We can all agree that the dynamics of brand communication change periodically. What worked a fortnight ago, may not be of use right now! If only maintaining rapport with a journalist made all the difference - Public Relations would not have existed as we know today. But it does, and PR professionals align themselves with this bandwagon of change, ensuring favourable brand identity among the masses to drive a plethora of aspects — be it sales, establishing a loyal community of consumers, avoiding crises or identity.

Change is not only important, it is paramount

Does change benefit the brands themselves? To understand this, we need to go back to the basics of PR itself. Change is the universal truth in this world, and PR professionals must constructively convey the same to their clients. Aligning to change is not a sectoral challenge, as it extends everywhere and PR professionals need to act as the translator of this process to their clients. It can be driven by numerous aspects, from government policies and consumer preference to market dynamics and internal aspects. But whatever the reason is, the tools of effective PR remain the same, as their versatility adapts to the adjustment, helping PR professionals and brands to streamline external communication. By not shifting preferences, PR efforts become of little use as they defeat the purpose. By aligning to new developments, PR professionals need to simultaneously introspect the requirements of their clients to understand their underlying business idea properly and to drive media outreach based on the same.

Introspection is the key to moving ahead

To begin with, this introspection must be objective. This needs to be driven by considering what is the final goal for the brand. Mandates are not just numbers of media imprints or words. They carry immense value, in imparting specific information to PR professionals working tirelessly to optimise the brand resolution. Understanding the brand’s objective, vision, resolution, current industry happenings and consumer preference — all these aspects and more play a critical role in understanding the brand and aligning their resolution with strategic media stories. We can all agree that this is a long and tedious process, but this is the only way to benefit the brand; Not through meaningless media queries, but through strategic and effective ones.

Versatility is not limited

Versatility is not limited to understanding the brand. It’s not only the brand’s requirements that need to be translated in a versatile manner but the PR professionals themselves as well. PR is often like water, it can take any shape or form but acts as an enabler to subsequent results. PR professionals come up with a strategy to enhance their client’s identity. But this strategy may not be favoured by the brand itself, or maybe they don’t find the ROI in PR. This is absolutely not the time to be rigid, as PR professionals need to meet their client’s concerns, make meaningful changes and at the same time, share valuable recommendations. PR is not God, it does not work in mysterious ways, but rather innovative ones. Similar to basic communication, PR is a two-way road, and recommendations and understanding are what ensure success and excellence later. Gone are the days when PR professionals could afford to be rigid, as CXOs have highly efficient resources to counsel them and understand what needs to be their end goal — and PR professionals need to respect that through meaningful strategic changes that replicate the brand’s intuitions.

It also must be considered that rigidity comes in different forms. For example, PR professionals may hold onto a previous belief regarding a brand’s media placement, even after their client has diverted from the previously true business plan. Rigidity in this sense leads nowhere, as PR professionals must adapt to the change done at the grassroots level, or even in boardrooms. This will help them to strategically align the PR strategy to the requirements of the brand, resulting in effective communication with targeted news platforms or journalists. Another form of this rigidity can be platforms’ reluctance or unwillingness to feature a brand over some particular aspect; Challenges like these can be overcome by having a constructive dialogue with the particular news platform or journalist to understand the root cause and asking for meaningful feedback over what can be done to feature their client. It is in human nature to look for solutions and provide them to interested parties and may become an effective strategy to drive constructive brand resolution in both the short and long term.

PR is innovative

Innovation begets rigidity as well. In many senses, the worldwide digital transformation has resulted in numerous opportunities in the PR domain. However, the digital world gives birth to concepts and makes them obsolete simultaneously in a circle. For many PR professionals, driving PR outreach efforts through social media is often not worth the time. However, social media is the new marketplace of the world and what better place to grow popularity for a brand? PR is often a broad term, and a highly creative one, and if that requires taking digital marketing under the umbrella — what harm could it do?

PR professionals have a long way to go in their domain, and introspecting themselves to integrate versatility and avoid rigidity is the way to go.