Journey of CorePR since 1986

Thirty-three years of managing communication for diverse industry sectors and organisations makes me look back with satisfaction for having helped organisations, brands, and individual celebs including authors, garner limelight for themselves in a highly competitive world.

CorePR was born in September 1986 as a one-man startup (the term did not exist at that time) which gradually graduated into a private limited company. 

That was the time when little did corporate know about public relations as a profession or business, except a few beyond Delhi.  But that was the time when some of the big corporate like Crompton Greaves and Pepsi were looking at Punjab and gave me the opportunity to begin. 

Already I had met several leading PR professionals in reputed companies across the country during my stint in PR with a German company, which included Mr KS Neelakandan, Vice President at Pfizer, Mr Ajit Gopal, the PR head with Indian Airlines, Mr Anil Basu of Goodyear, who had helped in my journey as a PR practitioner. 

The firm belief that effective communication practice can help resolve any issue  in the world, whether it is improving employees sense of belonging, internal communication, training the stakeholders, or reaching out to different external audiences like customers, financial institutions, or the need for changing the government's policies.  The holistic approach to communicate the right message in a desired format through right media at the right time, made the difference. 

The best part remains in PR practice, especially working with small enterprises and startups who have a long journey to traverse, to seem them achieve their goals through effective communication practice. 

From the initial years of concept selling and educating clients about the PR Power, till date, the outcome-based approach to address specific pain points has continued to reap tangible results for our clients.   

How to Elevate Your Startup with PR

Emboldened and inspired by the 'Startup India' many startups are emerging, and youngsters especially, are enthused to setup their own enterprise.  At the early stage, the promoters are more concerned about their product, streamlining operations, hiring the team, and looking for funds to give wings to their ideas. 

However, in all this exercise, PR - the Power Tool to empower any organisation, remains ignored, and those who consider it, keep it on the back burner, since it holds the least importance in the initial stages.

How can PR help a startup grow?

BUILDING BRAND 
The moment the founders conceive the idea, the role of PR starts to help them define the organisational's mission and vision.  They can help in getting the visual identity of the organisation created effectively which can communicate the concept to diverse audience.

INTERNAL INTEGRATION 
Integrating all stakeholders within the organisation is the first step that PR professional can help put together by establishing robust internal communication channels, both formal and informal, for complete transparency, and keeping everyone on the ame page.
Shared goals contribute to the internal strength that gets projected to the external stakeholders strongly paving way for startup's growth.

EXTERNAL IMAGE MANAGEMENT
Every aspect of the branding for consistent reproduction and projection needs expert imaging specialist as also take care of the communication needs of external stakeholders, be it collaborators, technology providers or knowledge partners, financial institutions and individual investors, government institutions and academics, to name a few.

Every group's communication needs to be strategically designed to achieve the desired objective.

MEDIA MANAGEMENT
One of the significant partners for any organisation is the print and electronic media.  Though most founders are young and social media savvy, the importance of print, radio and television channels cannot be discounted.   Even in the print categories, there are dailies as well as vertical or industry specific periodicals that need to be targetted to share your story.

The PR professionals work with the startups to provide them media exposure as well as design opportunities for them to showcase their story through speaking assignments in professional conferences, social clubs, community meetigs, etc, that also adds up to some media coverage.

Good stories published in media also gets public support and supports talent hunt.

FUNDING
Getting the startup founders ready for pitching and presenting to the investors is another key area where properly pitched stories make a difference.  All the buildup through marketing communication, media coverage portfolios, help in generating investors' confidence in the startup.

Engaging PR agency or professionals right from the very beginning can only change the entire scenario for a startup. 

What is the Big Idea?

Communicators agenda for the next decade
 

The big agenda for the next decade is communication.  In this information age of big data, the nuances of the science and art of managing communication have also changed.  drive growth, change, and success for organizations, governments, and nations.
On the global front, technology is shaping the trends and artificial intelligence is communicating with the people in a big way transforming the way we live, enjoy and work, besides, of course, redefining the relationship between an organization and its various stakeholders.
Another major trend sweeping the global economies is diverse technology-driven flow of information  breaking barriers between brands and consumers, employers and employees, necessitating evolution of every business to keep pace with new technologies and redefine management of internal and external relationship.
The Big Change is that every professional, and every business is transmuting into thought leadership domain, to combat the competition and excel.  The organizations would have to turn into learning ones in order to maintain dynamic relationship with its various stakeholders in the midst of rapid technological changes.
Earlier, the communication strategists monitored business environment in a limited way within their existing ecosystem focusing on specific ‘publics’.  The future now depends upon evolving processes and systems to track insights into consumer behavior with a need for customizable responses at the individual level.

The old paradigms of ‘slow and steady wins the race’ has since long shifted to agility, measured with turnaround response time.

