The Reputation Today Conclave was held on 5th April, 2017 at Godrej One, Vikroli-Mumbai. This conclave brought together over 125 senior communication professionals from over 70 organisations and 30 PR consulting firms, to listen to and interact with business leaders on the subject of reputation management and strategic communications.
As communicators, it is integral to know the right mediums through which one can reach the public. The #RTConclave served as a good knowledge-sharing platform allowing each and every one to learn and benefit from other communication professionals.
Avani Davda, Managing Director, Godrej Nature’s Basket in her talk on Building Brand Reputation using Word of Mouth, focused on the five principles of word-of-mouth marketing. She urged that brands should be:
- Credible – Honest & Authentic,
- Respectful – Transparent & trustworthy,
- Social – Listening, Participating, Responding & Engaging,
- Measurable – Define, Monitor & Evaluate
- Repeatable
She ended by saying that it is a powerful tactic and should be carefully used as it can make or break a brand.
Mainak Dhar, Managing Director, General Mills spoke on The Power of Marketing in Transforming Oneself. He very strongly felt, ‘Your product must deliver what it communicates.’ And that communication professionals should focus on the journey of the brand and not the destination. In his session he also said, ‘We are constantly busy creating brilliant strategies for brands but we never ask the question “why does what we do matter?” The answer lies in being very clear of your brand’s sense of purpose. It is all about how you communicate with hearts and minds of people. When you begin with what you have to offer it becomes a transaction, but when you start with why you exist, it creates relationships.’ He ended by saying ‘Brands today need to build a connection by inspiring through authentic stories.’
Apurva Purohit, CEO Radio City & President Jagran Group addressed the Adventures of a Woman at Work in Building a Professional Reputation. She crystallized her thoughts into three important points on why women have a poor reputation at work. First, women run away, they think it is only their responsibility to take the entire burden of the family on their shoulders. So, after marriage, they give up their career to be at home for the family. Second, even if they do well they never celebrate their own success. They will give everybody credit for a job well done but will never appreciate their own efforts. Last but not the least, she strongly felt that women are a product of the choices they make. ‘One can choose to be a victim or a bystander or the heroine of their own fate.’
Speaking on the Magic of Creativity in Building Reputation, Salt Brand Solutions entrepreneur, Mahesh Chauhan said that bombarding people with content neither helps the brand nor the people. There is so much of content available to consume that time isn’t enough, but if the content is powerful then it makes the right impact and receives the right reactions. He ended saying creativity is no longer confined to television sets, the more real it gets the more it is lived. His unique examples were on how godmen have used creativity in their content to build their own personal brands.
Kanchana TK, Director General, OPPI on Pharma Communications in an era of Increased Patient Engagement. She drew attention to surrogate communications as a means to reach the target audience. She also mentioned how the trends are now changing and people are open to speaking about their health and healthcare practices.
The highlight of the talk given by Sandhya Vasudevan, Managing Director, DBOI Global Services Pvt Ltd, was that Building a Formidable Corporate Reputation Takes Commitment and Courage. She felt that the reputational aspect will play a major role not only for building the brand but also in keeping it safe.
The conclave ended with networking over lunch. We took back 3 learnings from this day.
- A person/brand isn’t defined by the designation/label but by the journey s/he makes.
- Learn to accept a compliment, celebrate it!
- Creativity is Content and is emerging as the only C of marketing.
This report is written by Priyadarshini Mazumdar & Judelyne Banerji, students of the first batch at School of Communications and Reputation.
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