India is still a very young and developing PR market as compared to the other developed economies in the world, brimming with a talent pool of fairly young professionals. About 40-50 thousand professionals work in this sector either in PR agencies or form a part of the internal communications team. The demand for PR professionals is increasing with every passing day as many foreign companies are looking at India as an important profit center and even domestic companies are now waking up to the importance of reputation and positive brand communications. Many international PR firms have made beeline into the country and domestic PR firms are expanding & growing or merging with international PR brand.
On the other hand, while there is demand for PR services in India, the reputation of the reputation management profession is heavily tarnished. It is not in the list of top 10 choicest professions for youngsters. Media do not respect PR pros and the feeling is mutual in most cases though both are vital to each other. Strategies do come out from the caps of top notch agency leads but die out before delivering any significant media visibility. Proactive PR is an ugly looking animal who we don’t even want to touch and are happy doing glorified post man’s job of conveying client initiatives to the media.
Have we ever wondered that, are we ready to take on the humongous growth that will soon enter India benefiting the Indian PR sector, will the clients trust us to manage their reputation or there will be a birth of new set of businesses who will walk away with opportunities meant for us, like it happened with Social Media business? The problem probably lies at the bottom of the pyramid – our own young trainees or junior executives who frontend the client and even the media.
I would like to know from the senior members of the team what training they actually offer to the new joinees.
- Do we do anything beyond an induction process, which can last from 1-2 days?
- How are they trained on gaining the understanding on the client and the sector the client operates in? Are there any internal checks on gaging their knowledge on the sector and the client?
- Do we teach them how to research or simply leave them to the God Google and assume that they will learn to work around with keywords
- Before pitching to the journalist are they trained enough to know the media; the journalist they are pitching to on what kind of stories they cover (not the beat but the journo’s focus of writing stories?)
- Do we invest enough time in helping them identify a story and train them how they create a theme out of the idea and pitch it appropriately to the appropriate journalists?
- Do we train them on identifying accurate target audience; understand the demographics of the diversified Indian market, and different consumer behavior across states?
I can safely say that only handful of agencies must be having some processes to address some or only few points mentioned above. The moment the trainee joins in, probably the first task given to them is to disseminate a press release and follow-up on the same. Three drastic damages can result from this
1) Before even starting the relationship with the media, the trainee in most cases spoils it and the perception stays in the particular journalist’s mind for the rest of his career as a joke.
2) The brand of the agency is miss represented and
3) Finally the spillover happens on the entire sector’s perception i.e. all PR guys are idiots.
Please don’t think that I am putting the entire blame on our youngsters, not at all, they are rarely at fault. It is the fault of the way we operate and do business, the way we choose talent and nurture them.
Let’s analyze why this happens:
1) Agencies in most cases are under paid and hence the concept of dedicated resource, who will invest time in researching and ideation, is very rare.
2) Every Account Manager (the most important link between the client and the agency) is over stressed, managing on average 3-4 accounts, which obviously leaves hardly any time for them to train their juniors. Also they themselves have been promoted to the position of an Account Manager after spending 3-4 years in the business without actually being trained on the fundamentals.
3) People above Account Managers, most of the time are busy running behind new business and better opportunities.
4) Everyone is only interested in one thing – COVERAGE, how you manage to get it is nobody’s problem
The problem may be even more deep rooted, lets mull over the following points
How are PR professionals recruited or brought into the system?
1) Ex- Journalists – Why – because they seem to have nose for the news, can understand story opportunities and may have already some connections with the media. They typically join at a level of Sr. Account Executive or Manager. Majority of today’s senior PR pros have come from this route, most have been successful barring few, who could not manage the pressure of client servicing.
2) The second group is of graduates, with some PR qualification – Diploma or the most recent Degree in Mass Communications. 40% of trainee to Sr. Executive level comprises of people coming through this route. It is here that the sector need to work together in enhancing the quality of talent
- We all know what is taught at the PR institutes or mass communications courses is far different from what happens practically
- Mass Communications Degree courses are not specifically designed for PR professionals, most join to enter Advertising or Journalism and very few are really interested in choosing PR as a profession.
