PR in Australia, Asia and Worldwide

In COM339 we have seen how many Asian countries have very traditional, one-way communication behaviours in business. This has got me thinking how a communications expert could utilise current global consumer trends to help facilitate open, two-way communication in organisations and between organisations and their publics. One such trend is that of smartphones and tablets. Asian employees do not exist in a vacuum of their employer, they are consumers which can be reached through their own personal devices.

The current estimate for smartphone usage in Asia is 20% of the population (Neilson, 2011) (seems small when its 40% in the US), however the research also states nearly half of consumers intent to purchase a smartphone this year. In March the SMH reported that by 2016, smartphone sales were to reach $653 million, with Asian accounting for over 30% of the total.

Tablet market estimates are even more impressive, with IDC estimating tablet shipments will increase from 2 million in 2010 to 21 million in 2016.

Since Nielson US data shows consumers with smartphones and tablets are three times more likely to access the internet and four times more likely to access their emails via their handsets, there is serious potential for corporations to take advantage of these communication portals.

One suggestion I have is to create a company Application that is downloadable and that supports an intranet that disseminates information to everyone connected to the business - employees, contractors, suppliers etc. Included in the intranet could be a company network, kind of an internal Facebook. This mechanism, if developed, maintained and advertised properly, would encourage two-way communication. IBM has something similar which they call ‘Jam’ where employees can log on and contribute to a forum on certain issues of relevance to people of the organisation, not just executives.

Yes, many Asian cultures are closed to open expression of opinion in order to maintain peace and respect for hierarchy. However, there are ways of controlling content on this Application, and the company would only have to express those sentiments it chose. Really, the Application would offer not much more than the standard company intranet did, it’s just being delivered through a more innovative, exciting and accessible portal - smartphones and tablets.

Mobile Commerce (mCommerce) is on the rise, and companies that get in quick and create an internal company App will have more time and experience to develop it so that by the time smartphones rule the world, they have it down pat.

Would you download an App to your iPhone that enabled you 24/7 access to your work’s intranet? If so, how often?

The NOTW scandal is not unique. Unlawful and unethical invasion of privacy happens all the time in the media. The most notable Australian example is that of Channel Seven and David Campbell. Channel Seven’s social responsibility, reliability, ethicality and general image (collectively, its reputation) took a battering over the Campbell case, as has NOTW - so much so this time, that the 168 year-old paper has closed down.

This new thing of reputation management has recently taken wind, though it is not a new concept. Demands for increased transparency in business, resulting in some companies being caught out may be the reason for this. One highly reputation-managed company is Shell, just for example. I ask, however, is it ethical to ‘spin’ a company out of its wrong-doing? Edelman PR thought so, when they took on NOTW. I wonder how much money Murdock’s people were Robert Phillips and Alex Bigg (of Edelman) for the contract…?

In a sense I liken PR practitioners who defend company’s wrong-doing with lawyers who defend murderers. Going into PR myself, I like to imagine that I would decline such projects. However, can PR get personal? Can a practitioner, or should a practitioner, decline to ‘spin’ a company out of a scandal because of personal opinion or feeling on the matter?

The answer is yes. One’s own reputation and credibility as a PR practitioner would be affected by association if it were to  defend a company caught up in outrageous phone hacking of murdered and war-serving individuals. Therefore, we must use discretion in our acceptance of projects and companies in order to maintain our own professional integrity.

What do you think? Should PR practitioners accept contracts from organisations who have acted unlawfully or unethically?

Since Qantas’ August 16 2011 announcement that they were creating airline subsidiaries overseas (Japan and Singapore) and as a result cutting 1000 Australian jobs, the company’s external communications activities have been extensive, spreading advertising, PR, sports sponsorship, corporate alliances, celebrity endorsement and price promise activities. Millions of advertising dollars have been spent on huge newspaper spreads in the last three weeks in The Age, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. The SMH (August 17, 2011) estimates in one day alone, $2 million was spent on these ads, sometimes wrap-around and double-page spreads.

