MxMIndia

Tag: Siddhartha Mukherjee

  • The Covid disruption is redirecting the brand owner’s past obsession with paid and earned towards owned platforms, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Owned Media is emerging as a Dark Horse

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    It has been a double whammy for the brand management industry. First, the paid industry took a beating due to its ineffectiveness. Next, this led to news media owners trying to manage their financials by letting go of hundreds of journalists. For brand owners, this has impacted their paid and earned route of brand building and sustenance communications big time!

     

    Here is where the owned media is emerging as the dark horse.

     

    Owned media is defined as those communication tools or platforms which are directly owned and controlled by the Brand Owners. Websites, microsites, social media handles, newsletters, mobile apps, etc. are some examples of owned media. Best part? There is no cost attached to this part of brand marketing as it is ‘owned’ by the brand owner.

     

    The Covid disruption is redirecting the brand owner’s past obsession with paid and earned towards owned platforms. For Brand owners, Owned media is turning out to be a reliable bet to:

    1. create & sustain brand visibility

    2. create & sustain brand engagement

    3. create & sustain brand engagement

    4. create & sustain brand reputation

     

    Most of the times, brand management, with required constituents mentioned above, remains unkempt. Websites, social media handles, newsletters, apps, etc. are either not thought through, revamped, created well, or leveraged properly.

     

    Owned media offers brand building on the following three pillars:

    1. Channel Customization: Owned media allows brand owners to create customised and successful content that is relevant and valuable. The foundation of an owned media strategy are your content channels — the vehicles through which deliver content to audiences directly, unmediated by a third party. The most common channels are your website, catalogs, newsletters, mobile apps, etc.

    2. ‘Community’ special: No doubt, content channels focus on the connection between the brand and its target audiences. However, the special touch that Owned media adds to the brand is the creation of a ‘community’. These can be online, such as virtual communities or private social networks, or offline, such as in-person gatherings or events. They can be direct, as in discussion forums, or indirect, through peer benchmarking. Though the logistics are tiring but the logistics are much greater.

    3. Offers Data MiS: Paid and Earned Media always carry the limitation of creating isolated or one-way interactions with your target audiences. The brand needs mechanism for turning isolated interactions into a connected experience. This requires creation and leveraging of Data MiS. Owned media allows this flexibility. Loyalty or reward programs is one such outcome from such data management.

     

    So, next time when you look at your monthly media mix for your brand, review the role and weightage of owned media platforms for the Corporate Vs Product brand matrix.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior marketing services research professional. He was until last year Business Head at Eikona and is currently Founder of Brand Balance (brandbalance.in). This column appears every other Thursday on MxMIndia. His views here are personal. He can be reached via Twitter at @SIDmvrck

     

     

  • Brand Management needs a balance between technology and humanities, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Over-obsession of tech-based brand-building solutions doesn’t work

     

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    In the last five years or so, our brand management vocabulary has gone up a few notches. Two specific keywords – Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – have scored the highest share of voice. Global and local organisations have emerged as profitable service providers. Brand-owners are giving jaw-dropping attention and gorging on these domain areas. Crores are getting invested into this. Brand Building, Sustenance and Sales are depending on it.

     

    However, here is my word of caution. Obsession or, should I say, over-obsession of technology-based brand-building means and thought processes are eroding our sensitivity to the non-linear shifts that occur in all human behaviour. It erodes our natural ability to extract meaning from qualitative information. The world of brands is about emotions – not of the brand-owners but of the stakeholders. Tech-based thought processes will never give us accurate understanding of the emotional shifts based on delta change in social, psychological, geo-political stimuli. It will be counter-productive.

     

    Neil deGrasse, the versatile physicist, feels: “In science, when human behaviour enters the equation, things go non-linear. That is why physics is easy and sociology is hard.” With tech-based solutions, we are not building brands. We are just experimenting with alternative routes to create a steroid to boost sales revenues.

     

    Let us understand the basics. A logo is owned by a company. When promise is added to the logo, it becomes a brand. Which again is owned by the company. However, a brand’s reputation is formed based on the stakeholder’s experience and how s/he processes brand promises through this mesh of emotions. Now, reputation is not owned the company. It is owned by the stakeholders outside the company. Brand creation and sustenance, therefore, is about understanding the emotions of these millions of stakeholders across demographics, psychographics, etc. It is about understanding their fears, emotions, expectations, aspirations, sadness, etc based on different brand message stimuli.

