The array of news papers, electronic channels, internet, radio and blogs that have emerged over the last decade has given national and international exposure to our cricketing heroes. Our cricketing celebrities are exposed day in and day out but what is more interesting is some of them have really become great spokespersons and are able to handle the media with lot of confidence and intelligent conversations. Do they undergo media training? I am not aware. Or has BCCI got a media manager who coaches them on the finer aspects of facing the media? I am not even sure if celebrity management companies are also imparting training on this aspect so that the brand they endorse is having a right connect and the equity of the brand is well protected. In case they are getting the assistance of the media manager, then that has really helped them and lifted the image of these cricketers.

No matter whether they speak in English or Hindi, it is the confidence with which they deliver matters. On that front, our skipper Dhoni has been improving by the day and the reply that he gave after the last test against England was really apt and powerful. He firstly thanked the English team for returning for the test match after the terrorist attack and secondly sent a clear message to the world that India will not buckle under such cowardly act of terrorism. I have been watching Dhoni from close quarters for the last one year and each time I observe him, he comes out as a thorough professional when he faces the media.

Handling the media has been so important these days as mind games are being played by the opponents before or after the matches. And you need to counter them with good strategy so that they don’t affect your game or the team’s performance. Few years back when South Africa was going through a bad patch, their board quickly appointed Ravi Shastri to coach them to handle the media pressures. So that’s the kind of importance one is attaching to media relations.

Speaking to media is an art and it will only come if one is coached and given professional advice. If you are on a winning spree, the confidence will drive you to speak well and handle the media with ease. It is during crisis and failures one may loose the confidence but if you are trained by a good media coach, you will be able to battle it well and take the media with complete confidence. I finally would like to conclude that handling media and speaking to them with the right tone and message will really help the team to play the role of great statesman and ambassadors for the nation in any part of the world.

Twenty-two years back the Indian advertising was just maturing . We had some of the brightest brains from many management institutes, including the much reputed IIM’s attracting this industry, but that story has come to an end. No major reputed management schools invite advertising agencies for campus recruitment now. The reasons are many - starting from attractive package and the job challenge the industry is offering. Also, too much of hype with high publicity could be another reason.

The industry had very few business magazines and dailies which devoted in promoting the agencies. Even the quality of paper in terms of reproduction and coverage was very limited but as time passed by, today, we have every newspaper offering a weekly supplement on marketing. But more often we only see the Ad Gurus being featured week after week with occasional appearance of some noted marketing pundits. I sometimes ask myself if it is really required to do so much of chest thumping to self promote, instead of showcasing great work and interesting case studies. Also two decades back, we had very few advertising professionals who were more concerned with their client’s work and their interaction with the media was limited. Today that has quadrupled and what we hear are quotes and sound bytes -  some relevant and some off the tangent. I am hoping this will slowly change as clients are today seeking more value for their brands through action and not words.

Give me a hardworking campaign any day:

Great advertising campaign examples and successful marketing case studies must be exposed in such papers without any doubt. This could be both Indian and international examples. These will really help the consumer, students from management schools, and prospects who are seeking to partner or join good creative agencies.

I still remember that many clients in today’s world candidly tell the agencies who pitch for their business - show me the piece of work done by the group which will work on our brand. They are not bothered about the work done by some of the (Patli Gully work) other branches for some accolades achieved in the form of awards.

A few years back, I had gone for a meeting to a client who had put us on notice. During the discussion, one of my senior colleague mentioned that we recently won some awards and some good visibility. The reply to this from the client was - you guys are great in building your agency but that does not excite us. Tell me what have you done for my brand so far and tell me what you can do in the near future.

Clients have become very smart and canny; let’s stop fooling them by doing PR for the agency and oneself. End of the day we must realize that our dal roti comes from campaign that delivers results and help building their brand.

PR is a must, over dosage will kill credibility:

There is absolutely no harm in doing genuine PR. But most of the times this does not happen. We have the maximum awards this industry offers and therefore to fill up the spaces of some of the marketing dailies just wait for either covering this awards function or getting quotes from the advertising experts. So much of awards on an ongoing basis have prompted some of the ad agencies not to participate or even if they participate look at only the selective ones. The over dosage of awards and repeatedly seeing the same mug shots and clichéd quotes has to a large extent diluted the interest levels and the credibility of the news that get published. On a global basis on advertising, we have just one or two magazines which have a tremendous equity and it covers this industry in depth with lot of substance and meat. It’s time we also move on the same direction to give our audience some quality and credible coverage, which can impart new knowledge and learning.

Lastly let me also salute this industry as this industry has built several brands over the past several years and has also built in several processes and business ethics. Also on the international front, we have made our stamp by creating world class campaigns.

