In the complex world of Sales & Marketing across FMCG, Healthcare, NBFC, and Logistics sectors, I have navigated through 22 years of dynamic encounters with customers whose rationality seems as fluid as the markets they inhabit. The unpredictability of consumer whims has been both a challenge and a fascination, prompting me to delve deeper into the intricate realm of consumer behaviour—a discipline where perceptions, beliefs, emotions, and social influences converge to shape purchasing decisions.

Consumer behaviour, rooted in psychology, transcends mere transactions; it unfolds as a tapestry of human desires and motivations. From deciphering elusive wants to decoding the sway of social persuasions, this sub-discipline offers profound insights essential for any strategist in today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) marketplace.

My journey, however, did not end with field experiences alone. For the past 24 years, I have embraced a parallel path as a Professor of Marketing Management, witnessing firsthand the evolution of academia to meet the demands of an ever-changing global landscape. The Indian market, an ’emerging’ force, spurred me to contribute to this evolving narrative through a book that not only connects theoretical frameworks of consumer behaviour but also enriches them with Indian context, examples, and case studies.

This book is a culmination of insights gleaned from interactions with students—each a catalyst for my own learning journey. Their diverse perspectives and probing questions have shaped not only my teachings but also this manuscript, which seeks to bridge academic rigor with practical relevance.

The book has been published by Kabdwal Book International. 

I extend my deepest gratitude to all my students and colleagues, the customers whom I have sold products, competitors, my critics, my supporters all of them. 

As you embark on this exploration of consumer behaviour, may these pages not only inform but also inspire new strategies, innovations, and a deeper appreciation for the intricate dance between consumers and markets. Join me in unravelling the mysteries of consumer behaviour—a journey where understanding leads to innovation and where every interaction offers a new revelation.

HAPPY READING!!!

Innovation stimulates growth of a business. The ability to keep on generating winning ideas for new products and services is one of the keys to business success. Entrepreneurs value innovations; they have a natural instinct regarding innovations, because they know that innovations in products, service, or a business process make their business unique, allowing the business to acquire core competence.

Innovations in business need to be diffused in society. When new products are introduced in markets they do not get adopted by consumers very easily. People are generally averse to adopting new ideas, new products, new theories, and new concepts because for fear of failure. Lot of research has been conducted in social science on the topic of adoption of newness and it is found that people who adopt an innovation easily and relatively early have different characteristics than people who adopt an innovation later.  Therefore, marketers study the target markets before launching their products. It is important to understand the characteristics of the target population because they might help or hold back adoption of the new product.

‘Diffusion’ as a concept was first introduced by a French sociologist Gabriel Tarde in late 19th century. Later it was elucidated by German and Austrian anthropologists Friedrich Ratzel and Leo Leo Frobenius.

In early 1920s and 1930s agricultural technology was advancing at a faster pace. Farmers had started adopting hybrid seeds, fertilizers, agricultural equipments and technologies for augmenting their produce. In 1943, in Lowa, Ryan and Gross, both social scientists made concrete observation and finding on the topic of diffusion of innovation; they researched the pattern of adoption of hybrid corn seeds by farmers. Thus first time diffusion of innovation was studied in rural context. It first made its mark in rural sociology. Diffusion of Innovation has been applied to numerous contexts since then; marketing, city development, medical sociology, health science, health promotion, research, knowledge management, and many complex areas.  Diffusion of Innovation has particularly been used to large extent in the field of medical sciences, medical technique and health communication.

In 1962, Everett Rogers, a professor of Communication Studies, published his seminal work: Diffusion of Innovations. Rogers produced his research from over 508 diffusion studies across the fields that initially influenced the theory. Among the topic were anthropology, sociology, rural sociology, education, and medical sociology. Everett Rogers produced a theory of the adoption of innovations among individuals and organizations. Later, he published in his first edition of book in the same year.

Rogers recommended that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, occasion (time), and a social system. This process relies heavily on psychologies of people. The innovation must be widely adopted in order to get accepted and self-sustain. Within the rate of adoption, there is a point at which an innovation reaches critical mass. The expansion of the car industry is well described and is a classical example to describe the diffusion of innovation theory. The modern communication is infusing more and more innovation in the cars. The car industry is approaching a dramatic shift entering into a new phase of communication driven by modern communication technology and environmental concerns. The new car models will sooner or later have smart phones on wheels.

The categories of adopters are: innovators, early adaptors, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Diffusion manifests itself in different ways in various cultures and fields and is highly subject to the type of adopters and innovation-decision process.

