The acid test for international PR

Does your international PR pass the acid test for going global, but staying simple? Here Rainier PR draws on industry insight to illustrate how to develop a successful international PR approach.

Introduction
In the past decade, the value of investing in an international PR function, which has a sole purpose of managing the delivery of local market PR programmes across regions, has become increasingly accepted.

But it wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 1990s, the common picture was one of confusion over any PR function that did not directly engage with the media and deliver column inches – or column centimetres, depending on your market.

But the IT boom and the sense of urgency that it injected across technology markets changed all that. As companies worked to formulate positioning rapidly and then roll out their messaging consistently and powerfully across diverse geographies and cultures, the need for the ‘plan centrally, execute locally’ approach became self-evident.

The need for many organisations to maintain a regional lead agency or regional PR function of some kind is seldom challenged these days. But one issue continues to govern how the value of such functions is assessed by those paying for them: precisely how to compel those teams and individuals responsible for doing PR in local markets to execute their local programmes in accordance with headquarters’ wishes.

There is no short answer. But we hope that this Rainier PR white paper will provide some suggestions as to how this can best be achieved, and give an insight into the organisational, operational and more human issues that are typically encountered.

Buy-in: the PR Holy Grail?
It’s a common occurrance. The product is hot, customers and investors are keen, you have the PR structure in place to convince the world about your proposition, compelling messaging is developed and you send your global PR plan to the country teams heralding the dawn of an exciting new communication initiative for the company.

And then you get 20 emails back. Each stating expressly why such activities will not work in any of those local markets and indeed why the local country management teams will in no way support your efforts.

“It is crucial that everyone involved in the PR process is bought into it. A central or regional PR function needs to talk regularly to the people implementing PR locally and understand that what they need to achieve success locally may vary enormously,” said Nigel Hawthorn, European Marketing Director, Blue Coat Systems.

What most PR managers working to deliver results through the media consistently worldwide are striving for – in order to make the process work and convince the press – is buy-in from local marketing and PR teams. Yet for many, complete buy-in remains elusive.

Typically, while some countries are viewed as strong in PR terms because they deliver consistently good results, others seem lacklustre in their efforts and unconvinced by the materials and broader efforts that the headquarters PR team is making in order to support their specific needs.

At the heart of the matter is the fact that when it comes to international PR, one size very definitely does not fit all.

In an ideal world, PR initiatives could be planned centrally – either at headquarters or regional headquarters – and then adapted into local plans of activities that fulfilled local market media requirements, met cultural considerations and delivered consistently positive communication of the company’s core messages.

The local country team doing the local PR – and their local management team – would then be fully bought-in to the international PR initiatives and see them as perfect for their market needs. In the real world, this is easier said than done.

Two-way communication
The first step in instigating a successful ‘hub and spokes’ international PR operation that has the buy-in of all involved is to instigate two-way communication. PR’s purpose is to influence external audiences so that reputation is managed in line with business goals so the communication job needs to begin at home.

“International PR works best when planning is truly a two-way process. While every local market is different, the PR team needs to work together as a whole to share ideas and experiences. PR is less effective when carried out in isolation,” said Jon Rabinowitz, Senior Marketing Communications Manager, Radware

In the majority of cases, some degree of contact will already be in place between headquarters or regional headquarters and the country teams. While this may vary, it at least means that there is a point to start from, although a model needs to be instigated whereby all countries are treated equal, albeit that market size and communication need may drive a requirement to prioritise efforts and investment.

When moving to an international PR environment that plans strategy and materials centrally, the central function should communicate the structure and ‘rules of engagement’ of the new PR operation to the country teams.

But in doing so – and this is so often the acid test – it needs to be clear and specific on what the central function will deliver, when it will deliver it and the commitment it is making to two-way, consultative liaison with the countries.

Once that statement of intent has been made, the next step is for the central team to gain the trust of the countries. And that starts by delivering on the initial promises.

Best fit international solution
No one size fits all. But there are models that have been tried and tested that can form the basis of how international PR will function, depending on the communication goals, stage of development, scale of international operations and the market focus of the organisation.

“Every organisation is different in its requirements to implement local market PR. First you have to determine what your priority markets are, and then look at what you can afford to spend in order to meet local requirements. It is a question of prioritisation, so agencies have to be extremely flexible to deliver models that are tailored to what their clients want on an international basis,” said Susan Nowak, European Marketing Communications Manager, Toshiba.

Having established chains of command, decisions can be made on who will develop plans, materials and set strategy for PR. This is an internal discussion for the whole marketing team.

With an operational model agreed, attention turns to delivery of messaging and strategy - in the form of viable and valid content – and the execution of local programmes with the press using this content.

Content can take many forms, but typically includes the normal items offered in a centralised library of media materials: press releases, by-lined articles, white papers, Q&A documents, press kits, case studies, referenceable customer details, pictures, logos and diagrams, technical articles, presentations, background documents, opinion-led sample quotes and biographies.