     

    Here is where, I feel, that too much dependence or obsession with STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics)-led products and solutions like AI and ML will not do justice to brand building and sustenance. Here is where, we must have a balance between New Age (AI, ML & DM) algorithm-based solutions and old age brand building and data creation techniques. The fact of the matter is that this is something that has been sorely lacking in almost all organizations. Many don’t realise that it is the old way of thinking, led by human intervention and not by machines & robots, that provide brand owners and brand builders something very essential, known as “Critical Thinking”.

     

    So, it is about a balance of New Age Brand Building Solutions Vs Old School Critical Thinking.

     

    Critical Thinking comes with the background of Humanities – disciplines that explore human or stakeholder culture – such as literature, history, philosophy, art, psychology, anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, geography, geo-politics and so on.

     

    Critical Thinking or Humanities understanding provides mental dexterity to brand management professionals. It opens their mind and enhances their ability to read stakeholder emotions more accurately and holistically. It leads to understanding the “emotional connect” of the target audience stakeholder. It provides human intelligence as against machine intelligence.

     

    Our brand building and marketing machinery’s potential to build strong brand and stronger brand reputation has been hijacked by the promises of the tech-based AI and ML world. Never before has our brand management matrix been so divergently linked with criss-crossing mesh of pretty much all subjects around us. However, both as brand owners and builders, we must remind ourselves that the important role of human intervention is the most important factor towards making sense of changing stakeholder emotions.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior marketing services research professional. He was until last year Business Head at Eikona and is currently Founder of Brand Balance (brandbalance.in). This column will appear every other Thursday.

     

  • Continued use of AVEs signals bad PR for PR, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Cancer of Advertising Value Equivalent

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Advertising Value Equivalent evaluation of PR Coverage (AVE, in short) continues to thrive even after three decades of innumerable conferences and global advisories shared with our PR Industry. I call it a cancer. However, the majority of this industry probably may not empathise with me. That is because the on-ground reality is that AVE has been revered as the bedrock of PR and Corporate Communications.

     

    I am not sure what this three decades of lost opportunity tells us about our industry. However, one conclusion is very evident. The much-needed ‘PR for PR’ campaign has been a failure…or did it even start, in the first place?

     

    Below are some evaluation parameters:

    1. Where did the term AVE come from:The term AVE was conceptualised in the west sometime around mid-twentieth century. Yes, alike many western evils, AVE too came from the western world. And, as always, India copied it, accepted it as a norm without cross-questioning it. However, the real on-ground push in India came from the global FMCG players since they had the advertising and marketing influence.

     

    2. What have we done to remove this Cancer:Except a handful of visionaries who have challenged this, both the upper and downstream of this industry have been the cause & effect of this metric to flourish. CorpComm departments & Agency partners continue to get evaluated based on the unrealistic AVE metric.

     

    3. What does this signal:The PR for PR campaign has been ineffective. Had it been effective, both the PR users and service providers would have woken up to the new dawn to realization long ago. This education campaign needs thorough understanding of what PR actually stands for and how to do PR of that understanding. In both, there have been innumerable flaws.

     

    4. What are some of the flaws:

    a) Lacks Internal Clarity: If one were to undertake a survey of respondents across PR Agencies, CorpComm and CXOs, we will see not so surprising disparity in the definition of Public Relations. I have personally witnessed lack of understanding and disparity amongst employees (across hierarchies) in some of the biggest PR Agencies. It is appalling! Both Industry Captains & Industry bodies have not done the required internal communication to educate what PR should stands for.

     

    b) Barking up the wrong tree: The demand for AVE comes from the CXOs desks – CMOs primarily. If the industry was actually serious, the target audience of PR for PR Campaign should have been the CXOs! No education or orientation programme has been created for this desk to change its demand to a more scientific outcome-based metric.

     

    5. What does this need:

    It needs Intent, Authority, Delegation and Target Setting. So far, we have been lacking on all the four parameters. However, going forward, all these four will be needed to eradicate AVE. Intent needs to come from Industry bodies, delegation to dedicated desk with required knowledge & authority and finally, focused towards the source of AVE – the CXOs.

     

    AVE is killing the ethos of Public Relations and Corporate Communications Industry. It is a silent killer. It is this vice that is not letting our industry stand up to the onslaught of Paid Media and Marketing thought process. It is time to start the eradication process. Target audience sets – CXOs on one side and education institutes on the other!

     

     

  • Brand Research and Data Analytics will need Re-calibration, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Another New Normal: ‘SEO’ showing potential to  become the New ATL!

