Activities of PR

Press Release: Press release can be used to distribute information amoung the target audience. It needs to be made interesting and easily passed along. For example a press release informing student of the new rules in a college.

Press conference: Press conference held by corporations can be very effective. The topic must be very interesting to get coverage from journalist, reports and other media. They must be well organized and the speaker must be well prepped for questions if taken. For example Press Conference used by Toyota on the topic of recalling it cars, which main aim was to gain the public’s trust again. When Football players are bought, it is announced through press conferences.

Exclusives: Offering a particular channel an exclusive into the news. For example giving an eviromental organization to look into an alleged pollutant activity of a firm.

Interviews: Personal interview in the press can play a very strong part. Strong question will be asked to which a CEO or spokes person will have to reply.

Community Involvement : Firm are able to mold their image in the community easily through this. The best example is of Tata company in Kutch where due to shortage of drinking water has made all water which is used as waste sea water.

The Internet: Internet is the best way to get personal with the customers. This can be done by answering queries and giving continuous updates

Problems Faced by Google IPO

Problems Faced by Google IPO

When Google reached 500 shareholders, in accordance with the American law they were presented with three options.

1) To stay a private company, but report their financial results like a public company

2) They could go public

3) They could decided to buy back the stocks (from their employes)

It was a hard decision but Google decided to go pulic. There were a lot of issues to be dealt with this issue. There was a lot of negeative reaction to be dealt with. Google could be making itself from an innovative company to a conventional company, it would lose its objectivity and independence. There were a lot of fear and the media trashed Google on their decision.

Keeping innovation at its core Google did not want an ordinary auction. After much thought, they decided on have the benifts of the auction not only going to brokers but also to the open public. And again Google got a backlash from the media.

By this time Google had gone into a quiet period in accordance with the laws, that is they stopped communicating with the press. This in some ways helped to calm down press from speculating. At the same time Google felt that even negative press was bad, simply because of the publicity the transacation was getting.

Google wanted to prevent a pop of their price at auction. After much discussion they decided to sell at 85$ a share.

It was about this time that a major crisis hit Google. Larry and Sergi the founders of Google gave an interview to Playboy and obviously there was a dicussion of buisness. This was seen as a violation of the quiet period and this could lead to the auction being postponed. However Google reacted fast and it added this interview into their offical filing.

When the auction finnaly occurred it did not manage to esacpe the pop and it shares sold for 100$.

At the end the IPO was sucessful. Google still managed to maintain its image of being an innovative company. It went through a storm and came out unscath and it was stronger than ever in the market. It was set to grow to higher heights.

IPO in India follow a similar system. So what can Indian Companies learn from the Google experince.

n They must always think about the customer. Google does this by have a format of auction that benefits even the customers and not just the stock brokers.

n Be the same. When going through with IPOs it is not easy for companies to remain the same to their core, simply because there are a lot of changes going about. However Google bore with the storm and made sure it did not shift it’s ideals inspite of the flak it drew from crtics and analyist.

n Get what you want. In the auction Google tried to avoid the pop. It did not act hard enough. Though it did not want the pop, it allowed the expectation to grow amoung the public and not only that it opened it doors to the public without sufficient restrictions.

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STAKEHOLDERS

STAKEHOLDERS

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

n Employees of the Firm: Maintaining the morale of the employees and showcasing them for the efforts. Done through organizational newsletters, notices on bulletins, award ceremonies, direct mail, annual reports. Personal methods are social events such as corporate games, picnics, etc.

n Stakeholders and Investors: Annual reports not only used to give financial information, informing audience on y the firm is not doing well, outlining future plans, the CSR schemes.

Use of stakeholder meetings, video conference meetings. For example GM presents in its Annual Reports the standards of CSR, a sustainable report to interested parties. This group is important coz they generate additional investment, to get more stocks company controlled, produce funding.

n Suppliers and Customers: It is necessary to maintain the good will of suppliers as well as consumers. Customers and suppliers tend to keep loyalties to companies that they see as socially conscious. Sponsoring public events is a good thing to do.

n Community members : People who live and work in the community where the firm is located are important. PR activities towards them involve activities through ads, meetings, etc that make the community aware of the activities of the firm. Also if there is a crisis in the community the firm should lend a hand.

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

n The media: This is the most critical external public and has the broadest reach because….. blah blah blah. The media informs everyone of its actions and hence it is important. PR activities associated are press releases, press conference, interviews, etc

n Educators: This refers to scholars and academicians. These people have a certain control over the flow of information, (coz they write in magazines, paper etc) and so are important. Association are formed that pay special attention to these people. These organisations inform them of latest developments, and even offer them to come over to the firm.

n Civic and business organisations: These refer to other business organization and NGOs and social organizations. Sponsorship, financial contribution at fund raisers will create goodwill. Corporate presences on NGOs boards also are involved.

n Government: The Government has a set of laws that must be followed. This is where lobbying comes in. PR should be able to have enough influence to control law making in their favour. This can be done by financial contributions. Or gaining support of Public (for example if Tata raises an objection, Lawmakers will listen coz of Tata’s image and popularity. )

n Financial Groups: This refers to shareholder, potential investors and lending institutions. Financial Groups are important because they provided loans and investements that run a firm. Through press releases and corporate reports play they can be informed of the developments.