In order to ensure that each country is continually updated with the materials, which they require to implement the PR programme locally, the central function needs to be responsible for refreshing and recirculating the materials and overseeing the tailoring and translation to meet local market needs. Typically materials are made available via an Intranet.

Planning and executing
Typically, planning an international PR environment works best when a central plan is developed in consultation with each country team, then handed to the country teams to tailor and agree their own local plans, copies of which are passed back to the central team for reference. Such an approach not only ensures maximum impact and maximum media coverage, but also that efficient use is made of resources and that information channels remain clear and open.

“Gather input from each of your target constituencies and define a plan from the outset. Replay this with detailed information of objectives, key messages and detailed deliverables, targets and goals. This approach fosters clear understanding and ultimately buy-in to the PR process,” said Jen Wong, European PR and Analyst Relations Manager, NextiraOne.

On a tactical level, this means that all corporate press releases, press trips, executive press tours, conference, exhibition and speaker opportunities will be co-ordinated via a central announcement schedule run by the central PR function.

By planning ahead, the PR teams can ensure that the necessary resources are in place in terms of spokespeople and briefing materials, and that agreed activities truly support both local and international visibility and branding goals.

One question that organisations typically ask concerning the execution of local and international PR programmes is how best to make value judgement on where to allocate resources.

Again, this is entirely dependent upon the scale and nature of the organisation: a large and established corporation will typically have both in-house personnel and agency support in place in all major markets and one or the other in minor markets to provide blanket coverage for executing local programmes, plus a headquarters function and regional management functions.

International PR can commence on a more modest scale, however. Many organisations have derived substantial success from operations that involve a small central PR team and an in-house person in each major market, or an agency involved in PR projects when required.

The benefits of this model are that it may be right for the organisation at an early stage in its development, but it also will enable the PR operation to scale markedly without any drastic changes being required to the structure and methodology for facilitating external communication.

How far can you localise?
If you’ve read this far, we can assume that you already have an appreciation of why local PR programmes need to be implemented in each European country to satisfy local business and cultural requirements.

But what is difficult to comprehend for many first-time entrants to international PR is how stark those differences are, and what the priorities are for ensuring that a high degree of localisation is provided for each market without placing an undue burden on the international PR operation overall.

Ultimately, it often comes down to a negotiation process. In Rainier PR’s experience, the key points that need to be agreed between the international PR function and the local market teams up front are the exact localisation challenges of language, cultural appropriateness, press conventions, event formats and market segmentation that need to be considered. Most importantly, the issue to grapple with is what constitutes news according to the values of each local market.

These decisions are never easy, and often will be driven by factors such as available budget, culture and style of the organisation, priority markets and whether the conventional methods of dealing with local press are a necessity or a nicety. That said, the most important thing is to firstly understand fully what the issues are, and then decisions can be made on what degree of localisation some or all of the local PR programmes can entertain.

For example, it may be that an international PR operation in Europe will provide local language translation of all materials, but only have them in English on its web site. Interviews may be carried out on local news stories by local spokespeople, but the spokespeople for major product or corporate announcements may be from headquarters or have a regional rather than local market role.

So it is a balancing act, and is normally implemented differently by every organisation to ensure that the model fits its requirements. Once it has been agreed, however, it is vital that local PR plans are agreed so that the international PR function is clear on to what degree local activities will be localised, and the local PR teams know what level of input and support they can rely on from international PR.

Planning, then, is the cornerstone of international PR success. And it must always be undertaken with full sight of how PR needs to be implemented by each local country market, not just regions as a whole. Understanding the very local differences is fundamental if reputation is to be developed manageably across all of the markets in which the organisation operates.

Measuring success
On a tactical level, centralised reporting and measurement of PR programmes against agreed goals is a repetitive but necessary task for ensuring value. On an operational level, it can become a distraction and a frustration if not kept at a realistic level.

Measurement of success should be conducted against clear goals that are agreed both by the central marketing team and the local PR teams. The PR industry has developed numerous measurement criteria and evaluation methods in an effort to prove the value of PR. Raw output, advertising equivalent costs, audience impressions and message penetration are all attempts to prove return on investment. However, one factor remains constant – the goals must be achieved, or if not the local programmes should be modified as appropriate so that new or amended goals can be pursued.

Ultimately, the aim with measurement should be to introduce and maintain a system that enables progress against goals to be assessed, but which is not overly onerous or time-consuming.

Conclusion
International PR management and execution can be best viewed as an extensive, intensive juggling act. Each country represents a different market, with different characteristics, different drivers and different cultures. The central, strategic function needs to instigate a two-way communication process in order for international PR to be truly effective.

Technology companies need to tackle international PR with a set of well-defined key messages and communications tools, but implement a flexible model that can be tailored for each local market. But they also need the benefit of experience in PR management to ensure that buy-in from countries is secured and maintained in order to drive results.

References