Innovators: These are enthusiastic customers who want to be the first ones to try the innovation. They are adventurous and interested in trying out new ideas, services and products. These people are risk takers, and do not shy from trying out and sometimes getting bad results in trying new products. They are the ones to be tapped to reach out and market new products.

Early Adopters: These are opinion leaders in the markets. They enjoy leadership roles and are relatively flexible to adopt changed opportunities. They are already aware of the need to change; they are always on lookout for more progressive changes in the society. Strategies to appeal to this population include detailed ‘how-to’ manuals and information sheets on implementation. They don’t need to be perused too much to buy new products. They are more than eager themselves for change. Early adopters are typically described as curious, exploratory consumers who buy first, talk fast and spread the word to others about the pros and cons of what they have purchased.

Early Majority: These people are rarely leaders, but they do adopt new ideas before the average person. They are observant and patient by nature. They like to satisfy themselves by seeing others comfortably using the new product, idea or theory. They look out for evidence that the innovation works before they buy and adopt it. Strategies to appeal to this population include success stories and verification of the innovation’s effectiveness. They rely a lot on evidences.

Late Majority: These people are skeptical of change; they will adopt an innovation only after it has been tried by the majority. They like to go by statistical proof on how many people have tried and are happy with new product. Strategies to appeal to this population include information on how many other people have tried the innovation and have adopted it successfully. They need statistical sheets for studying.

Laggards: These people are bound by tradition and are very conservative. They are very skeptical of change and are the hardest group to please. They are averse to change. Strategies to appeal to this population include statistics, fear appeals, and pressure from people in the other adopter groups.

This example might be apt in expressing how diffusion of innovation worked in case of smart phone in America. The 2.5% Innovators were tapped in February 2007; one month after the iPhone was announced. They were all BlackBerry users. The Early Adopters (the 13.5% which followed the innovators) were all using smart phones by the beginning of 2010. They were served mainly by iPhone 3GS and Blackberries. The Early Majority (34%) were on board by October 2012, just in time for iPhone 4, Android, Galaxy. We see now the Late majority (34%) which will run out by November 2015 and Laggards (16%) would get anyways dragged to buy smart phones only when they go in to replace their old phones. The iPhone 5S came out about one third of the way through this period. So, Americans need more innovative smart phones as more than 50% market is already penetrated.

People are not born as particular a particular category of adaptors:

If a person in early adopter in case of buying a car or a smart phone, he might be late majority or laggard while considering a Post Graduation degree program. A person who might be innovator in watching any new movie might be laggard when it comes to investing in mutual fund. So it is not a hard and fast rule that people are born as innovators, early adaptors, early majority, late majority and laggards.

Factors which influence adoption:

While buying any product customers do look out for less complex products. Product description should be short and in simple language. People like compatibility with the product they buy. Compatibility refers to the offering’s philosophy, culture and values. In short, how easily can the customers integrate the product’s offering in their lives is important. Customers also look out for relative advantage of the product. This means how much improvement the new product is offering. Clearly, communication has a big role to play here. The product must be easy to try out. How easy the offering is to experiment with will have a big impact on adoption rates.  And last, but not the least peer influence matters a lot in adoption of new product and service even in case of early adaptors; built-in social networking such as face book, WhatsApp, Linkedin apps that update your timeline show friends using the product or services that prompt you to buy with a post or a tweet of theirs.

About two decades back when manufacturing dominated almost all progressive countries such as the UK, the US, France and Germany, the physical layout of production units such as factories was not very important to the end consumer because they never went inside the factory. However, today’s consumers are keen to know how goods are processed, what goes into it, how safe is the product for usage, the package, aesthetics etc besides the price of course. Today customers are becoming very demanding because of the dominance of e-commerce and retail chains in supply chain, and ever increasing substitution of products available to them.

The entire value chain is stressed to offer various facets in the product and that too for a multiple segments. Today’s customer seeks high level of presentation in the retail outlets; the retail business literally depends on visual merchandise for a perfect presentation, customers want to easily find their way around the store, and want an enjoyable shopping experience.

The importance of quality physical layout is important in a range of service providers, including: students going to college or university have far higher expectations about the quality of their accommodation, mentoring, and learning environment than in the past. As a result colleges and universities are forced pay far more attention to creating attractive learning environments, student accommodation, shops, libraries, playgrounds, bars and other facilities; which is of course good.

Air passengers expect attractive and stimulating environments, such as plush departure lounges, with activities for young children, good food on flight and efficient flight attendants.

