I believe that being radical in business is what defines your practice and gives it the distinguishing flavor among others. In a region that titles itself as the HUB, it is time to create our own flavor. We all hear about markets with distinct marks such as Singapore, KL, Hong Kong...but what is special about our HUB besides the fact that it is emerging and growing?
As I recall, books say that the western influence has had its roots in this HUB when the Europeans from the CONTINTENT imposed themselves as strategic counselors to our WISE leaders, this phase witnessed the time when business modules, educational paths and marketing strategies became an imported product sent by CIVILIZED nations that ruled half the globe. Not to drift into further politics, I'll focus on identifying the value of these imported products for our HUB and say whether or not this product facilitated more business transactions benefiting the local people and companies. Yet, before doing that, I’ll go fast through the evolution of PR in our region trying to know if we can utilize it and how.
Arabs have a saying that is identical to that of the English "Necessity is the mother of INVENTION", you might think that I am straying away from the subject, but no, I am still trying to understand why as an Arab I had to import PR? Was there a need (necessity)? How come this necessity only aroused during the presence of western troops at our land (post WW1, First Gulf War)? Isn't invention the name of locally thought and made concepts/products...? So if I (as an Arab) saw a need for communication discipline to support my image/reputation.. in the region among my consumers, how come I didn't invent one as the saying states? Isn't the imported product a reflection of a need/necessity in some other market??
Deciding whether we need PR or not in our market will require a more academic study filled with figures, charts and numbers prepared by personnel from the western hemisphere (so it can be believed). I don't think I'll wait for that to happen so I can talk about it, I'll just improvise relying on Allah, my Arabian guts, insights and Arabic cross cultural background developed due to intensive visits, work and meetings I experienced with the people and orgz from all around Arabia.
"Public Relations is an art of mass communication ignited by commercial objectives set by a company/organization/government seeking a certain image. This image helps the operation achieve its objectives ", I gave myself the permission to give this definition based on my years of PR practice in the region, if you agree then my later explanation should make sense to you. "PR is an art" in other words, it requires creativity and uniqueness, we only categorize any work as an art when we realize it's uniqueness. This creativity that reflects uniqueness requires a tolerant environment-regime that doesn't impose random regulations or irrational limits i.e: Freedom of ,speech, expression.... In this particular world, PR has never been an art, thus, PR doesn't help me communicate with the mass and will not support my image or set my reputation as the English man says it will in his shiny PowerPoint presentation. What will? Word Of Mouth supported by some fancy full page ads in Advertising/Newspapers. This conclusion will require that I talk more about word of mouth, how our societies generate it, and how it spreads via journalistic and non-journalistic channels that have existed centuries before the neo Romans exported PR to us.
I hope I didn't take long this time, please do send me your comments mentioning your name, profession and position.
Abdulhameed Halwani,
Have a good day
As I recall, books say that the western influence has had its roots in this HUB when the Europeans from the CONTINTENT imposed themselves as strategic counselors to our WISE leaders, this phase witnessed the time when business modules, educational paths and marketing strategies became an imported product sent by CIVILIZED nations that ruled half the globe. Not to drift into further politics, I'll focus on identifying the value of these imported products for our HUB and say whether or not this product facilitated more business transactions benefiting the local people and companies. Yet, before doing that, I’ll go fast through the evolution of PR in our region trying to know if we can utilize it and how.
Arabs have a saying that is identical to that of the English "Necessity is the mother of INVENTION", you might think that I am straying away from the subject, but no, I am still trying to understand why as an Arab I had to import PR? Was there a need (necessity)? How come this necessity only aroused during the presence of western troops at our land (post WW1, First Gulf War)? Isn't invention the name of locally thought and made concepts/products...? So if I (as an Arab) saw a need for communication discipline to support my image/reputation.. in the region among my consumers, how come I didn't invent one as the saying states? Isn't the imported product a reflection of a need/necessity in some other market??
Deciding whether we need PR or not in our market will require a more academic study filled with figures, charts and numbers prepared by personnel from the western hemisphere (so it can be believed). I don't think I'll wait for that to happen so I can talk about it, I'll just improvise relying on Allah, my Arabian guts, insights and Arabic cross cultural background developed due to intensive visits, work and meetings I experienced with the people and orgz from all around Arabia.
"Public Relations is an art of mass communication ignited by commercial objectives set by a company/organization/government seeking a certain image. This image helps the operation achieve its objectives ", I gave myself the permission to give this definition based on my years of PR practice in the region, if you agree then my later explanation should make sense to you. "PR is an art" in other words, it requires creativity and uniqueness, we only categorize any work as an art when we realize it's uniqueness. This creativity that reflects uniqueness requires a tolerant environment-regime that doesn't impose random regulations or irrational limits i.e: Freedom of ,speech, expression.... In this particular world, PR has never been an art, thus, PR doesn't help me communicate with the mass and will not support my image or set my reputation as the English man says it will in his shiny PowerPoint presentation. What will? Word Of Mouth supported by some fancy full page ads in Advertising/Newspapers. This conclusion will require that I talk more about word of mouth, how our societies generate it, and how it spreads via journalistic and non-journalistic channels that have existed centuries before the neo Romans exported PR to us.
I hope I didn't take long this time, please do send me your comments mentioning your name, profession and position.
Abdulhameed Halwani,
Have a good day
4 comments:
Let me start with supporting the initiative as a platform for better understanding of professional vehicles of PR in the region, leading to better practice of the industry by itself, the betterment of the institutions served internally/externally with PR, resulting in creating a school(s) by the people of the region who are being affected largely with the PR practice in all its tools. This is my motivation to write on this blog.