- Advertising is the most preferred option even if it offers lesser starting pay than the PR firms
- Students who opt for PR have a very superficial understanding of the profession, which soon gets shattered immediately after they join work
- The sector is not attractive enough for marketing management graduates, for the perceptions that exists in the outside world or probably because the sector cannot meet their expectations in terms of pay packets.
The point I am trying to bring forward is that we don’t get the cream of the talent for our sector and whatever we get, we let them rot and leave them to learn and earn on their own
All this above in turn impacts the credibility of the sector. We are supposed to be the consultants for the clients and advise them on how he can improve and safeguard their reputation, but do we have professionals to meet the client’s expectations. We are consciously trapped in the vicious circle i.e. we cannot establish our importance and credibility and hence we cannot demand higher retainer fees, so we cannot afford better talent with aptitude and knowledge to understand consumers & market and hence lower level of client satisfaction.
And why are we not doing much to change the situation?
Because, we are comfortable with our typical “Chalta Hai” attitude. The business is running and is also growing thanks to the current economy. If few clients are unhappy, there are many who are living with it and few are not even concerned to know where their money is going. If few of them leave, new ones will come. Who really cares or should care other than the agency owners as each individual employee’s average tenure at the agency is maximum 3 years. So let it continue the way it is.
I know I have angered many and few may even agree but what happens with that? Will we change?
Share your views….
Related articles
- Who Owns the Media List??? (vikypedia.in)
- Future of Indian Independent PR Agencies (vikypedia.in)
Pooja Prasad
May 31, 2012 at 1:39 pm
Vikram has pointed out stark truth of this profession. Everyone is interested in only one thing – COVERAGE, how you mange to get it is nobody’s problem. It is really sad that we do not spend time in addressing the deep rooted problems. Unless agencies give up the ‘Chalta Hai attitude ‘ , PR pros will be perceived as idiots.
Loknath Swain
May 31, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Facts mentioned in the post is relevant to the current scenario in India in PR domain. But these are going to change in future due to the technologies that PR department uses. . Probably we will look for a good engineering or technology background in a PR person in future.
Katie Bourus
May 31, 2012 at 6:57 pm
Recently, I have been thinking a lot of international PR. This blog caught my attention right away. It is amazing to me how different India’s culture works with social media and their opinion’s about it. I would love to travel to India one day and volunteer at a PR organization to gain the inside scoop of everything. Thank you for posting this blog!
P B Raghavendra Rao
June 1, 2012 at 4:10 am
Dear Sri Vikram Kharvi
Your ice and nexhaustive observations about the PR profession in our country indicates very pathetic. It is a neglected sector remains only on paper and in speeches. No far or fore sight as how the profession should be made up to the growing needs of the society has been thought over. As you say the attitude of ‘chalta hai’ (I may add ‘chalne do’)is prevailing in regard to the PR profession what to talk of training etc.,
A revolutionary change has to take place in ‘reforming’ the PR in the country as otherwisw PR would lose its significance in the coming days, but then , who has to ‘bell the cat’ ! Atleast you have rung an alarming bell in advance.
Raxit Sheth
June 1, 2012 at 4:13 am
Agree on most of the aspect, and let me clarify M not from PR b/g.
However i have seen Social media is emerging and people are
spending/giving dedicated resource etc, at the same time!
Do you think, each PR firm will fully/partially turn to Social media in future?
Rishie Narula
June 1, 2012 at 4:15 am
No matter how much social media is impactful, traditional PR will be a must…
From a bigger picture brands and organizations would like to look at PR services on both fronts together.. Some of the known agencies do that but the workforce for Social Media PR guys have to be a powerhouse team.
I can understand that brands may look into Traditional PR but would also look at Online Reputation Management.
Richa Seth
June 1, 2012 at 4:15 am
Great article Vikram, agree with your thoughts on scenario of PR in India. But with regard to training, I strongly believe is that each individual has to take responsibility to equip himself/herself to acquire the required skillset in any industry. In today’s fast paced environment no one really has the time to mentor anyone. Every individual needs to chart out their growth plan by assesing current skillset,identify knowledge gaps and take appropriate action in order to fill those gaps.
