R&PM:Edelman, which recently announced the elevation of its Indian CEO and MD Roger CB Pereira to the role of global vice chairman, had through the move made its intention of its focus on BRIC nations like India evident.
Richard Edelman, president and chief executive officer, Edelman was in the city on Tuesday morning to meet members of the industry and clients, and talk about the increasing focus on the APAC region to show growth.
Charting the journey that big business has made in the last year and a half, Edelman, in his presentation, made a point about corporate greed and the resultant erosion of trust that had occurred among consumers. Summarising the current crisis, Edelman said that there had been a shocking amount of ineptitude in business management which had exposed the gaps in government regulation. There had been a breakdown of communication, with the government using outdated models of media relations, and private sector companies under delivering on their promises. The decline in trust in established institutions had led to a new order where authority had shifted to the new influencers; the “someone like me” character who epitomized values like credibility and trust.
In a brief chat with Campaign India, Edelman responded to the charge that PR companies, along with help from great advertising, had created the feeling that large financial institutions were safe and trustworthy and why PR needs a seat at the table when policy changes are being made.
A lot of the large private sector institutions which have collapsed and contributed to the current downturn got their credibility through good advertising and PR. PR’s role in projecting the financial sector as safe is undeniable. Can you comment on this?
Richard Edelman: It is not simply PR or great advertising that created those brands. People want to back a winner and the fact that these brands were performing very well on the stock market were also factors that influenced shareholders and stakeholders alike about the reputation of that company.
Companies need to rebuild that credibility in the minds of consumers. And that can only come about through change. I believe financial institutions will have to find new ways in which to address this change, and that will happen not just through great advertising or effective PR but through policy changes which are, in turn, well communicated.
You made the point that PR- communications through conversation and engagement will have a much larger role going forward. Do Indian companies know enough about the role that PR plays?
Richard Edelman: No, I don’t believe they do. The general point that I am making is that PR has been under-utilized in this country. What we see is disparity of audience, a 24X7 media and advertising that is largely used as a static tool. Instead, the conversation needs to be dynamic, and companies need to go where the conversations are. That includes communicating to opinion leaders, influencers. It may seem self serving when I say this, but the allocation of spends towards advertising is 50 times that of other media. More money needs to be allocated towards digital and PR. It is happening, of course, but from a small base. Also, the order in which PR is deployed needs to change. PR needs to come in first to announce what a company plans to do, followed by the action and then companies need to go out there and prove that they have achieved the task, thats where PR comes in again. So PR needs to be sitting at the table, when policy changes are being formulated.
