PR practitioners need to throw out the old distinctions between
management and PR consultancy if they want to save themselves time and
money.
It’s time to forget the old turf wars between the different disciplines
of business strategy, management consultancy, PR and marketing. The most
successful companies are realising that a fusion of business and
communications thinking not only delivers better products but also saves
time and energy.
Yet so many organisations, in business, government and not for profit
sectors, still compartmentalise their thinking. So much so that, in a
recent interview with the Financial Times, Sir George Bull, former
co-chairman of Diageo, bemoaned, the continued failure of top boards to
inject audience and consumer thinking into their strategies.
Taking PR techniques right into the heart of territory more typically
occupied by management consultants not only makes for better products
and services but can save time and money further down the line.
Enlightened clients are using communications to drive their business
strategies from the very start. One simple way of doing this is by using
journalistic techniques of investigation to develop and test product
thinking at concept stage. The advantage of this is that the time
between concept and launch shrinks because marketing considerations are
built in from day one. The other advantage is that the management team
is better equipped because they have effectively done much of the
thinking for the product launch and media relations in the design
stages.
The same approach can be used for annual and medium term corporate
planning.
Here the approach is especially useful in preparing for the internal
communications role out of the corporate plan. The task of add-on
disciplines, such as internal communications, is either greatly assisted
or minimised.
Reputation management is considered organically right from the
start.
Unfortunately, it is only a minority of organisations who plan
organically in this way. Marketing and communications thinking does not
infuse business thinking enough. Channel 4 and the Observer’s recent
Power 300 survey highlighted the result of this for charities. The
survey lists the most influential people in the UK. Only the Green lobby
features. This is no surprise given the way in which they put
communications at the centre of their business thinking. This is less
common in other charities. In the case where communications does cross
over into business thinking, it does so primarily in fundraising terms
that serve donations targets but do little for building a ’power
brand’.
At the same time, however, business management techniques do not cross
over enough into marketing. For example, business risk assessments are
not used sufficiently by either companies or charities as part of the
planning for corporate social partnerships. Business in the Community
has recently highlighted the need for partners in cause-related
marketing ventures to carry out a risk assessment independently of the
potential partner.
Such assessments are vital in weighing reputation, logistical and
financial risks. Indeed, without them, it is impossible for each party
to properly value the price that can be put on a deal. Yet they are not
commonplace.
Not only is risk assessment vital to negotiations but it is also a
valuable preparation to managing the communications programme for the
partnership.
Again showing how the fusion of management and communications
consultancy can get better results.
