Manoj Chandra, Head, Corporate Communications, RPG Enterprises
PR can be a wonderful complement to the marketing activities any brand manager has to undertake. In fact, some of the most successful brands were built by them using the tool of public relations rather than advertising such as The Body Shop, globally and Barista in India.
PR can be a wonderful complement to the marketing activities any brand manager has to undertake. In fact, some of the most successful brands were built by them using the tool of public relations rather than advertising such as The Body Shop, globally and Barista in India.Manoj Chandra is currently heading the corporate communications function with the US$ 1.6 billion RPG Enterprises, and is responsible for internal communications, events, advertising, media & investor relations and online services for the group.
Prior to joining RPG in May ‘02, Manoj was heading Corporate Communications with the Godrej group of companies and was instrumental in creating a public face for the group’s promoters and their products. A communications professional to the core, Manoj began his career in 1991 with Triton Marketing and later on moved in 1994 to help set up the Delhi office of Corporate Voice Shandwick.
In this session, Manoj Chandra, Head – Corporate Communications, RPG Enterprises talks to Jasmeen Dugal about the role of corporate communications in promoting a large and diversified conglomerate, the importance of image audits and how, PR as a tool, helps in reputation management.
Q. Does RPG follow any set PR formula to attract different target segments like the media, institutional shareholders, individual shareholders, employees, vendors, customers and the public? Different publics have their individual information needs and have to be met accordingly. Corporate communications works with the different departments to look after this by providing specific vehicles to aid the flow of communication.
While at the global level, we have a group website – rpggroup.com – which enables a quick overview about the entire organization to a visitor, more specific communication vehicles could be in the form of analyst meets or customer newsletters which are periodically used.
Q. Has corporate communications been utilized as damage control in a crisis? Did this benefit the company and achieve the desired results? Every large organization has its share of crisis, large or small. Communications plays an important role in helping the organization to go through this phase with ease and achieve normalcy.
At RPG, we have had some of our businesses going through this phase and we have helped them by preparing the management for the media scrutiny, which follows any such incident. We had to ensure that the communication barriers were not broken and factual information was made available to the media quickly so that rumours were not reported. This helped the situation to get diffused very quickly.
Q. How does RPG measure the results of a PR campaign? PR is an ongoing process, relatively subtler than the high visibility of ad campaigns and hence difficult to quantify. However, if objectives have been clearly defined for a PR program, it is much easier to assess the impact, which could be based on the nature of media coverage, improved sales or higher employee satisfaction.
We use existing business measures to qualify the result of a PR activity. But the best feedback is of course the one given by the owner of the PR campaign, the CEO himself.
Q. Does PR compete with or complement marketing activities? Good PR is all about building image and changing perceptions. In this respect, PR never competes with any organizational activity, but complements it. It can be a wonderful complement to the marketing activities any brand manager has to undertake. In fact, some of the most successful brands were built by them using the tool of public relations rather than advertising such as The Body Shop, globally and Barista in India.
Q. How is PR different from reputation management? Reputation Management is today becoming an increasingly used buzzword amongst corporates in the global arena, especially after the debacle of megacorps like Enron, Worldcom, Tyco and many others. The role of the CEO is increasingly become subject to scrutiny and his stake in managing the reputation of his firm is becoming larger. Reputation Management is all-encompassing for an organization in today’s context.
The fortunes of big businesses are also getting tied not only to how they perform but also to how they are perceived. A good reference point to understand this impact is the AC Nielsen – ORG Marg Corporate Reputation Index. In the study announced last year, there was a clear connection between corporate performance and stakeholders’ perception. Tata Motors (earlier known as Telco) is a case in point. In the light of a Rs 500-crore loss in fiscal 2001, Tata Motor’s rankings dropped from 7 in 2000 to 12 in 2001. Following the successful showing in its passenger car sales, the company was able to improve its ranking to 8 in 2002.
Clearly, the bottom-line can make or break a reputation—but increasingly, the reverse can be true as well.
PR is the tool, which helps in reputation management. Through precise communication to the diverse publics of an organisation, it helps in building correct perceptions and shareholder satisfaction.
Q. What are some of the impediments communications managers face in India? The biggest challenge is the lack of understanding of what we do. Mostly the Indian communication person is seen as a fixer for a media article. The vital contribution that the function can make to an organization’s success is yet to be understood in a larger context of the Indian business.
Also, the highly fragmented nature of the industry is another big impediment, which is contributing to the lack of understanding about it. While the advertising industry was able to grow very quickly and was seen as a professional body, public relations still does not have enough unification. Some steps have been made in this direction such as the PRCAI, but it still has a long way to go.
What this also impacts is the growth of education facilities for this profession, which in turn affects the availability of quality manpower.