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Of the jargons – Shared, Earned, Owned and Paid (modes of brand communication) – Covid-19 is catalysing the symptoms of a struggling paid industry – ATL! An industry that is scampering to manage revenues and sustain its effectiveness. However, like for every (grim) Yin, the (bright) Yang here is that a new “SEO” is on the rise! No, it is not what the world of Google Analytics has taught us! The New SEO stands for Shared, Earned and Owned Media.

     

    If not by way of big-ticket budgets, but certainly by way of brand owners’ trust, dependency and priority, SEO is tending towards becoming the New ATL, the New Normal! And yes, so far, ‘SEO’ has been rightfully owned and driven by the CCOs (Chief Communication Officers) and PR Communication Consultancies!

     

    This New CCO-Consultancy-SEO Collective is doing all it takes to maintain brand and business relevance fdor their reporting line C-suite. Sustaining Brand Reputation and the health of the Balance Sheet has been the prime focus. The SEO machinery has been nimble, adaptive, customisable, holistic and certainly effective!

     

    Now, for this yet another New Normal, there has to be a quick recalibration of our mindset an the framework for Brand Research & Data Analytics. Shared, Earned and Owned modes of Brand Communication will need a different template of Brand Research & Data Analytics.  It is a good time for Brand Owners and SEO service providers to come up with a Blueprint!

     

    Disruptions, like the ones we are currently in, demand high EQ (Emotional Quotient) in the Communications Planning and Delivery matrix. For real effectiveness, Messaging, its Frequency and creation of Innovative Target Audience Touchpoints have to be of extraordinary levels.

     

    Here is where recalibrated Data & Analytics will play a central role.

    :: The definition and structure of Primary & Secondary data will need recalibration

    :: Creating the machinery, sourcing the responses and interpreting them will need a broader understanding of Brand Communications, Marcomm, CorpComm, Corporate Reputation, Target Audience, Stakeholders, Custodians, Thought Leadership, Balance Sheet management, etc.

    :: Simply looking at Shared, Earned and Owned data in silo will not work. They have to be cross tabulated. This will lead to gold mine of learnings, insights and fast action points.

    :: Data Analytics should be able connect the dots across multiple stakeholders, over and above just the customers – the revenue generators.

     

    The C-Suite-CCO-PR Firm collective have a wonderful playing field ahead of them. The new calibration of Brand Research, Data and Analytics will form the ammunition to protect brand scores and balance sheet, increase acknowledgement of the SEO Industry, bring in more investments and budgets into the industry.

     

     

  • The quantity and quality of what individual stakeholders express is an information goldmine, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Why Listening is a Must in the New Business Environment

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Every disruption, like the one we are currently in, leads to a ‘New’! The existing definitions of Life As Usual or Not As Usual and therefore, Business As Usual & Not As Usual (BAU/BNAU) transform into something new in shape, size and meaning. For example, one of the dynamics that is undergoing change is “how much”. How much do I need, how much time and money do I spend, etc.

     

    During this phase, stakeholder sentiments – human sentiments after all – go through peaks and troughs. The Quantity and Quality of what individual stakeholders express is not only NEW but very importantly, an Information Goldmine!

     

    Hence, for businesses or corporate and product brands, it’s a great time to intensify their Listening capabilities. It is not just about listening to consumer (revenue generators) mood alone but across stakeholders, both internal and external! Only when you listen more, listen better, your brand will empathise more, empathise better to the New future! After all, brand engagement and conversion pivot on Empathy!

     

    Listening, in simple words, means understanding the current and estimating the future Mood of your ecosystem! A stakeholder-wise analysis of their sentiments – happiness, concerns, memories, aspirations, and so on. Such studies can be Brand Specific and/or Agnostic!

     

    In fact, if executed and sustained well, insights from Scientific Stakeholder Listening can lend to a healthy balance sheet!

     

    With timespent being majorly high online currently, it makes Listening Analytics focused and logistically easier to execute. Currently, all stakeholders (humans after all), are proacting and reacting, expressing in other words – primarily online (digital and social)!.

     

    Hence, for both brand owners and communication consultancies, this is a great time to put its Online ‘Listening’ Analytics desk to full use! Every CxO would love to learn and act on the New future! Listening for a brand is a science! Nothing tactical or superficial about it!

     

    BENEFITS OF LISTENING: 

    1. Reconciles Future Business Plans: The insights from listening analytics will lead to a reconciliation dashboard for CXOs and Board of Directors in terms of the required business direction and KRAs for each business function.

    2. Prepares the Brand/Organisation to Empathise– If the two of the key constituents of brand empathy are messaging and action, the Listening Analysis prepares the organisation CXOs for it.

