 As-Salam-Alaikum. We are getting into lecture number 25 of Marketing for Non-Profits MKT 628 at the Virtual University of Pakistan. And Basim Asim welcomes you to the lecture. The component of learning at hand is going to be how public relations compliments the marketing effort. A lot has been said about public relations and marketing. And we have seen that the public relations basically compliments the marketing effort and it is a part of marketing. Marketing is all-encompassing. PR is something that really lays a very well-padded ground for marketing work to build on it. How does it do that? That's what we're going to look into. And the fact is that the PR function basically is very vital to the very two initial stages of the behavior change model. So in other words, it helps a lot in terms of creating awareness among all those publics with whom PR people are in contact. And we know that the publics that are in contact with the PR people are governmental agencies, international agencies and the media in particular. There are other publics as well but the function basically relates to working with these two important areas. They create awareness among all the agencies that are supportive to the cause. And they influence their attitudes so that the marketing people can pick up the threads from there and start executing their strategies so that they can have their target audiences graduate from the earlier two stages to the remaining two stages of the behavior change model. Here, when PR people work with their audiences, there is one job they really do very well. Or let's put it this way, they should do very well. And that is the job of classifying the audiences they are dealing with. They classify their audiences essentially as the primary audience, secondary audience and tertiary audience. The difference among three audiences is that the primary audience or the audiences are the ones with which the organization is in contact almost on daily basis. If not on daily basis, say very frequently, they can be your clients, your other stakeholders who are involved very deeply with the programs and therefore they happen to be the primary audiences. Secondary audiences are the ones that are not interacted with very frequently. But then they happen to be of a lot of supportive character and they help the organization toward accomplishment of its mission. And like I said, governmental agencies could be a good example of the secondary public. The tertiary public is the one that is not in contact with the PR people. As a matter of fact, PR people do not contact these audiences because they know that they do not really have a direct impact on the working of the organization. The question is, why is it that they classify them as tertiary? Because they think somewhere down the line these audiences are or maybe of some help to the organization and to be very cautious and to be proactive. PR people take such audiences into very serious consideration and keep them in store in a way so that they can draw upon that resource whenever need be. They may have to run into them in order to get their support to make their objectives meaningful and achievable. And we know very well that their objectives are to uphold the image of the organization. Although we have learned that PR has exceeded the limits of image perception of the function and they are now into mission accomplishment which basically involves public advocacy. And that's why we call the function public advocacy. But the fact remains that the basic function of upholding the image of the organization or trying to ward off negative propaganda or negative advocacy does happen to be a very important part of the overall job of the PR people. And therefore they have to keep a complete record of all the three categories of their audiences meaning the primary audiences, secondary audiences and tertiary audiences. Now here the next question is why do they keep such a classification and draw such distinctive lines? It is because they have to be very clear about which are the audiences that have a positive image of the organization and which are the ones that have a neutral image or have a negative image of the organization. And if the image is negative that is where their job really gets very challenging because they have to counter that. And they have to look into things like what really are the reasons for that negative perception or negative image of the organization. There could be two reasons for that. One is it just happens to be a matter of the perception and if that is the cause then the PR people know they have to do something with communications and the positioning of the organization. So they go back to the marketing people telling them about their observations so that marketing people can put things right. They look into things like whether it is a question of not having right communications in place or is it a question of not kicking off right communications to the right audience. Or everything is in place but they have not communicated at all because they have been thinking all along the line that their noble cause will automatically connect them with the audiences. So this is an important role played by the PR people and this is how the work in conjunction with the marketing people making the marketing more effective. The second reason or cause for the negative image of the organization could be the real performance and if that is the case then that is an extremely serious matter. And the fact is that the PR people cannot be of tremendous help there because there is something wrong with the credibility of the organization. If the performance is not up to the mark and the interest of the audiences is not put in precedence of the interest of the organization then the organization is not really working for fulfilling its purpose. So in other words it is working very counter to the mission of the organization and therefore it is here that marketing department along with other departments really come into active play. This is where they pick up the threads from the PR people and the diagnose the whole situation to pinpoint where the actual element lies. Is it that there is something wrong with the programs or is it that they have serious problems with the resources or is it a problem of staff demotivation and so on and so forth. So whatever the reason is the performance of the company has to be turned around and the PR people can be helpful in this kind of a situation to the following extent. Number one they because of the relationships they have cultivated with the media can be helpful in having the media say something in favor of the organization by giving the organization the benefit of the doubt. And the second thing which PR people can do is to start giving interviews and placing stories real