{"id":8927,"date":"2020-05-04T09:11:30","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T04:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pakistanpressfoundation.org\/?p=98862"},"modified":"2020-05-04T09:11:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T04:11:30","slug":"radio-is-a-powerful-medium-for-crisis-communication-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistanfoemonitor.org\/radio-is-a-powerful-medium-for-crisis-communication-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRadio is a powerful medium for crisis communication during COVID-19\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":" $\"\u201cRadio$ \n

Interview with\nZohare Ali Shariff, CEO APR:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the world\nexperiences one of the most debilitating and unprecedented health and economic\ncrises of recent times, corporations have a tough task on their hands-how to\ncontinue to reach out to their customers and target audiences while keeping\nbusiness afloat. BR Research sat down with Zohare Ali Shariff on a virtual Zoom\ncall to discuss what communication challenges Pakistani businesses are facing\ntoday, how they are handling it and what strategies would work best to keep\ncustomer loyalty intact as the country collectively fights the COVID-19 plight.\nZohare is a PR and communications professional who heads Asiatic Public\nRelations (APR) Network. Here are edited transcripts.
\n
\nBR Research: Arguably, the government- at the Federal and the Provincial level-\nhas one of the biggest communication obligations at the moment, not only to\nshare progress updates with the people but to keep mass hysteria at bay. What\nmessages do the government need to put out and what specific communication\nstrategy measures would you suggest?
\n
\nZohare Ali Shariff: A communication strategy generally, and especially in a\ncrisis, needs to do three things \u2013 inform, inspire, involve. In the present\nCOVID-19 crisis, informing the people would entail sharing accurate and updated\nfacts with the publics regularly, even daily, like the British and some other\ngovernments are doing through a daily media briefing, telecast live\u2014headed by a\nkey minister and more importantly, an epidemiologist and head of National\nHealth Service as members. The daily update has to be honest, factual and\nwithout bombast or populist rhetoric. The second objective is to inspire. This\nshould serve to motivate the public to be united as a nation, not as individual\nprovinces, to fight this pandemic. And the third objective is to involve. The\ngovernment should work to instill a deep sense of responsibility across\nsociety, so that every single individual feels it a sacred duty to strictly\nadhere to safety measures given and follow the rules, even as these are\nmodified from time to time in line with the evolving ground realities.
\n
\nIn general, the government has to think about whom its audience is, what the\nmessages are and what medium should be used to widely reach these audiences. We\nknow the target audience is very wide; but we also know a huge share of\nthis\u2014particularly those amongst the rural populations do not have access to\ntelevision or newspapers. To my knowledge, radio is one of the most powerful\nmediums in reaching the wider audiences across urban as well as rural Pakistan.\nThe government needs to utilize this medium. The second important factor to\nconsider is language. A lot of Pakistani audiences do not speak or understand\nUrdu. Is the government communicating in different local languages? Taking\nthese points in stock would really fine-tune government\u2019s communication\nstrategy.
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\nBRR: Demand for non-essential goods and services have slumped around the world\nas well as in Pakistan. Companies are watching revenues plunge, many have had\nto lay off employees; others have raised prices to protect margins and so on.\nWhat is the best strategy moving forward for corporations?
\n
\nZAS: There cannot be one strategy or line of action for all in the corporate\nsector. Too many variables are at work\u2014the nature of business of the company,\nits size, the number of its employees, financial strength and so forth.\nHowever, every business must consider laying off people only as the very last\nresort, and instead try to achieve savings in other operational costs. Some\nsectors like tourism, aviation and hospitality have seen their business and\nrevenues plummet to absolute zero, and in such cases layoffs, or at least pay\ncuts may be inevitable. However, it is sad to see that some other businesses\nwhich have flourished for decades, who have presumably paid off the initial\ninvestment long time ago, and who have huge financial reserves or depth, have\nalso resorted to lay-offs in the very first month of the crisis. Companies who\nare not laying off people and who are even ready to bear losses now, will find\nthat once things are back to some state of normalcy, their employees will\nexhibit fierce loyalty and give much higher productivity to help their company\nmake up for the losses.