Hair dressing and beauty salons are expected to provide pleasant waiting areas, with attractive reading materials, access to coffee for customers, good music and of course good beauty products and efficient beauticians.

While the fact is nobody likes to go to hospitals; but when they need to go patients these days expect services of five star hotels, good lounges, restaurants, helping and positive attitudes of healthcare workers, cleanliness and all under one roof services. If organizations ignore marketing, they find themselves lagging behind.

The man behind the four Ps was Jerome McCarthy. He suggested the 4 Ps classifications in 1960. McCarthy emphasized on product, price, place and promotion as the main four elements and just few about years back, Philip Kotler talked about shift from the four Ps to four Cs.  He expressed in one of his interview that the 4Ps have become 4 Cs because of the customer imperative, the value challenge, and the increasing value of mega distribution. The skills and talents of the marketing manager recline in making the offer to customers in the most attractive manner.  The Marketing Manager is no less than an artist; he has to proportionately add, subtract, replace, and centralize the elements of the mix – The Product; The Price; The Place and The Promotion. Hence, the marketing mix is a value-delivering tool of the marketing function.

One of the glaring challenges that most brands across the world face today is of lowering brand loyalty from the consumers.  The brands are ‘commoditized’ no sooner they enter markets.  At the consumer level, on one hand we are seeing an increasingly more globalised consumer – one who is tuned in almost real time to trends and aspirations across the globe.  Increased access to electronic and traditional media, the Internet, and more frequently (and more adventurous) travel outside the home frontiers are some of the factors that have led to the globalization of the average consumer. At the business level, the most challenging development is consolidation across all kinds of industries – be it travel, education, health, transportation, telecommunication, banking, consumer durables, or retail. The consolidation is not limited within the traditional geographical boundaries but is increasingly becoming cross-national and cross-continent; as a result, local and national brands are struggling literally to retain their identities in the consumer’s mind share. Many brands are living a very short shelf life.

The evolution has been brought in fundamental changes to the basic Marketing mix. Where once there were 4 P’s to explain the mix, nowadays 3 more Ps have added to layer of depth.

In the late 70’s it was widely acknowledged by marketers that the Marketing Mix should be updated. This led to the creation of the Extended Marketing Mix in 1981 by Booms & Bitner which added 3 new elements to the 4 P’s. The older 4Ps and 3 more new Ps of marketing mix are extended to both tangible and intangible products.

The extended 3 Ps are as follows:

People: Organizations are reliant on the people right from shop floor to the Managing Director. Having the right people is crucial because they are as much a part of business offering as the products/services offered by the organization. The three main tasks for employee engagement are: culture, managing style, and hiring. The performance and attitude of people can result in the success or failure of a business.

Processes: The delivery of a product or service is usually done with the best of management practice. The thumb rule for success of any product is that when the customer pays for the product/service he should feel satisfied. Most competitive organizations use 6 SIGMA tool for optimizing best product output. Continuous efforts to achieve stable and predictable process results by reducing process variation. Manufacturing and business processes have characteristics that can be measured, analyzed, controlled and improved. Achieving sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization. This happens particularly from top-level management. Six Sigma project helps a clear focus on achieving measurable and quantifiable financial returns. 6 Sigma works efficiently when an increased emphasis is laid on strong and passionate management. It doesn’t give room for assumptions and guess work.

Physical Evidence:  This refers to the way a product, service, and everything about the company, appears from the outside, or is perceived by the customer. The physical evidence is about packaging. It is about the presentation of an organization, person or thing in an advantageous way. In physical packaging the size, shape, color, material, UPC bar code, and label of the packaging matters as much as its aesthetics. This should be customer tested and updated when needed.  It should fall in line with organization’s other product offerings as well.  Packaging involves the visual layout, practical setup, and when needed for products, clear and precise installation instructions. Product liability insurance is needed in case anybody suffers any harm from the product. Engineering tests are also needed to make sure that the package can stand any break.  There may also be regulatory issues to consider. Visual packaging of a tangible product can make or break a purchase.  Small improvements in the packaging or external appearance of the product or service can lead to completely different responses from customers.

Is there place for 8^thP?  Some marketing experts are of opinion that the extended marketing mix should evolve of Productivity. It is about how well people combine resources to produce goods and services. It is about creating more from available resources, such as raw materials, labour, skills, capital equipment, land, intellectual property, managerial potential and finance. With the right combination, higher production, higher value and higher incomes can be achieved for every hour worked. Productivity helps in managing costs.