substantive stories in the newspapers about the problems that they have faced over the period that caused that kind of a problem. They have got to be very smart and subtle in talking about the reasons for those elements but the fact is they cannot really give a spin to the facts. They cannot make false statements either that they have to be very to the point and precise because while they talk about those factors or they may not talk about those factors by way of giving those interviews. The best thing in that situation could be that they can have the media on their side which may not pick up the negative things and start propagandizing those things among the audiences. That's the best thing which can happen to the organization by the intervention of the PR people. Now there are a couple of more things that PR people can do to help the marketing department and one of those is they can be very helpful in trying to pinpoint those tools at the experiential level that are most compatible with the audiences because they are the ones who are in contact with the many audiences if not with all of them. And because of their exposure to a couple of very important audiences they really can be helpful in making the marketing department aware of the compatibility of certain tools with the objective and with the purpose of the organization. I would say the positioning and the personality of the program and that I think is a great favor to the marketing department and the fact is that their job does carry the certain overlaps and here you see the overlaps are not to be considered as something negative. Rather they are to be considered as something continual on the spectrum of PR and marketing. It starts with the PR because we say that the PR deals with the first two stages of the behavior change model and then takes us through that model all along that spectrum. And therefore it is kind of a continuum on which both operate. The initial kickoff is given by the PR people. Here let me pinpoint this fact that in large organizations you can have two different departments i.e. marketing department and the PR department. But in many other medium-sized to small-sized organizations you have just one department and that is the marketing department having also some PR people. Now the question is if the organization happens to be very small where it cannot really afford to have PR people then I'm afraid to say the marketing manager or the person responsible for marketing has to put different hats and execute the responsibilities of the following in different domains. Meaning the PR domain and the marketing domain. It may also happen that an organization is small and it is new and it doesn't really have a marketing manager. And then the founder or the chief executive that happens to be the marketing chief officer or the marketing manager and that marketing manager also has to take care of the PR matters. And this is how organizations develop initially in the formative period in a very informal way which finds its way into formal structured organizational setup. As and when the whole setup grows. Another area where PR can be very supportive is event management. Marketing people may not have time to be out in the marketplace trying to contact all audiences because they want their message to go across all those audiences. And like we know very well by now that PR people lay the ground for so many different marketing activities. This is one of the activities they are very good at creating. They are in touch with such publics that are helpful in creating such events. And with the help of those audiences they let the marketing department of their organization organize and manage events and work for accomplishment of the mission. There is yet another aspect which is very important in terms of PR people's help to the marketing department or for that matter to the organization. They bring the organization earned advertising and that is a concept that I have talked about already. And we know very well that earned advertising is much better than paid advertising because mostly nonprofits are not in a position to afford the level of advertising which PR people can bring free of cost to the organization. So in other words if the value of that advertising may that be in the print area or may that be in the area of on air is greater than the value which the organization in the first place could have afforded than the PR people have done a great job. In other words if the organization could have afforded just about 500,000 rupees and the PR people have brought to the organization advertising that aggregates to something like rupees 1 million it is double the amount which the organization could have afforded in the first place. And in the second place that money is now not going to be spent on advertising it could be diverted to some other important activity toward mission accomplishment. So this is a huge challenge which PR people meet and they are really good at that. They keep on the move for the most of the time and let me point out here that the marketing people and many other people within the organizations are at times or rather most of the times are critical of their frequent movement because they are away from the office most of the time. And it is during those times that they develop those relationships. The result of those relationships appear later in an exponential way. All of a sudden you realize the results which are far beyond the expectations of the marketing department in the first place and other departments within the organization in the second place. But then here there is another important thing that the PR people they should be given targets and they should be fixed objectives for which they have to work in a very organized manner. In other words the activities pursued by them could also have to be budgeted and very specific goals could have to be planted out and laid down. And then their performance has to be evaluated against certain key performance indicators. Let me tell you here the effect of life. It is not that easy to evaluate their performance as it is to evaluate somebody else's performance within the marketing department or for that matter other departments. For the simple reason that there are quite a few overlaps between PR and marketing and given the fact that they work in very close coordination and in conjunction which is a word to be underlined. With marketing it is quite very difficult at times to separate the two from each other. And therefore the cost associated to the one particular marketing activity while evaluation takes place could be the one that also included certain portions of the PR activities. And that is something we have to live with so it all depends how succinctly and how specifically the marketing department comes up with very