select group of people better.
Think how your target audience gets its information. What papers do they read? Do they listen to local radio? Do they watch more of news genre or the local language channels on their TV sets? Are they part of another network? Do they think the local paper is a waste of time? This will all help with implementing your strategy.
The effective tools
How best can you reach your audience with your message? This is based on what you know about them.
Think beyond Media Relations!
If word of mouth is best then use it. Conferences, meetings and site visits can all be part of a PR plan. How about shop window displays, direct mail, or exhibitions? Your methods should be based as much as possible on what you know about your target audience. For example, there is no point in putting a great effort into getting coverage in the Western Mail if very few of your target audience read that particular paper. The local weekly may be much more use to you.
Strategy timetables
In other words your plan of action. Do you want a big blast of publicity or a steady flow? Give yourself targets and a timetable – magazines, even local ones, may need a story or feature three months before they appear in print. If your strategy is to spread the word through attending various meetings, for example, then set yourself a target of attending X number of meetings over the next six months. Each method or way of communicating you have identified will have its own time restraints or limits. If you don't set yourself some targets you will probably forget your good intentions.
Budget
What is this all going to cost you? In an ideal world your budget would simply be set at what it would cost to implement the strategy. In the voluntary sector this is where you start to narrow down your options. You are unlikely to be able to do it all, so target your resources at the methods you think will be most effective, even if they are not the most glamorous ones. Some elements in your strategy may not start for several months, in which case you might have time to try and raise some money. Funders are far more likely to give for a specific item if it is clearly part of a general communications strategy than an item on its own.
Evaluation
PR is a long term exercise and is a continous process, hence, we know this is an ongoing pain to keep up, but how else can you judge whether your efforts have been a success? Plan time in for this on a regular basis, even if it is simply a matter of keeping press cuttings and a record of the number of inquiries you receive. Done regularly you will start to notice if things are not working as you hoped. It’s a great early warning system that enables you to change your strategy rather than bang your head against a brick wall. Remember - the best strategy is one that is flexible and changes over time.
***
Let's analyse:
Any PR or communications plan has to ask the fundamental questions, "Why does this organisation exist?", "What is it trying to achieve?", "What are the key objectives?" This will provide the grounding to enable you to construct your plan.
Having done this you need to ask yourself how aware are the public /TG, of your work and what their opinion is? In order to get an objective view, some research/ feedback will probably be required – often a quick questionnaire or phone call to a reasonable selection of people will do. This will help identify your ‘image’ in people’s minds.
Define objective:
Where do you want your organisation to be seen within a certain time frame, say a year, three years or perhaps by the end of a campaign? Do you want more people to know about you, and if so, why? Do you have the capacity to handle larger numbers of users/clients/visitors?
Let's say key message:
Narrow down what you want to say as much as possible. Key messages are usually very simple and rarely involve policy statements.
You should ask yourself "why should our target audience come to us?"
The answer "because we are good" is not good enough.
Why are we good? "We are trustworthy", "we know what we are talking about", are both key messages. You need not always spell out a key message in actual words. For example, it may be incorporated into the design of your newsletter.
Who do you want to talk to? (your target audience)
Which section(s) of the community are you trying to reach? The ‘general public’ or ‘everybody’ is too vague. The more you narrow this target down the more effective you will be. Targeting does not mean excluding everybody else, it just means knowing the select group of people better.
Think how your target audience gets its information. What papers do they read? Do they listen to local radio? Do they watch more of news genre or the local language channels on their TV sets? Are they part of another network? Do they think the local paper is a waste of time? This will all help with implementing your strategy.
The effective tools
How best can you reach your audience with your message? This is based on what you know about them.
Think beyond Media Relations!
If word of mouth is best then use it. Conferences, meetings and site visits can all be part of a PR plan. How about shop window displays, direct mail, or exhibitions? Your methods should be based as much as possible on what you know about your target audience. For example, there is no point in putting a great effort into getting coverage in the Western Mail if very few of your target audience read that particular paper. The local weekly may be much more use to you.
Strategy timetables
In other words your plan of action. Do you want a big blast of publicity or a steady flow? Give yourself targets and a timetable – magazines, even local ones, may need a story or feature three months before they appear in print. If your strategy is to spread the word through attending various meetings, for example, then set yourself a target of attending X number of meetings over the next six months. Each method or way of communicating you have identified will have its own time restraints or limits. If you don't set yourself some targets you will probably forget your good intentions.
