PR firms back in business after tough time

PR firms back in business after tough time

The economic crisis dealt a fatal blow to many of the
fledgling public relations agencies which set up shop in the
early 1990s. Still, several new firms and industry stalwarts
survived, even prospering, despite the tough times. The Jakarta
Post team of Bruce Emond, Stevie Emilia, Rita A. Widiadana and
Chris Brummitt looks at the issue. More on Page 3 and
Page 5.

JAKARTA (JP): She arrives looking as pretty as a picture,
toting a prerequisite media kit, replete with an envelope
containing "transportation money".

Nary a furrow or grimace spoils her perfectly made-up face,
although it soon becomes clear that she has not anticipated the
flurry of questions.

Flashing a reassuring smile, she promises to check on the
desired information as she beats a hasty retreat back to her
office.

"She" is a stereotype, but many a reporter and businessperson
can vouch for their own close encounters with PR people who look
the part but have not done their homework.

However, industry insiders say the all-style-no-substance
image and lack of understanding of the value of public relations
(PR) is slowly being chipped away to reveal the true picture.

PR agencies, they say, are coming into their own.

"In some cases, yes it is true, especially in certain
industries. As it turns out, those types don't stay long in the
profession," says Wisaksono Noeradi, founder member and former
president of the Public Relations Association of Indonesia.

Another PR veteran, Ida Sudoyo, agrees. "But it is getting
better all the time, and many understand that PR consultants,
like lawyers or accountants, are there to assist the company."

The last few years were not kind to PR firms. When the crisis
hit, marketing, the traditional sphere of public relations, was
among the first items to be slashed from companies' budgets.
Compounding the problem was that many Indonesians, including
leading businesspeople, still did not understand the value of a
public relations plan, or the difference between PR and
advertising.

Consumer-product firms, a major contributor to ad spend and PR
business, also cut back on their expenditures.

But the crisis sorted out the big boys of the PR world from
the fly-by-night characters, bringing the fortunate firms the
spillover in business from those that went under and also opening
up the field of crisis management.

Some PR executives believe the almost Darwinian process of
natural selection in the industry during the crisis will help its
development.

"Over the past two years, the public relations profession has
grown exponentially, with the profession being thrust into the
boardroom, where as of a few years ago it was in the domain of
the marketing and product area," says Chadd McLisky of Indo
Pacific Reputation Management Consultants.

He notes the crisis brought a windfall of new business for the
firm.

"From three years ago, when Indo Pacific's business was
heavily focused on more traditional public relations elements,
today we have seen a complete turnaround to our business being
heavily focused on issues and strategic counseling."

While many PR agencies closed or downsized, McLisky says
proudly that Indo Pacific continued to grow.

The crisis also banked up business for Fortune PR Strategic
Communications, which was established in 1983.

"We have focused more on strategic communications, as our name
says, and crisis is our business," says the company's president
director, Miranty Abidin.

Big companies which are in big trouble need the PR services to
shape their image. The ultimate goal is, according to Noeradi,
"to have a third party say good things about you".

Gen. Wiranto

If ever there was a shining example of how a public-relations
campaign can work to gloss up a tattered image, then it is the
shrewd drive launched for beleaguered Gen. Wiranto.

The international community may be clamoring for his head, but
Wiranto, a savvy strategist if ever there was one, came out with
all his PR guns firing.

In a crisis plan reportedly devised in a contractual
relationship with Kita Communications, Wiranto has been a regular
guest on TV shows, radio programs and paid-for slots, giving his
side of the story of the East Timor debacle.

Dressed in casual clothes, speaking softly and articulately
and helped out by sympathetic interviewers, Wiranto has come
across as a kindly father figure who really could not help it if
the kids got a little out of hand.

But is this what they teach you in PR school?

PR schools have taken flak for reportedly churning out the
glamor-pusses who really cannot think on their feet. Some PR
executives reportedly prefer to hire people with experience in
marketing or business, and then teach them the basics of the
industry.

The London School of Public Relations in Jakarta acknowledged
that some firms preferred to hire people with a particular work
or educational background "for types of services which need a
special skill and when it is not necessary to have PR knowledge".

But school director Prita Kemal Gani argues that PR firms in
the know eventually realize the value of formal PR education.

While some PR schools are trying to offer better education by
involving practitioners to teach the students, they also
underline the need to revise the government-made curricula in
order to adjust it with the real world.

In the meantime, even though the economy has not fully
recovered, there is a tendency in the growing PR business to work
in new fields, not only in economics but in others, including
politics.

The National Awakening Party hired Noeradi's firm to help with
their election-winning strategy.

"We have to know their competitors. To formulate the strategy
we have to identify interested parties. The potential voters ...
what are their hopes, dreams and expectations," Noeradi said.

Cigarette company Sampoerna uses a public relations service to
get "third-party opinion" of its planned moves.

"We ask a public relations firm's opinion on something
happening within society, such as on anti-smoking campaigns, and
request their recommendations on how to counter the issue since
they're professional," the firm's head of corporate
communications Niken Rachmad said.

On some occasions, the company also requests its public
relations firm to look for further information anytime there's
negative sentiment targeting the cigarette industry.

"In this matter, we will ask them to inform us about the
sources of the issues and advise us on the right response," Niken
said.

Miranty Abidin says the onus is on PR companies to brace
themselves for the opening up of markets in 2003.

"We must be ready to compete but our advantage is we already
know how to communicate with people in the different areas of
this country. Still, we have to be ready for the foreign firms
coming in, some of which have arrived already."