Q. Besides corporate communication, what are the other activities undertaken to build and strengthen the RPG brand? RPG is a highly people-driven organization and a lot of effort goes into inculcating the RPG culture within our employees, who are perhaps our best spokespersons. We encourage our employees to be leaders in their communities – professionals or personal.
Apart from this, RPG is deeply involved with culture. During the year, many activities are undertaken to deepen our associations in this area, such as the annual RPG art camp, where we encourage young artists.
RPG also has a large social responsibility program, wherein RPG employees contribute back to the society through personal time and effort such as the ‘Akanksha child education program’ or through contributions such as the reconstruction project of Vamka village after the Gujarat earthquake.
Sports is another avenue for brand building. Over the past nine years, CEAT has constantly been promoting cricket through its famous cricket ratings and the Annual CEAT Cricket Rating Awards are today synonymous with excellence in the game.
Q. In India, in your opinion, is the role of corporate communications going to remain in media relations or it will stretch to individual specialization? While media relations will remain as the primary role, today’s business environment is creating special areas for this function to evolve into, especially in the IT & BPO space where communications professionals are helping more in internal processes such as marketing and employee communications, and community programs.
I believe the profession would see the emergence of niche professionals based on the requirements of the emerging industries. However, the basic qualities of a communication professional would not change, namely a keen and inquistive mind, good grasping power, creative and innovative thinking, an expressive nature and a knack for making friends.
Q. RPG Enterprises has many diverse groups – Retail, IT & Communications, Entertainment, Power & Transmission, Tyres, Life Sciences and Specialties. What is the role of corporate communications in promoting such a diversified group? Which area demands the most attention? In any large and diversified conglomerate, communications is the binding force, which keeps the organization together. RPG Enterprises is composed of nearly twenty-five different entities with unique businesses and more importantly, 50,000 employees and over 5,000 managers. The involvement of corporate communications is therefore very large in keeping this heterogeneous group together. A lot of effort is on internal communications to bind the people together.
Apart from the constant process of managing the public image for the group and building its identity, corporate communications also assists the group companies in communicating about their business initiatives and addressing the needs of their target publics.
Recent efforts have been to work closely with our focus areas of growth namely – power, tyres and retail.
Q. What role does corporate communication play in organized retailing? Retail has been a pioneering area for RPG. Today we operate in four different formats, namely Foodworld (chain of supermarkets), MusicWorld (chain of music stores), Health and Glow (chain of health and beauty stores) and GIANT (chain of hypermarkets).
Being a greenfield areas for the group, as well as, a new industry, communication’s role was not only in building the brands but also in educating the consumers about the concept of organised retail and the benefits that it brought to them.
Retail is all about building economies of scale through continuous addition to your store numbers. This therefore involves communication not only for every store launch, which is almost every month, but also creating interesting opportunities within the store through promotions, which helps in maintaining the footfalls to the stores.
Q. There have been a number of focused promotions at Music World. What role did Corporate Communications play in this brand-building programme? A case in point is our MusicWorld store at Kolkata. Located at Park Street, this store has today become one of the most happening destination for the youth, primarily through the image built through regular promotions and newspaper articles on the same.
Q. How important are image audits for RPG? How frequently do you conduct image audits? Image audits are interesting tools, which build insight into how target groups perceive a particular entity, individual or issue. However they have to be administered correctly to deliver good results.
We conduct image research using our large target base including vendors, analysts, new and past employees, and key customers.
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
TOP STORIES
Surabhi Patodia of Ola joins Practo as Head of Communications
Patodia served over three years at Ola as Senior Manager, Corporate Communications & PR
Surabhi Patodia, former Senior Manager, Corporate Communications & PR at Ola has joined healthcare platform Practo as Head of Communications.
Patodia started her career in Communications with Adfactors PR, where she helped companies going to IPO with their communication plans. She then went on to be a part of Text100, India's premier Technology PR agency, where she worked with brands like Lenovo, Tata Power Solar, to name a few. She joined Ola in 2016, and was instrumental in building a strong narrative for the brand, across India and International markets.
Patodia holds PG Diploma in Public Relations & Corporate Communications from the Xavier’s Institute of Mass Communications, Mumbai and Bachelors in Business Administration from BIT, Mesra.
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
ShareIndiGo appoints Chhavi Leekha as Director, Corporate Communications & Brand Reputation
Prior to this role, Leekha worked with Nokia India as Head of Marketing and Communications
IndiGo airlines, part of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd, has appointed Chhavi Leekha as Director Corporate Communications and Brand Reputation. Prior to this role, she worked with Nokia India as Head of Marketing and Communications. Her role included setting the direction and leading Nokia's marketing strategy, demand generations, brand strategy, event management, advertising, external/internal communications, corporate affairs &CSR.
Leekha has also worked with Uber India as Consulting Director of Communications and also served a stint at Spice Global as Group President, Brand and Corporate Communications.
