Track2Realty Exclusive: Public Relations or the PR stands for different things to different people in this part of the world. In the business of Indian real estate the philosophy is how much coverage do I get by paying how less. And only developers are not to be blamed for this since agencies understand the psychology of developers and tend to over-promise, thanks to the cut-throat competition in the business.
And hence, PR not only stands at the bottom of the branding pyramid but happens to be the weakest link as well. Track2Realty Brand X Report takes a look at the PR dilemma.
The given headline here might give the impression of a routine vacancy for the job, but actually it does reflect much more. In its true sense, it rather reflects an industry in dire need of genuine professionals.
Hundreds of realty companies in India who have hired various PR agencies for the purpose of brand building are the worst hit in the absence of professionals worth counting on. And media is not ready to take the industry and its practitioners who, more often than not, don’t even read what they themselves send to the journalists on beat.
Forget about a PR professional’s failure to differentiate between news flash, news update and news break, or for that matter their lack of understanding with the news cycle of a newspaper; even the basic communication skill of writing is a challenge in the world of PR.
As a PR professional once requested, “please don’t send column invites to the company directly. They ask us to write and that is a real problem for us.” The PR industry is really groping in the dark and mediocrity is ruling the roost.
Even the best of the talent within the PR agencies are not put to serve the realty sector. Perception or rather acceptance of ‘no need of strategy’ or ‘promoters want only specific coverage’ is the mindset of most of the agency owners.
Some of the over glorified agencies keep getting the realty clients on the basis of past track record of a client’s campaign done well when the said agency was on board. In this cacophony of Case Study being set as the parameter by the agencies, strategy is the last thing in the mind of the real estate companies which is yet to evolve on strategic scale for reasons other than PR as well.
Moreover, such case studies of PR agencies are more often over rated and over projected. Say, for instance, if an agency is pitching for communication mandate of a company going public with an IPO, a past track record of successful IPOs in the same industry is seen as an asset. However, what makes an IPO successful is a combination of various teams including the PR, Merchant Bankers, Finance Officers, Legal and Marketing team. Within the PR too, it is the agency and the in-house corporate communication team that works in tandem.
…to be continued
1 Comment
The first and foremost challenge is that both the client and the agency need to understand what would classify as a genuine news for a publication.
In most of the cases, what sounds as a big news for the management of a company hardly classifies as news worthy for a publication. The company wants the world to look at things entirely from their perspective where as a journalist / editor / publication would look at it from the consumer perspective.
PR agencies are actually required to bridge this gap and bringing the publication and companies closer. What actually lacks today with PR agencies is depth of research and basic industry knowledge to convert a company’s view point coupled with strong industry knowledge / inputs into a news worthy article.
The new breed of PR simply works as postman / courier company, picking stuff from one end and dropping at another. The act simply as a delivery medium between the two ends without making relevant value addition.