Engaged employees are your best promoters: Varsha Chainani, Mahindra

As part of the build up to Adgully’s first PR summit – IMAGEXX 2021 – we present the valuable insights provided by our esteemed jury panel comprising the leading names from the country’s PR and Corporate Communications field.

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, Varsha Chainani, Senior Vice-President - Group Communications, Mahindra, speaks about some significant ways in which Public Relations has evolved over the last 10 years, COVID-19 impact on the communications industry, why customer centricity is the key in today’s world, and much more.

How has PR evolved in the last 10 years? Going forward, how will the industry shape up as the dynamics of the PR will keep changing with digital transformation? 

The 2000s have brought about significant advancements – technological and our interface with it, customer and societal expectations from corporations and alternative ways to doing business. All these advancements also had a significant impact on the public relations industry. Here are some significant ways in which Public Relations has evolved over the last 10 years.

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Insights and Storytelling takes center stage: The narratives have changed, wherein storytelling is added to the product story, the content is presented in the form of campaigns and includes a mix of both creativity, analysis and synopsis.

New-age Social Media Platforms: Advent of the social media has completed changed the media planning. Social networks – The S of ESOPs - while enabling access to have also democratised content generation forcing brands to become much more mindful of their public persona in these domains.

Digital PR: Digital PR as a strategy is used by brands to evolve their business and build an online presence. Companies are utilizing blogs, podcasts, emails, and more to reach potential customers. PR firms quickly need to seize the opportunity, as many agencies begin to develop digital marketing services that either supplemented their PR offerings, or as separate services all together. The latest trend is adoption of and leveraging AI in our mix of our solutions kitty.

Impact Monitoring: It has become common place over the last decade for corporates to track the results of their campaigns and influencer engagement. Data is no longer a supplement in the decision-making process for corporates but rather the driving force behind campaign decisions. Being able to measure the value of engagements has become key to what PR companies do.

These trends are seeing further evolution as the pandemic, the lock downs and work-from-home have disrupted the way we consume communications and data through digital and AI transformations. PR professionals will need to continually keep up the game.

Big corporates and MNCS are very particular in protecting and maintaining their reputation. In today’s world where pandemic has disrupted the world how are companies managing their reputation?

There’s no denying that the COVID-19 pandemic has been disrupting businesses, both small and large, across the globe. Businesses have had to drastically adjust their operations and people their daily lives; it has been once-in-a-century kind of phenomena. How your business has responded to the pandemic and the needs of their stakeholders have played a big role in public perception and employee morale. As much as a good reputation is vital in driving business, it can also reinforce employees’ commitment to the company. That commitment leads to confidence and trust in the company. Employees are the company and engaged employees are your best promoters. So ‘people first’ approach has been a proven path to take for companies.

The pandemic has disrupted everyone. In these times how have you managed the expectations from your PR agency? Did you redefine your objectives to them and revisited your deliverables?

Our communication team includes the PR agency we work with. They are our partners in achieving brand and communication objectives set out by the business. FY21 began with the pandemic and economic slowdown, the business environment was tough. The last 15 months were fraught with multiple issues and actions taken by people and corporate were under scrutiny. Addressing the safety and well-being of our associates to supporting communities and focusing on the resilience and agility in businesses was key. Protecting reputation in these sensitive times was imperative.

Internal communication and external communication with stakeholders are very important in large corporate giants. What process and framework you follow to continuously stay engaged with both your internal and external stakeholders?

The scale of the pandemic is unprecedented and putting regular communication channels was a fundamental need of the hour.

Our messaging to both and internal and external stakeholders was authentic and true to our core purpose ‘Rise’. Our ‘People first’ initiatives ensured that associates not only knew, but experienced the fact that we were firmly behind them; whether it was mental and physical well-being programmes, upskilling and access to educational opportunities, quarantine centres, medical and financial support, or vaccinations for them and their families. We have made it available not only to our direct employees and plant workers, but also to our dealers and their families. All of the communication was done through internal mailers send across the organisation on an immediate basis while the senior leadership also participated in town halls reiterating the message.

The hardest hit during the pandemic were the poorest in our country. This necessitated alternative thinking and mobilisation of contributions from every source within the company, beyond donating generously. The company worked closely with the governments and local authorities to provide the necessary support through equipment, infrastructure and manpower.  The focus was doing selflessly rather than talking about what and how we did it. We leveraged media and social media, especially ‘Twitter’, to understand the need, mobilise our efforts and reach them to the audiences.

PR measurement and effectiveness of PR has always been a subject of debate. As a PR professional, what steps the PR industry should take to bring in uniformity so that everyone speaks one language when it comes to PR measurement?

Measurement and effectiveness is a must-do for any PR campaign. PR measurement, when done right, is crucial for informed decision-making and effective strategy optimisation for any organisation. While there has been a lot of debate around the best way to measure – what  is important to us is that for ever campaign we have clear organisational objectives and defined communications objectives basis which we can identify the target audience and map the campaign against the reach, engagement with customer and brand enhancement.

In today’s complex world, cross-cultural communication at a global level is a challenge. One has to manage different geographies in different languages. So, what are the challenges you face here and what is the process you follow to have communication that is meaningful and sensitive across cultures?

Customer centricity is the key. Good and effective PR campaigns do not convey talk about the company or products and services, it focuses on customers and what those products and services enable them to do. So, personalisation in a language they understand and talk in and experiences that are culturally appropriate, is very important. Even the way we consume media has changed, hence the PR strategy needs to be guided by customer stories in order to build a relationship with them and inspire brand loyalty.

Our tools also need to enable these needs, whether it’s your newsroom or how you connect with the media across the regions or across the world. There is a need to do more here.

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