Media Relations

One of the most critical areas in communication is media relationship department. The media is both a constituency and a conduit through which suppliers, consumers, retailers and investors receive information and develop images of the company.

Whether you operate IT or the business solution provider, it does not matter. In both scenarios you can take an advantage of the media. Only thing is how effectively you message it and depending upon that publicity matters.

Many companies never realize the full potential of the marketing communication, because they may be scared about the rumors and also they are not capable of answering the question from the media. And also the relationship which we build between the media and company is very important..

Every company in public relations knows that good publicity is the best advertising. A well placed article, right interview on TV, and a positive radio show are all what good publicity and media relation corporate dream about. There are some tips to maintain good relationship with media. They are as follows:
Seven Tips for Better Media Relations By Bill Arnovich, Media Relations Specialist.
1)Identify who you are and why you are calling
2) Ask if this is a good time to talk. If it is not, ask the reporter to suggest the best time you should call back.
3)Never ask a reporter to return your call. If it is a good time to talk, proceed to the next step.
4)Let the reporter know you are familiar with the publication or with stories she writes about.
5)Explain the idea in a sentence or two
6)Explain quickly why readers care

7)Ask if the reporter is interested

Examples:Nandi infrastructure cordoer express (NICE) is a construction company which is known for its innovation. The new project of NICE is to construct road from Bangalore to Mysore. This lead to some conflict with the political party but he took the full advantage of the media and got support with the public and solved the issue

Experience:I buy and sell the shares of the company by watching the news on TV and reading news paper. But once I had bad experience by purchasing reliance power share because reliance is a very reputed company. Media had given a very good opinion on it. So I bought many shares of reliance power.. First day of issue itself the price fell from 350rs to 300rs. This is my worst experience by believing the media

Reference
http://www.prinfluences.com.au/index.php?theParent=3&pagMan=1)http://www.mediarelationsblog.com/111/six-tips-for-better-media-relations

Identity, Image, and Reputation

Identity, Image and Reputation are very closely linked to corporate world. It is a well known aspect that a close alignment between a company’s identity and image generates a strong reputation. There is a complexity in understanding the organizational level identity and image because of the potential identity options. Inappropriate and outdated identity might damage to the firm and lead to weak financial performance.

A corporate identity is the communication of a company’s personality which reflects the inner values, company’s philosophy. Consistent corporate identity can be favourable for the company as consistency can help to strengthen the company’s image. In some cases the consistency of identity can help to strengthen the products of the company. Although such scenarios are created with a very conscious thought as most of the time product has a different profile than the rest of the company. This can be best explained with the help of car brand Mercedes which has brand identity of its own way from the company identity of DymlerCrysler

Corporate image is the way in which a company presents itself to its target groups. By being aware of how a company wishes to appear to its constituents, it can control its image and it is the projection of company’s corporate identity. Image is the perception of people about the organization which can very well be changed by continuous efforts. A strong corporate image strengthens brand awareness of the company’s products. However, formation of company includes everything from written materials or promotional materials to the way it deals with customers and other constituents.

Positive company reputation among its constituents is the utmost thing that any company would like to achieve. Company’s reputation relates to areas such as preferred employer (Google), good corporate citizen (P&G, IBM, HP) or openness in sharing information with constituents. The corporate reputation is built usually through internal and external communication. Bad company reputation, due to reasons like dishonesty in financial dealing, can cause serious damage to the company both internally and externally. The best example to this could be Enron which is facing bankruptcy and various criminal charges thus affecting company’s reputation badly. In today’s scenario, all three i.e. corporate identity, image and reputation play a very important role in making or breaking organization and companies need to give time and resources in creating and retaining it.

These are the few methods that many organizations follow to manage their identity process
1)Conducting as identity audit
2)Setting identity objective
3)Developing designs and names
4)Developing prototypes
5)launching and communicating
6)Implementing program

Example: a company’s identity is a thought of the visual expression of its reality as conveyed through the companies’ name, logo, motto, services, and products. Good example for this is Toyota.

