CorpComms Magazine

It was at the time of the Great Depression that Edward Bernays, a founding father of public relations, outlined his ideas. The industry has since grown dramatically both in size and sophistication. The advent of globalisation, the increasingly multi-channel universe as well as the rapid expansion of online news and the Blogosphere are all signs that public relations has a very important and viable future. In fact, forecasters suggest the industry will generate small rates of growth this year compared to substantive declines in other marketing disciplines.

The reason behind this slightly more positive outlook is partly due to the discipline's unique properties. Public relations relies upon third parties or intermediaries to communicate key messages to the end consumer. In periods of significant uncertainty, consumers increasingly rely upon the recommendations of trusted third parties. No marketing discipline is as effective as PR at delivering this endorsement.

In periods of significant downturn, corporations and organisations are also required to communicate about the difficult, and sometimes negative, decisions needed to manage their businesses for the long term. Whether communicating on earnings warnings, redundancies, plant closures or restructuring it is only the corporate communications professional that can effectively lead these difficult exercises.

Today's sophisticated consumer expects companies to be in constant dialogue with, among others, regulatory authorities, employees, mainstream media and bloggers. To ignore these numerous stakeholders puts companies and brands at risk with the potential result being the loss of customer loyalty. Public relations is the only marketing discipline able to effectively understand these various audiences and to engage them holistically in the promotion of a brand and its reputation.

Just like Bernays, those in corporate communications and public relations this year face many challenges but will also experience a unique opportunity to redefine the profession, illustrate how it can provide ground breaking value and position it as a leading marketing discipline. It is a challenge worthy of today's professionals.  

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet