Suresh Gaur on Public Relations

Friends the concept of Public Relations is often misunderstood by those who are not very familiar with the subject. These are the people who have heard the term “Public Relations” but either have not studied the subject or aren’t trained in this field. Public Relations is not an easy profession for anyone and is also difficult to master. Even, yours truly took formal education in public relations, read a lot of books and articles on the subject (and still reading), have also authored two books on the subject and practicing public relations since last many decades. When people ask me – What is PR? And when I tell them that PR is telling or sharing the truth, in a strategic manner, to / with your target publics by using appropriate means of communications, they feel surprised and say - nobody tells the truth in today’s world!!! Also many people correlate the terms publicity, press agentry, propaganda, lobbying, liaisoning, networking, and advertising with public relations. 

Friends, in my last blog, I discussed about creating brand personality based on Aaker model (1997). After posting the blog, out of the blue, the term Brand Ambassador started creeping in my mind and I became curious to understand how a company or organisation selects its brand ambassador to promote and market its product(s) and or service(s) by using different mediums of communication – Offline & Online, and whether it requires a detailed exercise to select a brand ambassador who can do justice to the brand personality, hence this blog. E very brand, being a distinct personality, has a blend of characteristics that form its unique character based on Aaker (1997). As per Aaker, there are five different dimensions of a brand personality (based on “Big Five” dimensions of a human personality), each divided into a set of traits i.e. Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness. Each of the dimensions is meant to work together to create a generalized scale

Brand personality is a blend of characteristics that form unique character of a brand. These characteristics draw the attention of customers towards the brand and make them explore, buy, consume and know that how and why the brand is different from its competitors.  One of the most acknowledged and widely used models for defining brand personality is the "Aaker Model" created in 1997 by Ms. Jennifer Aaker for a journal of marketing research and even after 23 years this model has somewhat stood the test of time. Every brand has a distinct personality. It doesn’t matter how big or small is the size of a business or a company, but creating and defining brand as a personality does matter. It’s a vital step towards having a unified, well-structured brand. Even if we don’t invest time in creating and defining the brand, definitely some brand personality shall automatically take a shape due to people’s perception which is not at all good indication for any business. Therefore

Decoding "Marketing" Marketing is ‘putting the right product, at the right price, in the right place, at the right time’. Very simple!  a.    Create a product that a group of people want, b.    Place it on sale at a place where people of that group visits   regularly, c.    Price it at such a level that matches the value those people feel they get out of it; d.    Promote the product at a time that the group would buy. The marketing mix is useful when you are thinking through your plans for a product or service. Decoding "The Marketing Mix" The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other.   "Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4 Ps is one way – probably the best-known way – of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in a book  "