    3. Mitigate Brand Reputation Loss: The exercise helps understand current crisis chain and future time bombs ticking away towards disaster. Listening to human expressions and analysing them lead to better mitigation preparedness.

    4. Create New Product/Services: Very often, Listening Analysis leads to new Product/Service ideas. Online data offers huge information across what went wrong, what Target Audiences want, what they want to be, and so on.

    5. Re-Orient Stakeholder Profile: Listening to Insights lead to business organisations being able to decide the weightage and the profile of each stakeholder that would be needed to tackle the ‘NEW’!

    6. Assess effectiveness of Brand Building thus far: A key outcome of Listening during disruption phases is that it acts as a reality check of how robust the brand building and business delivery mechanism have been so far.

    7. Fortifies Client-Agency relationship: Listening cannot be a one-way street! The understanding of the current and future ecosystem creates opportunities for even the clients to understand their service providers’ adjustment areas and creates opportunities for working together even longer.

     

    In a sales-obsessed business environment, giving low or no priority to scientific, healthy and regular ‘Listening’ is still understandable. However, in situations like we are currently in, a pandemic or disruption, businesses and brands should re-optimise their time towards Listening and gear up to strengthen its future balance sheet during the ‘New’.

     

  • Especially on the agency side, Size and Muscle power do not guarantee Might any longer, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Focus on ERP will bring down Client-Agency divorces

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Disruptions or crisis typically expose the cracks of a marriage. This principle aptly fits into the dynamics of Client-Agency matrimony as well. However, normalcy is restored quickly and situation doesn’t converge on divorce ONLY if ERP – Efforts, Resources & Processes – the three Brand Communication pistons –– are managed and optimized well. Especially on the agency side, Size and Muscle power do not guarantee Might any longer.

    If one looks at the business scores of Corporate Clients and Agencies, it will be observed that the ratio of Business Not As Usual (BNAU) months is only increasing by the year. Which is why, for Corporates all the more, the need to have a long-term and strong foundation of matrimony with their agency is becoming quintessential.

    However, if not divorce rates, at least instances of dissatisfaction between two sides keep surfacing every now and then.

    Upon investigation, one will find that the fault line will emerge somewhere in the three ERP pistons mentioned above: Efforts, Resources & Process. ERPs undergo neglect because either they are not Acknowledged or simply not Optimized:

    1. Efforts:This typically starts with defining WHY the agency was hired? How the communication efforts of the agency will be monitored and measured? Who maps them? How will the scores be evaluated? Is there a possibility of a third-party observer in this entire process? And so on. In fact, “WHY” plays a crucial role! However, it still remains unfixed between most of Client & Agency matrimonies even in 2020. The answer to WHY is either deliberately kept vague due to insecurity or unscientific because of incompetence. CEO, CMO, CCO and other CXOs who stand to benefit from Brand Communications should play a role in bringing in science into the “Efforts” piston.

     

    2. Resources: When compared to yester years, our communications Industry today is bestowed with a bounty of resources. Budgets, Data, People, Specialised External Agencies…and many more. The question is how do we acknowledge their presence and optimize each one of them. On budgets, I have seen enough examples where budgets have been utilized both intelligently and callously. I have also seen situations where data within Client and Agency organizations is either not being utilized at all or not being optimized. I have seen situations where people or talent is not trained or optimized to manage a specific situation or client need. Resource piston need effective management.

     

    3. Processes: Processes areso very crucial. Processes within Agency, Processes within Client Communication Team and Processes between Client and Agency, all are equally crucial. Processes to Listen, set targets and benchmarks, create a plan, executing a plan, monitoring the execution, evaluation of the outcome, evaluation of the Communications Team and Agency, appraisals, parameters of fee hike, parameters of PR Agency selection, and many such are all supported by mesh of processes.

     

    If you look at this, the onus of ERP management is both on Client as well as the Agency. Some aspects need to be done one on one but some need to be worked upon in tandem.

    With market conditions increasingly coming under the influence of uncontrollable BNAU parameters, it is only wise that we insure towards reducing the Client-Agency divorce rates. Brand building and sustenance will increasingly need marriage and not live-ins between Client and Agency. Strong and Healthy ERP is the only way out.

     

     

  • Corporate clients, PR firms and PR analytics service providers have been unable to distinguish between PR Monitoring and Measurement, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Are we Measuring or Monitoring PR?

