Don't shoot the messenger

There is something about the word 'consultant' that triggers an instant reaction in most brokers - and it is often a curled lip. Consultants come with big price tags, that is the view commonly held across the insurance industry. They parachute in, drop a few words of management-speak, point to the latest thinking on globalisation's impact on the fragmentation of long-tail risk profiles, then parachute out again leaving an invoice that brings tears to the eyes and a host of problems trailing in their wake. As this seems to be the popular conception, is it any wonder that a consultant is about as welcome in a broker's office as a Hungarian pigeon on a Bernard Matthews farm.

Consultants as a group may be viewed as the lowest of the low but just as there is a pecking order among a pack of cowardly hyenas, so the different types of consultants can be ranked in awfulness according to their particular skill sets. IT consultants may be stereotyped as lacking in the most basic of social graces but at least the knowledge and expertise they offer is unlikely to be available within the average brokerage, or so the thinking goes. However, when it comes to public relations consultants, what possible value can they add? After all, PR is nothing more than a jumped-up way of talking about communication and, as everybody knows, communication is simply a natural talent - one has either got it or one has not. Most brokers, who perceive themselves as affable and charismatic sales people, believe that the essence of natural communication ability oozes from their every pore - at least that is what they think.

Justifying the need

Flip to the other side of the coin for a moment: a manager of a regional broker is arrested for fraud; an embittered policyholder screams professional negligence to a local newspaper; a fire sweeps through office premises destroying vital policy documentation and the brand spanking new computer system - as recommended by the IT consultant - leaving the business on its knees. Just how much natural communication talent is it going to take to salvage a broker's reputation in these circumstances? Will the charm and boyish good looks of the managing director be sufficient to satisfy the pack of ravenous journalists who want to know why 5000 policyholders' confidential details were found dumped in a municipal waste tip?

To be frank, justifying the need for PR at times of crisis is the easy part of the equation. Even most brokers recognise that when reputations are at stake, and litigation looms on the horizon, a good PR consultant may well be a sensible investment. It is the other side of the equation that's more problematic: the positive side. While brokers are as adept as any other business sector at grasping the rudiments of PR damage limitation, the idea of using PR professionals to promote the positive aspects of their business seems either unnecessary or ineffectual. The question is why do brokers take such a stance when other business sectors see PR as a vital part of their marketing arsenal?

Popular stereotype

There is no doubt that the popular stereotype of PR consultants has played a part in brokers' reluctance to engage them. Having featured heavily in a number of television programmes, the media's portrayal of PR consultants tends to be as either sadistic former hacks, dizzy bubble-headed debutantes, or foppish dilettantes with a penchant for expensive restaurants. You may not be surprised to learn that the reputation of the PR industry is a perennial subject for debate among PRs themselves.

In reality there are two key reasons why brokers tend to shun the dark arts of PR. The fact that PR is something of an optional extra is certainly the first. In the great scheme of things, when running a brokerage there will be those items which are an absolute necessity - a new IT system to provide the data required by the Financial Services Authority; new equipment to comply with Heath and Safety legislation; and business continuity planning - and those that are not, which include PR. This is understandable, particularly when brokers are experiencing tough financial conditions. However, to relegate PR to the realms of a desirable extra that might one day be affordable is to wilfully neglect a significant part of the marketing mix. The fact is that every business is engaged in PR, whether it is aware of it or not. It is not the hiring of a PR professional that triggers the PR activity, that was already there in the entire range of communication that the broker is engaged in - from websites, to e-mails, to letters, to face-to-face meetings. The PR consultant's job is to manage a broker's PR activity. It is a self evident truth, although a slightly awkward phrase, that it is impossible not to communicate. Even the act of remaining silent speaks volumes.

The second fact that acts as a deterrent for brokers is their lack of appreciation of what PR actually entails. If put on the spot, most brokers would equate PR with issuing press releases and phoning journalists. From a PR's perspective, this is roughly the same as saying that all a doctor does is write prescriptions. Yes, it is a part of the job but frankly it is a single aspect of a far more complex role that begins much earlier, when the PR first begins to consider how communication can assist a broker to achieve his or her business objectives.