Rather than agree or disagree with the initiator author, at my first comment/participation, I would like to suggest a way to move this in a wider range. Meaning, if this is meant to be an open forum, then it should be an "open" forum, reaching the PR practitioners in the region, Arabs, foreigners, or from Mars. Saying so, this initiative will need to use the current trends of Word of Mouth to spread it, what are they? It seems this is part of the discussion here.
If this initiative is still at the testing period (which it should be the intention of the initiator), it should anyway test the ground of different grounds of target groups and audiences, and the results of the test after all (responses, comments, feedbacks, participations, and developments of the initiative through concrete measures) should anyway use the criterion of testing a blog (number of visitors, where from, how often, commenting of not, etc..).
Practically, I suggest that this initiative should be launched on the day to day platforms, like My Space, Facebook, etc.. At least till it rolls as a snow ball. After all, this initiative might continue without the original initiator, but he will have the privilege of starting it and make it an open source of ideas, innovation, and the advancement of an industry of the region. Or, it might stops like thousands of blocks stuck in the space of the cyber world.
At another stage, the initiative should reach to more advanced platforms, or what it�s believed to be more advanced, like The Middle East Public Relations Association and other professional organizations, after all change comes from in/out sides.
My hope is that this will open the door for this forum to be more dynamic and to be criticized on an organizational/professional level resulting in more recognition and maturity.
Constructively,
All the Best
Houssam Chahine
Development and Fundraising Consultant
I agree with Houssam's encouraging words to get this forum out to more public spheres and wider audiences, although I do understand the intial testing-of-the-waters-first approach as well.
This is a great subject to tackle, and for many reasons. I apologize, but my obsession with language and linguistics forces me to look first at the word "Public" and "Relations" and the meaning behind the combination. It's interesting to note that the combination of the two words fails to have meaning when applied to the Arab world, or any considered developing country, because what's happening is the exact opposite of relating to the public. What's really happening is diluting the public into adhereing to what the "civilized" regions consider to be valid/correct/intriguing, when in fact, just as the author said, this is not, and should not, necessarily be the case.
Of course this is all too obvious and my intention is not to repeat what the author just said, so I'll stop here, and try to extrapolate.
The problem i think lies, first and foremost, with the leaders of the arab world, who seem to always hunger after what the West is doing and what they want and how they're doing things etc. instead of looking at their own people for inspiration. This encourages the "supreme white man" to kick the door and move in and make the rules and call all the shots. I can't help but think that it's partly the fault of the Arabian mindset for allowing this.
Unfortunately we're living in an (imaginery) globalized world, that's really controlled by the West. Hence we write here in English to begin with.
At the same time, I'm not denying that we can cooperate. What needs to happen is educating the supposedly "all knowing white man" about the ways and customs and traditions of the average arabian, if at all we want him to become part of the communication strategy in the region, without necessarily waging a war against him.
And I say "him" because I'm a woman, and this imbalance on a global scale, and especially in the Arab world, hasn't been remedied yet. But that's a whole other different can of worms.
More later..
Rewa ZC
Grad Student/Aspiring Poet
USA
The responsibility lies within us, we chose to avoid “Innovation” and opt for “off the shelf” solutions defying “necessity is the mother of invention”. Between “innovate” and “import” we chose the latter, it is just easier. We chose solutions that have been tested elsewhere and proved successful regardless of insights, likes and dislikes of our people. We took the short cut, once again!
Who do we blame for this?
The West? Our Governments/ Leaders? Our Businessmen? Us/ Our People (the Consumers)?
Objectively, certainly not the first. That’s my view.
We proved to the world (and ourselves) that we are a society of consumers (Synonyms: importers, imitators, followers). Sorry, I was about to forget we are the biggest oil exporters on earth (thanks to Shell, Chevron, Caltex, BP and others… killon 3arab!).
I’ll stop here and go back to PR in Arabia… I will not speak theory here, I’ll share practice.
Does PR in its shape today help building our brands in the region? Certainly not. Why are we doing it? To satisfy egos. How so? we get 10 mbs of clippings of our press releases spread over dozens of publications EVERYTIME.
I haven’t seen the art of PR yet in this region; many PR strategists nowadays (whether at client side or agencies) “sell” you PR in numbers such as, 350 press releases, 9 press conferences, 2 languages, 25 countries, etc… Stuff like word of mouth, changing perceptions, building brands, crisis management, CSR, blogs, etc… are too “artistic” to shed light on.
I’m not sure if “PR Arabia” Initiative can eventually evolve to sub initiatives such as PR Gulf, PR Levant, PR North Africa for the obvious differences in lifestyle insights, likes and dislikes of those groups. I hope that this initiative develops to be a regional point of reference and a source of enrichment to our PR strategies and practices.
Looking forward to reading "Read 3".
All the best,
Rafic Naamani
Marketing Manager
Dubai
Thanks to all those who commented. it's obvoius that everyone has his own agenda here and this is exactly what I wanted this blog to do, make you realize that this industry has its own entity and everyone has a role in it. So everything u said is required and correct, the important part is always (implementation).
Rewa, I will eventually write in Arabic, but as we all know, the winners take it all as Arabs took it all during their invasion of Andalucia when europeans had to learn Arabic to study and develop.Our role is to maintain our Arabic id and not hide it as English will start fading away very soon when the chinese will take over. We will then switch to Mandarin (those who rule trading, impose the global language).
Keep writing,
HH
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