Priyadarshani Agarwal
June 1, 2012 at 4:16 am
Totally agree with Richa,
While we must share some bit of initial training, what we need to do is present good role models that they can follow. A very good way of training youngsters is to follow the right practices that you spoke about on terms of media targeting and client understanding. We learn what we see and these freshers are not some school goers who need classroom lessons on these. If they see this being followed by their team members they will learn that as the way of operating.
That’s how we have learnt. We were never given any training beyond the initial intro to the client. We learnt by observing our seniors and following their ethics and practices.
Fortunately I had some really good seniors who I could respect and follow. I hope we are able to make such seniors and the training will take care of itself.
As far as indian clients asking and counting clips is concerned, I have worked with several and often only US, UK and Singapore clients, from the supposedly evolved IT sector who are big names. And trust me they were found to be even more stingy in terms of measurement. Yes one difference was that along with the number their focus was on messaging also, say about 50:50. But that came only after the number were met.
Its the mind set that needs to change. Clients are the same all over I feel.
Ritam Chakrabarty
June 1, 2012 at 4:18 am
Hi,
I agree with Richa when she says that every individual must take responsibility for his/her own training. But I strongly disagree that there’s no time for mentoring in our fast paced world. Newcomers today are quite focused and can pick up the finer tricks of the trade real fast.
Ours is one of the more people oriented professions and seniors can really help youngsters in understanding and building relationships and knowledge base. From my personal experience I’ve seen, it doesn’t take much time. The results, rather, can be quite gratifying.
Regards,
Ritam
Neha Sawhney
June 1, 2012 at 4:19 am
I agree with you priyadarshni. We always learn by observing things. Not by learning
B N Kumar
June 1, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Excellent thought Vikram!
In fact, I must tell you that we take pains in explaining to new joiners right from the basics of PR. I personally tell them not to forget the text book definition of PR – Deliberate, Planned and Sustained effort – to learning the art of multi-tasking. Agency PR is all about multi-tasking. Unlike in advertising where you have client servicing people are different from creative people, in PR the client servicing person has also to plan and execute and he or she cant afford to leave it to some one else.
And I try to drill this simple example of multi-tasking that we see and experience at our homes: The Mother is the shining example of multi-tasking. Just observe the way she works. She is the first to rise and last to go to bed!
I dont think these kind of live examples are taught in any school or college.
And one more aspect that many youngsters ignore – reading.
I still remember, when I was in my journalism school, we had an opportunity to meet the legendary journalist-columnist Kuldip Nayar. He told us to read and read a lot.
A word about God Google! It is an excellent resource, but need not always be the most reliable. Google just throws up what is posted. Much of it could be biased, one sided information. Take, weigh it and use it.
Remember, information is the most potent weapon!
I agree with your analysis of the types of people brought into the PR system.
Ex-journalists do have an edge since they understand the functioning of the media, but in some cases they lack strategic thinking. For instance, if a story cannot be sold to a particular media in a straight jacket format, many do not know how to go about with it! Then the client obviously gets upset and screams: Why have I hired you guys?!
A story can be told in ten different ways. We must try and find our way out.
I know I am sounding like a lecturer and some forum members could well react: Boss, it’s easier said than done!
But let’s be practical. As Vikram rightly pointed out how many us – the so-called seniors – do mentoring? I have come across many cases where youngsters are left to learn swimming through correspondence courses!
And, I fully endorse the opinion that PR in India is still at its nascent stage. In fact it has begun to evolve but some recent development have tarnished the image of PR professionals as being fixers.
Having said that, we must strive through this and other forums to do some churning of thoughts and leave good thoughts for the youngsters to ponder over.
I am making all out efforts to set up a platform to bring together experienced PR professionals and even corporate honchos to impart skill development programmes.
Please watch this space!
Regards
BNK
kinshuk
June 2, 2012 at 6:33 pm
the finest article on PR i ever read….!!!
Amazing work sir..!!!
Neha Kulshrestha
June 3, 2012 at 11:38 am
2 things:
1. It’s important to gain thorough knowledge of the industry one is handling and therefore lot of stress should be on research and as mentioned ‘right’ research.
2. Constant advice and feedback from seniors is essential, alongside a person’s self-will to learn.
Nice read, because the issues pointed out are bang on true!