well spelt out objectives for the PR people as well as the marketing people. Let us now get into the next component which is going to be an extension of what I have talked so far. This component is about how to build a relationship with the media. I mean so much has gone on in terms of talking about the importance of relationship with the media because media offers a lot of support to the organization and that support to the organization comes with the help of PR people. So what does it take for the PR people to develop good and positive relationship with the media. We know that the media is very powerful and the media plays an important role in shaping people's opinions and having them take certain actions in favor of the organization. And given that we have to take the media very seriously. How do we take the media seriously. Well if that is the case then we have to acknowledge the one fact that the media is not just about a vehicle which we use in order to transmit our message. It is something that we can call an audience and it does happen to be a very important audience and the next question is if it happens to be an audience then we've got to have an audience centric approach toward the media. And that approach dictates that we try to understand what media is all about what their values are and what are the kind of rewards they seek in order to stay connected and engaged with the organization. Because if they are connected and engaged with the organization then the organization can use that media. I mean any form of media to further connect with its audiences and to engage its audiences so that you can see how the chain works. It is extremely important to first understand what the media is all about and what are their values. Once convinced of the rewards the media can get by developing good relationship with the organization. Now I'm talking from their standpoint. Once they are convinced of that they would be willing to feature the organization in a positive way. They will give us space because they will be convinced of the nature of the noble cause the organization is working on. And that is the ultimate objective of the PR department to get certain space so that the organization stays alive in the eyes of the media and hence in the eyes of its own audiences. We know that the media universally has been covering different social issues all across the globe for the betterment of the society. And Pakistan is no exception although we are in a very formative stage in terms of the media giving attention to the social causes. But the chances are that this thing will very rapidly catch on the way it has caught on. Not just about the developed world but also in the continent of Africa just to give you one example. And this therefore is an aspect that has to be worked on extremely seriously to get by not just the PR people but also by the marketing department of the organization. And let me hear the point out that the areas that the media really picks up are poverty, education, health, environment and a few other social issues. That really inflicts societies in general. And they talk about interesting stories so that the impact of those stories is positive on the society in terms of doing something for the society for its betterment. And therefore we here have to prove it to the media that we do not happen to be a profit driven organization. We rather are a non-profit entity that is involved in working for a very noble cause and once they are convinced of that cause there would certainly be some members of the media who would be sympathetic toward that particular cause. Now I would say rather reiterate here once again that in order to be able to do all that and to achieve all that we've got to understand the media first. How do we understand the media is a great question. We have to understand how they operate, what is it that inspires them and what is it that excites them and what really are their challenges. If we have a good understanding of their challenges and if we really can connect ourselves with them by having an understanding of those challenges. We really can draw a very close relationship between their interests and our cause. So in other words we have to first understand the kind of challenges that the media faces. Well let me point out and enumerate those challenges one by one. Whenever the media picks up an issue in regard to any social ailment or with regard to any other matter because the media talks about the things that happen. To be between two extremes of areas like local politics, international relations, education, health, crime and even noble causes like the one we are addressing as part of a nonprofit organization. So whatever is it they do have certain challenges they face and they have to meet those challenges. And what is it that we are supposed to do to create an enabling environment for them to meet those challenges is something that I am going to talk about. Only by creating that kind of environment we can win over the media and start developing relationships. So back to the challenges what those really are. Well in the first place the media has got to sound like an expert on the issue they pick up and they talk about and they do that with a lot of clarity on the issue. That is the first and the fourth most challenge they face. The second challenge is they've got to be very fast in collecting information and then analyzing it before they report it and report it accurately. The third challenge is they've got to be the first. I mean every media house tries to be the first in breaking the news or the story and by doing that they gain a competitive advantage. The next challenge they face is that of accuracy. They've got to sound very accurate by not sounding off-center meaning they've got to sound very reliable not taking sides. And then to see they have the challenge of converting the information they have gathered into an interesting story which will make their audience connect with the story, engage itself with the story and then get the reward of some very interesting infotainment. Without having the perception of that reward or without really getting that reward of infotainment. The audience is not going to connect with the media and stay engaged there. So in other words in order to dilate on the challenges that media faces, let me say a few words in support of that, that the media in the first place has got to be an expert on the issue they talk about and they have got to understand all the dimensions of the problem. While they do that they've got to speak with a lot of confidence and conviction. And you will agree with me that by just getting a briefing from the PR people or the department of the organization, they collect and assimilate all that information to be able to talk about that with that confidence