Leekha has completed her MBA from the prestigious Narsee Monjee Institue of Management Studies and BA from Shri Ram College of Commerce.
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
Aditya Birla Group appoints Sandeep Gurumurthi as Head of Corporate Comm. and Brand
Gurumurthi who was part of the core team that launched ET NOW stepped down from his role as Managing Editor in August 2018
Aditya Birla Group has appointed former ET Now Managing Editor Sandeep Gurumurthi as Head of Corporate Communications and Brand.
Gurumurthi who was part of the core team that launched ET Now stepped down from his role as Managing Editor in August 2018.
He was associated with the channel since inception and besides anchoring breaking news and other special shows, he hosted ET Now's flagship debate show India Development Debate weeknights at 9 pm.
Gurumurthi began his career with national broadcaster DD News, and prior to joining ET Now, he was associated with CNBC TV18,
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
Yaap appoints Deepak Singh as Chief Creative Officer
Singh is one of the most awarded creative talents in the country and has won over 1000 national and international awards
Rainmaker Ventures-backed Yaap, the digital advertising agency has appointed Deepak Singh as their Chief Creative Officer. Deepak will be based in the Mumbai office and will oversee all creative functions across the Yaap network in Mumbai, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Shillong, Dubai, Singapore & Jakarta. He will report directly to the Board of Directors at Yaap.
Singh is one of the most awarded creative talents in the country and has won over 1000 national and international awards at Cannes, One Show, LIA, New York Festival, Goafest, Adfest, Spikes Asia, Young Guns and more. He has also been on the jury of some of these prestigious festivals and led creative teams across agencies including Leo Burnett, Grey Worldwide, McCann Erickson, DDB Mudra, TBWA, Dentsu and The Social Street.
For the past 3 consecutive years, Singh has led a young team from The Social Street, which has gone on to give an exhilarating performance. He has been instrumental in securing the Creative Agency of the year title for the agency, several times during 2018.
Commenting on his new role, he added, “Saying yes to Yaap was actually not a very tough decision to make for me. Right from the time we first met, Atul had a clear picture of why he wanted to hire me. I am glad he has chalked out a much bigger role for me. Being a young and vibrant company with expertise in Digital Content, Design and Influencer Marketing, Yaap I believe will be a great learning experience for me. I’m raring to go “
Atul Hegde, co-founder Rainmaker Ventures added “Deepak is a welcome addition to the array of Partners we have at Yaap, which has a unique non CEO model, our aim as investors, is to ensure that we are able to attract the best & brightest of talent into the senior management pool at Yap. Within a short span of fewer than 3 Years, Yaap has grown into 70+ people across 7 offices in South East Asia, India & the Middle East and it was the right time for us to bring in a Senior Creative talent. I wish Deepak all the very best and I’m sure he will be a great asset to Yaap. “
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
Leo Burnett India promotes Rakesh Hinduja to COO, West
He has been leading the operations of Leo Burnett’s head office in Mumbai as the Executive Director and Branch Head
Leo Burnett has announced the promotion of Rakesh Hinduja to Chief Operating Officer, West. He will continue to report to Dheeraj Sinha, Managing Director, India and Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia and Rajdeepak Das, Managing Director, India and Chief Creative Officer, South Asia.
Hinduja has been leading the operations of Leo Burnett’s head office in Mumbai as the Executive Director and Branch Head.
Speaking about the elevation, Dheeraj Sinha said, “Rakesh is the perfect role model for the new-age agency we are building. His leadership on all the three parameters of People, Product and Profit has been stellar. Under his watch, we have consistently seen spectacular work that has won our brands market-share, and glory at platforms such as Cannes Lions, Spikes and Effies. He has delivered high-quality growth for the Mumbai office, leading the teams to win a new business almost every two weeks. The momentum and buzz at Leo Burnett Mumbai are palpable. Rakesh has been an amazing team player, helping push the Publicis Groupe’s Power of One agenda. Leo Burnett Mumbai’s contribution to our services such as Prodigious has helped Prodigious to become the number one ‘agency production house’ in the country within a span of two years. More than anything else, Rakesh has a never-say-die attitude and he always plays the game with a sense of camaraderie that we really value at Leo Burnett.”
In his new role, Hinduja will drive the Power of One agenda for Leo Burnett in the West. He will help build cross-platform solutions for our clients using our services in Entertainment (Publicis Entertainment), Content (Content Factory), Experiential (Arc Worldwide), Production (Prodigious), Digital (Indigo Consulting and Digitas) and Media (Zenith Optimedia, Ecosys and Beehive). He will lead all the functions of Leo Burnett Mumbai to create world-class work, build a high growth business and create a culture where people come to do the best work of their lifetime.