For the PR fraternity involving communicators in every area of operations have a challenge at hand to become a part of the BIG change.   The success would depend on getting into the loop of dynamic learning, making decision, and executing or responding. Digital world has already opened limitless opportunities. It is time to stay attuned to the rapid transformation and how organizations are evolving with the new technology, where communicators need to interpret big data, understand the patterns and create response triggers to address the issues involved. This would determine the success of the PR practitioners, and their organizations. 

The time is ripe for the PR practitioners to join in this vital conversation at the 13th Global Conclave at Jaipur, to create a winning road map for the future.

(C.J. Singh is a corporate communication consultant with over three decades of experience as a journalist, broadcaster, author, corporate brand manager and consultant, having founded one of the first PR consultancies in Chandigarh way back in 1986.  The article was published in 'Kautilya', the journal of the PRCI Young Communicators Club in its February 2019 issue, published during the 13th Global Communication Conclave held at Jaipur, India)

Communication professionals to mobilse funds for Kerala

#keralafightsback - Communication professionals to mobilise relief funds

Mobilising its mite for the Kerala flood relief, national communicators’ body Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has decided to donate the entire ‘early bird’ fee collection for the forthcoming 13th Global Communication Conclave to be held in February next, with the theme PR – What’s the Big Idea?

PRCI will donate the collection to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said PRCI chief mentor and chairman emeritus M B Jayaram. The Conclave venue will be announced in the next couple of days.

PRCI has fixed the first early bird registration fee at Rs 3,000 per delegate for the two-day Conclave and it is valid till September 16, 2018. The registration form and he payment gateway details are posted here.

PRCI has appealed to all communication professionals to generously donate for the #keralafightsback project and send the word across their organizations and clients as well. “This is the least that we can do for the flood-ravaged Kerala,” said Kumar.
The previous Global Communications held by PRCI have seen large participation and delegates number crossing 500.

Headquartered at Bengaluru, PRCI has close to 30 chapters and floated a global platform called World Communicators Council with the aim of bringing communication professionals from various spheres on a common platform.
PRCI has successfull launched social communication projects such as #MissionMumbaiLocal, #SaveParsikHill, #PotholesRforever and #IamMangroveIamDying.

With #keralafightsback, PRCI salutes the true resilient spirit of Kerala - Gold's own country.

Communication professionals to mobilise relief funds

PRCI global conclave fee for CM’s relief fund

Mobilising its mite for the Kerala flood relief, national communicators’ body Public Relations Council of India (PRCI) has decided to donate the entire ‘early bird’ fee collection for the forthcoming 13th Global Communication Conclave to be held in February next, with the theme PR – What’s the Big Idea?

PRCI will donate the collection to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, said PRCI chief mentor and chairman emeritus M B Jayaram. The Conclave venue will be announced in the next couple of days.

PRCI has fixed the first early bird registration fee at Rs 3,000 per delegate for the two-day Conclave and it is valid till September 16, 2018. The registration form and he payment gateway details are posted here.

PRCI has appealed to all communication professionals to generously donate for the #keralafightsback project and send the word across their organizations and clients as well. “This is the least that we can do for the flood-ravaged Kerala,” said Kumar.

The previous Global Communications held by PRCI have seen large participation and delegates number crossing 500.

Headquartered at Bengaluru, PRCI has close to 30 chapters and floated a global platform called World Communicators Council with the aim of bringing communication professionals from various spheres on a common platform.

PRCI has successfull launched social communication projects such as #MissionMumbaiLocal, #SaveParsikHill, #PotholesRforever and #IamMangroveIamDying.

With #keralafightsback, PRCI salutes the true resilient spirit of Kerala - Gold's own country.

Beyond the pink-shirt, partying phenomenon!

PRCI – The Communication Exchange

PRCI – www.publicrelationscouncilofindia.com – is a pan-India Communication Exchange with presence in 30 Indian cities and towns.

This premier network connects PR, Media, Commercial and Public Service Advertising, Marcom, Academia in Communication and students; organises at national and regional levels events like conferences, discussions, lectures, training programmes, apart from annual global conclaves for sharing experience and facilitate continued exchange of knowledge among professionals.

Here is a glimpse of wide range of PRCI’s professional projects: 

YCC

A special Young Communicators Club (YCC) for galvanizing young boys and and girls pursuing mass media communication programmes in various  universities campuses across India. PRCI and YCC jointly hold series of knowledge experience and research sharing activities in association with various university campuses.

CHANAKYA

PRCI publishes the CHANAKYA magazine for networking with its members and serve as a vehicle for sharing  knowledge and experience.

PRapport 

We support an extraordinary e-mag called PRapport. By not being  a weekly, fortnightly or a monthly, but a virtual 24x7 online publication, it aims to fulfil  the needs for quick updates of events, communication and media trends and thought leadership articles by communication industry stalwarts as well as the youth. PRapport enjoys a about 50,000 page views across the US, Canada, UK, France, Portugal, Russia,  Gulf, Singapore, Australia, apart from India!