that I just said they should have. And the accuracy factor is of utmost importance because they would never like to transmit information which is erroneous. And the next interesting challenge which really is very formidable in the sense that they have to create a high-pitched drama. This is what the media does. Now I'm not saying that they always do that in relation to some noble causes also but generally they do with most of the programs that they carry out and the stories they pitch in. Because that really makes their audience stick with the program. They generally have a great proponent or like to say protagonist who is the main character of the program or the story, who talks in favor of that particular story and they also pitch in an opponent or antagonist who speaks generally against that. And they also like to show their stakes and like I said they don't really like to speak in terms that may make them look like off-center because they do not want to appear as taking sides. And it is here that some tense absorbing opposing and I would say the very dramatic moments take place and it is these moments that really keep the audiences connected to the program and they stay engaged and in that process they get the reward of that exciting and valuable infotainment that I was talking about. And this is the ultimate end they seek. The media as well as other PR people. Now what is it that we should be doing as PR people or marketing people? We have got to take some portion. It may be very miniscule, very, very limited. We may have the chief executive of the organization or the founder of the organization and the head patron of the cause say a few words in between that the program but as long as we are in a position to pitch ourselves in our objective is achieved. And toward that we have got to understand in complete appreciation how the media works and what their challenges are because with this understanding of their challenges and how to meet those challenges we start appreciating their values and with that understanding of their values we appreciate what really drives their behavior and understanding what drives their behavior that we are in a position to start building relationships with them. And this goes without saying that we have to create an enabling environment and to create that enabling environment because we have got to see that we pitch a story that is extremely interesting. Now when I say that it has to be interesting it means it must tickle the fancy of the reporter or the media for that matter. They must find it interesting and they must find it newsworthy which means it has the potential of conversion into something their audience will like. The second important thing is that we come up with a story which is a true reflection of our positioning and our personality meaning both the factors in relation to our program and as well as the organization. These factors have to be part of the message which we want gone across our audiences and if we stay true to the positioning and the personality of the program and give it a very interesting dimension which is newsworthy then we really can develop good relationship with the media because only then they will put that into their programs or in other words they will give us space and the factors that organizations that have the savvy of developing positive relationships with the media are the ones that really stay on top in terms of execution of their programs. It is not how noble the program is it also takes a lot many other factors and that is why we are into non-profit marketing and this certainly is one of the important factors responsible for bringing our organization and our cause into limelight. While we pitch on our story we've got to be very considerate of a couple of factors one is that our sensitivity to what medium really is compatible with our cause at that particular point in time is of very high importance because we cannot go to the whole media at the same time it could be radio at that particular point in time it could be print medium or whatever it is because we've got to be very clear about that. Another factor that we must bear in mind is the reporter or the media person that we are dealing with we've got to be clear about his or her style of thinking the lifestyle and the habits that these people carry and we can be very effective if we take all those factors into account because they will be sympathetic to what the cause is only if we can connect with them by appreciating what their values are how they think and also aligning yourself in terms of their lifestyle in a certain way is of some importance and therefore we've got to pick the right person for this particular job because it has to be the connection of two right people from both sides. Then there's a question of timing when is the right time that the organization should provide the media with the vital information that I've been talking about well it is not something which is provided to the media all of a sudden and then expecting them to come up with an interesting exciting story it doesn't happen that way it happens like the following we as marketing people or PR people keep on collecting different bits and pieces of information as and when developments take place as part of the program and those bits and pieces are put together in a way that they end up as an aggregate story which can have some very interesting and news worthy dimensions. Again the question is do we provide that aggregate story to the media expecting them to just put that into the mainstream of their programs? No. Experts could go on to say that the bits of information that we collect should also be the ones that we pass on to the media after doing some filtration. Of course we do not pass on information to them in a way that it jumbles up there by not making any sense to the people who are not experts on the cause and they are not supposed to look into the details of how they can really make the head and tail out of the information they have. It is our job to create that enabling environment and therefore we should be sending those bits and pieces to the media which should automatically create a continuum at their end which is a cogent and coherent story. So they need our help to give that story final shape and form and we as marketing people as well as PR people have to stay ready at all times. So this is all about media relations and the importance of PR people getting into the picture. We are now getting into a component which may sound very familiar to all of us. It is the channels of distribution and I can assume very confidently that all of us know what channels are all about. Channels of the conduits between the manufacturers and the ultimate consumers on the commercial side of marketing. We know that commercial marketers