Global Public Relations

In 2012, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) unveiled the modern definition of PR: “Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.” For the past few decades, public relations has become an indispensable part of every company. In today’s rapidly changing globally connected communication landscape, corporations are not satisfied with just staying in their home markets. Instead, many of them decide to move forward and enter into the international market, where public relations serves a more essential role in conducting strategic communication plans that better connect the organizations and the publics.

As the study conducted by foreign exchange company USForex found, 58% of small businesses in the U.S. already have international customers, while 72% plan to grow their international customer base by 2017 (Bose, 2016). Globalization is irresistible. It is a fact and a trend that more businesses have expanded or will expand globally. According to “The Authentic Enterprise Study,” corporations are changing from “hierarchical, monolithic and multinational” models to “ horizontal, networked and globally integrated” ones. In other words, the world is shifting to a “flat world,” thanks to the development of the internet, technology and free trade agreements. The global market means not only more consumers or greater profits but also different cultures and backgrounds, which brings both opportunities and threats to companies, as well as the public relations industry. Therefore, in order to promote the brand or products internationally or globally, it is essential for all public relations practitioners to understand what is global PR and how to conduct successful global PR campaigns.

According to Burchell (2010), global public relations is defined as the planned and organized effort of a company, an institution, or the government to establish mutually beneficial relations with publics of other nations, which is similar to the definition of PR provided by PRSA but on the global level.

However, entering the global market is never an easy move. In an analysis of 20,000 companies in 30 countries, Stadler, Mayer, and Hautz (2015) found that companies selling abroad had an average Return on Assets (ROA), an indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total assets, of minus 1% as long as five years after their move. It takes 10 years to reach a modest +1% and only 40% of companies turn in more than 3%. Simply, most companies had difficulty or even failed in international expansions. This indicates that what works for American consumers doesn’t always translate well in other countries. Therefore, we, as PR practitioners, should find the most appropriate and efficient way to conduct global PR campaigns and make sure our message is clearly delivered to the target audience. After analyzing three global giants - KFC, Coca-Cola, and Airbnb - and how they became successful global role models, I conclude three different PR strategies that can help companies to better connect with their foreign audience and can be applied in almost all cases.

• Dive into the local culture

The first method to successfully break into a new market is to redefine yourself in terms of where you are and how society changes. According to Berkman and Keating (2015), consumers will develop a deeper trust and connection with brands that understand them from a variety of social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds. In other words, understanding what your consumers need, becoming what they need, and changing as their needs change are essential so consumers will consider you as a part of the culture instead of a “foreigner” who has nothing in common but is forced to merge into the group. Therefore, it’s important to develop a unique PR communication plan for each market.

KFC did a good job diving into the local culture and becoming part of it. In November 1987, KFC opened its first outlet in Beijing, which was marked as its first move into the Chinese market. With no doubt, KFC has been the No.1 fast food chain in China since then, outperforming all competitors in the number of outlets, revenue, and market share. By 2017, KFC had opened 5,138 restaurants in China, and the average daily turnover of one KFC outlet in China was around 50,000 yuan or more than $8,000 (2017). Needless to say, its revenue and the number of its outlets keep growing. What contributes to KFC’s huge success?

When KFC first entered China, it attracted many kids by using cartoon mascots and many parents used KFC as an incentive to get their kids to behave well and score good grades in school. As a result, during its first few years in China, KFC mainly targeted children. However, this didn’t work out well because of China’s One-Child Policy, which limited the number of children one family could have, and, consequently, the number of consumers who were interested in KFC. Realizing that China is a collectivist country, after redefining its customer portfolio, ranging from three to 80 years old, KFC abandoned cartoon mascots and produced a series of advertisements that portrayed the chain as the perfect and the most thoughtful food to share with family and friends (click this link to see an example: https://youtu.be/cGVllXS-iCc ). Many people were deeply touched by these advertisements and became huge KFC fans. In recent years, as talent shows and E-sport competitions became popular with young adults, KFC hired many idols from the talents shows as its spokespersons and sponsored the best-known E-sport competition in China. By doing so, KFC shifted its focus toward delivering the message that, although it has been around for a long time, it was still a young brand full of passion and energy.

In addition to changing its communication and marketing strategies as the society and people’s needs changed, KFC also tailored its menu by adding local cuisine options such as egg tarts, fried dough sticks, and congee. Moreover, KFC is also sensitive to regional differences in tastes. For example, KFC spicy chicken is much hotter in Sichuan, where people love spicy food, than in Shanghai.

Similarly, KFC in Japan reflects the local preference for dark meat over white meat and serves rice bowls and bento boxes familiar to Japanese consumers (Tormsen, 2018). By adjusting its menu and diversifying its communication strategies, KFC adapts itself to the external and changing circumstance. KFC is completely different in different countries, and it wins consumers all over the world. As a result, in order to promote the brand or product globally, it is essential for public relations practitioners to conduct more research and get to know the market and target audience better before they enter a new market. Moreover, public relations practitioners should conduct unique plans for each market to fulfill consumers’ needs and integrate into their daily lives instead of selling ideas or products blindly.

• All for one and one for all

Although it is necessary to adapt yourself to what your audience wants, it is also indispensable to remain true to what you start with. Therefore, the second strategy I conclude to do global PR better is no matter how many markets you have entered or how many different PR campaigns you have conducted, the message you try to deliver should always be the same. In other words, all your communication strategies should serve your brand’s spirit and your brand’s spirit should be applied to all your communication strategies.

