Credibility is a strength that PR lends to any communication campaign: Swati Bhattacharya

In the last 10 years, PR has taken a different dimension, especially after the entry of social media and the rapid shift to digital, especially in the pandemic period. However, at the same time the industry has been facing stiff challenges, moreover client expectations has also increased, with more emphasis being given to digital and online reputation management. The industry has undergone a radical shift and the current times have pushed the industry to change gears.

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In conversation with Adgully, Swati Bhattacharya, Chief Communications & Brand Officer, Bajaj Group, sheds light on the growing use of digital and technology in communications, the important role of trust and credibility in today’s business landscape, using influencer marketing effectively and much more.

The dynamics of PR have changed in the last 10 years. What is your take on it? Where do you see PR in the next 5 years and what new changes that one can expect? What are your expectations from your PR partners?

The pandemic has accelerated the use of modern technology, and completely changed customer and employee behaviour and how we do business. It is a call to action – probably the great reset. It has brought focus to a purpose led strategy for businesses. Now, consumers are also interested in a business’ social values along with its products or services.

Use of AI, AR and VR has also gone up significantly in how companies engage with employees, customers and partners. AI and the role of analytics in business strategy will become critical, and companies have to learn to be “tech forward” and stay ahead of tech trends that will shape the future. Speed of adoption and the ability to harness data will be an important skill. Robust digitisation of all business processes is now a must.

Partnering businesses to create a positive brand reputation by building loyalty both internally and externally and managing reputation is imperative to doing business. We have to make sure we’re telling authentic and compelling stories to keep our stakeholders engaged to build advocacy, and increase customer confidence in our products and services, ultimately driving business growth.

Internal communication with employees and external communication with your business partners plays an important role for any organisation. So, what process and approach do you follow here for the Bajaj Group?

For organisations everywhere, the pandemic has shifted the focus to internal communications, on employee experience and well-being. With the stress and anxiety that employees are faced with now, it has become very important to constantly reach out to employees and keep them engaged. Their mental and physical wellbeing has become key. During this time, we’ve learned to develop the human side to the business. We’ve learned to reach out to each other and even the community beyond just work to support each other and be there in whatever way is needed.

Other lessons have been to communicate authentically. Stakeholders expect organisations to be driven by a higher purpose. Especially in the current situation, brands’ reputations are greatly at stake. It is a time that we should focus on what we as a brand stand for rather than what we sell. Governance, how we treat our employees and citizenship will be the most important factors in determining how our brands will come out of this crisis, even if it means reduced profits. Reputation management is an essential part of doing business. We understand that everything we do or say, or fail to do, contributes to our reputation and brand equity. With a strong communications program, we are positioning ourselves as a thought leader and expert in our fields.

We have recently launched a new brand identity with the sentiment of “Think Tomorrow”. In a group with such diverse businesses as FMCG, power and sugar, communications is a critical component to successfully manage this brand ethos, build and sustain our brand perception, manage negative sentiment and inform customer and Government opinion. In this era, where no organisation is safe from public scrutiny of its actions and what it stands for, communications is a critical factor in the success of our businesses.

Strategic and effective communications identifies and meets external and internal stakeholder needs to deliver authentic and effective dialogue that engages and empowers them. Communications partners businesses to create a positive brand reputation by building loyalty – both internally and externally. We make sure we’re telling authentic and compelling stories to keep our stakeholders engaged to build advocacy ultimately driving business growth.

Transformation of digital has been rapid in the last one year. How much of digital has been part of your PR strategy for your company? Will digital be the key focus area for the brand going forward?

I have to say digital media is a very key medium for any organisation now. It is not just a preferred medium of communication, but has become an essential business strategy now. Whether it is getting your daily news, buying vegetables, fruits and home essentials, or even connecting with your friends and family, everything is just a click away. Social media is the most convenient and the most accessible form of communications. It has melted away geographical, social and demographic borders and become all pervasive. We continue to use all media as required, but digital, like for everyone else has become the most important.

Artificial intelligence and big data are becoming very important today when it comes to focussed messaging. How much technology do you embrace to cull out interesting and valuable insights for your PR campaign?

I think the biggest contribution of AI in Communications is the advantage it has given us in terms of social listening. While earlier a lot of campaigns were implemented basis our understanding of what the need of the hour is for communications, now it has given us the super power of recognising and analysing conversation patterns to help us craft strategic messages and campaigns with advanced insights. We now know what content consumers want to see. It has given us the ability to be more efficient and productive and focus more on the creative aspect of our jobs to create more engaging content.

What has been the thinking for the Bajaj Group when it comes to influencer marketing? How is PR being integrated with influencer marketing to get the maximum impact and credibility for the brand?

Influencer marketing earlier meant celebrities endorsing your product in advertisements. Today, it has gone much beyond that. Research has shown that word of mouth can double sales as compared to plain advertising. That is also because of the credibility that it gives to your product. Credibility is also a strength that PR lends to any communication campaign.

For our B2B businesses it boils down to using thought leaders in critical technology related domains, or analysts to help support business priorities. For the B2C businesses, influencer marketing is considerably more effective to instantly reach out to social and mobile first consumers. While celebrity influencers have large followings, the quality of the content we create determines how much engagement we will generate. What has been important for us is to make sure that the content we put out is engaging and useful for consumers. The quality of the content is critical to ensure that no matter how big the influencer, the brand message resonates well.

We have also been using influencer marketing effectively to engage with regional markets using local influencers successfully. It is very important to ensure that the influencer understands our brand essence and what we stand for while representing us. We have been constantly looking at creative and innovative ways to engage with our consumers through influencers’ content that is authentic, useful and relevant.

There is endless debate on PR measurement. What is your view when it comes to measuring effectiveness of PR? Do you follow any structured process at Bajaj Group?

The process that we follow for any communications campaign is to look at the business objective and then craft a plan to support that objective. Ideally it helps to know where we stand currently on awareness and then set up a goal of how much we would like the campaign to move it by. When we say PR, we often mean media coverage, and that may be a bit of a constricted view in today’s day and age of both earned and owned media. Some of the things that we continue to measure is whether the key messages have been delivered, whether we have covered important regions and reached the defined target audience and in the long term has it created a shift in their behaviour.

Technology, like in any other business process, now plays an important part, and there are several tools that can help with measurement of a communications campaign. Trust has always played an important part, but has now come to the centre. The more a company is trusted, the better it will do. Communicating consistently and strategically on those issues both internally and externally is key. Use of technology and market research along these new lines and talking to your stakeholders to get a sense of that is important. We use measurability, scalability and cost effectiveness in different ways to gather insights on the effectiveness of a campaign.

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