Nigerian Breweries (NB) Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem, has charged public relations (PR) consultants to go beyond mere media relations and create a solution based on services to their clients to earn them respect.
He made the call at the maiden edition of the Public Relations Consultants Association of Nigeria (PRCAN) monthly breakfast meeting in Lagos.
Practitioners must raise the bar of excellence, Ekanem said, because in today’s highly competitive market, clients are looking for PR consultants who can develop and implement programmes that can help break cultural barriers.
“The PR consultant must be able to achieve five things for clients. These five things are PR that hints, explains, liaises, permeates and sells. The PR must tell a good story of what the target consumers should expect, and explain clearly what the brand will do for them.
“It must also be able to liaise, that is connect with them; break down concerns, issues, obstacles that consumers may have or anticipate and ultimately sell the brand,” he explained.
He enjoined PR practitioners to explore opportunities in culture as an untapped sphere of reputation building and management for clients.
In his view, there are several reputation building opportunities organisations can derive from culture as a fast emerging trend in marketing communications.
Whether it be a corporate or product brand, he added, a proper understanding of the power of culture or what is generally referred to as ‘local love’, can deliver tremendous marketing success.
‘‘One of the ways culture is defined is, ‘the way we do things here’”, he stressed, adding that culture reflects on the demographics and psychographics as well as the consumer perception of any brand.
Areas he wants PR consultants to focus on include corporate culture and employee engagement, social culture, tourism, and heritage.
“The totality of what you do is actually about the employees and if you have lousy employees, you will have a lousy day. So your employees are first because they will be the ones whose activities impact your external publics.”
He cited examples of brands that have broken through cultural barriers to include a beverage drink as a perfect complement to food; promotion of tooth brushing twice daily as a perfect way to keep healthy gums and dentition by toothpaste brands; and the use of two tablets of analgesics for fast relief from pain by pharmaceutical brands.
PRCAN President, John Ehiguese, said the meeting was part of efforts to boost the capacity of PR consultants to better understand clients’ point of view and manage expectations better.