In conclusion, even after 54 years the original marketing mix cannot be ignored. It is applicable for every business every day. Jerome McCarthy’s well thought 4 Ps – Product, Price, Place and Promotion and additional 3 Ps added in 1981 by Booms & Bitner’s People, Process and Physical Evidence are the core of any business.  In my opinion, the 8^th P – Productivity should also be added to the extended marketing mix. And, a good marketer is the one who adapts the Ps  suitably to his offering.

The term Marketing Myopia was coined by Theodore Levitt in his research paper published in 1960 in Harvard Business Review (HBR) which suggested that businesses will succeed only if they give the customers what they want. The businesses should meet the customer’s needs, to succeed in market.  A business live and dies by its customers and marketers don’t have a whole lot of room for errors to take care of them.

Levitt appealed the marketers through his paper to have a broader view of market. He called the narrow view of marketers of not giving consideration to customer’s likes and dislikes Marketing Myopia. According to Levitt, narrow-mindedness of marketers leads to failure only. Complacency in terms of a product orientation – wherein marketers are more concerned with product quality, product precision and uniqueness of product and when all efforts go in making the product with distinct benefits, the customer direction is often lost. When marketers are infatuated with consistent product improvement and they typically believe that an ideal product will sell itself shows their shortsightedness.

Similarly, when marketers concentrate on the manufacturing process keenly to make operational efficiencies and production optimization they tend to lose the customer focus; their key objective centers on production improvement processes. This orientation was prominent during the industrial era and in the capitalism period of the 1950s.

In the 1930’s, competition had increased to a great extent; the marketer’s basic focus remained on production precision and in many segments the demand remained unfulfilled. Automatically, firms started adopting sales orientation. When marketing idea rests only on the selling of goods or services which means when marketers concentrate only on pushing sales without really bothering to offer the products and services as per customer’s requirement the marketing focus is lost.

Levitt presented his viewpoints very accurately in his famous paper titled “Marketing Myopia” that contentment of the marketers in terms of product, production and sales is a pure illusion which can cause their failure in market. In my opinion Theodore Levitt was the original Marketing Guru; because this famous paper of Levitt marked the beginning of the modern marketing movement 54 years back. The concept is based on pragmatism. The paper was based on primary data collected from the oil companies. Levitt had redefined the oil companies business as “energy business” than just petroleum selling companies. The CEO’s of oil companies then started concentrating on vision and mission with a new spectrum.

One reason for the shortsightedness is due to unpredictability of the future. While this is a justifiable concern; in spite of a whole range of sales prediction techniques available in the market, the sales cannot be forecasted precisely.  But, the other view point is that when the market changes, it offers more opportunities to marketers; though it is not easy to win the market by creating an entirely new product category. Therefore, concentrating on the offering as per the customer’s need in the initial stage is a must.

In 2007, when Microsoft launched Windows Vista, the media and the public had high expectations. So did the company, which allotted $500 million for marketing research and predicted that 50% of users would run the premium edition within two years. But the software had so many compatibility and presentation problems that even Microsoft’s most loyal customers revolted. Vista flopped, and Apple’s Mac OS X desktop operating system clicked, causing many consumers to believe that Vista had even more problems than it did. Apple’s entry at the right time when market revolted against Vista gave it advantage of prohibiting Microsoft’s monopoly to a great extent.

The elements of a product such as core of the product – the ingredients, shape, size, color, design of product, the pricing and the packing of product matters.  As the business moves through the stages of product development, in the initial stage itself an understanding of the product development strategy helps. Making a good or even superior product cannot ensure that anyone will buy it. But, understanding of market, and the understanding of what consumers want does help in positioning of the product on the right plank.

Two strong reasons for marketing myopia:

Lack of depth in understanding the target market:  Marketers must know what makes their consumers buy their product. Which problems of their consumers need to be solved? Understanding the perceptions of the consumers helps in designing the products.  This is not an easy task with most products. When products fail, it is difficult to pinpoint which customers’ i.e which segment caused its failure. It implies ‘everyone’, which in fact means no-one. ‘Everyone’ includes the entire distribution approach, promotional strategy and the after sales service strategy. For example, if the product is a medical product, then the chain includes the channel partner who sells the product, the hospital that buys it, the doctors who uses it and the patients who benefit from it. All of them are involved in failing the product. They are all involved, but each must be considered independently while deciding the strategy. All of these players have different needs. Each player’s need requires to be understood. A detailed dialogue with each one and a detailed observation of each one will make the job easy.