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    During my last two decades in this industry, I have come across several seminars, papers, debates and endless discussions on how to measure PR? However, when I study the conclusion, I notice that they have no correlation with Communication Measurement. All that the discussion did was circle around PR Monitoring.

     

    Interestingly, India is not the sole market trapped in this illusion. It has been a global phenomenon…a pandemic of sorts, if I may say so. Corporate clients, PR firms and PR analytics service providers have been unable to distinguish between PR Monitoring and Measurement.

     

    Having spent a decent share of time across PR Firms, Corporate Communications and PR Analytics Service, my estimate is that barely 5% of industry (corporate clients) are doing some bit of measurement and successfully so. Add another 5% who have recently started exploring this corridor.

     

    Around 90-95% of our industry has been consuming PR monitoring and confusing that with measurement. No one has drawn the line and shown the differentiation.

     

    PR Monitoring is all about What Happened or What is Happening. Whereas measurement is all about Outcome. Outcome, in turn, is about the benefit the Communication Initiative – CorpComm or MarComm – brought to the Brand Health and Business Health.

     

    I must admit that PR monitoring has its own importance. It helps to keep a watch at a daily, weekly and monthly level. The good thing about PR monitoring today is that the industry, more so the service providers, have been able to deepen the offerings across quantitative and qualitative parameters. All these are helping PR firms and end eorporate clients in a major way.

     

    However, the age-old, archaic and uninformed discussion on Measurement needs to stop rightaway. People should be able to own up, identify and demarcate the boundary walls between the monitoring and measurement.

     

    To give industry professionals a sneak peak of what monitoring is, here is glossary of terms that PR firm and corporate firms use which actually connote monitoring (and not measurement): Count of clips/mentions, share of voice, sentiment/tonality, analysis by geographic zones, publication and journalist details, key message analysis, spokesperson details, etc. And yes, AVE or EAV (advertising value) has been at the helm when it came to faultily defining measurement success.

     

    For more than a decade, I have been claiming that AVE should be weeded out from its roots as it is the biggest cancer for our Industry.

     

    On the other hand, the glossary of some terms that indicate that mthe discussion is within the territory of measurement are: Input-Output-Outcome, Exposure-Engagement-Conversion, Target Setting, Targeted Vs Achieved, Brand Scores, Primary & Secondary data, so on and so forth.

     

    PR Monitoring is essential but it is not measurement. It is a subset of measurement. Having said this, implementing Measurement is not easy. It has many logistical challenges.

     

    I shall discuss that in a separate space.

     

    For now, someone, the industry bodies and/or PR firms should take the onus of creating a differentiation between PR monitoring and easurement. Once done, it will fast-track the industry growth in terms of monies, talent pool, infrastructure and acknowledgement outside our industry.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior marketing services research professional. He was until last year Business Head at Eikona and has spent a fair time in the PR industry. This column will appear mostly every other Thursday. His views here are personal.

     

     

  • There is a dearth (or complete absence, if I may say) of basic news reports and articles where a CXO has openly confirmed and announced his love or dependency for the CCO and the PR/Earned Media industry, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: Covid-19 disruption offers Opportunities for CXO-CCO Love Affair!

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    I doubt if there are any official public records for us Brand & Communications professionals which demonstrate a CXO’s dependency on their Chief Communications Officer (CCO) and PR/Earned Media Agency. There is a dearth (or complete absence, if I may say) of basic news reports and articles where a CXO has openly confirmed and announced his love or dependency for the CCO and the PR/Earned Media industry.

     

    To achieve their business objectives, CXOs depend on CCO skills and PR/Earned Media Tools to the fullest. Much more than 50% of a Brand’s PR/Earned Media visibility is based on the CXO quotes. But then why this?  Has anyone even asked the CXOs why they don’t say “I Do” publicly. Well, we all know the reasons, isn’t it?

     

    Instead, let’s talk of something motivating and focus on why to strengthen and how to build public records.

     

    Why Covid-19 disruption is an opportunity to strengthen CXO – CCO relationship:

     :: Demand Creation, Sustenance & Rise in Corporate “Risks” attracting huge Management time. Management pushing for Proactive & Credible Communication

    :: Fall of ATL/Advertising Effectiveness becoming steeper

    :: Customers (B2C) are not the only TG; Govt, Employees, Investors, Community, Traders, Other Influencers need simultaneous promise delivery and perception management

    :: Multiple TG need messaging seeped with Emotional Quotient (EQ). Earned Media offers formats, flexibility of time and cost effectiveness to create and build EQ

    :: For real effectiveness, Messaging, its Frequency & creation of Innovative Target Audience Touchpoints have to be of extraordinary levels. Best efficiency possible only through PR & Earned Media.

