Building the reputation of PR in Russia

by Nina Kinnunen

While surfing on IPRA’s website I found this article. According to it PR has clearly suffered from a negative image in Russia since it first emerged in the end of 80’s. Most of the population’s knowledge of PR was limited to political conflicts for a long time. And political PR widely used dirty techniques and mud-throwing. Thus the reputation of PR-specialists became associated with lies and bribery. In business PR "zakazukha”, (meaning bought-and-paid-for news articles) became a standard practice and main business of the newly-formed Russian PR agencies. Throughout the 90’s there was little understanding of the term PR and its role in the modern business environment.

But the article is also a proof that something has been done – and quite successfully even – to build up better practices and consequently a better reputation for Russian PR. The article is quite long, so I’ll try to summarize it for you here.

IPRA has the annual Golden World Awards (GWA) that recognizes the best in Public Relations work from around the world. It contains numerous award categories covering the whole range of public relations activities. In 2004 Russian SPN Granat Communications Agency was selected as the winner in the category “Recovery from Crisis”. In partnership with its client, the Russian Public Relations Agency, it had developed and implemented a program in 2003 in order to address the negative reputation of Russian PR and unprofessional practices within the industry. The 12 month program was based on three major international public relations events: PR days in Moscow, Baltic PR Weekend and PROBA Awards.

The Mission:

To rebuild the reputation of Public Relations in Russia, to identify the causes and incidents of unprofessional practices (Black PR), to bring the PR practices to the international level and build partnerships across all interested parties.

Objectives:

1.Drawing public attention to the PR profession
2.To determine the leaders, separating civilized PR practices from amateurish ones
3.Contributing to working out criteria for professional qualities in PR
4.Bringing together PR specialists and representatives of business, culture, politics and social sphere who are interested in creating favorable image in development of PR services area.

Accomplishments:

The arranged events reached both extensive geographical and media coverage. The efforts for strengthening the professional position of PR practitioners also paid off. Consequently, in September 2003 the profession of “Public Relations specialist” became officially recognized by the state and was entered in to the Russian Federation Professions Register.

There were also other more general changes listed on the site (not only related to this particular program, I think)

Changes in the structure of PR services in Russia:

1.For many, the first (and for a long time only) real sign of PR in Russia was the press release. So-called "carpet-bombing" of the media with press releases was almost the only activity of the PR specialist in the early nineties and beyond. Face-to-face media interaction was almost non-existent. Now other parts of the media relations tool set were utilized (press tours, press conferences, interviews, special events for media representatives): Russian executives and Russian journalists learned how to talk to each other!

2.Growing understanding of diverse audiences – companies and organizations, government and interest groups, customers and investors – which all required a different approach and a different form of dialogue.

3.The role of efficient internal communications became increasingly appreciated.

4.Economy leaders started to care about their public images, sponsorship and charity work for promoting the companies as responsible corporate citizens.

5.Establishing of the environmental PR: Learning from the international best practices, Russian oil, gas, pulp-and-paper and steel companies are investing in environmental programs and communicating these changes to the industry and the general public

6.Establishing of financial PR, investor and analyst relations.

7.Growing trust of PR agencies as professional in solving PR tasks

Even though the implementation of the program was clearly successful, there has been and still is a lot improvements to do, of course. Russian PR agencies have also won IPRA awards after the year 2004. I saw that one Russian PR Agency was also awarded this year, the PR Department of Slavinsky Art Gallery for launching the new gallery. You can see all the award categories here and check, whether your home country or any of your blogs’ countries were awarded this year.



USED SOURCES:
(Same links also in the text)

IPRA. 2004 Frontline Award: Building the reputation of Public Relations in Russia.
http://www.ipra.org/detail.asp?articleid=141

IPRA. Awaiting the Golden Age – Launch of Slavinsky Art Gallery.
http://www.ipra.org/detail.asp?articleid=1264

IPRA. Current Golden World Awards. http://www.ipra.org/currentawards.asp

Transparency in Former Soviet States... or lack of?

Recently Transparency International released it's annual list of the most and least corrupted countries, the Corruption Perceptions Index 2009. The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. A composite index, the CPI is based on 13 different expert and business surveys. (For more on the Corruption Perceptions Index, check the Transparency International website.)

The scale is from 0-10, from high to low perceived corruption. Here are the scores of the former Soviet States:

Armenia 2.7               Azerbaijan 2.3

Belarus 2.4                 Estonia 6.6

Georgia 4.1                Kazakhstan 2.7

Kyrgyzstan 1.9            Latvia 4.5

Lithuania 4.9              Moldova 3.3

Russia 2.2                  Tajikistan 2

Turkmenistan 1.8        Ukraine 2.2

Uzbekistan 1.7                                                     

Overall average: 3.02

What does all this have to do with Public Relations? Well, I would argue than in countries where corruption is high, the level of PR professionalism and education is low. This idea is based on simple logic: if you can buy your way ahead, you need not spend money building an image, managing your reputation etc. With the right connections and the right bribes, who needs communication management?

