How PR is helping technology brands drive communication & engagement

When technology brands entered India in the late 80’s, Public Relations as a tool was gaining respect and popularity. There was no beat that was specifically writing about technology, but publications and media companies started opening up and encouraged journalists to write more on this new vertical. The government also opened doors to a lot of international technology giants to invest in India and in a matter of few years we could see giants like Microsoft and Intel investing a lot in the Indian market. Since technology was rapidly changing, there was a need to create awareness and educate the audience – both B2B and B2C – on how technology can change the way business is done and how it will benefit the various industries in India.

PR as a communication tool helped technology brands:

This is where the role of Public Relations came to drive technology brand communication. While advertising did help create some awareness, but to engage continuously with the key audience and stakeholders, the use of PR was necessary. The CTOs and CIOs were the most important decision makers to decide what kind of technology should be adopted for their organisations. So, it was critical to send strong and credible communication by deploying appropriate PR strategy to get the attention of the CTOs. Technology was new and budgets were limited, so the CTOs and CIOs had to study and compare notes to decide before taking the final decision to go for the right technology.

Global technology brands communicated through PR:

Some of the world’s best brands have been built through PR. Our own homegrown software company Infosys is both a leading Indian and global brand, which has grown manifold and has very intelligently used PR as their key communication tool both in India and abroad. The secret of their success was that they delivered value with the right messaging, which helped them in creating strong belief and shaping positive opinions – both with the stakeholders and the media. Some of the leaders from their company are today thought leaders in the IT industry. Big technology giants like Amazon.com, Yahoo!, eBay, Google, Microsoft, Intel and BlackBerry are great examples of tech companies that built their initial identity through Public Relations. Other tech giants like SAP, Cisco and Oracle strongly believed in PR as their primary communication and spent very minimal on the advertising front. One of the main reasons for all these brands to adopt PR as an important communication tool was that they wanted to demystify technology and educate the audience. This PR could deliver effectively with the help of CTOs and CEOs consistently through interviews, authored articles and roundtable conferences. Even today, associations like NASSCOM play an important role to provide great platforms for technology brands to speak about their offerings and continuously educate and engage with several stakeholders.

Many technology start-ups trusted PR:

Today, most of the startup companies, especially in the technology space, believe a lot in PR to create awareness as it is cost effective and lends credibility. Most of the start-up companies have sharply defined audience, which is all the more reason they place their faith on PR to do their job. Brands like Flipkart and Snapdeal had really combined PR and advertising so cleverly to reap maximum benefits in the early days of the launch and continued harnessing PR. Also, most start-ups worked on very limited marketing budgets and as a result they were a bit reluctant and careful going the mass media route. Hence, using PR to engage with the audience in the most cost-effective manner helped many start-ups.

Even today there are many technology brands who simply trust PR and use them as their primary media tool to engage with their audience. To get some industry perspective, Adgully obtained the views of some of the industry leaders and professionals from technology brands to understand as to why PR is important and how it helps in building technology brands.

Sharing her views, Tuhina Pandey, Communications Leader, IBM India & South Asia, said that the power of PR comes from the credibility and pull it creates when a third party endorses you on merit. It really is about influencing the influencer and what you are really exchanging is a story that interests people and impacts their life and when this story comes from a trusted source it helps the audience make better choices. 

“With the rise of fake news, the role of PR is that much more accentuated, a much-needed check post. PR today is as much about owning the content as about sharing it. The digital era has ensured all boundaries between external and internal communications are shattered. Today, reputation risk is a central board issue as real time information, news and content flow shape public and stakeholder narratives,” she added.

Simplicity and storytelling are key. Technology is about people and the impact it has on their lives; you expect your consultants to first understand your business well and then communicate its impact to relevant stakeholders in a lucid and interesting way.

Purpose, shared vision, brand promise and impact on citizenry are important drivers of a technology brand. It is important that stakeholders understand what a brand stands for and experience the same values each time they experience the brand. 