    :: To keep the business numbers chugging, CEOs have to depend on a lubricant that can be achieved only through the most cost-effective brand communication matrix of Earned, Owned and Shared Media Communications.

     

    All the above are some of the many reasons why the CCO should be the GO-TO-DESK during the current disruptive times for the CXO.

     

    How can this relationship be announced and made official:

    Block 1- Demonstrate data/Build MiS:

    :: If you think of it, CXOs process the KRAs given to them in terms of Data – which further gives way to the MiS matrix. Hence, any help or value addition towards his KRAs will also therefore be through the language of Data

    :: A CCO needs thorough understanding of every single KRA of the CXO and translate that into data

    :: This needs investment of time, discipline and most importantly, the knowledge of the Art & Science of showcasing CXO efforts in Data language

     

    Block 2 – Documentation Touchpoints:

    :: Media News Reports: Journalist fraternity need to start providing space for editorial writeups which establish the role of PR/Earned Media in CXO’s life. One can start with trade journals.

    :: Education Institutes: Business & Media Schools should start publishing papers which highlight brand success stories using Earned Media tools and how it helped CXO objectives.

    :: PRCAI & CCO Groups can authenticate: Industry body can do a lot in this. Periodic reports can be created and published on how PR Agencies and Clients worked together using PR & Earned Media.

     

    It is a time of prepare, strengthen and announce the CXO-CCO love affair! And mind you, post Covid-19, this love affair should only get stronger and better.

     

    If done well, it will be one of the best “PR needs PR” initiatives that I have been campaigning for since 2008.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior marketing services research professional. He was until last year Business Head at Eikona and has spent a fair time in the PR industry. This column will appear every other Thursday.

     

  • That’s the key reason for a start of new age of brand research, measurement and analytics, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee

    Strong Brand ≠ Strong Reputation

     

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    When you combine a logo with promise, what you get is a brand. However, only when you live up to that promise, you accrue reputation. This means a Brand is Inside-Out, while Reputation is Outside-In. However, many corporates get deceived and misinterpret a strong brand equalling a strong reputation. This is why Balance Sheets go through an imbalance.

    Depending on which Block (A, B, C or D) the Corporate Entity is in, the above construct gives way to an ocean of Brand Research, Measurement and Data Analytics possibilities which will tangibly benefit Board of Directors, CEOs and the Communications Machinery at large. It can lead to a full circle of Data Information and Analysis possibilities.

     

    Barring Block C, which is a Utopian zone, majority of the Corporate world outside comprises of Corporates who operate from Blocks A, B or D. For them, the relative chances of business success or healthy balance sheet depends on how close they are to the Utopian Block C on the above plot chart.

     

    There are reasons why majority of the Corporates go through the imbalance of Brand Power and Reputation Power:

     

    1. FMCGisation: FMCG Industry’s way of brand management and business approach has inspired almost every single industry vertical today. (No wonder, most of the Top CXOs in sectors like BFSI, Automobile, Telcom, etc. got their initial success in FMCG industry). Which is why, they focus on business sales first, Organization Halo effect later. In other words, they believe that the only parameter to measure Reputation Power is demand, sales & revenues.

    2. Focus skewed towards scoring on Brand Promise: Management orientation is towards being visible. No wonder then, Marcomm spends are sky high. CorpComm takes a back seat.

    3. No focus on Corporate Reputation Pillars: Barring visibility of Products & Services and Marketing Initiatives, other Corporate Reputation Pillars like Corporate Thought Leadership, Financial Strength, Commitment to Work Place, Responsibility through CSR & Sustainability, etc. are treated through a cosmetic or adhoc lens.

    4. Archaic Research and Analysis methodologies: Balancing Brand Power with Reputation Power needs a seamless and clever assembly line of Data Information & Analysis Machinery. Listening (to the MOOD of the ecosystem) itself is the biggest chunk. This not just needs resources but starts with Intent.

    5. Perception of Communications Machinery: The age-old saga of Organization’s perception of what value Communication Desk brings to the table is still in poor state. No wonder, “NEWS MANAGEMENT” is the start and end of what this desk is expected to do.

     

    Having said this, I am aware that there are Corporate Dark Horse which are emerging out of this staid thinking and realigning themselves. The Board, Management and the Corporate & Marketing Communications Machinery are working in tandem. They are ensuring that Corporate Symbols, their Promise and Behaviour (actions and reactions) all create equality within Brand Power and Reputation Power so that it creates a spot closer to or in the utopian Block C.