This lack of understanding on the part of brokers means that they find it particularly hard to envision exactly what a PR consultant might be able to do for them, and makes the prospect of trying to evaluate this even more daunting. How does one evaluate the effectiveness of some nebulous activity that seems to revolve around mass brainstorms fuelled by grande skinny lattes?

In truth, PR at its best is a discipline as structured and technical as IT consulting or business continuity planning. Like all disciplines it begins at the beginning with a question: what do you want to achieve? What is it that you are seeking to bring about? What are your business objectives? This is where good PR starts its activity because, without an appreciation of the needs of the business as a whole, how can the PR consultant provide advice that will truly add value?

Having developed an understanding of what goals a brokerage is pursuing, the second step for the PR is to ask another question: how can communication be used to bring about those goals? This is where the good PR consultant truly comes into his or her own. Sometimes the use of communication is quite apparent: the launch or a new product or service will clearly benefit from exposure in relevant media, generating awareness, sales leads and even business. However, sometimes, communication can be deployed in a much more subtle way. A broker's aim may be to make his or her business look attractive to a potential purchaser, or to raise staff moral, or to attract talented individuals to join the firm. All of these are valid objectives for a PR consultant to work towards.

Evaluation is the other great stumbling block: how do I assess if I am getting value for money from the PR activity I am paying for. The answer is that it depends on what objectives the PR is being used to achieve. The most basic form of evaluation is to measure the resultant media coverage and assess how much this would have cost as paid-for advertising to get a figure in pounds. If this figure is lower than the PR spend itself, one might question the effectiveness of the work. A slightly more sophisticated way of assessing media coverage is to adjust the value of the press coverage by the positivity or negativity of the story. Press coverage praising a broker's service or knowledge is far more valuable than a paid-for advertisement doing the same, because press coverage is independent and therefore a powerful endorsement. Consider how the entertainment industry uses critics' reviews to promote its films.

Evaluating media coverage alone shows that the PR consultant was successful in getting the necessary story into the media but as a form of evaluation it does not prove that anyone read it, or that having read it, they remembered its contents. Ultimately, the purpose of communication is to transfer information from one brain to another and the only way to discover whether the process worked is to ask the intended recipient some questions: what do you know about Broker A? Are you aware that Broker A launched a new commercial combined product this year? This type of market research is the true test of the effectiveness of PR, although many brokers will be deterred from using it by the cost. The reality is that there are many ways to conduct this type of research that need not be expensive such as through staff surveys or client questionnaires.

Evaluating work

PR need not be as mysterious or fluffy as some brokers believe. The consultants who ply this trade are the same as any others: give them clear objectives, comprehensible reporting lines and firm timescales and they will flourish. Let them know how you intend to evaluate their work - or ask them to suggest evaluation criteria - and the relationship will be begin on a solid foundation. From the PR's perspective, the most frustrating clients are those whose objectives are either so vague they serve no purpose - "I just want some good PR!" - or change from week to week: "OK, the focus is SME ... no, it's household ... now we're going direct ... now we're launching an aggregator ..."

One can take the same PR consultancy and bolt it onto 20 different brokers with 20 different results. While this could be seen as a testament to the diversity of the UK's brokers, it also shows that the results a PR consultant can achieve are heavily dependent on the way in which the client business behaves. Without wishing to appear like a PR Pontius Pilate, washing ones hands of blame, the reality is that a client can unwittingly sabotage a PR campaign just as effectively as a poor quality consultant.

While this article has attempted to address some of the mysteries surrounding PR consultancy, it is true to say that points discussed are of equal relevance to any consultant working for a broker. Clear objectives and evaluation criteria can only help a consultant, not hinder. Working relationships begun on a firm business footing will avoid many of the pitfalls of those commenced in vague agreements that conceal major differences of opinion that will only emerge as the work progresses. What is important for brokers is that they put their preconceptions about PR consultants, and consultants generally, on hold and instead ask a question or two. How can you help me? What can you do for my business? Then, the most important part, is to listen to the answer because they might just be surprised.

- Adrian Beeby, Head of media relations, FWD.