According to Vipin Nair, Head - Communications, Wipro Ltd, “PR is probably the most compelling communication tool for technology companies. However, our definition of PR has expanded dramatically. Whereas PR used to play a role solely in the arena of earned media, today increasingly big tech brands draw on storytelling to communicate their messages. An area that I think B2B tech brands will be looking to do more over the next few years is influencer marketing – not necessarily in the same way as a consumer brand but by engaging influential experts to explain the brand’s positioning and offerings accurately.”

Simply put, the role of PR for technology brands is to tell the story effectively, memorably, to the right people at the right time in a way that resonates the most. That is true whether you are selling a device or handling a reputation issue. PR professionals’ job is to make the brand or the company relevant to the people who may need to buy or over time rely on their services.

And finally, how do you tell the story? Today, that tends to be a mix of earned media, industry analysts, influencers, paid digital, social media and more. A one channel approach is restrictive and unrewarding.

Speaking on behalf of NTT India, Kaustubh Chandra, Director – Marketing & Digital Sales Group, said, “In recent times, PR has evolved from being just a mere communication vehicle to provide a strategic air cover and a function that supports on ground demand generation initiatives. By becoming an indispensable part of the integrated marketing communication program, rather than a siloed element, it has also played a vital role in elevating the overall brand experience.”

He further said, “This financial year requires some radical changes in our strategies, including the marketing communications conundrum. PR and communications are expected to amplify our effort at every step of the journey, from need creation to need fulfilment. Often, the boardroom demand for quick, tangible ROI and an increasing reliance on sales activation campaigns have resulted in a rise in short-term thinking and tactics. This approach has proved detrimental in the long run. Marketers, specifically in the technology domain, continue to have more access to data to make decisions quicker than ever before.”

The need of the hour is to devise both, a long-term PR strategy and short-term plans along with outcome driven marketing campaigns. If used correctly, it can hugely benefit the brand, help you build the human connection and customer experience that is currently being missed in the digital era and clearly showcase the ROI of additional revenue through the Integrated Marketing & PR campaigns.

Explaining the role and importance of PR and how it has helped them, Anuj Sidharth, Deputy Director, Marketing & Communication, MediaTek India, said, “Public Relations is, indeed, a powerful communication tool for companies, especially for technology brands like MediaTek. The advent of digital technologies and well-informed customers is starting to influence and impact the B2B eco-system. They are becoming aware of B2B companies that create solutions forming an essential and important part of the end-product, and they are also on the lookout for detailed information around such solutions. Therefore, generating quality content becomes important, especially when it comes to advanced technology.”

Additionally, with the strong competition in the technology space, and the accelerated pace at which new and innovative solutions are being developed and offered to consumers, it is important to build a strong brand recognition and recall with end users to ensure a fair playing field for your company.

When chalking out a tech PR strategy it should include innovative thought processes, expertise in technology domain, a robust understanding of media, and the readiness to take calculated risks for maximum rewards. With time, PR has evolved to play an active role in defining a brand and is an integral part of the funnel now.

Praval Singh, Vice President, Zoho Corporation, commented, “In the last decade, there have been many defining changes that we have seen in India, such as the Internet being available widely and becoming a lot more affordable, and initiatives like Digital India that have positively impacted technology companies and start-ups. We see that change in the news space as well. Technology, which used to get small space in the newspapers, now gets dedicated special pages. There are publications that focus only on the technology and start-up space. Journalists are also more knowledgeable about the emerging technologies. In turn, the readers, too, are becoming more aware with technology entering every single space of our everyday lives. Obviously, with the spurt in the number of tech companies, PR becomes an important channel for creating brand visibility and recognition.”

Marketing is a lot about understanding your customers’ needs and reaching out to them with a promise of solving their problems. When it comes to PR, however, you are engaging with journalists and you first need to explain them the kind of problems that your customers face, and then talk about how your solution is suited for these customers. We need to simplify technology-speak in order to get our message conveyed in the best manner.

You cannot centre your entire PR strategy around announcements or launches. Every industry has news cycles, and those have to be kept in mind while charting out a PR plan. Spacing out major announcements and planning for how to keep the media engaged during the in-between periods is an important responsibility. Companies need to utilise all the PR tools at their disposal, and make sure that all communication is in line with brand values.

Marketing
@adgully

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