Annurag Chawla is a marketing and communications professional with over fifteen years of professional experience across diverse product and service categories. He has been working
with Towell Auto Centre for the last four years as the Head of Marketing & Communications. He shares his viewson the importance of public relations in a chat with Oman Vistas. Excerpts:

How important are disciplines like Corporate Communications, Marketing Communications and Public Relations in an organization, especially in the Oman context?

No business can hope to survive without marketing & communications in some form or other. Some business may find tools like advertising or PR, etc more appropriate and some might go for other means to achieve their business objectives.

As far as Oman is concerned there has been increased competition in every product or service category over the last few years and this makes a stronger case for marketing and communications more than ever before. Many Omani companies have also started venturing out for business in other countries.

What according to you is good public relations?

Like any other form of communications good PR must be able to communicate the right message, to the right audience and at the right time. Every organization whether commercial or
non- commercial must have a PR strategy as a part of their overall strategy and it must be planned, deliberate and should be sustainable.

Do you think Public Relations come
of age in Oman?

Most certainly PR has been coming of age in Oman. Many existing ad agencies have set up PR divisions and even some international PR agencies have mushroomed recently. Decision makers
have started realizing that they can no longer rely solely on advertising to succeed.

We see an increasing number of handouts being published in the daily newspapers everyday. The bigger advertisers seem to more generous editorial space in the newspapers. How would the reader gauge the believability factor of such write ups that appear in the newspapers?

Consumers in Oman are definitely getting smarter and can today make their own decisions and form their own opinions about any brand or product. Yes, I agree that bigger advertisers do
get bigger editorial space in Oman but I feel its time that media houses also use their discretion to be selective in what they think is credible and should be published and what does
not deserve as much attention in the interest of masses at large. The main goal of a public relations department is to enhance and maintain a company’s reputation. Staff that work in Public Relations, or as it is commonly known, PR, are skilled publicists. They represent a
company or individual to the world in the best light. The role of a public relations department can be seen as a ‘reputation builder and protector’.

What type of an organization can benefit with good Public Relations?

Almost any type of an organization whether for profit or non-profit can use PR to achieve their objectives. Thesedays NGOs, sports and entertainment celebrities and even countries and
political leaders use PR agencies to achieve their desired image and communicate their message to their audience.

What is the better for any organization? Internal PR specialist within the organization or hiring of a professional PR company?

There is no clear cut formula for this and it ultimately depends on the nature of an organization. Both have their merits and demerits. While an internal resource may not have a great amount
of external competition perspective, on the other hand an external agency may not have a clear understating of their client’s needs and aspirations. External agencies usually have an advantage
in terms of their contacts with media since they are dealing with a multitude of clients on a daily basis. Possibly the best solution would be an in-house PR professional partnering with an external
PR agency for advice and execution. Public Relation professionals provide a service for the company by helping them give the public and the media a better understanding of how the company works and what it stands for and its their job to always show the best face of the company to its audience.