Alan Joyce’s people organised over eight minutes of interview time on The 7:30 Report the night after the announcement – quite a large segment. The interesting thing here, and much to Leigh Sale’s frustration, was that Joyce skirted around the edges of the Sale’s questions and barely gave any answer that served any interests other than the key messages he had set out to communicate and make clear. http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2011/s3295019.htm

While Qantas has sponsored the ARU Wallaby’s for many years, the company has just released a short video showing the Wallaby’s logo being branded onto the side of a Qantas 747 plane. The plane contains the Flying Kangaroo logo with the green and yellow colours and the word Wallaby’s on it. All the people attaching the stickers are distinctly Anglo-Saxon in appearance.  This video was uploaded to the Qantas Facebook page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38LGOuYRqUI&feature=share

On August 31, Qantas Frequent Flier and Optus announced an alliance. The company has used the very Aussie Natalie Bassingthwaighte to promote the Qantas brand; ‘Nat Bass’ says she always flies Qantas. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO19UpCtIaA

Lastly, Qantas has introduced a Price Promise. When I went onto the Qantas website to read more information about this deal, I was struck by the ins and outs of the deal and how complicated it is. Just recently, NAB created an entire campaign about how they have “Killed the asterisk” – and cleverly so – customers expect companies to be transparent and to minimise terms and conditions in tiny font. On the Qantas Price Promise page, there are two asterisks and a paragraph of fine-print the same size as the deal itself!

So Qantas has really covered all PR bases – but has it worked? It’s important to separate those who are paying specific attention to Qantas and its publics (for example Ben Sandilands of Crickey.com), and the Average Joes who flicks through newspapers and catches bits of YouTube, only subconsciously affected by the Communication Industry’s work. To these Average Joes it’s likely that Qantas’ recent communications efforts have worked to some extent to at least create a heighted sense of national pride around Qantas’ long Aussie history. Objective met – tick! However, anybody who is paying the a bit of attention will be aware that unions and management are in great conflict, and the PR activities are back-firing, because bodies like the SMH are questioning why Qantas is spending millions of dollars on advertising, when it is off shoring jobs in order to save on costs. 

On top of this, what I think is the biggest blunder of all is Joyce’s 71% pay increase, announced in the annual report on September 6 2011. This is very poor timing, especially as the figure was released in the same document which states the Qantas share price has fallen 16% but company profit doubled! Richard Woodward of the Australian and International Pilots Association said the pay rises are hypocritical and that Qantas management maintains “one rule for themselves and one for the airline’s workers” (September 7 2011, SMH, p.3).

If Qantas is not going to change their new business strategy, then at least tweak some communications strategies. Two recommendations: (1) increase transparency by being openly honest with the public and the media. Don’t say “jobs are being created elsewhere” when it’s obvious jobs are being cut here in Australia. (2) Make sure Execs don’t cash in on quality-degrading and customer loyalty-bashing cuts to the business.

As we enter the next era of the internet generation - that which drives and is driven by Social Media (SM) as a major portal for information, news, opinion, community and celebrity - we see more public relations practitioners and more organisations give this medium of communication credibility. The Australian Government considered conducting a Facebook campaign targeted at Asian refugees; McDonald’s in Singapore is using Facebook as a major advertising portal for its new hamburger; and Ogilvy PR uses Facebook to advertises jobs worldwide!

“Global corporations are recognizing the need to engage their external audiences through social networking”, Says Kristine Carrick of Yahoo News. Nina Hendy, writer for the SMH, agrees, “the internet opens up a world of possibilities for businesses…Its not about pushing out a traditional marketing message but engaging your audience in conversation and adding value to their lives”. While we recognise the importance of SM, many are concerned about how it is controlled and who regulates and imposes consequences for misconduct.

Online reputation management has, and will increasingly, become a necessary part of managing social media for organisations. It can take decades to build up a brand and seconds to have it damaged online. Just recently we have seen footage of Domino’s employees preparing a customer’s food un-hygienically, and an indecent photo of two Cathay Pacific Airline employees on social media. These actions on behalf of employees have greatly affected the business of their organisations.

SR7’s online reputations expert says companies are being forced to increase their monitoring of social networking sites. Recent incidents have brought to light the power of social media to rapidly identify and spread information that may be harmful to a company’s reputation. Eric Wang, general manager of internet marketing group WebSalad, says that these incidents will increase the emphasis on online reputation management, which remains a relatively small industry in Australia.

Companies such as Cue Clothing Company and Dominos have recently announced social media policies for their employees.

In the future, I imagine SM will be an integral part of an organisation’s communications department. Large organisations will need to monitor, assess, control and contribute to it on a 24-hour basis. Someone’s job title will be ‘Social Media Manager’. Social media is the next era of the internet.