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A new book talks about the slow magic of the art of image building
Patil is vice-president of corporate communications at the Godrej group, and his boss of 10 years, Tanya Dubash, was the chief guest at the launch. She said, “As far as I’m concerned, nothing is more important than reputation. The authors are fantastic practitioners of reputation-building
MUMBAI “I don’t want to crib about our industry, but one thing we need to do is read more,” said Madan Bahal, co-founder, Adfactors PR, at the book launch of ‘The Pursuit of Reputation’ at Crossword Kemps Corner on Tuesday. Written by two public relations (PR) professionals, Sujit Patil and Amith Prabhu, who have a combined experience of 40 years in the industry, ‘The Pursuit of Reputation’ is a handbook for all interested in understanding the field. Patil said, “In the book, we’ve spoken about the various ways in which brands can utilise these processes to build their reputation. It takes years to build a reputation, but 10 seconds to kill it.” Prabhu added, “Like Twitter built its reputation over 10 years and Elon Musk destroyed it in 10 weeks.”
Prabhu continued, “We have written this book for three stakeholders. Most people use the term ‘PR’ incorrectly. They should read this 335-page book and understand PR better. We wrote it for the youngsters who are getting into the profession, and their parents have no clue what it is. Our third audience is CEOs and C-suite leaders. They usually come from marketing, sales and finance, and don’t know the industry. But, their company’s entire reputation hinges on perception.”
Patil is vice-president of corporate communications at the Godrej group, and his boss of 10 years, Tanya Dubash, was the chief guest at the launch. She said, “As far as I’m concerned, nothing is more important than reputation. The authors are fantastic practitioners of reputation-building. It requires a lot of agility, authenticity and innovation. So, this book is a great toolkit and resource for those who want to become more efficient and impactful in this field.”
In the book, the authors write, “PR has been treated as the need-based stepchild of marketing as well as the poor, neglected cousin of advertising.” Patil said, “PR and communications professionals amplify the great work done by marketing, HR, finance, the CEOs, the business, but they haven’t done it as much for their own profession. We have been at the back-end for the longest time. I think it’s time to emerge out of the shadows.” While emphasising the need for PR, Bahal said, “Like lawyers represent clients in courtrooms, we represent clients in the court of public opinion.”
Patil added, “The professionals may paint a good, rosy picture, but unless the base work is robust and effective, unless it has actually impacted people, no PR or advertising can help it. If a good road is built, it doesn’t need promotion because people will experience it. Experience and authenticity determine outcomes; projection and communications only amplify it.” Prabhu said, “Good behaviour is good PR and its ultimate goal is credibility. There have been criminals and rogues who have become politicians. They won because of muscle, money and power; they have no credibility. And then, there are leaders who have won because of doing certain things over a period of time and then taken it to the next level.”
On the topic of politics and image-building, the best anecdote of the evening came from industry veteran Roger Pereira, who entered the fraternity at the insistence of the I&B minister in 1965. “Pakistan had invaded India, and we received a call from Mrs Gandhi,” he said. Invited to pitch an advertising campaign, the group was told at the end, “We don’t need advertising, we actually need PR. Do any of you know PR? Are you willing to learn?” Pereira added, “So, my introduction to PR was thanks to Mrs Gandhi.” Rohit Bansal, head of corporate communications at Reliance, then asked Pereira, “How do you take the renaming of India to Bharat? Suppose you received a call from PM Narendra Modi, what would you say?” Pereira replied, “To my mind, the PM is ‘the’ PR guy. He has mastered the art of PR. I would have advised him to go ahead, because he’s the one calling the shots. He’s doing it because he doesn’t want to confuse it with the INDIA alliance.”