Daughters’ Day

Even as India’s women power is growing, there is the complex issue  of the ‘missing girl’. In a modest bid to shed a positive light on the issue, PRCI  celebrates  Daughters’ Day on June 1 – the official date of birth of late Indo-US astronaut Kalpana Chawla. We try to showcase girls who excel in education and other fields. We have adopted few girls through various established NGOs to ensure their uninterrupted education till at least SSC or High School.

WCC

Our  national network –PRCI- has taken steps to expand internationally by  recently promoting  a global platform – World Communicators’ Council (WCC) – with Chapters in UAE and Sri Lanka. Soon, WCC we hope to spread our wings to many other countries, including Australia, UK and the US.

World Communicators’ Day

Communication and society and its communicators, existed long before technology entered to expand, extend and speed up communication. To focus limelight on the contribution of communicators and the importance of the communication discipline and  profession, PRCI initiated World Communicators’ Day to be celebrated on October 28 – the day the world’s first Press Release was sent out by Ivy Lee in the US in 1906. The occasion is marked by  a series of events, pan-India, including sessions on the art of press release writing fit for  the  contemporary multi-media world.

Social Communication

In a yet another unique initiative, we launched a Social Communication campaign to deal with issues of concern to the communities around us. Our campaign – Mission Mumbai Local – was adjudged as the PR Milestone of The Year at America’s PR World Awards. The campaign focused on the plight of suburban train commuters of the island city .This  was again a positive campaign for highlighting the road ahead.

Similarly, we met with great success in our campaign  #IamParsikHill, IamDying as the drive helped create enough awareness about the plundering of the hills on the outskirts of Mumbai. Four leading environment NGOs supported the cause.  This was a public awareness and advocacy campaign  conducted on the eve of hearing of a PIL before the national Green Tribunal. The Tribunal later ruled that no quarrying can be done without environment clearances. The district environmental appraisal committee has now reported that quarrying has crossed the permitted limits, thus putting a virtual full-stop to the plundering of the hills.

Green Is for ever: PRCI has done away with presentation of bouquets to honour our guests. Instead, we introduced Green Certificates to be handed over to the guests at our Global Conclaves, with the promise that a sapling will be planted in the name of each of them and the plants will be maintained at designated places.

Guest Faculty Pool

To supplement and complement the faculty at various institutes/universities teaching  media and mass communication, PRCI has begun to maintain a Guest Faculty Pool. Drawn from across all communication streams, the members of the Pool visit the colleges to impart practical training and conduct case studies.

Global Conclaves

PRCI holds  its annual  Global Communication Conclaves each year with a different thought-provoking theme. The Conclaves go beyond the conviviality partying  through  Manthan sessions (introspective and insightful) in which eminent persons from different fields interact with delegates.

CHANAKYA Awards & PR Hall of Fame

PRCI felicitates industry achievers with its signature awards under the Chanakya series and it is the only communication body to welcome and usher in  industry professionals into PR Hall of Fame. Our much-sought-after collateral awards help promote talent.

Social Media: You can touch and feel our presence on  social media platforms- face book & YouTube: PRCI NOW. Twitter handle: @prcitweets. And, of course on PRapport.

Honey Singh's songs scare away wild pigs

Different behaviorial scientists have experimented on the impact of various wild and domesticated animals from time to time, and while many of them do respond and like a certain type of music, especially the classical one, the heavy metal and certain type of sharp music does not go well with many of them.
The fluke worked in a village in Uttrakhand, when the villagers thought of playing some loud rock music, especially the fap singer Honey Singh's songs that scared the hell out of the wild pigs who have opted out of it.
The wild pigs were spoiling the crop and hence the move.
The villagers wanted to make human presence known to the wild ones, and nothing better than communicating their territorial rights than playing music though I don't know what made them chose Honey Singh. 
Did they try other forms of music? 
Or was it their sixth sense that Honey Singh's rap was scary enough to take care of the problem.
Worth researching further. 

"Transform" is the only PR Trend

Photo Courtesy: Pexels

Transform: The Core Strategy for PR Professionals

As I explore the various professional views on the emerging trends, the key message for the PR practitioners, that has been very aptly provided the thematic treatment in the forthcoming 12^th Global Communication Conclave at Pune in March is “Transform or Perish”

#Transformation is the well-planned strategic action to manage change, and upgrade oneself to meet the changing exigencies in the business environment.

It is time also to have a relook at our own professional standing and practice.  PR being the science and art of managing communication for an individual or organization, the science of communication is an imperative change that needs to be understood and imbibed, and I won’t mind calling the PR practitioners as PR or Communication Scientists.

