Where's the Crisis PR template?

For some reason, the word ‘crisis’ is associated with ‘panic’ – and so most organizations do exactly that even at the distant sight of a crisis.

There are examples galore of how even the most communication savvy leadership/PR team of an organization (gifted with a fair amount of media leverage), gets into a shell and resorts to denial mode when it’s time to speak more.

The cardinal rule in handling PR in times of a crisis is – communicate immediately, speaking and send fact statements to the entire gamut of media houses – including web2.0 and social platforms.

Invite media conversations, using every opportunity to share more and more details possible. Never give a remote sense that your organization is shying away from the media – even when the crisis in not your own making.

When you shy away, the immediate conclusion is that the organization wants to hide facts.

While there can be well documented papers (by your PR agency or internal communications team) of how to respond when there is a crisis, it’s easy to manage a crisis when some basics are in place.

Just see if these things are in place in your organization, real,-time! 

• a designated spokesperson, who will instantly be updated on any crisis that may have hit – he is the points man for all information to be given – facts, details, images, live feed and whatever.
• Handpicked communication team that swings into action – gets into an auto pilot mode in any mishap – which is connected and networked 24/7/365 to take the crisis PR initiatives. Stay abreast all through the crisis life cycle, and ceaselessly and tirelessly handles all queries from every corner of the globe.
• a communication mechanism (call it a protocol) which communicates to all the key decision makers and every internal stakeholder in the organization the details and occurrences of any crisis that may have hit, how the consequences will be managed, how internal/external stakeholder interests will be protected, what are the cost consequences and the impact on the organizations’ fiscals et al.
• a standard template that captures all the finer details of any mishap that may occur, roll it out into the form of a media release, so that the same can be handed to the media fraternity  and follow up questions taken.
• a mechanism that ensure that all the state authorities are informed of the mishap in the shortest possible time, with as much details as gather-able in the least lead time.
•  A media room which gets activated when such an event happens, where all the journalistic fraternity can report from, with all information fed to them officially, live wire. 

Do  this sound like baby steps? Yes, they are. Yet, in crisis management, many a times it’s the lack of this basic preparedness that brings in misery to the organization, much more than the actual crisis itself.

Make sure your organization is ready in the first steps of managing crises. 

The old adage says, being well prepared is half the battle won. That’s the word in managing a crisis too.

Is the Indian pharma/healthcare sector PR/Communication shy?!

Back in April this year, we would remember seeing this small piece on the shift in trends in the way pharma companies were approaching PR. It was under a caption "PR tonic" in Business Standard.

It read as below:

"Recent developments in the Indian pharma industry, especially over compulsory licensing of life-saving drugs, have left multinationals jittery and encouraged them to change their public relations strategy in India. Till recently, the focus was on wooing government; now the attention has shifted to the media. This week, three major multinationals, caught in patent rows, did their media rounds one after the other explaining their stand. Their attempt is no longer limited to winning the battle over intellectual property-related issues, but to spruce up their consumer-unfriendly image and show that they care."

In the case of pharma/healthcare  companies - be it Indian, or MNC's in this market, what ails their public relations strategy is this - the public in PR has been forgotten, with focus of the communication efforts only being institutional - doctors, corporate hospitals, the government, and the company's shareholders. Not sure if many would agree, yet, that’s fact.
When was the last time you saw a pharma company attempting to tell/communicate to the public at large about their commitment for affordable health-care, or how efficacious, SAFE, and fool-proof their processes and plants/operations are? As the consumers of their products, are’nt people entitled to a fair amount of information? And what better way to route it than PR?

One large company which is embroiled in all kinds of safety issues, Ranbaxy, had its top leadership go about and state on prime time television that 'adulteration' wasn't a major issue for the Indian consumer!

This is only due to fact that the consumer is not a choice maker, like other products or services.

Does that mean that the PR of Pharmaceutical companies cannot have a communication strategy with consumer focus?