Often marketing research is skewed when questions are not asked pin pointedly. When questionnaire is administered with blurred objectives the intent gets misunderstood. New products can take on a life of their own within an organization, becoming so hyped that there’s no turning back. Coca-Cola’s C2 (diet Coke) brand was a failure because of the fact that C2’s benefits weren’t distinctive enough. Coca-Cola identified a new market: 20 to 40 years old men who liked the taste of Coke excluding its calories and carbs and liked the no-calorie aspect of Diet Coke but they did not like its feminine image. C2, which had half the calories and carbs and all the taste of original Coke, was introduced in 2004 with a whooping $50 million advertising campaign. But, the product failed miserably due to skewed understanding of what customers really wanted. The budget couldn’t overcome rejection of the hybrid drink; the customers wanted full flavor with no calories or carbs, not half the calories and carbs. Friends, but the low-carb trend was short-lived. Positioning a product to leverage a fad is most common mistake made by marketers.

Absence of value proposition in pricing: The exercise on pricing process by which a company adds value to a product or service includes designing of product, production, distribution, marketing, and the provision of after-sales service. The pricing is also based on how each participant is going to make money from the product and what precision each of them is going to lend in making the product valuable for the final consumer.  This should be a formal process with a spreadsheet that quantifies the value proposition and commercial model. In 2004 P&G launched a scent “player” that looked like a CD player and emitted scents (contained on $5.99 discs with names like “Relaxing in the Hammock”) every 30 minutes. The company hired the singer Shania Twain for its launch commercials. This confused consumers, many of whom thought the device involved both music and scents, and the ambiguity caused failure of the product.

P&G lost heavily even because of its ambiguous pricing: hiring the celebrity singer, the advertisement campaign, the channel partner’s cost everything.  When a product is truly revolutionary, it requires a special handling. A strong educational campaign of how to use the product perhaps would have helped in boosting the sales of the product. The pricing of the product was randomly misunderstood by the consumers.

There are umpteen cases of product failures and product success; the fact remains that an organization needs to select and develop a product as per its target market’s taste, determine right price, select the ideal distribution channel to reach the place and develop and implement the right promotional strategy.

Organizations can avoid becoming myopic by listening to what the customers are saying; never stop evolving. Be mindful of new trends and remember those trends may live for long or die shortly. Keep adding new products to portfolio – practice self cannibalization, by doing so, they can enjoy bigger market share by gaining fresh frontiers. Listen to experts – be updated about new trends, new development on Internet – websites, blogs, micro blogs and industry analysis.

Corporate communication plays a key role in how investors, suppliers, employees, competitors, government and the general public perceive a company. The corporate communication department often reports directly to a company’s chief executive officer, while serving as advisers in managing a company’s reputation. They help firm’s leaders prepare for media interviews, develop messages to deliver to investors and employees and suggest new initiatives to keep a company ahead, to make its existence prominent and keeping its communication up-to-date and progressive with its stakeholders. Corporate communication is a management function or department, like finance, operations, logistics or marketing dedicated to the distribution of information to key constituencies, and the implementation of corporate strategy as well as the development of information for a variety of purposes for the organization.

It consists of both Internal and external communication. Internal communication is the process of exchanging information among the people of different level or internal participants within the organization. It is directly linked to the process of human resources. It connects the employees with the company’s larger picture; reminding them on regular intervals regarding the company’s goals & objectives; letting the employees know about the company’s achievements, advising on corporate strategy, talent management, employee engagement, business strategies, change management, business development, CSR, motivating & empowering employees through various developmental schemes. Further letting the employees learn about the new initiatives taken by the company, training and development of the employees, mentoring and business reviewing etc.

And, external communication is the process of keeping the external participants informed about organization’s well being and how the organization wants the external participants to get involved with their business.

Both internal and external communication mediates heavily on business and its positive influence for furthering the organization. It also holds an important spot in the organization structure. If effectively used, corporate communication can certainly help the organization in overcoming some choppy issues and curtailing the bad media effect. The leaders need to understand and appreciate this and should make use of this level-playing strategic tool for utmost benefit. It helps reducing and ignoring mundane and typecasted messages by reducing the uncomfortable gaps with its stakeholders. It’s no longer a mere ornamental corporate mouthpiece.

