The world of Public Relations can be fraught with a lot of hot air, misguided notions and above all column inches. As Lord Leverhulme, founder of Unilever once said “half the money on advertising I spend is wasted, the problem is I don’t know which half”. Could the same be also said about Public Relations ?
It is important to understand that the “public” is not just your customer. Let me rephrase that: your customer universe encompasses much more than the people who buy your product or service. When companies talk about audiences, they usually mean the customer When we talk about audiences, we mean everyone that comes into contact with your brand and your company This includes: investors, customers, suppliers, employees (and their families!), opinion leaders, influencers
and the general public.
Your reputation is everything. Quality products and services, high integrity and transparency are the keys to success
Your company is your brand. Your brand is your reputation. Public Relations focuses on maintaining and communicating and protecting your reputation.
You may remember there was a scare about 8 years ago in Belgium when people got sick after drinking Coca Cola and there were rumours of a toxic batch. More than 100 people in Belgium and two in France complained of headaches, dizziness and stomach upsets after drinking canned soft drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola. Coca Cola, at first denied there were any impurities in their product – denial is often the first manifestation of refusing to acknowledge a fundamental truth - ostrich in the sand mentality!
“For 113 years our success has been based on the trust that consumers have in that quality. That trust is sacred to us,”
Coca Cola CEO Mr Ivester said. ( Source: bbc.co.uk)
His statement came after four European countries - Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - started taking Coca-Cola soft drinks off their shelves. Belgium promptly banned Coca Cola and a while later Coca Cola’s crisis management machine kicked in with Coca Cola ‘regretting’ the incident and acknowledging that the company’s Antwerp, Belgium factory used the wrong type of carbon dioxide gas that gives Coca-Cola its fizz, making the drink taste bad, and that a fungicide had caused some contamination at its factory in northern France.
You can imagine how fast Coca Cola’s shares plummeted. This reinforces the truth that what you communicate about your company and your brand must be not only compelling, but believable and most importantly, true for you to gain a positioning and differentiation that set you apart from your competitors, and if you fool the public, or make them an offer that is unacceptable, they will walk away in droves.
The real power of successful brands is that they meet the expectations of those that buy them i.e. they represent a promise kept. A brand is a contract between a seller and a buyer: if the seller keeps to its side of the bargain, the buyer will be satisfied; if not, the buyer will look elsewhere. A strong brand creates strong positioning and differentiation. People remember strong brands and great customer experiences. The strength of your brand is key to your earnings potential and your market share
“In the twenty-first century, branding ultimately will be the only unique differentiator between companies. Brand equity is now a key asset” Fortune magazine. The asset value of brands is now on the balance sheet. Brands generate high-quality earnings that directly affect the performance of the business and thus influence the share price. The stock market value of Coca-Cola in 2002 was $136 billion, yet the book value (the net asset value) of the business was only $10.5 billion. So the business value or “brand value” was $125 billion. Maintaining this value depends on your customers’ continuing confidence and experience of your brand and your ability to manage these profitably Source: Interbrand
Another disastrous PR affair was the case of Dasani, a bottled ‘pure’ water brand. Coca Cola launched Dasani which was positioned as a pure, clean mineral water consumers then discovered it was tap water bottled not far from London! The brand was taken off the shelves a few months after launch to great public and media outcry.
Naturally, this did not help Coca Cola’s brand image!
Believe me I am not against Coca Cola in any way, but these two incidents highlight how important it is to maintain brand integrity with all your customer dealings – both internally and externally.
The latest hullaballoo in bad public relations and not keeping your finger on the pulse of consumer engagement is the logo for the London Olympics 2012.
There was no crisis management scenario, hence no one knew really what to do when the public outcry reached epidemic proportions. It was, and is obvious that the powers that be in LOCOG and to a degree, their brand advisors Wolff Olins are so far removed from the urban myth that is London ’street cred’ that they have presented us with an identity which is so very obviously ’now’ but has no relationship to the pride and heritage that is the very essence of London and its citizens. Another example of not speaking the truth, in this case, not representing the soul or DNA of England and its people. Hence the uproar which has, in PR terms turned into a fiasco and surely heads will roll.
All communications must come from a central core, the essence or soul of your organisation. We call this the “BIG IDEA”. It’s what sets you apart from your competitors. It defines who you are, what you stand for. It gives you a voice, an attitude, a reason to ‘be’. It gives customers and staff a reason to believe, to belong to your brand, your ‘tribe’. It is authentic, transparent and true. Communicating your “BIG IDEA” consistently gives direction, motivation and clarity to your staff and customers and this leads to increased market share, growing new business with less effort and less cost and most importantly happy staff and customers. One cannot underestimate the power of staff as brand ambassadors to endorse and buy into your company, adding value to your offer and building the brand, or ‘tribe’. Likewise one cannot underestimate the power of your customers to endorse and become advocates of your company or tell everyone how bad you are. In these days of blogs, vlogs, podcasts and texts, not to mention the social networking phenomenon that is Myspace or Facebook, the power has shifted to the consumer. No more is it acceptable to communicate with your customer from a transaction-led perspective. Now companies must work together with all their audiences to listen, primarily, to the needs and aspirations of an increasingly vocal and brand-aware audience and then provide them with the service or product they are looking for. We live in interesting times. PR is as much about listening and engaging than it is about talking, for as the wise man once said "credibility is very much like virginity. Once you lose it, it is impossible to regain." |
