The roots of public relations can be traced to Ancient Greece where philosophers like Plato and Aristotle wrote about the art of rhetoric in persuasion. Later in the 17th century, communications in the form of books, leaflets and lectures swayed public opinion, and in the 20th century, with the birth of mass communication, PR became a discipline for business advancement. Fast forward to today, and the connection of communications– whether for reputation or brand in any industry— to growth has only increased. This was a topic I explored with Kasturi Paladhi, Head of External Communications and Social Media at Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages.
“PR is the bloodline of any company, an industry-agnostic must for advancing business goals, whether you’re the leader-brand setting the standards or the challenger, aiming to disrupt.” Kasturi told me during an insightful and dynamic conversation.
Kasturi is no stranger to competitive environments, having worked in news, technology and, most recently, the always-hot beverage industry.
“What I’ve realised is that working in high stakes, highly contested areas, whether in mature or early-stage industries, leads to the best work,” she said. “We in communications need to operate at the height of our abilities because virtually everything we do has a direct impact on the top and the bottom line. Any business leader who doesn’t know this is naive.”
Indeed, the relentless pace of news and social media combined with the rise of stakeholder capitalism means that every corporate action (and reaction) and every public statement (or silence) can be, and often is, viewed through the lens of public perception, dissected and amplified in real-time. Everybody has an opinion and the megaphone of social media through which to share it. This could have a positive or negative impact on a company or brand which can happen very quickly.
Of course, communicators know all this.
“There’s no doubt there’s more pressure on companies, brands and leaders. We communicators feel it as well. Accordingly, we need to be there, at the table, as calm, trusted advisors who will present an evidence-based and clear picture of the environment or situation, even if we are messengers of difficult information, and lead the process of finding and executing the solution,” said Kasturi.
What’s more, thanks to new tools and AI-enabled analytics we can now connect our recommended actions for our clients to business outcomes. For example, when we’re solving for a brand launch or challenge, we design initiatives informed by sophisticated AI-powered data to create a measurable, positive environment for sales and preference conversion. Kasturi does the same and regularly builds in codes and links to her initiatives to track impact.
To be sure, communications is not, and has never been, exclusively a sales-driven discipline. To force it into that role is to lose its impact, utility and distinction. On the other hand, comms is a key element of growth.
“Our North Star for communications has always been growth, but we don’t chase sales,” said Kasturi. “To narrow our work to a sales measure alone is a mistake most companies operating today can’t afford to make. Our definition for growth is much wider — more share of voice, more share of heart, more reach, more impact, more trust, more understanding of our purpose and values, more brand believers and champions, more of the best and brightest joining our team and doing their best work. And that’s just the beginning.”
What should communicators, whether at consultancies or in-house, do to underscore our discipline’s connection to growth? Kasturi and I both weighed in:
- Be a strong, reliable voice of counsel and reason to business leaders. Never take off the advisory hat.
- Trust your own well-honed powers of observation and human intuition in addition to new tools and technologies to stay on top of the business environments, understand the context and nuances, sharpen targets, more deeply understand your stakeholders, test ideas and predict where impact will be most valuable.
- Design brand initiatives with a direct line of sight to business objectives, vision, purpose and values in mind.
- Guard the company and brand’s reputation and show that actions taken contribute to long-and short-term business outcomes.
- Never underestimate the need for and power of nurturing internal stakeholders.
- Consider all the available channels to reach internal and external stakeholders and make good choices.
- Help executives communicate with empathy and authenticity and not underestimate the power of these in growth.
In her work, Kasturi never forgets her product is the hero and that communications can not only burnish reputation but also make her internal and external stakeholders feel heroic too. All are vital to growth.
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