Voce client Eric Brown from NetApp recently gave a local PRSA seminar on “Building out a Global PR Program.” Below is a list of Brown’s best practices when taking your program international, as well as some common myths re: international public relations.
Best Practices:
- Integrated marketing is everything - PR should not be a stand alone program. If PR is all you’re doing in a specific region, you ought to rethink dedicating resources to that region.
- Get in the habit of reading The Economist - CNN and Fox News are too US centric. Expand your literary horizons.
- Take a cultural sensitivity training class - A seemingly benign gesture to you may offend someone else.
- Plan to wine and dine - Business outside the US is done between 5:00PM and 2:00AM. Don’t skip out at the end of the day to watch movies in your hotel room. (PS - you may have to eat jellyfish.)
- Don’t assume everyone’s English fluency - People may nod when you talk, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they understand you.
- Get close to local management - Bond with the locals. You need them on your side when you’re an ocean away.
- Squeeze out middlemen and filters - Carefully analyze those that try to take control of your program (e.g. resellers, distributors, PR agencies looking solely at the bottom line etc).
- Internationalize “New Media”- Corporate Blogs can be a great tool to repurpose content regionally.
- Set the goals, get out of the way - Get the right people in place and don’t micromanage. You don’t have the time.
Some Common International PR Myths:
- The UK is just like the US
- British journalists are the “toughest”
- Content is more important than style
- “We won’t need a translator”
- French loathe Americans
- Everyone in Amsterdam tokes
- Chinese are hungry for Americana
- I won’t survive Japan if I don’t eat sushi
- Journalists won’t accept gifts, trips, or junkets
- Advertising and PR are separate/distinct
- Business ink is doable everywhere
- “My country is unlike any on Earth”
Technorati Tags: International, NetApp, PR
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