When in crisis or challenging times, like in life reach out and communicate. More the better!

It is by now common knowledge that companies are all about people. And customers and employees interact with people and not companies. It is also now proven beyond doubt that brands are like living beings and they are what they are because of the emotional connect they strike with it’s ardent and loyal customers.

You are a PR firm

This is one of the articles which have their roots in personal anguish. Over the past 18 months during which, the firm I run has started moving away from traditional, plain vanilla media relations into being a customized communication solutions firm there is one phrase that I hear (and now live in constant mortal fear of hearing again and again) from clients –“You are a PR firm and a PR firm is not supposed to be a specialist beyond media relations.”

Few days back had a potential client who is a start-up spend a lot of time in our office. Our creative head who is a two decade veteran in advertising and I took him through our portfolio and explained to him the process we adopt. He could also see that we had a full fledged team with graphic and interactive capabilities inside. So, we thought it is all sealed and done. Day after we got a call. The board of the company was of the opinion that PR firms are not good at design or anything to do with it and they asked the mandate be split into PR and brand identity development. We of course would get the “PR” part.

It is time retailers and regional FMCG brands looked beyond TV spots!

Since the topic touches and will touch raw chords and nerves let me at the outset categorically state that the views are those of a seasoned communicator looking at the current scenario dispassionately.

Being a not so regular TV watcher and my mother tongue being Tamil end up watching commercial TV in Tamil mostly in the evening prime time slot. Over the past few years have consistently noticed that big retailers (guess there are tens of them out of Chennai and elsewhere) and most regional FMCG brands almost entirely depend on TV commercials for their sales or marketing or communication with customers. It also dawned on me that festive season after festive season, collection after collection, product after product, this formula remained largely untouched.

Social media needs to move from promise, talk to rigor and action soon

Social media is the in thing nowadays. There is not a single day that passes without a story on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube or the stars of the social media space making it to the airwaves or the ink. The success of Obama and our very own Pink Chaddi campaign is fresh in our memories and already spoken to death in social media conferences and seminars. On the other side, every other day, witness a new venture or foray into the space. If one adds up all the hype, then social media should have already arrived from a brand communication and marketing perspective. Well, not really. Here is my take on what it will take to get social media which I agree is hot and presents profound new ways of touch, communication and engagement, can get there.

Is your brand just trying to ride the festive wave?

It is the time of Onam in Kerala when it starts wearing a festive look and wallets open for practically endless shopping. It is also the time brand managers of every possible consumer name start working overtime to get their brand and its promise persuasively to catch the shopper’s eye. Predominantly what most brand managers/brands end up focusing on is racking their grey cells to figure the most attractive or creative way of riding this festive wave. Very few take the trouble of not taking the not so beaten path of being able to immerse your brand into the festive scape. Allow me to explain.

Do you know your DNA?

In my limited experience of being a branding and image consultant for a lot of IT, IT services and IT-enabled services companies, there was one constant challenge. With the exception of a few, the business model/content of communication of majority of companies in this space is absolutely indistinguishable. However, there was always a lingering question, which begged an answer and, answer to which I thought would be the basis of differentiation for a whole lot of players in these sectors.

Winning in the marketplace – few tips -2

In the last article we spoke about broad outline of how to differentiate between employees and co-owners and some broad outline of what can be done to motivate and retain them. In this article we will focus on some specific activities that can be done to develop a strong glue between the firm and the co-owners.

Winning in the marketplace – few tips 1

One of the continuing questions posed by any entrepreneur running a growing organization is what would really make them successful in the long run and what they need to do right now and in the near future to lay the foundation for the growth to come. The question is important since its answer as perceived by the entrepreneur often leads to the strategy he or she will adopt in the marketplace and which inturn decides or causes the success or failure of the venture.

The big shift towards non-linearity in communication presents a lifetime opportunity for the Indian PR industry

Listening to the various presentations made at the recent ICCO Global Summit and also while perusing recent media reports about separate tracking service for blogs launched by a global leader in PR, one key insight stuck me. The process of communication the way the PR industry has looked at for the past many decades is undergoing and will undergo a rapid shift in the days, months and years to come.

The way to healthy business is to turn down some of your customers

Thought the headline was an editing mistake that someone allowed to slip through. Not really. As the economy grows and demand rises across sectors, there is inevitable growth that every organization irrespective of its size witnesses. With growth come new customers of all kinds, hues, sizes, expectations, requirements, work processes and quirks. The easiest thing and the most logical thing in this situation for any SME firm which is hungry for business and ambitious about its business to do is to accept all the customers with open hands.