Commenting on Rakesh’s promotion, Rajdeepak Das said, “Rakesh is always there, backing great creative work and making integrated thinking happen for our clients. He has been an essential part of the journey to get where we are today. This elevation is much-deserved and will take all of us to greater heights.”
Talking about his promotion, Rakesh Hinduja said, “I am happy with my journey at Leo Burnett – a new-age, solution-providing ‘Wave 3’ agency. I’m proud of the brave we have work done and I am hungry for more. Hereon, there are a lot of exciting things to do and in quick time. I want to take a critical pause here to thank all our clients and the Burnetters for their belief in me.”
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
Publicis India appoints Neeraj Bassi as Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer
Along with Srija Chatterjee and Bobby Pawar, Bassi will help in fostering collaboration and delivering on the Power of One synergy across the Groupe
Publicis India has announced the appointment of Neeraj Bassi as Managing Partner & Chief Strategy Officer. Neeraj will work from the agency’s New Delhi office. Along with Srija Chatterjee and Bobby Pawar, Neeraj will help in fostering collaboration and delivering on the Power of One synergy across the Groupe.
With over two decades of professional experience, Neeraj has worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands including Coca-Cola, Asian Paints, Cadbury, BMW, KFC, Adidas, Samsung, British Airways, WeChat, Voltas, Audi, HSBC, Max Life and Tata Singapore Airlines – Vistara among others.
He joins Publicis after a brief stint as an independent Consultant where he provided strategic guidance and brand solutions for multiple clients across various categories. Neeraj has worked with some of the top market research networks such as TNS, IMRB, and NFO and led the Strategic Planning function in advertising agencies including Cheil, Ogilvy, JWT, McCann in India and abroad. Neeraj has also won multiple awards across reputed award festivals that recognise effectiveness such as Effies (India & APAC), AMES, WARC, etc.
Announcing the new appointment and welcoming Neeraj aboard, Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications, South Asia said: “In Neeraj, we found a partner with a shared vision of driving a deeper level of integration within the Groupe by leveraging the Power of One model. Neeraj’s vast experience and media neutral planning approach will help clients in building a holistic brand experience which will aim to create one-to-one consumer engagement, at scale. I look forward to working with Neeraj and wish him the best of luck.”
Welcoming Neeraj to the Publicis family, Srija Chatterjee, Managing Director - Publicis Worldwide, India said: “Neeraj joins at a time when the Groupe is implementing a profound transformation which puts our clients front and centre of everything that we do. His wealth of experience of working across diverse sectors and with cross-functional teams will help build a narrative around our clients’ business and marketing transformation that connects data, content and technology in an omnichannel world. I’m excited to welcome Neeraj to the Publicis Groupe family, and we look forward to him riding the next strategic wave at the agency.”
Bobby Pawar, MD & CCO - Publicis Worldwide, India added: “I’ve always believed great work is born out of a strong partnership between strategy, creative and clients. Neeraj Bassi has a history of creating strategic platforms that killer ideas can springboard from. His cross-platform approach to planning will also be a huge asset to our march towards the future of creativity. It also helps that he is fun to be around. I can chat with him for hours; the chemistry is very important when you are going to be more or less living out of each other’s metaphorical pockets.”
Commenting on his appointment, and his plans for the agency, Neeraj Bassi said: “I am really excited to be part of Publicis India and looking forward to partnering Bobby and Srija to create stellar work that stands out in the market. Working with clients as an independent consultant has given me insight on the primary concerns of CXOs and how communication can help resolve them. Clients today need an omnichannel approach to planning that focuses on identifying and solving their business problems holistically, rather than getting trapped in a discipline-specific approach. I am fascinated by the way all Groupe companies have come together at Publicis to create Power of One, and I look forward to wielding this power to build successful campaigns for our clients.”
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp
Airbnb appoints Google's Aristotle Balogh as Chief Technology Officer
Balogh formerly served as Vice President of Engineering, Application Storage, Indexing and Serving at Google
Airbnb has announced the appointment of Aristotle Balogh as Chief Technology Officer, according to media reports.
Balogh is expected to begin his tenure with Airbnb in November and will head the engineering and data science teams. He will also be in charge of infrastructure, information security and IT, as well as engineering for payments and community support.
Balogh formerly served as Vice President of Engineering, Application Storage, Indexing and Serving at Google, where he was instrumental in developing the infrastructure and data platforms of Google Search. He also worked as Chief Technology Officer at Yahoo and VeriSign.
According to reports, the company is expected to file for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) next year and Balogh's appointment comes at a time when Airbnb is still without a Chief Financial Officer after Laurence Tosi stepped down from the role earlier this year.
Read more news about (internet advertising India, internet advertising, advertising India, digital advertising India, media advertising India)
For more updates, be socially connected with us onInstagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook Youtube & Whatsapp