Looking at the transformation needed in managing communication is to understand some of the emerging trends in the industry, which include :

• Making the best use of Big Data and data analytics.  Research shall continue to be the mainstay for the organizational success. Deploying data analysts would be sine qua non to predict future courses and meet customer needs.
• Artificial intelligence would continue to evolve to assist in analyzing brand conversations;
• Emerging intelligent chatbots may help engage with different stakeholders and even developing creative content under keen supervision of the PR scientists.
• Paid versus earned media continues to baffle many PR practitioners since paid print media is often detested or kept out of media strategies, while huge sums get allocated on ‘influencers’ marketing, which is also in a way is turning out to be a paid online channel.  Need is to analyise the key stakeholders and their media consumption instead of just playing the number game.
• Ethics in communication would help us get back to the basic and build credibility and trust in our professional practice would be the key to strengthening reputation and public image of any organization.
• Fight obsolence in PR education and training would be another key initiative or professional bodies to match the changing industry needs.
• Mandatory membership of professional bodies like PRCI and participation in training and education sessions in order to earn minimum annual credits as a part of Continued Communication Education & Training (CCET) programme, would be another transformation to be brought in so that professional practice is upgraded. 

Standardisation can help win people's trust

Each year the World Standards Organisation brings into focus the significance of standardisation that can help improve lives and, this year, it says, standardisation can help cities become smart cities.

One of the key elements in standardisation of visual identity of the city.  Many cities around the world have created their own unique identity through distinct logos  that represent the ethos of the city and vision of its leadership and people living there.

Chandigarh for instance has Open Hand monument to represent the city, and similar identities exist across the globe.

And consistence use of those visuals across all communication helps the organisation develop a close trust and credibility with the people.

Fadilah Baharin, CEO of Department of Standards Malaysia, and member of the International Organisation for Standardisation, says, “I believe standards instil trust. Standards are no longer about product differentiation but about creating a uniform experience that gives your customers confidence in your products and services. The differentiation and marketing edge now lies in how successfully your brand or organization has been able to build and nurture consumer relationships that are sustainable, solely by promising the same ‘quality’ and ‘experience’ every single time.”

The same holds true for any organisation.  Standardisation in visual identity is the first step towards winning confidence and trust of one's stakeholders.

The Life of an Entrepreneur in 90 Seconds-

Patrick Bet-David is superb. His @valuetainment is super. Though #Patrick is closing his #Youtube channel, I'm sure we would continue to receive his motivational insights on fb. Here is the video that went viral. You may check up how many people he has reached? Check it out on you tube. Good luck.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about...

Famous writer Oscar Wilde once remarked:

"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."

How true.  Most of the startups or small entrepreneurs are so busy putting their product or services in place, they often forget to communicate with the people they should be talking to. At the pre-launch stage itself, the business plan must also plug in a robust public relations strategy in order to build relationship with diverse groups of people.

The challenge of course is from where to begin. How does one put a public relations strategy for the best visibility in the marketplace?  How the company, or for that matter, the organisation would get perceived?

Here are a five tips to make people talk about you.

1. Begin with the end in mind. Answer the 'whys'

Why are you in a particular activity, project, business idea? Why are you doing this?  Till the time, the why is explained, nothing can be achieved. Answers to 'why' bring in the sustainability of any product or service that you may be building.  The 'why' provides the key to the vision of the enterprise, the ultimate goal and objective, and the human issues that it intends to tackle. The 'why' helps an organisation build its purpose of existence and the route it must take to achieve the goals.

2. Define your key stakeholders.

For any enterprise there are set or group of people who are stakeholders... the people who matter. They can be customers, prospects, business associates, collaborators, dealers and distributors, the bankers or investors, etc.  All these are primarily your external audience, with whom you need to interact with periodically; not essentially face to face, but through a structured periodical communication using diverse tools that are available today.

The process begins by preparing a list of such stakeholders. Create their profiles and contact details so that you can network with them and benefit.

3. USP: What's so unique about you, your product or service?

The USP emerges once you are able to answer the 'whys' at the first instance about your organisation, your product/service.  why is your product important for the users? What challenges it addresses for the people?  And how your organisation helps? 

4. Talk about it

Keep each stakeholder about the USPs, the case studies or the success stories. If the story is really newsworthy, share it with media. Identify the media outlets who would belong to your product/service vertical and would be interested to carry your story.

5. Acquire Leadership Position:

You are the best person who knows about your enterprise, your product or service.  You are an expert in your domain.  But does the world knows about it?  Start sharing your knowledge and expertise with the youngsters, students, and those who can be considered later for working with you.  Network with professional organisations, and your peers, to continue to train and mentor other professionals.  That would help you catapult into a position where you would be a true brand ambassador of your domain.

Go ahead.  Just do it.

CJ www.corepr.com