If the stalwarts of this industry focus on the bigger picture instead of self promotion, it will definitely provide a boost to this industry and we will see more talent being attracted to the industry.

Do you think bullying only occurs in big corporate houses where you have to work with a large number of employees and get smarted under a bully? Did you think a PR or an Advertising agency is free from such a social menace? Think again, ask around and you would come across anecdotes that is fit to give you sleepless nights. Such agencies fail to go through a proper induction process of forming, storming, norming and performing and end up with a lopsided organizational structure.

How do you erase this indelible scar created by your senior? Do you move to seek help from the human rights commission or speak against it and jeopardize the rest of your career growth with bad recommendations? I have been a victim of such circumstances facing bullying in the workplace for three consecutive years, which led me to do some study in this field. I wanted to know what exactly is bullying. Who is responsible for it and what could be the possible solutions?

Several definitions of workplace bullying have been provided in literature. Despite several definitions of bullying, there is a general consensus regarding what constitutes bullying (e.g. Einarsen et al., 2003). Specifically, for behaviour to qualify as bullying, it must be perceived by the victim as oppressive, unfair, humiliating, undermining, threatening, difficult to defend against or an infringement of the victim’s human rights. Furthermore, according to several authors (e.g. Vartia, 2001; Einarsen et al., 2003), such behaviour is considered to be bullying only if it recurs over an extended period of time. While I was writing this article, I felt that I had gone through each and every aspect of bullying in my workplace. I was treated in an unfair manner, humiliated and undermined by my superior Ms. SASA over an extended period of three years, which physically and mentally made me distraught. 

Bullying is a multidimensional construct and comprises a wide spectrum of behaviour that can be targeted at the work or at the personal characteristics of the victim. The more subtle types of bullying behaviour include withholding information and physically or socially isolating the victim, whereas the more overt types include setting impossible deadlines for the victim and publicly belittling the victim. Little did I realize at that point of time that setting of impossible deadlines or procrastinating the work towards the deadline is a form of bullying, victimizing me in my workplace.

Workplace bullying behaviours, as suggested by Hoel and Cooper (2000) comprises of four categories: (1) work-related harassment (e.g. persistently criticizing the victim’s work); (2) personal harassment (e.g. spreading rumours about the victim); (3) organizational harassment (e.g. removing key areas of responsibility from the victim); and (4) intimidation (e.g. threatening the victim with violence). Workplace bullying has several unfavorable psychological effects on victims (Fox and Stallworth, 2005), such as negative affect, depression, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts (Einarsen and Matthiesen, 1999). There is evidence supporting the psychosomatic model of bullying, which posits that bullying leads to negative affect, which then leads to physiological problems. Consistent with the psychosomatic model of bullying, being bullied has been shown to be associated with physiological problems, such as musculoskeletal pains, chronic fatigue syndrome (Einarsen and Mikkelsen, 2003), headaches, stomach disorders,

rashes (e.g. O’Moore et al., 1998; Vartia, 2001) and cardiovascular disease (Kivimaki et al., 2003).

Workplace bullying has widespread negative effects on organizations because it affects not only the victims but also those who witness the bullying (Hoel et al., 1999). Bullying adversely affects organizational performance in terms of output, creativity and innovation (Rayner et al., 2002). Being bullied at work also reduces the organizational satisfaction and commitment of victims (Hoel and Cooper, 2000), If an organization is to send a message to its employees that they are valued and cared for, then it is imperative that leaders themselves are aware of the various subtle behaviour that constitute bullying and that they refrain from enacting such behaviour (Fox and Stallworth, 2005).

How can this bullying stop, is there a solution to it? I think when informed of workplace bullying, leaders need to respond in ways that demonstrate to victims and other staff that the organization supports them and will not tolerate such behaviour (Brodsky, 1976; O’Moore et al., 1998; Hoel and Salin, 2003). Better still, leaders need to proactively address workplace bullying and can do so by developing formal statements and policies that indicate clearly that bullying is unacceptable and that bullying holds serious consequences for the perpetrators. Such primary interventions play a critical role in preventing bullying behaviour in the workplace (Djurkovick N et al, 2008).

Specific ways in which an organization can demonstrate that it is supportive of its employees include providing avenues for victims to lodge their complaints and ensuring that these complaints are acted on in ways that signal to all employees that the organization will protect their basic human rights. Furthermore, it is important that organizations demonstrate that they are concerned about the welfare of their employees by encouraging them, from time to time, to come forth should they have any work-related or personal problems with which the organization can assist them. An example of such an approach is the use of employee assistance programmes. It is in the hands of the leaders to stop this bullying and create a whole new world of harmony.