Budget
What is this all going to cost you? In an ideal world your budget would simply be set at what it would cost to implement the strategy. In the voluntary sector this is where you start to narrow down your options. You are unlikely to be able to do it all, so target your resources at the methods you think will be most effective, even if they are not the most glamorous ones. Some elements in your strategy may not start for several months, in which case you might have time to try and raise some money. Funders are far more likely to give for a specific item if it is clearly part of a general communications strategy than an item on its own.
Evaluation
PR is a long term exercise and is a continous process, hence, we know this is an ongoing pain to keep up, but how else can you judge whether your efforts have been a success? Plan time in for this on a regular basis, even if it is simply a matter of keeping press cuttings and a record of the number of inquiries you receive. Done regularly you will start to notice if things are not working as you hoped. It’s a great early warning system that enables you to change your strategy rather than bang your head against a brick wall. Remember - the best strategy is one that is flexible and changes over time.
***
August 3, 2007
“Investment” in Communication
Why to hire PR Agencies?
The buzzword in today’s corporate world is cost control. All the companies rush to the fact of reducing the cost by cutting the operational costs. They cut on employees, they cut on promotional expenses. Amount earmarked for Communication functions is considered to be an "Expenditure" rather than "Investment", even in today’s mature corporate world. The communication budget is the first victim to the 'cost control axe'.
Investment in Communication:
The fact is rather diagonally opposite to this myth.
The moment one understands that the business is sluggish and profits are not coming in, quarterly reports showing the decline graph and the enthusiasm level of employees, business partners is touching sea-bottom. The need of the hour is to “Invest” in Communication.
Because, it is the Communication and only the Communication, which can hold an organisation in high esteem, as it spells out the ideas, values and vision of the management to the inside and outside world of an organisation.
The aggressive communication helps an organisation to counter myths of the world. The Public Relations consultancy is the arm which extends support to an organisation in designing Communication strategies.
Concept of Public Relations:
We now understand the concept of Public Relations: is more of a Corporate function than a Marketing one.
A PR consultancy supports its clients in projecting a corporate identity and helps in overall positioning. The process of positioning, supports the efforts of marketing functions, while building the brand awareness and image of its products.
Role of PR Consultancy:
PR nurtures the plant of mutual understanding, belief and faith between an organisation and its public. PR consultancies performs host of important functions including developing corporate identity and image building, issue management, counseling on the effective use of the media, building strong relationships with key media constituencies.
Need of PR Consultancy:
‘Companies may survive even without outsourcing to a PR consultancy’.
But the corporate world is becoming increasingly competitive and a PR Consultancy in place extending full support to develop brand image, provides the organisation a competitive edge is critical!
Are PR Consultancy firms are performing their roles to the core are they just actng as PR 'Agencies' ?
There is a worldwide business trend to turn towards specialization as companies tend to focus on outsourcing for specialized services.
PR consultancy firm should offer expertise and competency in its field while providing synergistic approach towards solving the communication-related problems of the company and offers an unbiased and objective perspective.
The PR Perspective:
‘How many press clips in a month can you deliver?’
The Corporate world expects PR consultancies to facilitate big news items published on prominently in the media in favour of their Organisations. This is the only deliverable any organisation expects out of a PR Consultancy. The Corporate world doesn’t seem to understand, the way to make best use of a PR Consultancy.
The Indian PR industry is in its infancy stage and is still learning the key basics of this art.
The senior professionals working with leading PR Consultancies are busy enough to justify their jobs to their bosses, their bosses are busy enough to justify huge fee amount being charged from clients.
PR Agencies, who at the top of their voice, shout for Transparency in their Client’s business, better (two-way) communication, better HR practices and so forth, don’t practice best of internal communication, within their own organisation. PR Agencies are afraid of loosing Clients as Chickens fear of loosing their lives. One branch office may not even be aware of their colleagues working in other branches.
Yes, they are Agencies and not Consultancies. They don’t practice what they preach!!
Public Relations! …I know the job…!!
Reason for this is, mushrooming of anybody and everybody as PR agent. They try to beg, borrow or steal business from other agencies, while charging relatively less amount as retainer fee.
The client/s also, being smart enough to save some money, doesn’t spend time to even think twice before appointing their communication partners.
Public Relations industry in the country has many freelancers, small indigenous units with loose international affiliations and advertising agencies masquerading as PR agencies.
Now, the PR ‘Agencies’ have also joined hands with Event management firms and other promotional activity related firms to collectively offer the ‘Integrated Communication Solutions’… aha…sounds greeaaaat!!
But the reality is far away from the fantasy, it is yet to be realized,
What is a PR Consultancy?
Why a Corporate needs to hire them?
Why it is required to have clarity on their deliverables?