have to create certain tiers between themselves and the ultimate consumers so that they can facilitate the passing on of their products to the ultimate consumer. So in other words if they do not have those conduits or those channels then the facilitation process of making those products available to the ultimate consumers becomes difficult. Going by the same principle we have got to do something similar in the non-profit sector as well. So in other words we have got to come up with certain ways and means where we can connect with our audiences and carry out our programs in terms of influencing their behaviors. I would like to take you back to the example that I gave in lecture number 6 in relation to the two different programs. The one belonging to generic marketing and the other one to social marketing area. In both the examples you will recall that as part of the four piece I did talk about the place factor. This place factor is the one which amounts to a place utility. I am not going to talk about the other piece but rather I am going to talk about the dispensary which was the example of generic marketing and the place of distribution that happens to be the dispensary itself. Conversely if you go by the other example of inoculation in which the medical teams went to remote areas in order to propagate their program to create awareness in the first place and then offering an alternative to their audiences so that they could follow through the whole program because it was the facilitation process they created for the audiences. So instead of having their audiences come to them and talk about the program they went to the audiences themselves because they thought this is a preferable facilitation process and that is an example of a facilitation utility or the place of distribution. So just like we have distributors and wholesalers and retailers on the commercial side we have our own people working on the distribution process depending on the nature of the program. If we are dealing with a product like a dispensary meaning a healthcare unit we may not have too many units because there are certain dynamics to it in terms of expansion of the program we get into the dynamics of services marketing because it brings in the factor of variability and also the adequacy or inadequacy of resourcefulness if they do not really have the resources to have two dispensaries then we have to be content with one. That's my point here and therefore the distribution of the program is going to be confined to just one dispensary. However if we are in a position to expand that operation we have the resources and we also have the expertise because we have total support from volunteers who are willing to help us carry out very efficiently and effectively our programs at multi-location setups then we should go for that. We have to keep one thing in mind that facilitation process is not confined to the kind of examples that I cited from lecture number six in the non-profit area. Facilitation can also take place when we are managing a one-time event and let me give you one example of a one-time event because you are running an organization which wants to publicize a very noble cause on the television and succeeds in getting media's attention who are willing to come to your premises and the record certain interesting and very touching aspects of the program to telecast those in one of the programs it becomes your responsibility to make all the arrangements for the media to come to your premises and do all those things very effectively and efficiently because you are creating a distribution channel for them. The reason I say distribution channel because you have created a facilitation process for them where your audience meaning the media and you as the organization are meeting or have met. So in other words, we can define the distribution channels or this particular conduit like the following. It is a place where the marketer and member or members of the audience or audiences meet in order to further the behavior influencing opportunities. That's where the channels of distribution is all about in the context of non-profits. Now this is not to say that we have the channels I've talked about and we are not to follow the kind of channels that we find on the commercial side. As a matter of fact, many non-profit organizations could find it very optimal and effective to follow those channels and not just follow in concept but also in practice. They engage members of the distribution set up from the commercial side to distribute their products. Now this basically is not the distribution of products which matters. It basically is the influencing of behaviors at the individual level meaning the influencing of the audiences that happen to be the ultimate consumer of that particular tangible product. Why they do that is going to be the topic of another component but the fact remains here is that whatever programs are being undertaken by non-profits in most of the cases they have to spread their human resource amongst women at different places. Also another fact is that they are not in a position to do so because of the lack of resourcefulness. They are short of financial resources, human resources and the many other associated resources that they have to deploy in order to be effective. The examples can be numerous. We have to look for different intermediaries that can be beneficial to our facilitation process, the process that we create for our audiences and toward that together we can use so many different kinds of buildings as places because we can use different people as intermediaries and these people are of course volunteers and we can use transporters for example and the important point here is that non-profit organizations have to leverage their distribution processes by deciding who really could be a good distribution variable for their facilitation process. For example, they can go to public schools or community health centers because while they have to distribute baby healthcare products they can get into some kind of cause relationship with transporters if they think some tangible products are to be distributed along a certain geographical area and cost partners who are willing to provide that kind of help could be good facilitators and this is where and this is how the U.S. the organization come into contact with one of your audiences and where you come into contact is the place of distribution and you develop that platform for your ultimate audience to be influenced because you create opportunities for influencing those audiences at the place which is the facilitation point. So this is all for the channels of distribution as an introduction that we should be talking about the strategic considerations for deciding what kinds of channels we should have for non-profits.