I believe, this logo of Toyota Company is known for its technology, reliability, customization, cheap and guarantee

Personal experience: few days back I went to purchase a pair of sandals. I saw two pairs of the same quality, colour and design. I just enquired for the price. They told me the first pair costs 1400rs and the second pair 800rs. I was shocked and asked why the difference is. Shop keeper replied me it is because of the brand. The first pair’s label is NIKE and the second pair’s is F-sports. Only for the brand they charge 600rs more.

reference http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4339/is_2_23/ai_88252993

21st Century Communication Trends

We can consider the 21st century as the communication century where more importance is given for both quality and speed of communication which is very essential for any good communication. As the technology develop day-by-day the trends of communication is changing rapidly. For business it is very easy to convey any message to a particular person or an organization quickly. This is because of fast development of internet, telecommunication, e-mail, online chatting, video conference etc. five important trends in 21st century are as follows
Globalization: Globalization means organization operates its operation globally. National borders will not restrict to the business. This means companies do not compete nationally but compete globally.
Diversity: Diversity means companies which have a more heterogeneous workforce where they need to cope up with different styles of clothing, interactions, presentation and the media… I feel diversify themselves, as this can to different thinking and different experience within the company.
Flexibility: Flexibility means an organization is flexible regarding process, people-rule procedures autonomy etc. flexibility is needed to stay competitive, to adapt to a new situation.
Flat: Flat organization enables discussion, decision making of employees and increases motivation among the employees. I feel flat organization can be more flexible and more competitive than organization with more hierarchal levels, because communication is necessary to adapt to a new situation.
Networks: This is a necessary trend because it provides internet, better communication system to organization, transportation technology and flexibility to a face- less communication.

Example: A Satyam Computer is one of the companies of 21st century trends. They have all five qualities specified above. And it is improved more than 150% from the last 8 years. Their business is globalized and diversified. Flat type of communication and good network bother internally and externally.

Personal experience: Few years ago Maris Spinners had a flat type of structural communication. Suddenly from 2001 it is earning more profit because of the change in the type of the organizational communication. They have flat structure now. Employees can directly communicate with the managers and discuss their problems and even can give a suggestion to manager in decision making. Now not only flat structure but also they improved in communication technology and they installed a new internet facility in unit. Most of the messages transfer by email to their headquarters. Many times decision making and supervision are done by the video conference from the headquarters. I feel this is one of the impacts of 21st century trends.

Reference: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/future_technology/10487)
http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2000/041200.htm#Xhttp://education.zdnet.com/?p=722

Crisis Communications

Crisis is something every one can relate to they own life. Crisis may be accident while driving, end of fuel in the car in mid of forest, or any theft happened while shopping etc. crisis is one of the emotions which every one have in their life. Even organizations face the crisis some times. That may be the some scandals like quality problem, packing problem or may be marketing crisis. But one or the other way every organization has its own crisis in its own way.
Even in an organization, crisis can arise at any time and management is expected to be ready for any situation. Management should be ready with their plans to solve the crisis at any point of time because now one can guess when crisis can arise in organisation. A responsible and good manger is always will be prepared to face the public and its constituents at any point of time.
Crisis characteristic
1)The element of surprise
2)Insufficient information
3)The quick pace of events
4)Intense scrutiny

Employees play very important role in crisis situation, who will representative of the company. Along with external constituents it is very much required to communicate with internal constituents. Timely handling the crisis avoids false facts and rumours.
Crisis management
We do not get any tracing before crisis. We can learn handling crisis only during crisis. Some of the crisis management guidelines are as follows assign the teams to responsible for monitoring early-warning signals, maintaining readiness and coordinating responses should a be occur.
Create a crisis portfolio: it is just similar to financial portfolio. It is a tool to analyze and spread rise. For example, there are financial crises (e.g., hostile takeover), legal crises (e.g., losing proprietary information), psychopathic crises (e.g., sabotage) and industrial disasters. While it certainly isn’t possible to have a plan for each conceivable crisis, it is possible to identify those that represent the major threats to the organization. Audit continuously: Crisis management is most effective through continuous process improvement. The best organizations regularly audit their external environment, as well as their operations, technologies and organizational culture. This identifies potential vulnerabilities that could lead to a disruption, incident or crisis.

