Don't hide in your shell

Why should a company invest in a PR campaign when its relevant market is in crisis? Simple answer: Why shouldn't it?

The conception has generally been that when facing a period of crisis, a company seeks the least possible amount of publicity. The reason is obvious. Companies do not want to associate themselves with a crisis because they feel that it could adversely affect their standing in the market.

Take the airline industry, for example. Prior to the terrorist attacks on the United States, the global market place was already undergoing a serious downturn - due to the slouch of the IT market. Some airlines had begun to face critical problems, but they still pushed their advertising and public relations campaigns to promote their image. Yet, the heavy blow that September 11th dealt to the global tourism sector, caused airlines to pull out of their publicity campaigns only to stay low key. The idea was to let the public forget about airplane disasters first before going back to happily start competing as they did before. To some extent, it seemed very pragmatic for companies to stick to this conception. But what they were missing was a big opportunity - to stand out when everyone else was hiding in their shells.

The current crisis following the September 11 attacks has had an adverse effect on many industries. Now is the perfect time for companies to refocus their marketing efforts around crisis management. While crisis PR usually involves a responsibility to deal with unfortunate news - ranging from factory pollution to plane crashes - the attacks have created an unprecedented challenge for businesses across a gamut of industries.

People have a tendency to clam up in times of a crisis, which is absolutely detrimental. It is hard to imagine a time when communications in all its dimensions has been in such dire need. We are in the throes of a global communications crisis. The time has arrived when PR must transcend from 'relationship building,' which has occupied the profession for the past few years, and shift to 'confidence building.'

Unfortunately, public relations (to many agencies) is still about sipping coffee in five-star hotels and sucking up to clients, journalists and any potential customer crossing the PR agency's path. Fake smiles and free gifts might deliver the message in the short term, but will eventually backfire on the agency and the client.

Today, the world is constantly witnessing a major revolution in marketing communication. The PR industry has transformed dramatically over the years, emerging into a full-fledged management function vital to any organisation. Globalisation and rapid advancement in technology has equally contributed to the changing face of public relations. With the rise of everyday news connectivity and the demand for business publicity, public relations has become an increasingly vital tool for corporations during the last couple of decades.

The PR industry has not been waiting in the wings expecting the global situation to change. Instead, it has evolved to a higher degree of sophistication. PR worldwide is a multi-billion dollar operation today and currently has more than a million people working in the industry. The PR market is growing at an unprecedented rate in terms of its professionalism and available skills.

There are, however, several repercussions to the changes. Agencies are now under tremendous pressure to enhance their office networks and services. Clients are demanding a higher quality of service as well as more specialised staff. The working relationship between clients and their agencies is growing closer, wider and deeper than ever before, as agencies inherit new duties and become more attentive to companies' business plans.

PR firms have become more diversified, performing a variety of tasks including the internal communications of their clients, issue management and online communications. A PR company has become an absolute necessity rather than a "helping hand". And when companies or markets are in crisis, PR is a dire necessity. This is not the time to sit back and wait for the tide to turn before taking action. It is now that PR agencies need to jump in and ride the wave to ensure that the client's image remains untainted and intact. Despite its close involvement with the factual world of business and commerce, PR is the creative arm of marketing communications and at no time has the business world been more in need of imaginative strategies and communications than it does now.