The numbers seem to agree with me. For example, in Estonia PR is a growing field - and it's score is the highest in this group - while our bottom trio of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan probably don't have many communication practitioners, apart from those working for the [corrupted] governments.

I cannot say that I was surprised by these results. In many poorer countries (ie. the majority of the world) money talks, and cash is often exchanged between business folk and the authorities, be they police, municipal and local government or ministers and higher officials. Most of the corruption is practical, and hardly malicious - a few extra dollars gets the permits a bit faster - but as you go up the chain, it becomes evident that organizations that are successful have gotten their hands dirty. For example, if two companies are bidding for a town's road building contract, the one on better terms with the major will probably get the job, and nothing makes good "terms" in a poor country than gifts and large sums of cash. A favor gets a favor.

Public relations may not grow in these countries as it has in the West, mostly because the overall climate is quite different. Then again, thinking back 50 or so years, even the now squeaky clean countries (like Finland) were poor, war torn and corrupt. Perhaps, having these things pointed out will encourage former Soviet States to work harder towards transparency and free flowing information, thus creating a solid ground on which PR can blossom.

How does this work with other countries? Find yours on this map.

Sources:

Transparency International. 2009. 
-Methodology.
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2009/methodology 
-Corruptions Perceptions Index 2009. http://media.transparency.org/imaps/cpi2009/

PR changing in Georgia

Suvi Hurri

While I am writing this text, PR history is made in Georgia. Today and tomorrow certain organizations organize a special training program about corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The training provides basic knowledge on CSR, its strategic development and organizational ethics. Trainees gain skills of analyzing the organization’s current CSR strategies.

This progress comes just the right time for corporations and PR professionals, I think. Only a few years ago nearly 40 percent of people in Georgia lived below the poverty line. At the same time public economy grows rapidly and government seduces foreign investors in the country. In World Bank listing Georgia was the 18.th easiest country for business.

When foreign money floods in the country it is important that the whole country benefits from it. Here I see an opportunity for PR professionals to intervene and function as corporate conscience. When operating in a country with vast poverty corporations should always ask themselves: should we participate developing the community or is it ok just to collect the profit and run? If no-one else asks these questions, PR professionals should.

Sources: Veide, L. 2009. Corporate social responsibility workshop for Georgian companies. Georgia today.

Do cultural backgrounds have an effect on PR?

By Päivi Jauhiainen

Soviet Union was a vast country in which the different states did not share the same cultural, religious or linguistic backgrounds. Still, everyone in the country was supposed to live by the same ideology which was spread around the country with the help of propaganda. Everyone was supposed to think the same way and was fed the same ideology by the goverment regardles of their backgrounds.

In my opinion, the old states of Soviet Union are facing a new challenge now. Earlier they were not seen as individual nations but as a part of "one big family" with same ideologies, the Soviet people. I think it is going to be interesting to see how these countries are going to project themselves to other countries as independent nations with their own beliefs and attitudes. For example, Estonia is a part of Europe and in my opinion, its communication has focused on the western countries. But I have no idea what is happening in Asian countries such as Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan and I am quite confident to say that neither do many of my course mates. For example, most of the people in these countries are Muslim and they are geographically located quite far from the "West", i.e. Europe or United States etc. If I compare these countries to my example Estonia, I think the two Asian countries have not had such massive PR efforts of their countries as Estonia has. One example of this is that as I googled Tajikistan and PR the results were e.g. There are currently no listings in PR Consultants category or www.pr.com said There are currently no press releases listed in this industry (with Tajikistan). What is positive is that the European Comission is trying to train the countires with PR to help them strenghten their financial position in the global market.

I mentioned above the cultural, religious and liguistic differences between the former Soviet states. Perhaps this has also something to do with the differences in the PR actions between the countries. Because Estonia is a European country, it wants to project itself to its neighbours as a "real" European country but the Asian countries do not have the need to do that and perhaps therefore have not used such PR efforts as their European counterparts. Also, because Estonia is a European country, perhaps it has been easier for it to learn and use western PR because of their European identity.

Antoher reason could be that because countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are part of Europe, their European neighbours have helped them more than they have the Asian states by educationg and giving them resources to more effective PR. If I think of e.g. Finland, I think we have been happy about the independence of Estonia as it is our loved neighbour and our goverment and media have tried to help them as much as we can, but I doubt whether we have given so much help to Tajikistan or other Asian former Soviet states.

Bearing all this in mind, I wonder whether the Asian states want to adapt the western PR system? If they have no cultural or religious link to the western countries, why would they want to do PR in the western way? Or do they even feel the need to communicate and project themselves to the western countries? In my opinion, it would sound logical if they wanted to commuicate with Islamic countries or other Asian countries with same traditions, beliefs and attitudes. I am not saying that this is how it should be, as I think everyone should be able to communicate with each other, but what I am trying to say is that perhaps our way of doing things is not the best way everywhere.

In addition, because the previous Soviet states were always thaught to think the same way, it must be difficult and challenging to start creating one's own message to the world and to find the right channel to do that. I can only hope they area able to find a proper channel to do that and to project themselves as they really are, not as they have been thaught to be.

