Why you cannot fail as a PR professional

One can never fail in Public Relations. This is something that occurred to me when I actually looked at the various campaigns I have handled in the last 3 1/2 years as a professional. Some campaigns may be very successful, some may be moderately successful and some may be not so successful. But I haven’t come across one that can be called a “failure”. Failure is a misnomer. I think this is simply because PR is about human beings. And one cannot say that dealing with other human beings, trying to understand them and persuading them will ever be a total failure/ waste of resources. There are always some takeaways, some learnings, few insights which are unique and at the end of the day, justify all the efforts that go into planning and executing a campaign.


A total failure turned out to be the biggest lesson
The first PR campaign that I ever handled in my life was for a well known Hyderabadi restaurant which was launching its Bangalore branch. Armed with very little knowledge of PR, and few contacts I took this assignment (much before my Ogilvy days) with the confidence that was totally misplaced. On the D Day, as I was waiting for the journalists to turn up for the press meet; I started to get cold feet when no one turned up for the press meet. The client was a gracious gentleman, who just asked me to “follow up” and keep him in the loop. I was humbled, and analysed the whole affair thoroughly. It occurred to me that everything that I had planned – right from the day, to the venue, the journalists I had invited, the press release were all wrong. This was one of the biggest “failures” that I encountered in my professional life; but one that taught me so much about the business of dealing with people, a big lesson in humility, a bigger lesson about building good contacts, and the mother of all lessons – planning a campaign. In many ways, this “failure” paved way for so many successes later on.


PR is about human beings
No matter what theories we come up with, and what ever grand strategies we invent; PR is all about understanding human beings and learning how to communicate with them and also to persuade them to think and behave in a certain way. This calls for observing people, dealing with them on a regular basis, forming models of behaviour in one’s mind, understanding what motivates people, what kind of incentives work with what kind of people. PR is applied social psychology at its best. Not only is a PR professional required to understand groups of people who matter to us, but we are also required to influence them in ways which are benefical to us.




Learnings while planning and executing campaigns
Some learnings that come from the fact that we are dealing with human beings and not machines. Thank god we are in PR and not sitting and writing unintelligible codes behind computers all day long !

- Long term orientation : Thinking about how communicating and engaging with the “publics” with a long-term relationship building perspective is the only way out. There are no short-cut ways to persuade or people. That would amount to conning people and that is not good PR anyway !
- Selflessness : Helping our clients, and their customers with advise, information and contacts
- Honesty : Without honest communication, no individual or company can build a strong reputation and a healthy brand.
- Courtesy and Customer Service : Dealing with clients (some reasonable and some not so reasonable) instills in one the values of courtesy and customer service. Observe the best PR person in your surrounding, and I can bet that he/she is also the most courteous and well-mannered person around.
- Concern and respect : Without concern and respect for others, one cannot persuade them. Though most of the time, we are persuading people towards making commercial decisions for our clients benefit; but the bottom line is a total regard for their wellbeing and also respect for their individuality.


What this means for you….

PR is ultimately about connecting with people; human beings, who are a bunch of emotions, values and assumptions. Our effectiveness and success depends largely on how we decipher the often complex behaviour of other fellow humans.

If one is sensitive to others needs, their desires, ambitions and how they operate, one would be a super-star PR professional. But even if one is not too good at this game, one can learn each day. And this I believe is the reason a lot of us are doing what we are doing. For the thrill of understanding others and sharing our understanding with others. And in this, one can never be a failure…it is a lifetime of learning and applying what one has learnt.