\n
\nBRR: How can corporations use these times to develop their brand or would\nbrands in Pakistan rather not spend on brand building at the moment?
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\nZAS: This is obviously not the time for traditional brand building as consumers\nhave cut back spending to only the essentials, besides being deeply stressed\nout. Companies should use these times to plan for the future and really delve\ninto research and analysis of what consumers will need post COVID-19, and\nprepare for it. It is obvious that whenever the pandemic ends, the world will\nnot be the same. There might be some initial euphoric consumer spending on all\nthe things people have missed out on in the long months of the lockdown, but I\nthink consumer habits and priorities will have changed post COVID-19 and things\ngetting back to \u2018normal\u2019 will not be easy. To quote from the classic novel, The\nPlague by Nobel Laureate Albert Camus, \u2018Destruction is an easier, speedier\nprocess than reconstruction.\u2019 So the brands which can accurately predict what\nthese new consumer wants will be, and have used these times to be prepared with\nnew offerings to meet these wants will be the winners.
\n
\nOne thing to note here is that the world has started to change. The classical\nschool of thought that businesses should only care about maximizing their\nprofits and serving their shareholders has evolved. Customers do care about how\ncompanies act at different times. Corporations recognize now\u2014especially in\ndeveloped nations\u2014that they have to create some kind of shared value in the\nsociety. They have to look after their employees, the community and the\nenvironment. This feeds directly into their brand policy and how they can\naccumulate brand equity.
\n
\nBRR: Do you see growing social distancing, especially if it\u2019s prolonged to 8-12\nmonths, will give strength to e-commerce? If so, then how would branding and\nmarketing change in an increasing e-commerce world?
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\nZAS: Yes, definitely. E-commerce became a way of life in most developed\ncountries several years ago already. Pakistan has been far behind in this for\nseveral reasons, including difficulty in making online payments (remember that\nonly about 10 percent of the population has bank accounts), a culture of buying\nthings like daily groceries on credit from the corner store, high level of\nilliteracy and so on. Things began changing when easy to use online payment\nsystems like uPaisa were introduced. Also online marketing platforms like OLX\ngave a huge boost to e-commerce. Today, because of home isolation many more\npeople who had never before tried out e-commerce, because of an apprehension of\ntechnology or whatever other reason, are getting into e-commerce. So as\ne-commerce becomes a habit in Pakistan too, brand marketing will almost\ncertainly adapt to this new sales avenue by reaching online shoppers in more\ninnovative ways.
\n
\nBRR: How responsive do you think Pakistani corporations have been in relation\nto their communication with their customers so far in this crisis?
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\nZAS: Frankly I have not done any in-depth or specific study of this. My general\nimpression is that there is always room to do more and do better. The key for\ncompanies and brands at this time is to avoid communications which even vaguely\ncomes across as self-serving, and focus on communications which serves to\nreassure customers and consumers. People need reassurance more than anything\nelse at this time.
\n
\nBRR: In the age of misinformation how do you suggest corporations strategize\nthemselves?
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\nZAS: Today there is both misinformation and an overload of information. So the\nchallenge has two facets \u2013 how to counter negative propaganda and how to\nmaintain recall and stand out from the crowd. One classic rule of PR and\ncommunications is that if you don\u2019t talk about yourself, others will! So it is\nimportant that companies maintain continuity of communications with their\ndefined target audiences. And beyond this they need to ensure their\ncommunication is credible and rooted in the needs and wants of the recipients.
\n
\nUnfortunately, some companies treat all communication with an advertising\nmindset, talking about how great they are or their products are. The public\ndoes not want this rhetoric; at least not all the time! Also when strategizing\ncommunications, it is vital to disseminate your messaging through multiple\nchannels, the mix depending on who you wish to reach out to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newspaper: Business\nRecorder<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"