Which PR Consultancy to be hired?
What is an ideal size of the Consultancy?
Why a Corporate needs to pay them and what is the right amount to be paid?
These are the questions anybody and everybody would like to answer, and yes, there are no set rules or formulas, which may be applied while implementing Public relations activities.
There is a need for well defined PR concept which can be well understood by the business communities across borders. PR is a science and application of the same is an Art and you need professionals to understand it and experts to practice the same.
The buzzword in today’s corporate world is cost control. All the companies rush to the fact of reducing the cost by cutting the operational costs. They cut on employees, they cut on promotional expenses. Amount earmarked for Communication functions is considered to be an "Expenditure" rather than "Investment", even in today’s mature corporate world. The communication budget is the first victim to the 'cost control axe'.
Investment in Communication:
The fact is rather diagonally opposite to this myth.
The moment one understands that the business is sluggish and profits are not coming in, quarterly reports showing the decline graph and the enthusiasm level of employees, business partners is touching sea-bottom. The need of the hour is to “Invest” in Communication.
Because, it is the Communication and only the Communication, which can hold an organisation in high esteem, as it spells out the ideas, values and vision of the management to the inside and outside world of an organisation.
The aggressive communication helps an organisation to counter myths of the world. The Public Relations consultancy is the arm which extends support to an organisation in designing Communication strategies.
Concept of Public Relations:
We now understand the concept of Public Relations: is more of a Corporate function than a Marketing one.
A PR consultancy supports its clients in projecting a corporate identity and helps in overall positioning. The process of positioning, supports the efforts of marketing functions, while building the brand awareness and image of its products.
Role of PR Consultancy:
PR nurtures the plant of mutual understanding, belief and faith between an organisation and its public. PR consultancies performs host of important functions including developing corporate identity and image building, issue management, counseling on the effective use of the media, building strong relationships with key media constituencies.
Need of PR Consultancy:
‘Companies may survive even without outsourcing to a PR consultancy’.
But the corporate world is becoming increasingly competitive and a PR Consultancy in place extending full support to develop brand image, provides the organisation a competitive edge is critical!
Are PR Consultancy firms are performing their roles to the core are they just actng as PR 'Agencies' ?
There is a worldwide business trend to turn towards specialization as companies tend to focus on outsourcing for specialized services.
PR consultancy firm should offer expertise and competency in its field while providing synergistic approach towards solving the communication-related problems of the company and offers an unbiased and objective perspective.
The PR Perspective:
‘How many press clips in a month can you deliver?’
The Corporate world expects PR consultancies to facilitate big news items published on prominently in the media in favour of their Organisations. This is the only deliverable any organisation expects out of a PR Consultancy. The Corporate world doesn’t seem to understand, the way to make best use of a PR Consultancy.
The Indian PR industry is in its infancy stage and is still learning the key basics of this art.
The senior professionals working with leading PR Consultancies are busy enough to justify their jobs to their bosses, their bosses are busy enough to justify huge fee amount being charged from clients.
PR Agencies, who at the top of their voice, shout for Transparency in their Client’s business, better (two-way) communication, better HR practices and so forth, don’t practice best of internal communication, within their own organisation. PR Agencies are afraid of loosing Clients as Chickens fear of loosing their lives. One branch office may not even be aware of their colleagues working in other branches.
Yes, they are Agencies and not Consultancies. They don’t practice what they preach!!
Public Relations! …I know the job…!!
Reason for this is, mushrooming of anybody and everybody as PR agent. They try to beg, borrow or steal business from other agencies, while charging relatively less amount as retainer fee.
The client/s also, being smart enough to save some money, doesn’t spend time to even think twice before appointing their communication partners.
Public Relations industry in the country has many freelancers, small indigenous units with loose international affiliations and advertising agencies masquerading as PR agencies.
Now, the PR ‘Agencies’ have also joined hands with Event management firms and other promotional activity related firms to collectively offer the ‘Integrated Communication Solutions’… aha…sounds greeaaaat!!
But the reality is far away from the fantasy, it is yet to be realized,
What is a PR Consultancy?
Why a Corporate needs to hire them?
Why it is required to have clarity on their deliverables?
Which PR Consultancy to be hired?
What is an ideal size of the Consultancy?
Why a Corporate needs to pay them and what is the right amount to be paid?
These are the questions anybody and everybody would like to answer, and yes, there are no set rules or formulas, which may be applied while implementing Public relations activities.
There is a need for well defined PR concept which can be well understood by the business communities across borders. PR is a science and application of the same is an Art and you need professionals to understand it and experts to practice the same.
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