Example: Intel and the Pentium chip
A math professor working on an obscure problem discovered that the Pentium chip introduced certain errors into his extremely precise calculations. He contacted Intel, but they didn’t acknowledge the problem.
Finally, Intel admitted the problem. Intel damaged its reputation with customers, and ended up spending $475 million to replace all of its chips. The crisis occurred because Intel viewed the problem as minor, while the customer saw it as a major concern. Intel didn’t appreciate that the “customer is always right.”

Personal experience: last year when I went to Goa, I had visited a resort called jungle INN. I asked for the deluxe room but because of the communication problem I have allotted a normal room. I have encountered this problem because of the language problem between me and the receptionist.
Reference: Corporate Communication by Paul Argenti
http://www.winstonbrill.com/bril001/html/article_index/articles/351-400/article354_body.html

Internal Communication

Internal communication, also known as employee relation, it includes all communication within an organization. The need of internal communication has emerged to strengthen relationship with employee. Companies consider employee as the back bone of the company. Internal communication may be oral or written, face to face or virtual, one-on-one or in small groups. Effective internal communication which can be said to be “downward, upward, and horizontal” Good internal communication helps to establish formal roles and responsibilities for employees.

Internal communication helps employees to understand the organizational vision, values and culture. Implementation of effective communication is useful in the time of crisis to provide information to employees and also to handle the crisis efficiently by maintaining open lines of communication between management and employees. Effective internal communications can enhance stronger relationship throughout all levels of the organization.

Excellent internal communication cannot be simply implemented and left alone; the process must be ever-changing and adaptable for success. While more and more organization begin to spend more time identifying special interest groups within their own wall, internal communication methods are becoming increasingly diverse to match the varying needs of each organization internal staff and stakeholders.

Personal experience/ Example:
When I was doing my internship in reliance fresh as one of the team member in human resource management, I was watching the communication between managers and subordinates. It was so clear, concise, informative and independent. Any employee or project trainee can speak freely to any mangers in the organization. And also we are independent to raise our voice in any kind of decision and also suggestion regarding the management. Here I clearly observed the two way communication between the managers and the subordinates.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_communications

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QLQ/is_2006_Feb/ai_n16068447

Communication Theory

Communication is a necessary life process. All the information related to behaviour is known as communication. Communication takes place in three common settings: Interpersonal-amongst individuals e.g. just speaking
Machine-assisted e.g. using of telephone to get message across
Mass-to get the same message across different individuals at the same time.

Most theories associated with communication are based on notation. That can be traced back 1000 of years. There is much discussion in the academic world of communication as to what actually constitutes communication correctly; May definitions of communication are used in order to conceptualize the process by which people navigate and assign meetings.

Communication study so deeply rooted in human behaviour and the structure of the society that scholars have difficulty thinking of it while excluding social or behaviour evils. Because of communication theory remains a relatively young field do inquiry and integrates itself with other discipline such as philosophy, psychology and sociology.

