Historically during a soft and uncertain economy, the reaction of many a company has been to batten down the hatches and simultaneously rid itself of anything deemed extraneous, including its consultants.
Public relations practitioners and client firms that have weathered a number of business cycles realize that the most uncertain times are when communications may be most important.
Executives of too many companies during too many downturns lived to regret the separation from a communications consultant firm that knew its players, personalities, industry and issues , and didn’t have to “learn while it earned” because the company had a sudden problem and the agency didn’t have the luxury of time for a reasonable learning curve.
A soft economy is no time for a company to be without a communications consultant and no time is the right time for a company to wonder about the quality of the communications counsel it receives.
Clients deserve, and are demanding, attention from those practitioners who have the skills and experience to fully understand the clients’ challenges and assist in meeting the clients’ goals. They are willing to pay reasonable fees for communications consultation services , as long as they are convinced that they are getting what they are paying for.
– Is the Region’s PR Industry Positioned?
As a region and an industry, we are better positioned during the prevailing soft market than we were during previous significant economic downturns. A decade ago, San Diego overall was still mistakenly construed to be a backwater whose professionals , almost across the career spectrum , were “small town” instead of “big city.”
Fortunately, this misconception is being laid to rest day by day.
Still, one hears from local business executives one grievance about local practitioners more than any other , and that is that agencies’ depth of understanding of their clients is great at the top, but drops down precipitously in terms of the consistency of quality work and follow through below the senior levels.
Like most things in life, there are probably as many sides as there are perceptions as to the overall state of our regional industry’s proficiency.
What we as public relations practitioners must do is dedicate ourselves, every single day, to exceptional levels of creativity and service, with the most hands-on style, that can only be afforded when each and every professional in a firm is fully committed to and cognizant of the client’s needs.
– No Formula Meets All Clients’ Needs
Certainly, there is no universal formula, no dummy-proof recipe that can be followed to assure that client firms will indeed get what they need and want. Every single client has a unique challenge or unique objectives that must be uniquely addressed.
Over the decades the public relations profession has clearly grown in sophistication and as well as in respect. With this maturation and expanded understanding of the innumerable nuances of the communications business, PR has replaced hype as its raison d’etre with the fundamental realization that unequivocal understanding, commitment and attention to the requirements of the client are the basics of the business.
In the agency milieu, a practitioner’s performance and delivery of results, as the client measures in terms related to its goals of the engagement, is all important.
Some measure results by counting the number of hits that are obtained for a client in media coverage , the number of inches of print and online media coverage, the number of hits and cumulative length of electronic media coverage. Some practitioners apply formulae they learned in school to the measurement of results. If clients’ budgets will cover it, market research can also be utilized as a measurement of results.
But any and all such measurements may be moot if client firms do not feel that they are being related to as they wish. And if client companies believe that a practitioner’s achievement of quality results on a consistent and proactive basis has been more the exception than the rule, then our industry has a problem.
– Knowledgeable Clients Appreciate PR’s Help
The engagement of public relations services as an essential component of a marketing program has never been more greatly valued than it is today. Much of the respect the profession presently enjoys has come from clients’ acceptance and appreciation of the strategic planning and thinking which has gone into positioning a myriad of causes, issues, philosophies, products, technologies, innovative breakthroughs, etc., all of which are messages to be interwoven into the fabric of our everyday communications.
If such acceptance and appreciation is lacking, then our entire industry suffers.
While the practice of public relations has been hugely elevated by its remarkable effectiveness in today’s technologically expanded communications marketplace, the one-on-one, hands-on, knowledgeable approach to marketing communications , coupled with the commitment of energy and passion to the client’s business , has never been more important in the overall achievement of results.
Unfortunately, there do remain some practitioners who did not learn or have chosen to ignore the importance of these essential skills, and thus seem totally oblivious to the importance of their potential contribution to making a meaningful difference for the needs of the client.
This was not said as a blanket indictment, or a bias against the age of a given practitioner, but rather it is an observation that no matter how much as an industry we improve, there is still plenty of room for further improvement.
The bottom line for our industry is not one of age, where one is educated (formally or on the job) or even the state or country in which a public relations professional previously has practiced. The bottom line for our regional industry is that there are some in the field whose dedication and commitment are not up to the highest standards.
Today’s marketplace requires public relations representation to both exceed the perceptions of, and expand the opportunities for, the client with creativity, imagination and exceptional results. Clients today , and every day, regardless of economic conditions , should expect nothing less.
Berkman is president and CEO of Berkman Communications.
