Amith Prabhu, an acclaimed PR professional, is a reputation management expert, having worked in leading marketing communication companies in India and in the US, is the co-founder of PRAXIS, India’s only weekend offsite for the profession under the aegis of the Promise Foundation, which is a member of the Global Alliance (GA).
Prabhu talked about the basics of PR by considering a house having four rooms on the ground floor, three rooms on the first floor and three balconies and the terrace. According to him, the three rooms on the ground floor represent the 3Cs in the foundation of PR. First, the word Campaign, which is a Greek word and coming from the ancient Greek civilization, where there were large lands called Campania. Here soldiers practised for war. So, to relate now, there are brands fighting wars with each other through advertising campaigns, electoral campaigns or marketing campaigns and many more. They use the power of communicating in fighting the war but not weapons.
According to Prabhu, the other two Cs are Communication and Common Sense, which is the basic, where a large chunk of PR is built on common sense, which becomes communication.
“The next level of the foundation which includes four rooms indicates the next four Cs of the PR foundation. Kitchen room, where the food is prepared, relates to the Content Creation. Content is of five types — Text (typed, written), Audio (podcast), Visual (pictures, images), Audio-Visual (videos) and event-based. The dining room where the family members tend to eat together and connect with each other sharing food is the same as connecting to the stakeholders,” he explained.
The PR stalwart divided stakeholders into two types — Primary (employees, customers and media) and Secondary (potential customers, potential employees, alumni, vendors, partners and many more).
“Next comes the living room, where the family members gossip, share feelings among each other and stand for the third C — Council (Advice, Guidance). Lastly, the study room, where one or two people get to discuss some issues or read something is related to Crisis Management and Preparedness,” he elucidated.
With his impeccable style of convincing the audience, Prabhu said: “One can quickly climb up the stairs and reach the first floor with three rooms. The first being the master room where parents sleep or maybe earmarked as the strategy room. Similarly, PR professionals need to make strategic planning first. Next comes the children’s room where parents often tell kids stories to make them sleep. Likewise, PR strategy can also be based on storytelling.”
The guest room, according to Prabhu, is decorated for the guests who would need extra expense and excitement. “The room comprises 3Is — Influencer’s (influencer outreach or blogger outreach), Impact (giving out money for a cause or for publicity, Corporate Social Responsibility) and Innovation (Unique things build up, can be for Organization or Communication),” he explained.
The three balconies, which the outside people could see and the in-house people could also utilise to have a look at the outside environment stands for Research, Measurement and Ethics, feels the reputation management expert.
A good reputation of a brand is built on good reputation programmes with excellent research. It is built on the bedrock of ethics and certain measurements, says Prabhu. “At the top of the terrace, the five corners symbolise G, R, E, A, T – GREAT. And it stands for Goodwill, Respect, Engagement, Affinity and Trust.”
Prabhu believes PR is not an industry or an agency but a management consultancy firm or law firm.
The author, Sucharita Nandi is associated with Adamas University Media School.