     

    Siddhartha Mukherjee is a senior marketing services research professional. He was until last year Business Head at Eikona and has spent a fair time in the PR industry. Starting today, he revives his fortnightly column for MxMIndia.

     

     

  • Why can’t India not create at least one award of global stature that world looks forward to, ask Avik Chattopadhyay

    A Prize Too Far?

     

    By Avik Chattopadhyay

     

    Abhijit Banerjee wins the Nobel. Bezwada Wilson wins the Magsaysay. Satyajit Ray is bestowed with the Irving Thalberg award. Arundhati Roy wins the Man Booker prize.

     

    All moments that have made the nation proud and also brought certain special and superlative people to the forefront who would have otherwise remained in the inside pages of a newspaper. They were brought to the front page by being associated with certain awards and prizes that are the gold standard in their respective fields…the Nobel in Economics, the Magsaysay for Social Service, the Thalberg for a lifetime contribution to films, the Booker for literature and so on.

     

    As Indians we have gone into overdrive every time such an achievement happens. I personally have tried my hand at “reflected” glory by having known Siddhartha Mukherjee in my adolescence, Bezwada Wilson as a professional and now Abhijit Banerjee as the elder brother of my business partner! Apart from the fact that I keep good company, I sure take pride in the value of the associations. Of the stature of the prizes and awards. For these are testimonials of their individual prowess at a global level and a recognition of their contribution to the betterment of society at large.

     

    So, in the middle of all the euphoria of Abhijit-da [co]winning the Nobel for Economics, one simple question came up in my mind. Why could we never have an award or prize of international scale and fame? One that people from every corner of the world would crave for. One that every media publication in the world would write about. One that would make us proud as a nation for not only having produced stalwarts but also recognising ones from all walks of life, all fields of endeavour and all forms of excellence.

     

    Sadly, we have none.

    There is the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding but it has hardly attained that global stature and the last one was anyway given in 2009 [to Angela Merkel]. Tells you about the commitment to continuity by the award givers. And the present government will have none of it as “Nehru” is a bad word nowadays.

     

    We have lots of film awards, but none at the level of the Palme d’Or.

    We have lots of sports awards, but none at the level of the Laureus.

    We do have a few awards for journalism, but none at the level of the Pulitzer.

     

    Why is this so? Why could India not create at least one award of global stature that had the world looking forward to the winner being announced every year? We take pride in being the first nation to have attained freedom through peace. So why not one for peace movements? We take pride in being the world’s biggest feature film market. So why not one for non-English movies? We take pride in being one of the world’s oldest civilizations [a few flagbearers will claim us to be the oldest]. So why not for historical studies?

     

    Four clear reasons why not.

     

    First. We fear global comparisons.

    As a nation, we are a very apprehensive lot with lots of mental reservations about being evaluated on development parameters at a global level. We would love to vote by the millions for a movie star on the internet and declare him the “most popular” in the world. We have made religion out of a sport that is played by only a handful of nations with just 12 of them being full-time members of the sport’s governing council! We hate being exposed to indices and metrics that put us out in the open against people of other nations. Years of thriving on mediocrity in the garb of development have led us to this unique state of being. The ones that go out and establish themselves on the world map do so purely by themselves, with little support and encouragement from the nation. But once they get global recognitions, they become beacons of all that is great and glorious about India!

     

    Second. We take comfort in volume and not value.

    We are a very opportunistic nation, taking recourse to facades that help us in specific contexts. So, as a poor nation, why do we need to have international prizes and awards and give away serious prize money to outsiders? Don’t our poor need to be fed? Such precious money cannot be wasted at all. We are all about numbers…population by the millions, roads by thousands of kilometres, schools by hundred-thousands, languages by hundreds, rituals by thousands and so on. We are not really about the qualitative aspects of the population, the roads, the schools and so on. Hence, the sheer value of creating and nurturing an award of international stature does not hold much water.

     

    Third. Philanthropy is not our thing.

    Imagine a Man Group in India putting their money behind an international award for literature like the Booker. Or someone like the Rockefeller Fund partnering with the family to create the Magsaysay. Or the motion picture association creating an Oscar. That’s not really our cup of tea. Non-government awards and prizes are constituted to pat each other on the back. They are not necessarily for greater good. People of dubious repute or minimal contribution are given the nation’s highest civilian honour! How many like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad have we had who had the guts to refuse the Bharat Ratna as he felt he was not eligible enough? Why could the Ambanis not institute a global award for entrepreneurship? Why could the government not revive the Nehru Award in the right spirit?