TIMBERLAND’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT

TIMBERLAND’S CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Timberland was hit with a PR crisis when they received over 65,000 mails that were concerned that their leather coming from Brazil was contributing to deforestation. This information was got from a report published by Greenpeace, which pointed that, the cattle from whom the leather was got their food from pastures created by clearing forest land. At the same there was probably another half million that was not bothering to sends emails, but were also of affected by this report. The large number of people who probably believed this, were putting Timberland brand image at stake.

Timberland’s first reaction was of shock. Of all the environment concerns Timberland looks at deforestation was at top of the list. They organized aforestation in China of over a million trees. They felt that since their logo was a tree that made them even more environmentally concerned.

The first thing Timberland did was to address to the emails. Timberland replied to these emails, thanking the customers for pointing this out to them, that they will look into it and they reminded the customers that they have planted more than a million trees across the globe.

Next step was to look into the issue. Only 7% of their leather came from Brazil. While other shoe companies reaction to this incident was to stop importing leather from Brazil, Timberland decided to tackle the issue head on. They realized Greenpeace is asking a relevant question, where is their leather coming from? To find an answer to this question would not be easy because there was supply circle that started from the cattle to slaughterhouses to the tanneries. So their supplier did not know from where the leather was coming from. Timberland felt answering the question would be worth the trouble because Timberland did not want Greenpeace or anyone having an opinion that companies were not really environmentally concerned but just profit minded.

The next step was understanding, Greenpeace who was raising up this issue. While Greenpeace primary objective was the environment, it also wanted to recruit more member and collect membership fee. And this was why it did not pick up and the phone and call Timberland, but instead went on a publicity spree.

Timberland decided to push their suppliers to find out from where they are getting their leather by simply threatening to stop buying it. In the meantime Timberland decided to take a leaf out of Bill Clinton and understood that amoung the emails there were the Nos and Maybes. They realized that the opinion of the Nos cannot be changed, but the opinions of the Maybes could be changed. So a another response was made that so that they could win the Maybes over.

Finally the supplier informed Timberland that the cattle are not coming from deforested pastures. Greenpeace was informed of this and at the same time was thanked for pointing the issue out.

From this there are a few things to learn from this incident.

n Watch and listen- Timberland’s initial reaction was of outrage to this allegation. However it decided to adopt a watch and listen policy, which enable to think of their next actions.

n Understand the opposing group- Everyone has their own agenda and Timberland were able to understand this and hence were able to act well.

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EMERGING ROLE OF PR

EMERGING ROLE OF PR

Public relation is a emerging tool for most companies and many still have to find value in it. But it is something that is growing, more and more companies are opening up their own PR department or hiring PR agencies. To understanding the emerging role of PR, I will go on to three topics.

n CREDIBILITY:

Many do not realize, but in future PR could very be more important than marketing. This is because PR offers creditability to the consumers. PR is about generating stories. An editorial verse an advertisement. An editorial will have more impact on consumers than an advertisement. This creditably is not just perceived, but it has substance, since it has to go through evaluated, filtered and edited. The audience trust the media as third party that is vouching for the product, that there must be something worthwhile in the product. Also the information could be positive or negative hence some sense of honesty is perceived.

The press may be deny that they are conduit for PR, but the consumers themselves are demanding this information. Consumers are in constant engagement with media, unlike advertisements. With the inclusion of media, the number of senders and receives increasing which is a boost to market communication. PR heavily relies on third person creditability.

The demonstration of a new product on the news channel or the comment on from an expert that the company is taking the right action

Another way to look at creditability is reputation. Reputation is created when all is amassed. PR has the responsibility of building the company’s reputation and brand. It build up deposits, memories of goodwill that a company can fall back on in times of crisis.

Once a company gains enough of reputation, it gains enough creditability and the need for third party creditability is gone.

n PR A BROADER VIEW OF THE MARKET:

While PR is often used as only a marketing communications functions, few realize that it has the ability to give wide orientation to a wide range of stakeholders like employees, suppliers, ngos, government and customers. To understand this stakeholder approach, a stakeholder map can be drawn. It allows one to identify stakeholders, their influence and who in the company is charged with tracking the actions and reaction of them. Through uses of symbols impact of firm, number of contact, public and media perceptions of negative or positive relationships amoung stakeholders and a variety of other such detailed information can be shown on a stakeholder map.

The stakeholder map is very important. In times of crisis it can be used to make the correct decisions, since now you can understand all your stakeholder and understand their probable reaction.

n ACCOUNTABILITY AND MEASURE PERFORMANCE

PR tries to separate itself from the marketing communication function. It is more concerned with the company’s business and not with communication of business.

PR has always tried to set standards for itself.

There are variety of awards set and these are judged on the basis of research, planning, execution and evaluation.

- Research: Overall planning and identification of audience. Found a need for opportunity.

- Planning: Definite objectives. Objectives support the organizations over all goals.

- Execution: Use of tactics, creativity of tactics, implementation of tactics, efficiency of implementation.

- Evaluation: Success in achieving organizations objectives, results reflected original plan, team work, continuous refinement.

As business environments get harder, the role of PR will continue to grow and become very important.