Sakshi Jain

Crisis Communication Practical PR strategies for reputation management and company survival Edited by: Peter F Anthonissen Year of Publishing: 2009 No organisation is immune to crisis. It can come at the most unexpected time with no warnings at all. Crisis preparedness is one part of crisis management, but, you can never be too prepared. At times things can go wrong in the most unexpected way. While quoting Murphy’s Law “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way”, the author writes, “Every CEO a senior executive should keep a copy of Murphy’s Law prominently displayed on their desk to remind them to be ready to face its consequences.” Multiple renowned Communication Heads, PR consultant, senior executive, and crisis communication experts have contributed to the book and it has been finally edited by Peter F Anthonissen. The header of every chapter mentions the main contributor to it. It is scientifically prov

Safety, a word so simple yet seems unachievable. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Safety means, “a state in which or a place where you are safe and not in danger or at risk.” Now my question is, does a place like that exist? Is any place safe for us?     Our country, city, society, streets, schools, colleges, even our home, is any of that safe? In the past few days we have seen so many horrifying cases of girls and women across all ages getting raped. It is scary at times, the realisation that that could have been me, or someone I know. The fact that it made me cry even when I never knew any of these women before made me realise that what would have happened to that person who did know them, who loved them. To go through something so inhuman and painful both physically as well as mentally is beyond terrifying. We are not safe anywhere. This is the reality of women in our country or maybe all across the world. Safety comes to those privileged few who

How many times have you booked a cab online? When was the last time you ordered food online? How do you book your travel tickets? If you are well versed with the digital platforms, you would know what I am talking about. Uber, Ola, Zomato, BookMyTrip, RedBus, etc have totally changed our approach towards mundane activities such as travel, booking movie tickets, and so on. They have made these tedious tasks fairly convenient. We all know what these platforms are but, do you know how they operate? What is their business model? They have an aggregator business model. All these applications are business aggregators in different sectors.  What is an Aggregator Business Model? Aggregator Business Model is a network where an organisation aggregates products or services from multiple providers and brings it under one platform. The organisation does not produce any product, rather it makes goods from other small business available for the customers. It brings together multipl

This Thursday, SCoRe organised a workshop with Nitin Mantri, CEO Avian WE for its students. The workshop focused on campaign planning and had multiple insights and information to ponder upon. This blog explores upon a small part of his session that is, how has the world of communications changed over the years. 1. Algorithms define information flow: We have been consuming digital media for so long now but we don’t realise the nitty-gritty around it. How we behave online, our browsing history, most visited website, our likes and dislikes, everything is tracked on the internet. This gives the brands the insight on our engagement pattern and algorithms are built to leverage that. The big data is shaping the communication approach for corporates in a more effective and targeted way. The algorithms have defined the information flow entirely and this could be leveraged by the corporates through their communication strategy. 2. Digital behaviour is changing the decision-makin

There is a lot of information clutter in the market today. The consumers are exposed to various types of information in abundance, but, there is so much that a human mind can take in a day. So, they filter through the content and consume what is of their interest, taste and liking. This increases competition and makes corporate communication so much harder. You will send out your message but, how do you ensure that it is reaching your target audience? Talking in context of the Indian audience, we have different tastes and preferences which the communication strategy should cater to. Indian audience can be further subdivided into different segments, but, there are some things at the core of it all. This blog is inspired from a Campaign planning workshop in SCoRe with Nitin Mantri, CEO Avian WE.   Following are some points that should be used in a communication strategy when talking to the Indian audience. 1. Be hyperlocal: Sometimes your ideas don’t have to be big, the

Rihanna needs no introduction. One personality with many talents who has won our hearts over the years. She is best known for her songs and as an actress, but, she is a well-established businesswoman as well. In September 2017, Robyn Rihanna Fenty launched her cosmetic brand called Fenty Beauty. The idea behind the brand is ‘beauty for all’. Because of her love for makeup, Rihanna used to experiment with all kinds of makeup and cosmetic brands available. She identified the need for cosmetics that are made for all skin types and complexion. Fenty Beauty was made with the idea of makeup being inclusive. Inclusive here means inclusive of all skin colours, skin types and gender. Fenty beauty products are not restricted to any gender. It is one of its kind make range which suits all complexions. This is very rare to find in the beauty industry. The inclusivity is in terms of gender, skin tones, and skin type.   With the makeup industry being ignorant to many skin tones, F

In 2015 Imitaz Ali gave a heavily underrated and commercially flop film, Tamasha. Starring Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles, Tamasha was a Bollywood romance drama. The film did not receive a positive response at the box office. Continuous negative reviews made it even worse for the film to succeed. Imtiaz Ali is a popular movie director who gave Bollywood movies like Jab We Met, Love Aaj Kal, Rockstar, Yeh Yawani Hai Deewani, and Highway. It is said that he doesn’t make movies to impress the public, but rather his movies are made out of pure love for the art of filmmaking. While Tamasha was failing on the box office, simultaneously it started getting thumbs up from the film critics.   Tamasha is a story of Ved and Tara, their love and struggle to overcome the harsh reality of life. It was about their struggle in dealing with the Tamasha out of their encounter in Corsica. The story starts in Corsica with Tara losing her bag which had her wallet, passpo