Ajitabh Das
June 6, 2012 at 11:34 am
I agree with you that in India the job market for PR/corporate communication is not that dynamic as it is in other advanced economies.
In fact, I’m looking for a position in corporate communication.
I’m a French speaking MBA graduate in Marketing from SKEMA Business School of Paris.I’ve degrees from the best universities of India and from elite schools of France.
Currently I’m working as Business Development Consultant at Oracle. I’m fluent in French, English and Hindi.
Do you have any advise for a person with my profile for entering into corporate comm/PR?
Archana Venkat
June 6, 2012 at 11:35 am
Vikram – I agree with your observations. However, the industry is also to blame for its current state.
1. PR professionals are averse to asking clients “what more can we do for you”. A case in point is how agencies are no longer even doing media monitoring for clients to share the number of media mentions.
2. PR professionals do not want to spend time with clients to understand their business and propose suitable avenues for publicity – More often than not, the expectation is that the internal PR/ marketing team will reach out to them with the content so they just have to liaise with the journalist to push these stories.
3. PR professionals do not want to look at client relationships from a long term perspective and hence do not offer options like syndicated contributons to clients. Further, the entire client engagement is more transaction driven than strategic.
4. PR professionals role in crisis communication is severely diminished. They prefer lying low and not advising the client on what action needs to be taken.
5. PR professionals do not want to enter into client relationships where there are metrics and benchmarks to measure effectiveness on each project.
6. Somewhere done the line the industry and PR professionals have limited the definition of PR to just the mainstrem mass media. Today, with the prevalnce of social media and increased emphasis on peer group publicity, mass media is just one of the marketing channels for companies. PR agencies. professionals are unable to assess how else the client should be leveraged. Eg: They offer little or no support in reaching out to industry body associations such as CII.
This might seem like a rant, but all these aspects are a reality today and the industry needs to work on this. Else, you will have marketing professionals doubling up and doing a better job of PR.
Adity Bangia
June 6, 2012 at 11:36 am
I completely agree with Archana, PR professional needs to a strategic communications consultant rather than an office executive eying on media opportunities.
But having said that also want to make a point that clients also don’t prefer consulting agencies at time of crisis…. probably the relationship gradually evolves to giving orders and following them…
Riddhi Mobharkar
June 6, 2012 at 11:36 am
I completely agree with Vikram’s Point of view and likewise second what Archana says. PR professionals are perceived more or less as salesman by the media. There is a dire need to reform PR etiquette and rebuild the reputation of the PR industry itself. The first step towards that is making the client understand that the role of a PR professional is not merely to get stories published or ensure positive coverage. Stress has to be laid on various other activities that a PR professional can carry out hence widening the scope for the agency and the client. Brand building is not limited to obtaining print / electronic coverage. There is a lot more that goes into building , rebuilding brands.
Client Servicing in the Advertising industry has obtained a certain respect which the PR industry hasn’t. Not many understand that PR-Client Servicing can be as creative or vivacious as Advertising Client Servicing is, if given a certain free hand.
Eden Menon
June 6, 2012 at 11:40 am
Absolutely right, PR in India is still in its teens…….
Stephen Manallack
June 6, 2012 at 11:41 am
I think when PR consultants are managing media issues they build the reputation of the profession when they genuinely act like an “outsourced news room”, giving the right advice to the client (even if they do not want to hear it) and quality media releases and ideas for stories to the media. Then some respect arises. What do you think?
Zeenat Khan
June 6, 2012 at 11:42 am
while i agree on some level …i also believe that it is a two way process…the trust, commitment and collaboration within the two parties is extremely critical. i have had personal experiences when these exists the results are phenomenal
Ganapathy Viswanathan
June 6, 2012 at 11:42 am
PR is evolved when the client drives PR and there is a strong collaboration between the the agency in partnering to achieve a very clearly defined objective. Otherwise it is all about computing the clips and meeting the deliverables every quarter.