     

    Fourth. Sadly, we still lack self-esteem.

    Collectively, we are still not out of our colonial hangover. We still feel that we are not good enough to be counted at the global scale, apart from a few Guinness Record events being stage-managed. We will crave for associations and recognitions from overseas but not have the ego to go ahead and create one recognition of global repute. Political pontification and posturing do not help. Building tall statues and long bridges are not a sign of self-confidence. Creating gold standards whereon stalwarts from across the world are evaluated surely are.

     

    After winning the Nobel in 1913, on being called to yet another celebration ceremony in Kolkata, Tagore had politely refused being garlanded. He said that while he did not yet know how the Western world recognised a poet standing on the Eastern coast, back home he was sure to acknowledge the ‘intoxicated euphoria’ of his own people but not consume it!

     

     

  • While Mukherjee has already transitioned the TAM communications role internally, it remains to be seen the path Eikona takes on henceforth

    Siddhartha Mukherjee calls it a day at TAM (& Eikona)

    By A Correspondent

    Senior communications professional Siddhartha Mukherjee has announced his decision to move on from TAM Media Research. At TAM, he led a dual role of Senior VP Communications and Business Head of Eikona PR Measurement. His last day at TAM is tomorrow (January 31).

    While Mukherjee has already transitioned the TAM communications role internally, Eikona, a division of TAM which is jointly owned by the WPP-owned Kantar and Nielsen, will continue to serve clients with its current team.

    Mukherjee refused to reveal his next port of call, but according to info received, he is likely to join a leading conglomerate in a role that will include communications research.

     

     

  • There is no holistic understanding and therefore approach to the terms ‘Influencer’ & ‘Influencer Management’, writes Siddhartha Mukherjee in a new series of his fortnightly ‘PReamble’ column

    Siddhartha Mukherjee: IRM will govern Brand Communication Health

    By Siddhartha Mukherjee

     

    Ignorance or deliberate, irrespective, even today, we continue managing brand communication without the missing link. While the industry is flooded with acronyms like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Vendor Relationship Management (VRM), Partner Relationship Management (PRM), etc. there is no holistic and centralised console of managing all stakeholders and brand custodians. In other words, there is no holistic understanding and therefore approach to the terms ‘Influencer’ and ‘Influencer Management’.

     

    The missing link is that of a thought process or approach. What the Industry needs today is a centralised Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) matrix. It will be the mainstay as far as Brand communication and its management is concerned. In fact, if I can take it one step forward, this very phenomena will speedily erase the already blurring borders between Paid and Earned Industries.

     

    For further clarity, below are some Q&As:

    :: What is the definition of Influencers and their Management?

    Influencers are not just the New Age personalities who we see nowadays on Social Media. Neither are they the Bollywood or Sports stars. They are not just the politicians or social workers. The definition is much larger but realistic. The study needs to be not just on the persons but also possible reasons or scenarios which can influence a Brand Health. So, the subject of Influence needs to be split into a) Reasons of Influence b) Influencers. The moment we look at this approach, we get a completely fresh perspective on how we should approach Brand Building and its Sustenance. With this, CXO configuration within an organization will automatically get fine-tuned.

     

    With this, under Influencer category, anyone starting from vendors (stationery guy), journalists, employees, investors, customers, distributors, retailers, anyone can be potential influencer. Under reasons of influence, experience at the office reception, showroom, online purchase portal, after sales, financial performance, employee conduct, spokesperson quote, any and every touchpoint can be potential reason for Brand Influence.

     

    How will they impact a Brand?

    It is simple. Brand is created to fulfill a promise. Business ROOs and ROIs are directly dependent on brand delivering that promise. Therefore, management of Influencers and Influences on Brand Health are clear KRAs and KPIs for Board Room occupiers.

     

    So far, this subject has received a complete step child treatment. Every organizational corridor has looked at this holistic and critical business subject with different levels of disinterest. Which is precisely why, crises have been plenty but successful management has been few.

     

    A centralized approach to manage the Influencers and Reasons of Influence will always keep the business ROO and ROI far from the red zone!

     

    :: What is needed to manage them?

    > Centralised Database, Archive & Insights Mechanism

    > Re-alignment of Client-Agency Relationship

     

    :: What do we need at an industry level?

    While there is plenty one can do at a ground level, but such realisations get impacted Top Down. Industry Bodies or Associations can mobilise thought leaders. I can only hope that someone in some industry forum will think fresh and invite similar fresh thinking for actual execution…not just lip service!