Knick n knack

T o live is to communicate. Communication is very important for existence of any human being.  Communication is a process of sharing and expressing views, opinions, experiences and information.  Not only personally, professionally also, communication is very important. Business organisations, corporates inform customers about their products/services/goods through the process of communication.  With the increased competition among businesses, it becomes vital for organisation to effectively communicate with target customers. In order to so, big corporates have dedicated marketing communication departments which uses communication tools like advertising, Public Relations, direct Marketing, Personal Selling, Events to communicate with people.  Advertising creatively and effectively communicates, aware and persuades audience to buy a particular product. Public Relations, on the other hand, has emerged as an effective communication tool for the companies which not only inform, but also he

An organisation carries out thousands of operations, it buys, it sells, it hires and fires employees and  it promotes its products/services using promotional tools. All these operations of the organisation relate wholly or partially to various publics.  No organisation can work in isolation. Companies are dependent on reactions and actions of its customers and consumers. People react and respond towards any organisation according to the way the company is perceived in the market. Image and identity of the company are related to each other.  The sum total of the way an organisation represents itself is called identity. The way different publics perceives an organisation is often known as image. Marketing wars are not won and lost in shopping malls, but are won and lost in the minds and hearts of the people.  Style of functioning of a company can be called as mark of identity of a company. Whereas, the kinds of actions and reactions in the minds of people is mark of image. Identity is r

Marketing Communications is about establishing an image for company and products. It is to communicate benefits from products, create awareness about new products, keep existing products in focus and generate market excitement.  The company's marketing communication tactics alerts customers to sale, justifies prices with benefits, answer consumer's questions, provide after sale reinforcement and keep organisation in focus.  All marketing communication tools should work in unity. It should be a seamless communication process sans hitches.  Advertising: It is a paid form of non-personal communication about an organisation, product, service or idea by an identified sponsor. 

Managing corporate image is a serious business. It is to make public percieve a company, as the managment want. Some business executives think that corporate image as imagery creation of some smart snoozy word-smiths, whose business is to concoct concepts for ultimate aim to generate advertising revenue.  Good corporate image is considered, by enlightened businessmen, as focussed communication to clear cobwebs in people's mind about the company. Company tries to clear the mis-information and mis-conceptions through clear and crisp communication.  Heads and hearts of people have to be cleared and made focused towards the company. The corporate communication department of any organisation need to work on a central thematic idea to project a good positive image of the company. This work is also carried out by PR department of any orgnanization. Tata was the first company in India to realise the importance of good image developemnt and thus opened an in-house PR department in 1945. 

Public Relations Officer is a custodian of company's image. It is the duty of the PRO to enhance the image of the company. A business is like a public institution and is under constant public scrutiny. Every company, even the smaller ones, are being watched by intrested publics.  Company's reputation should be credible and strong. People watch how comapny conduct itself and its business. Over the last decades, public curiosity in business has grown many folds and this wil increase in coming times. Image starts with the smallest thing. Public talk and compare the companies.  Concerned about the public perception, many companies find it difficult to determine, as to what the name of the organization stands for. Brand image attracts the consumer more than what actuall the company is. Definitions:   1. Image is the sum of experience that someone has with the institution.                                                                                                   - Henry F

Sometimes Public Relations is taken wrongly by few organisations/companies. Many times we have seen that organisations use this tool for misguiding people. Public Relations is not:    A barrier between truth and publics Propaganda to impose a view point regardless of truth, ethics and public good. Free publicity to achieve sale – though PR helps in sales and marketing effort.