Corporate communication consists of some complex responsibilities, such as:

Rapport with media: Corporate communication managers are friendly with the media at large. It involves write-ups on various happening in the organization such as appointment of new CEO, new products being introduced by the organization, CSR initiatives taken, diversification opted if any, association of the firms with various bodies etc, etc. This department responds to the media’s queries. Corporate communication department watches over planning for news conferences, including selecting the site for an event, arranging for banners and other graphics to be displayed at the event, preparing folders of information to distribute to the media and preparing executives to speak at news conferences.  It assists the spokes person with relevant data and organizes the spokes person’s interviews in various media vehicles such as radio, TV, newspapers, websites etc. In short, this department is well associated with the media by devising strategies to do away with any sort of wrong propaganda.

Public Relation: The department is responsible to maintain healthy and sociable relationships with customers by responding to inquiries from them. This task involves producing newsletters, brochures and other printed materials designed for the general public. It also manages the company’s website and social media presence, which includes monitoring what customers and clients are saying about the company on social networking websites and responding to imprecise posts if any. The department is extremely alert to wade off any defaming posts on social media. They respond directly to calls and emails from citizens and customers with questions about a company’s plans or activities. They arrange for speakers from the company to make presentations to local community groups and may facilitate group tours to the company’s works.

We can no longer take social media lightly. It isn’t just an online space for posting holiday snaps, pseudo-philosophical opinions or pictures of pets, friends and family functions.  Since the use of online social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have become widespread, businesses have to incorporate these communication channels into their marketing mix else,  they might get left behind. It has become an important tool to increase brand awareness, to promote products or services, to educate, entertain, recruit and collect data about current and prospective clients.

These days corporate blogging has evolved its presence much more than ever imagined. It isfar beyond the idea of personal journaling.  Corporate are using blogging as a flexible tool to connect with stakeholders at large. The websites of organizations are supported by multiple blogs subtly discussing the organization’s mottos, goals, and philosophies. Blogs display the products and services of the organization in more than pink health.  You may be surprised at the diversity of blogs in these examples; Caterpillar, Starbucks, Marriot, General Electric, Sony, Lever, P&G all of these and many more companies are making best use of blogs.

Look at the blog of Fiskars and you will be amazed to see how in the world you create passion for scissors!!  Fiskars has done it in one of the most creative blogs in the corporate world. The company took help from four scrapbook fanatics who demonstrate their love of crafting with scissors. It’s beyond imagination, that some such idea would work wonders. I tell you friends, marketing is all about imagination. This blog is one of the greatest marketing wonders I have ever seen.

Similarly, Southwest Airlines has used blogging very well. It is one of the world’s best-known corporate blogs. It’s also one of the most honest blogs. It carries good, bad, ugly experiences of people with airlines. The blog talks about travel and the people who make it happen. This is the anti-corporate-press-release blog. Southwest has wisely used its blog to connect with its employees regarding what passengers want from the airline, what their expectations are.

I have to mention here how Mastercard and Paypal have leveraged social media in innovative, creative way that has shored up their businesses. So coming back to corporate communication departments – they are responsible for using social media in their favor.

Communication in adversity: In anyevent which threaten public safety or a company’s reputation, corporate communicators need to swoon in as guards. They need to immediately advise CEOs and senior leaders how to manage the crisis. Candidates specially trained in the issues unique to crisis communication helps corporate communicators prepare for events such as chemical spills, blasts, violence in the workplace, an accidental death on the job, murder, layoff announcements and allegations against company’s wrongdoing. They closely guard the company’s reputation by keeping a friendly rapport with the employees to understand their pulse and develop crisis communication plans before disaster such as strikes or layoffs. The corporate communication department needs to work with attorneys, government, regulators, politicians, police, and magistrates. In case any accidents take place they need to respond immediately by rushing the injured employee to the hospitals, getting the aid of insurance etc.

Thus the department works friendly with the in-house people, external stakeholders, government, police, hospitals, insurance companies, entertainment agencies and media, NGOs so on and so forth. With the increase in importance of communication in business, the status of Public Relations (PR) has changed fundamentally. PR has transformed itself and has rechristened as Corporate Communication. It has become one of the pivotal functions in the management. It is required for a cohesive and joint purpose and direction. In the big, bad world putting the right foot forward is a must for any organization. Communication today binds the company with the outside as well as inside stakeholders. The world economy has opened its doors to the global market. This demands an organization strong in foundation, leadership, clear business focus with strategies, motivated skill-sets and adaptable management.

If you are good in written, oral communication; if you like connecting with people, if you are a go-getter and are alert, quick thinker please take corporate communication/PR as your career. It has very bright future.