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There's No Magic Wand for Effective Global PRBy Lou Hoffman |
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Fall 1999 |
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Everyone "gets" the importance of executing PR programs on a global basis. But "getting it" and doing something about it are two different things. Although many corporate PR professionals and agencies in the high-tech space claim to conduct global PR programs, a truly global PR program in the computer industry is as rare as a dot com company in the black. The onslaught of research and rhetoric on the globalization of business begs the question: Why has high-tech PR lagged behind? There's no single answer. The challenge starts when we apply an American mentality to the rest of the world. The fact that almost half of the world's computer buying power resides in the United States provides a tremendous leverage point for U.S.-grown companies. Unfortunately, it also leads many American computer companies to view the rest of the world through a Yankee lens. Take the second largest computer market in the world, Japan. The differences between Japan and the United States often defy logic. In borrowing an example from the consumer world, Coca Cola sells the conventional 12-ounce can of Coke as well as a smaller, cylindrical eight-ounce can in the Japanese market for exactly the same price. The eight-ounce can outsells its chubby brother because the Japanese are more conscious of waste. The can also fits better into the smaller Japanese refrigerator. Not exactly the American way to pay more money for the exact same product! Every country incorporates unique characteristics that must be accounted for in a global PR program. Again using Japan as an example, it takes more time to complete PR tasks because of the emphasis on protocol. This element can drive the American headquarters PR team crazy (i.e., "What do you mean the initial meeting with the hotel events manager was only a courtesy visit, and you need to wait a couple days before discussing the reservation for a 60-person conference room?") On the other end of the spectrum, I've seen far too many companies paralyze their PR efforts for months attempting to craft global messaging. In the grand scheme of priorities, these companies would be better served putting their energy into the "how we're going to communicate" rather than the "what we're going to communicate." Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a pristine message as much as the next person does. It's just that such an exercise produces a poor ROI. You're much better served identifying themes * your company enables small businesses to sell over the Web or your products improve the productivity of mobile workers and then tasking the French to package the theme for the French audience, the Singaporeans to package the theme for the Singapore audience, etc. Corporate structure represents another obstacle to effective global PR. Ironically more structure does not automatically translate into better results. Establishing regional PR heads (Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America) definitely shifts the thinking away from an America-centric mentality. Unfortunately, companies fall short when structuring the rest of the region. Specifically, they create PR positions at the country level, but then structure those positions to report into the country manager, not the regional PR heads. Think about this one for a moment. The country manager's compensation comes down to one factor: sales. As you would expect, the country manager focuses on activities geared to selling as much product as possible in a given quarter. Yet, when the company decides to launch a worldwide PR initiative that takes the high ground (not specifically tied to products) it doesn't understand why the country PR people begin to feel like the equivalent of a human rope in a game of tug of war. Regardless of whether the country PR team consists of internal people, agency resources or a combination of the two, its primary allegiance should be to the long-term objective of building awareness and preference. Lack of resources, i.e., money, certainly stymies global PR efforts as well. I recently heard from a VP of marketing who shared the following rationale for PR budget allocation. Asia (excluding Japan) generates roughly 20 percent of the company's revenue generated in the United States. Since the U.S. PR budget runs at $600K per year, he's going to allocate a GRAND sum of $120K (20 percent of $600K) for PR to cover Asia (with Asia defined as China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore). Addressing Asia as one homogenous market makes as much sense as approaching the United States, Canada and Mexico as a single entity because they reside in North America. As explained earlier, each country needs to be addressed as a unique market, meaning that each country carries a certain amount of overhead. Needless to say, allocating an average of $24K per country for PR funding (or 4 percent of the U.S. PR budget) hardly sets the stage for success! A more effective tack is to identify your business objectives in each target country and outline the desired PR results to support those business objectives. Then, you can work backwards to determine the budget needed to drive the desired PR results. Yes, it's likely your regional or international PR budget can't support every targeted country. No problem. Just focus your PR efforts on the top two or three countries in each region. At least this way PR can contribute to your business objectives in your priority countries instead of being spread too thin and producing mediocre results across the region. Effective global PR must be consistent. Parachuting your CEO into a press event in Germany just because he or she happens to be traveling to Germany makes no sense unless you have an ongoing program there. In fact, it can create resentment in the marketplace when there is no follow-up to the grandiose plans touted by the CEO. Finally, I would argue that one goal for any global PR program should be to showcase your company as an asset to the local economy and as a good community citizen. Obviously, this goal can only be attained through a consistent program and requires the PR effort to reach beyond media relations. Activities ranging from sharing expertise with a local university to donating products or services to a local charity to creating some type of link to government all speak to this point. Such a program fortifies your company's image for the long term. If you're not in it for the long haul, your program is doomed from the start. For more information, contact Lou Hoffman at lhoffman@hoffman.com |
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