Prakash Menon
June 6, 2012 at 11:43 am
I can certainly say with my first hand experience setting up business in India where we engaged a PR agency was nothing short of a disaster. Learnt heaps in the process and am more than willing to help any enterprise wanting to enter India and needs any guidance on the things they should and should not be doing….This is a gift from me to you at no cost…Be in touch…
Abhishek Saxena
June 24, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Dear Vikram,
The problem you have stated is absolutely right. If you look at the attrition rate figures for PR industry, they suffice as the proof of your problem.
And as you said, the ‘Chalta hai’ attitude still persists, no one is bothered much about it. But good and niche PR agencies with ethics address the problem in a very professional manner( as they train their new recruits for atleast 6 months or an year), while most of PR agencies follow Indian ‘Lala’ culture which is hurting both the industry and people who are employed in the industry, where the only focus is to get business, no matter whether you will be able to work for the new client or not.
I am not going to take any names here. :)
Also, you were right about the perception of the new recruits most of them target for an advertising / marketing opportunity but land in PR industry; and since they don’t get what they are after, in first place kills the very interest to work and that desire to work, further diminishes when the new recruits gets to see the original picture of journalism (it can happen in very initial days of joining or may take some months as well).
Its these Lala type PR agencies which are killing the PROFESSIONAL PR culture, per se. Because they are not able to control the expectations of clients and they kneel down to the requirements of the client, without even informing them that things are not possible.
Its important to put your feet down and let your client know, about what to expect from PR. There is a misconception among clients, that PR can result in high sales directly. Which is not possible, PR can only build the image of the company which can further lead to improved brand image. PR should not be compared with advertising and sales promotion, they are different marketing tools for absolutely different stake-holders. Its this difference which needs to by conveyed to the clients. Clients can only be educated about this difference by the senior professionals of the agency. Once a client understands this difference, the demand for the QUANTITY of coverage will automatically decrease and QUALITY of coverage increases. Which is good for the PR agency, its employees and the client as well.
Coming to the point of students, you are right that they are only told about the operational part of the job. Whereas, they should be told about the practicalities and soft-skills required for the job. It is required because tackling media is an important aspect of a PR person’s job and one never knows how a media person may behave in a particular situation. So, its important that team leads / managers should keep weekly workshops / sessions to discuss on an open platform the different experiences they or their other team members had in past when handling media-person(s). But for this to happen they have to have time in their hand, instead of just running after to get new business. And i believe its better to use this approach because I have read and experienced that, its better to retain a current client then to acquire a new one.
So, the change has to come in the minds of those Lala type PR agencies, that, you cant have everything in you plate. And its better to have QUALITY then QUANTITY.
Regards,
Abhishek Saxena :)
Anonymous
July 20, 2012 at 7:43 am
Insightful….No wonder i see a huge gap and dearth of a good PR Agency. Most of the corp comm manager and CEO I have found have complaints regarding their existing PR Agency.
Shankar
December 4, 2012 at 11:37 am
Great to read so many comments & niggling concerns & issues raised. With my experience of being a business journalist for 8 years & last 12 years in PR agency, corporate comm function & now as an independent PR strategist – its also about our inability to take the client along in this journey & move beyond media relations & col. cms as a barometer of our work.
Due to poor recruitment policies, lack of any skill development programs and business pressures – we don’t engage clients and allow them to have multiple agencies offering advertising, branding, digital, films. The PR agency gets the brief at the end – voila for pushing it in the media. Only if we can upgrade to ensure the briefing for all agencies happens together – we can help clients develop a single unifying thread of communication, irrespective of which medium is used and make ourselves more worthy of client attention and also move up the value chain from pure media relations also.
We should also ensure that we can work towards developing a Stakeholder Engagement Plan especially for companies executing projects sector agnostic so that a proper communication channel is established and regular information exchange happens keeping everybody updated on developments.
Working as a Reputation Advisor working with clients in Healthcare, IT, Realty & Power Sector – am able to take these clients on a journey of communication panning media relations, advertising, branding, internal & marketing communications – brochure/flyer/website/films, CSR & stakeholder engagement and issue/crisis communications and work with different vendors but am the clients’ single face for all communication stitched together with a uniform message running across any medium used by the clients. it has been helping me so far and clients trust my judgement – I also share my experience with some lectures & academic pursuits in the field of Public Relations and constantly looking for new ideas, trends and willing to learn always.