Going to the part of communication theories, there are seven major traditions of communication theory according to the Encyclopaedia of Rhetoric by Robert T. Craig of department of communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
1) Rhetoric: Rhetoric is the oldest of this tradition, from which comes the idea that communication can be studied and cultivated as a practical art of discourse or sensible use of language.
2) Semiotics: which is the study of signs? This tradition views communication as a process that relies on signs and sign system to mediate across the gaps between subject viewpoints, or to act as a go between among opposing individual perspectives.
3) Phenomenological: it relies on the notion that the basis for communication lies in our common existence with other in shared world that may be constituted differently in experience. It views communication as the experience of self and the other in dialogue.
4) Cybernetic tradition: it is information processing. It is one of the modern communication theories and it suggests all complex system such as computers, telecommunication devices.
5) Social psychology: this view communication as an expression, social interaction and influence. It suggests that communication always involves individuals with their distinctive personality traits, attitudes, beliefs and emotions.
6) Socio-cultural: it conceives communication as a symbolic process that produces and reproduces shared meanings, rituals and social structures or a reproduction do social order.
7) Critical tradition: the final tradition of communication theory is critical tradition. It defines communication as discursive reflection or as a reflexive, dialectical discourse essentially involved with the cultural and ideological aspects of power, oppression, and emancipation in society.
The author concludes that these are the seven traditions do not cover the field of communication theory completely, it adjust a part of communication theory. Because the idea of communication numerous, diverse and dynamically evolving to be captured entirely by any simple scheme.

Example: Tata group was using a written form of communication with their employees but because of the new invention in communication field now is Tata is using the electronic form of communication with their employees.

Personal experience: when I was in school, I use to visit bank with my father. All decision was taken by the manager itself. When I recently visited the same bank I was shocked to see it because all the decision making is were decentralised every department can take their own decisions. The communication system was so advanced.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_theory

http://spot.colorado.edu/~craigr/Communication.htm

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

The process of exchanging thoughts and information between human beings takes place through communication. Mainly there are two ways of communication. One is verbal communication and another one is nonverbal communication.

The first existed communication was nonverbal which could be seen from animals to human through signals and gestures which proceeded through symbols and verbal means.
The vital part in communication is this verbal communication. Several ways can be found in this verbal communication. Modern era improved the verbal communication through technology.

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
Further and further advancing technology can be seen now a day. Unanticipated numerous occasions mirror the importance of technology in our day to day life only. This can be viewed through the progress happened from the past.
1)Animals were used to send their messages from one place to another.
2)Telegraphic communication made the communication trouble-free.
3)Electronic recording and broadcasting made the further improvement. Radio technology was first developed to convey a signal to places where a fixed line, i.e. telegraphs, could not reach – such as for contacting ships at sea. But it was ham radio enthusiasts who developed the practice of using radio for social communication.
4)A revolution in telecommunications has greatly altered communication by providing new media for long distance communication. This allows for intense long distance exchanges between huge numbers of people in a very easy way. Thomas Edison discovered hello as the ambiguous greeting by voice. This is a well known and much cited example of unexpected innovation.
5)One more gift from a creative man is computer. Computer is any programmable electronic mechanism that can collect, retrieve, and process information. This description has grown significantly over time as the computer has come a long way from the likes of a simple calculator, to a complex and intricate piece of machinery that has the ability to control our existence. This has given an ample of opportunity through Internet to collect various information and to transfer various thoughts to many minds. Similarly, the terseness of e-mail and chat rooms produced the need for the emoticon.
6)Man cannot forget this mass media also. Mass is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). Some of the mass medias or important tools which can be used for communication purpose are television, radio, newspaper etc.,
7)Pagers, Fax, PDA, Email, Digital Camera, Scanners many more things are used for the communication purpose.
Many improved stages are involved in the communication starting from cave paintings to computer. Man, being innovative might find some more technologies to communicate with large number of people. The hope is, these technologies will be helpful to people but not harmful.

Example: Airtel is the one of the leading mobile brand in India, which had charged incoming calls to its costumers, but because of the technology in communication, now Airtel introduced new plan that is Airtel has free incoming calls free and also lower the call rates also.

Experience: Indian post office was taking 3 days to delivery one post, that too which is same state. It was taking 5 to 6 day to delivery the post to other states. Now because of the improved technology in the communication I can post my massage through e-mail, or SMS etc. now transferring information is become so easy. We can sent information, photos, video to any part of the world with in just 1 min. that too free of cost.

Reference: http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/2005/02/signs_of_increa.html

http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/speech10445.html