Few days’ back I happen to read a piece in one of the news papers which had highlighted how clients are seriously viewing about their relationship with their PR consultants and partners. I completely disagree in what was mentioned in that story. On the contrary brands must seriously view other communication tools to keep their brand top of mind during turbulent times when the market has slowed down for various reasons. PR is one of those tools.

Over the past few months the buzzword has been recession and in the name of recession companies are revisiting their marketing budgets to keep a tight control on expenses. This is one of the old tricks most companies apply when there is recession and the first thing they do is to slash the marketing and promotion budgets. While the global meltdown and inflation has reduced the spending power of the Indian consumer but the recent terrorist attack has further shifted the gears of most companies in all sectors. All this is fine but brands still need to in the minds of consumer but at what cost is worrying the brand teams in most organization. And which is where the power of Public Relation can play a significant role.

Why PR and not other expensive medium?

The general mood has taken a deep dip after series of incidences. Today shopping and traffic at malls has dropped considerably in spite of Christmas and New Year around the corner. Even if marketers come out with killer strategy in terms of promotion the urge for shopping is being deferred due to various economic factors. With big ticket events like Champions league in cricket has been deferred has made the advertiser to rethink as to what new communication tools will help to keep their brand alive. Although GEC programs have given fairly good viewer ship the return on investment is not encouraging for brands to spend big bucks on the electronic media.

In this scenario brands must effectively use PR to maintain the some presence in the market. While I agree it will not generate rapid awareness for the brand the way advertising does through mass media it will most certainly help clients to look at a cost effective tool. And what is important here is brands should balance their strategy while using PR by judiciously managing advertising spends. This is where PR agencies also need to chalk out new strategy to pitch stories with the journalist to get favorable stories which will help not only brands to raise saliency but also build strong credibility.

PR cannot work in isolation:

Having said that companies should not completely depend on PR. Companies must use the 360 degree approach where PR will supplement and boost the brand awareness through sustenance mass media advertising and other innovative tools which is beyond advertising. For example companies can use branding through cybercafé by resting on the desktops of PC’s. With more cybercafés mushrooming both in cities and tier 2 and 3 cities brands need to exploit this new medium. Interestingly many brands have moved to this space as clients are able to capture the hits to the brands through well supported technology which is able to monitor the traffic. Also this is able to help marketers to extend their consumer outreach to smaller towns.

There is always a concern when one uses PR. Is it measurable? Yes it is measurable if companies seriously view in measuring this in a scientific manner. We have strong processes to measure this which not only helps in effective messaging but will also able to throw consumer insights which will help brands to check if the communication strategy and their messaging has met their defined objectives.

Finally as a brand custodian of the brand the brand manager has to believe in what he is doing and should have a complete faith in PR. Miracles may not happen but well thought out PR strategy will definitely yield results.

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WELL THOUGHT PR STRATEGY REQUIRED TO FIGHT THIS CRISIS

The ghastly act of the terrorists to India’s financial capital and the gateway to tourist destinations will further hamper inflow of tourists to this great country. The government and several tourism corporations across India from each states has painstakingly built brand India and through the Incredible India campaign over the last few years in the foreign markets by raising our graph in the tourism world. To the best of my knowledge this brand building exercise has been going on for over 10 years and significant progress has been made by us in the world tourism map for tourists to consider India in their choice of destination when one thinks of going on a holiday. While some of the foreigners did express their views that they would like to come to the lovely city Mumbai and India after they were rescued but at a global level this will take a considerable beating as some of the countries has already issued advisory orders.

All of us know that building brands in foreign markets is a long drawn process both in terms of time and cost. Having reached so far we now need to re visit our drawing board and come out with some immediate measures to fight this crisis. This is a very classical case of CRISIS and PR will have to play a major role to restore the lost glory. India should immediately act, so that whatever equity we have in the tourism space should be closely protected and should not erode further.

How this can happen? A special task force needs to be set up to address this problem to guard our image. India should work closely with all the countries whose people visit our country immediately, before negative word of mouth start spreading though various media and other agencies. Our first strategy is to instantly protect the image we already have before it slides down. We need to go on a war footing to handle this crisis. This will involve a great amount of orchestration with the home, defence, foreign and tourism ministry so that there is cohesive strategy to handle this internally before we chalk out our strategy to hit the global media etc.

All this will cost more rupees and time but at this hour of crisis every Indian should think positive and help India restore the lost shine. We have come out from several difficult situation and I am sure we will counter this and teach a strong lesson to who ever is jealous behind India’s growth both on the economic and tourism front.