Interview with Mr. Mahul Brahma, Corporate communications
and Branding Head, mjunction. Some of the excerpts of the interview:
1. How do you manage the heterogeneous
consumers?
For a PR professional, the customer is media. For a branding
professional, the customer is the internal business heads and the
Chairman/MD/CEO. For a corporate communicator, the customer consists of all the
above three types and also employees (internal PR).
I was with CESC as a PRO and the most interesting facet of
that job was the brand recall only happened in absence of the service. So when
it when the power supply was disrupted people remembered CESC and media
remembered its PRO. So with CESC it was baptism by fire. Once you learn to deal
with the frantic calls from the media, you become an expert in firefighting and
in dealing with crisis.
At Ambuja Neotia group, I was heading brand and corporate
communications. It is a BtoC business, and the focus was hospitality. I was
fortunate to be part of the team that launched a new restaurant and learn how
best to communicate to the consumers and popularize it with clients using media
and publicity. I learnt how a new brand (in this case a restaurant) is created
and popularized. Another challenge was reputation management of Mr
Harshavardhan Neotia, Chairman and MD, and my former boss.
At mjunction, a JV between Tata Steel and SAIL, I am heading
corporate communications and branding. My biggest challenge here was that it is
a B to B business and there is no product that I can showcase. We are
e-auctioning company, primarily steel and coal. But this was my opportunity to
learn something new, a new challenge.
So, heterogeneous customers can only be managed if you take
keen interest in understanding their needs and customize your work accordingly.
2. How do you manage the inhouse
employees(internal PR)?
Managing internal PR is always a challenge. The key is to
keep the employees engaged. Corporate newsletters are a great tool. At
mjunction, we have mjPost that reaches out to not only the current employees
but also to former junctionites. The newsletter should encourage participation
from employees and try to capture their creative side that usually stays in the
background. The more creatively and interestingly it is done the better is the
engagement.
Another tool that can be used is mailers. As the newsletters
aren’t the best tools to communicate news that have a short shelf life, these mailers
keep employees abreast with the developments of the organization and its chief.
3. What are the CSR initiatives taken and
why?
· ejunction: A trust promoted through mjunction,
ejunction is dedicated to providing basic computer and communication skills
free of cost to members of the underprivileged sections of society and creating
employability opportunities for them. In FY14, ejunction trained 938 students
and created 391 employment opportunities.
· MET:
The Movement
for Efficiency & Transparency, or MET in short, is a brainchild of the
company’s founder CEO & MD and MET is an initiative to provide a platform
to people who have transcended barriers of inefficiency and opaqueness to share
their success stories and ideas for the future with a select audience. Eight
MET events have been held so far and has had partners such as Tata Steel, SAIL
and 5th Pillar, a Chennai-based anti-corruption organisation.
4. Who is the nearest competitor?
Competition strategy if any?
mjunction
is in a unique business and we don’t have strong competition. However, in
Ambuja Neotia, especially in hospitality, it was a big challenge. The strategy
is always to identify the unique selling proposition and showcase it in an
innovative and engaging manner so that you stand out.
5. How is Ad and PR necessary in today's
market?
In
today’s market it is all about getting the mindspace of your customers. There
are so many engagements of an average individual that one really needs to fight
for a piece of his/her mindspace. Advertisements and PR help achieve that
objective effectively. These two means are critical in today’s market and no
corporation can even think of surviving without these two critical,
life-savingsupports.
However,
we must also understand that advertisement and PR are intrinsically different.
And thus one needs to understand the effectiveness of each format to use them
intelligently so that the return on investment (RoI) is maximized.
Advertisements
have cost implications, whether outdoor or indoor. Be it print or electronic or
a hoarding, it is a costly affair. So that has to be judiciously decided so as
to maximize RoI. However, there are areas where you can’t help but spend as
your business will not grow otherwise and competition will crush you just based
on an expensive campaign that you avoided as it was not in your budget.
As
far as PR is concerned, editorial coverage is a very powerful tool for
establishing the credibility of an organization. But managing the media is a
very challenging task. They will always act as the devil’s advocate and you
have to convince the editors the worth of the news that you are sharing.
However, every PR person needs to have/develop news judgement, at least, a sense
of what makes news. Journalists have an edge in this aspect when they move over
to the other side. But it is critical that the journalists take you seriously
and trust that you will not give them wrong information. Once that is
established, a PR professional has done the job well. At times, when ads lose
impact, a great editorial coverage can work wonders.
6. Advise to young professionals:
For
corporate communicators, my word of advise is that continuously keep honing
your language skills. Read a lot and try to avoid jargons in your
communications. Make the language as fluid as you can be. And always be focused
in your communications.
I
have a column with The Economic Times on luxury branding and I still make time
to write for it, no matter how busy I am.
Young
PR professionals: Be very honest in your dealings, especially with the
journalists and your own organization. Engage with journalists and try to get a
sense of what makes news. Never try to sell non-news to them just because your
boss has asked you to do so.
For
young branding professionals, my advise is that any branding decision needs to
have a definite RoI, it is never ambiguous, although you may like to think it
that way.
I
wish all the very best for your future endeavours and always try to be creative
and innovative.
Interviewer Name: Mohit
Chomal Corp. Name: Mr. Mahul Brahma Date of Interview: 25th
july 2014
Celeb Address: mjunction services limited
Godrej Waterside, 3rd Floor, Tower 1, Plot V
Block DP, Sector V, Salt Lake,
Kolkata - 700091. Celeb Mobile No: +91 8420146592
Godrej Waterside, 3rd Floor, Tower 1, Plot V
Block DP, Sector V, Salt Lake,
Kolkata - 700091. Celeb Mobile No: +91 8420146592
