Knowing ‘Brand Goa’ paramount for corporates who come to the sunny State to promote their products
It's that time of the year again when monsoons have near-about reached an end, and people from all over India are going to come to Goa to enjoy few days of vacation. It's also when a number of corporate events happen in Goa, as several Indian and foreign companies plan product launches and some really high profile conferences in this beautiful beach state. So far so good!
However, often, in their interactions with the local press, these companies appear woefully unprepared. It begs a question as to why that is so given that there is a battery of public relations executives and corporate communications officials, whose very job is to explain to the companies the context and the meaning of each and every question sent by local media to them.
Despite such personnel available for assistance, often managements of visiting companies don't adequately reply to questions about their own Goa operations. The replies to local media in Goa are by and large the replies they would have given to media in Mumbai or in Delhi.
Granted that some kind of standardisation in corporate replies is expected because each and every word has to be carefully weighed to analyse what impact it can have on brand image. But, not knowing enough about Goan market is not forgivable. Because in that case, it becomes tough to explain as to what that company is doing in Goa.
Imagine that a company is organising a product launch in Goa and it calls media from the state and even from outside. In such a situation, it's not excusable if that company doesn't know or refuses to comment on the market share of its own products in Goa.
In some cases, journalists are told that the concerned company is a private limited company and hence is unwilling to announce sensitive market data in public. But, even then, some kind of disclosure is necessary to put things in perspective so that journalists, through their articles, can spread knowledge about the company's operations to the general public.
By that token, if a company is under-prepared to speak to the local media, it could be interpreted that that company is not willing to engage with its customers in that place either.
Besides, it also highlights another dichotomy. On one hand, companies are in touch with consumers through Twitter, Facebook, websites and what not. On the other hand, they don't properly utilise a chance to interact with the local media.
The visiting companies must realise that Goa is a brand in itself. If they promote their products and engage with media in Goa professionally, it will only help in strengthening their own image in national and global markets.