They can. And what must they speak of:communicate their commitment to better drugs

• communicate the safety of their drug development efforts
• communicate their support of better patient care and interventions
• communicate how their standards remain uniform across the globe - which is never the case by most

Like these, there a host of communication and image building opportunities for pharma brands.

Does Pharma/healthcare PR do anything of this kind, with the consumers in mind? Can it do better?

Looks like the answer will be in the affirmative.

Gobbledygook'ing press releases - are you?

Is this post headline making you irritant? If the answer is a resounding yes - that is what your press releases loaded with unnecessary and uncalled for jargon do to the media.

Its a different debate if the press releases of yore are dead and gone. Fact is, most of yet keep churning out one or two a week, sometimes for the sake of content, and many times for the sake of the client compulsion.

The mantra for a great press release is that it should communicate a unique angle to the media about the product or service, give a very different perspective on issues of importance, flag some concern in the industry - things which have not been said much about, or an angle that is seldom looked at.

The cardinal rule must be to make sure that you must NOT gobbledygook the release - well, to keep it simple, make the language simple, to the point and free of jargon.

If you did not know, a whole lot of those people in the media-room have kept spam alerts for press releases that may contain too much of jargon. Yes, its a fact, and you must know.

Courtesy of newsjacking pioneer David Meerman Scott, sampled below are  some of the words which were widely used in the US way back in 2008 - surely, many of us use all this and even more even in circa 2013.

Pick up any of those press release which you mailed out last week, and read through now. How many of these words, or similar ones are there? Try and replace them wherever, and just knock some of them which may sound plain crap. Does it make sense?

No wonder, as all of the synonyms for gobbledygook mean something equal to bull****

No wonder, releases made with so much effort and mailed frantically end up where they should - the junk or spam box - not to be even clicked open once!!

So, no wrong in continuing to use the press release - just that keep them free of irritating jargon. 

The right "Duracell" way of news jacking!

News jacking is such a great public relations tool - one that no marketing or PR pro can chose to ignore.
There's always a raging debate on when, where and how brands must get into news jacking. As this debate continues, there are some instances that brands get this right - call it a 'perfect ten' in the art of news jacking.

As the cyclone Phailin continued its scary march towards the East India coastal states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, numerous weather alert twitter handles sent in information about the real-time status of the cyclonic storm.

True to its name, "Duracell, the manufacturer of batteries and smart power systems" - moved in smartly to seize this news jacking opportunity - what better time to be seen for a battery brand, by people who might go out of supply of electricity.

And they did that...

Promoting a tweet by The Weather Channel, a status update of the storm, Duracell made sure it was seen as a brand that makes sense, and was socially conscious at a time when a seeming calamity was about to come.

And yes, in the process, it also made sure it was top of mind when the need to have a stock pile of batteries in a time when there would be prolonged disruption of electric supply.

Duracell is a great example of how brands must do news jacking the right way.

Cyclone Phalin, evacuation and the power of "community relations".

In the practice of PR, the power of community relations or the need to stay communicated at the grass roots is perceived as less glamorous, and also not so important. But, hold that thought.

Cyclone Phalin that battered the Eastern coast yesterday evening/night saw one of the worlds largest evacuation - latest figures speak of 5.5 million people evacuated in the states of Orissa and AP.  The mammoth task would have been possible only with a swift flow of crisis communication top-down in the chain.

Not just plain communication - at every local  village, taluka, small town, fishermen community level the task of communicating the need to evacuate was taken up by the local community heads, facilitated by the local and state governments. These local community leaders are constant communicators, and are seen by the community as persons of credibility and a fair amount of authority.

The success of such a massive and urgent effort is nothing but a success of the combination of powerful communication, channeled through the persons wielding credibility/authority at the grassroots level.

And in that is the lesson for most PR/community relations professionals - sustained and credible communication right to every single village cluster - combined with the right articulation is what works.

Must be an eye opener for many of our corporations who think local community relations can be done by big noise in the mainstream media.