The School of Communications & Reputation (SCoRe) organised a three-hour workshop for its students on Communities of purpose & relevance. The session was led by Guarava Yadav, Founder & CEO, EduAce Services. The session started in a very unusual manner when he gave a disclaimer about how to take everything with a pinch of salt. Within a short period, he gave us many insights and tips for our career. Following are some of the key learnings explained in brief: ·          ‘The Brand Called You’ He stressed upon personal branding and how we should see ourselves as individual brands. He explained the importance of personal branding especially for reputation management professional. During the last three months at SCoRe, we have had to introduce ourselves to multiple people, but, the introduction in the workshop was a little different. To get a better understanding of personal branding each student had to introduce themselves as a brand. It includes what are they ca

In the recent months after the Narendra Modi government has been elected for the second time in India, a few major constitutional reforms have taken place in the country. Most of these received less than a lukewarm welcome from the citizens as a big chunk of the population spoke up in opposition of the decision. The central government has been facing continuous backlash for their decision which seemed impulsive, and a threat to the economy of the country. The financial strain in terms of lack of private investment, fall in GDP, increase in unemployment which are often voiced by the economists have caused concerns and lack of faith towards the central government. In this blog we will explore in depth about the impact of three recent reforms namely, CAA, NRC, and revoking Article 370 on the Indian economy. Article 370: The special status of the former state of Jammu & Kashmir under Article 370 was revoked in August 2019. The decision taken by the central government came as a s

In this age of information clutter there is so much of content available that it is very difficult to filter through it. The message sometimes gets lost somewhere. There are different types of content which can be used for various platforms to communicate effectively. A good communicator needs to know what type of content to use where to send across the message. In this blog, we will explore these types and their use for public relation professionals in details. The content majorly revolves around the senses used by a person to understand the content such as sight, hearing, smell, and in some rare cases taste and touch. Written Content: Written content is a very broad category which can have multiple forms. Written content for a PR professional would include media release, white paper, blogs and articles. It works best to provide detailed information. Imagery: This type of content is in trend nowadays. The attention span of a human is decreasing continuously, th

Big Data is a large set of data that is further analysed to identify facts, trends, or patterns, especially relating to human behaviours. Bid data can be both structured and unstructured. We all use online applications, websites, and social media platforms for different purposes. Access to internet and digital platforms have made many tasks very easy and convenient. While using these platforms sometimes we are asked to fill in some information such as name, phone number, email address, this data is stored in the system for further use. These type of information we give out willingly but have you ever wondered about the information that we give out without our knowledge. We use the internet for many different purposes such as online shopping, social engagement, research, etc. Our behavioural patterns, likes and dislikes are tracked by our browser history. One, two, three and then many different searches collectively define a pattern in the behaviour of the user that is furthe

When we think of Vicks we immediately have the image of a mother applying the balm on our chest to get rid of cold and sickness. Many of us have had the experience first-hand of our mothers applying Vicks on our nose or neck to cure  us of cold. This is what we have associated the brand with. Standing true to this identity, Vicks launched the ‘Vicks Touch of Care Campaign.’ Vicks believes that everyone deserves #TouchOfCare. Everyone deserves what it feels like to care for and to be taken care of by someone. A mother’s touch is the safest, the most caring for children. Vicks through there advertisements and campaigns have portrayed this image multiple times. The #TouchOfCare campaign was also revolving around this insight showing two different stories of mothers and their touch of care. 1. Vicks - Generations of Care #TouchOfCare The first part of this campaign was released in 2017. It narrated the story of Gauri Sawant, a transgender woman who adopted a girl at a ve

Writing a press release is the most common practice in Public relations. Press Releases are a tool used in PR to make a formal official announcement on behalf of the company to the public through targeting the media. Press releases are pitched to a journalised who then further publishes it in the news so that it reaches the target audience. A journalist in a day gets many press release but not all of them make it to the news. The ones that don’t are either not effective press release or have been sent to a journalist who does not cover that beat. In this blog, we will study the format as well as the points to keep in mind while writing a press release. ·          A journalist has many stories to filter through to get the best news, in this information clutter a press release may seem of less importance. To overcome this problem, a person should try and think of the journalist’s interest. Why is the story worth publishing? Is it relatable to the journalist and the target au

Eight years ago, on November 11, Bollywood saw one of its best work ever. The highly praised, critically acclaimed, Rockstar. The movie is a romance drama starring Ranbir Kapoor and Nargis Fakhri, directed by Imtiaz Ali. The storyline, acting, dialogues, and especially the music, everything was in the movie was loved by the audience. Now you may know the story and you have possibly heard many reviews, so in this blog, we are going to explore more on the music that we all hum along with. Rockstar tells a story about Jordan, a singer and his tragic love life. So, it is no surprise that the movie has some amazing songs. The whole album, inclusive of fourteen tracks was composed by A. R. Rahman and produced by T- Series. The songs received high appreciation, praises and positive critical reception. It was nominated and awarded by numerous music award. The album was at the top in itunes world chart 2011 and Indian Express termed it as ‘A milestone for Bollywood’. [1] The music

New Year is coming in a few months, a time to celebrate and to travel. So why don’t you try something new this time? What about some adventure? ‘This vacation travel to Mogadishu, Somalia. The city previously known as the ‘White pearl of the Indian Ocean’ has made news for decades. Visit their historical sites, beautiful beaches, mountain ranges, wildlife ranges, and waterfalls. Go on an adventure tour and get a once in a lifetime experience.’ Now tell me do you want to go on this adventure? The possibility that people might consider saying yes is a big concern. Mogadishu, Somalia, because of the civil war is considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Thousands of people have lost their lives on the battlefield and many deaths were caused by its aftermath. Advertising tourism in a place like this, conflict or war tourism to be specific is disturbing and immoral to a great extent. What is conflict tourism?          Conflict tourism also known as war t