Public relations in Estonia nowadays
by Tuomas Muhonen

In this blog post I try to answer to next question: Are there any signs of two-way symmetrical communication in Estonian organisations? Firstly I have to remind that there are not studies of the overall situation nowadays. Anyway I found some material related to the subject.

Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (Vastutustundliku Ettevõtluse Foorum) has studied practices related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in small and medium enterprises (SME) in Estonia. CSR can be seen as a sign of open organization and two-way symmetrical communication because its purpose is somehow dialogic and mutual understanding. According to Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (2007: 29) about 35 % of respondents claim they have been implementing some CSR activity. The most important interest groups for SMEs were shareholders and clients. Here is the short summary of CSR in Estonian Companies.

Subsequently, I tried to find out in which level PR-practioners work in organisations. Managers see public relations mainly as a technical function (Jänes 2005: 122). Main service area is media relations while other areas are quite small (Soone 2007: 2).

The biggest trend in governmental level are online information services. Use of information technology is also a very developed field in Estonia. Anyway, problem is how to use this new technology progressively. (Anton & Rannu 2005: 100.) Use of information technology has a lot of possibilities on the way to open society and organizations.

According to the source material, Estonia has not reached the stage of open society. Organizations have not really understood how they could use public relations to build mutual understanding with stakeholders. However, there are small signs of dialog in Estonian organizations.

USED SOURCES:

Responsible Business Forum in Estonia (2007). CSR in Estonian SMEs.

Anton, R & Rannu, R (2005). Eesti Vabariigi valitsuse suhtekorralduse areng taasiseseisvumise järel. In Praktiline suhtekorraldus: Eesti kogemus. Tartu Ûlikooli Kirjastus.

Jänes, K (2005). Juhtide arvamus suhtekorraldusest: Juht hindab suhtekorraldust, kuid mitte suhtekorraldajat. In Praktiline suhtekorraldus: Eesti kogemus. Tartu Ûlikooli Kirjastus.

Soone, I (2007). Estonian PR Market Overview.

Some remarks on the Russian Public Relations Association (RPRA)

by Nina Kinnunen

I have been surfing on the web pages of Russian Public Relations Association (RPRA, or RASO in Russian). (Unfortunately, the pages are in Russian only.) The association was founded in July 1991, so pretty soon after the collapse of Soviet Union. RPRA is the first Russian professional and non-commercial organization that unites Russian and foreign specialists of public relations. It has established co-operation with international PR organizations, such as CERP (European Public Relations Confederation) and IPRA (International Public Relations Association).

On the association’s website one can find e.g. news on Russian PR field, lists of Russian PR agencies and the Russian Codes of ethics in PR. The Code of ethics was formulated in 2001 and it resembles a lot the models set by international organizations. There is also a forum for discussion. I scanned through the forum topics when one thread made me stop and I started reading it. The headline was “PR – a profession or a calling?” This thread had started in 2007 and last posts were from this year. There was one thing that caught my attention: almost all writers expressed dissatisfaction towards how PR is being taught at universities or said that formal education is not needed at all, or is not that important in order to become a successful PR practitioner. At first I was a little surprised of the dismissive attitude towards formal education but maybe it is not that odd after all. There may still be quite many Russian practitioners who started in the field in the beginning of 90’s, learned all they know in practice and perhaps, succeeded. It may still have an impact on how people see the field and the way it can be entered. Otherwise I think that Russians in general appreciate higher education a lot. (Guess I should also remember that this “sample” of PR students and practitioners with this kind of an attitude is very limited.)

Then something else I also noticed. Apparently, the association has even its own hymn (!) which can be read and downloaded here. They say that it is supposed to be sung in RASO meetings and gatherings in order to create a feeling of togetherness. I found the lyrics interesting so I decided to share them with you. I have bolded the parts I find especially interesting. My Russian is not that good and this is a quick translation, but the words go something like this:

All know, that the star in the horizon
does not come up without the efforts of outsiders.
And we together always remember that,
and work and work, of course!

No matter what are the brands, cities, artists
politicians, events, heroes:
correctly, easily, brightly and purely
we build the history of this country and the world.

chorus:

Community of pragmatics and sceptics,
practitioners and theorists,
talented and progressive,
together we are powerful!

And you’re right friend, we can do even miracles,
build a legend, make a fairytale into a true story,
make much ado about nothing, transform a donkey into a camel
and put negative into the dust of the street

But the one who says … and cynically
that the end always justifies the means
is not ours (not one of us) at all, we follow god manners
and in that way strive for perfection


I did not quite understand the idea of the first strophe, but the other ones were more understandable. There seems to be one theme I keep running into all over and over again, also in this hymn: the ethics. It is apparent that while this hymn is an effort to build up professional pride, it also reminds of the importance of following ethical practices - even though they could “do miracles” also with unethical ones. Still I find it quite odd - even though honest - how openly this hymn refers to the “black practices” in the field. What do you think?


USED SOURCES:

http://www.raso.ru/