Coca-Cola is one of the greatest and most successful models that has developed global markets expertly. The key to Coke’s success is to work hard to ensure consistency. Whenever or wherever Coke conducts a campaign or tries to send out messages, it always emphasizes love, happiness, diversity, and sharing with others. According to the Coca-Cola company (2011), it considers its 125-year journey as 125 years of sharing happiness.

Take the “Open Happiness” campaign as an example. Coke launched this global campaign in 2009, aiming to tie together the pleasure of opening up a drink and the satisfaction of sharing with others. In addition to a series of print advertisements (Macleod, 2011), several videos were released all over the world: the one released in Australia portrayed young adults having fun with a sky-diving simulator in the middle of the ocean while opening a Coke in the air; the Spanish one told the story of a boy following the lead of a map he found by the ocean and sharing coke with a girl at the final destination; in Brazil, Coke’s Happiness Truck sent out free drinks to people and recorded their happiness. Coke also invited Korea’s best-known boy band 2PM to record the cover version of the song “Open Happiness” and its music video. Moreover, Coke even released one video that shows how different animals cooperate to open and taste the coke.

For all the videos, although they were in different languages and told different stories, they all shared the same theme that opening a coke and sharing with others will bring you love, friendship, and happiness. The consistent and strong focus on sharing and happiness is also the reason why worldwide consumers were touched and influenced deeply. Therefore, learning from Coca-Cola and its “Open Happiness” campaign, we can conclude that another good way to conduct a successful global PR campaign is to always stick with the main and the most essential message your brand tries to send out and make sure all your campaigns and communication strategies work around with it.

• One is enough

It’s certainly beneficial to differentiate PR campaigns and communication plans among global markets; however, is there any possibility that one campaign, video, or communication strategy is enough? The answer is definitely a “yes.” Developing and launching only one plan for the entire global market is actually much more complicated than it seems to be, especially if your consumers speak foreign languages or live in foreign cultures. So how can one message be understood by the whole world? The answer is “it depends,” because companies face different situations and there is never a clear and absolute answer. But fortunately, we can always learn from other outstanding brands and absorb the merits of others.

Take Airbnb as an example. Founded 11 years ago in San Francisco, Airbnb is one of the world’s fastest-growing holiday websites, listing 800,000 properties in 34,000 cities across 90 different countries (2018). There is no doubt that Airbnb succeeded in the global market, but when it changed its logo in 2014, it became the thing that contributed heavily to its current accomplishments.

Before 2014, the logo of Airbnb, designed by one of its founders, was the full spelling of “airbnb,” using Underware’s Bello font. But since it was in English, many of Airbnb’s foreign consumers were not familiar with English, which made them feel disconnected. Understanding this problem, the founder Chesky (2014) wanted a new logo that features the core of Airbnb: belonging. That’s when Bélo came in. According to Chesky (2014) and Airbnb’s official introduction video, Bélo represents “the universal symbol of belonging.” Moreover, it stands for four things: people, places, love, and most importantly, Airbnb. As the picture below shows, with some changes and twists, Bélo can be transformed into a person with hands up, the location symbol, a heart, and the letter “A.” Portraying its consumers as people who seek to belong and connect, Airbnb aims to bring the feeling of safety and acceptance to its global audience, and its new logo, Bélo, was its first step.

Bélo is a great success story, not only because it’s simpler and easier to remember than before, but because it’s a symbol. In other words, as symbols are universal, Bélo is recognizable for all global consumers, no matter where they are from and what languages they speak. Accordingly, to produce one message and send it out all over the world, it’s important for us to find something sticky and universal. Based on Airbnb’s experience and many other examples, we can conclude that one PR strategy and communication plan can also succeed in the global market, and we just need to find one thing in common.

Above are the three different global PR strategies that I concluded from the successes KFC, Coca-Cola, and Airbnb achieved in the global market. They can be applied either solely or in combination. It’s never easy to break into the global market, but finding the most appropriate and efficient way to conduct global PR is halfway done because it can help companies better connect with their foreign audience.

References

All About PR. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.prsa.org/all-about-pr/.

Berkman, G. & Keating, C. (2015). Diversity in Public Relations: Why We Need It. Retrieved from https://blog.pancommunications.com/blog/prspeak/2015/01/diversity-public-relations-need

Bose, S. (2016). 58 Percent of Small Businesses Already Have International Customers, Survey Finds. Retrieved from https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/08/small-businesses-going-global-survey.html

Burchell, A. (2010). International public relations [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/apburchell/international-public-relations-5668403

Chesky, B. (2014, July 18). Belong Anywhere. Retrieved from https://blog.atairbnb.com/belong-anywhere/

Coca-Cola 125 years booklet (2011). Retrieved from https://www.coca-colacompany.com/content/dam/journey/us/en/private/fileassets/pdf/2011/05/Coca-Cola_125_years_booklet.pdf

Macleod, D. (2011). Coca Cola Open Happiness. Retrieved from http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/coca-cola-open-happiness/

Stadler, C., Mayer, M., & Hautz, J. (2015). Few Companies Actually Succeed at Going Global. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/03/few-companies-actually-succeed-at-going-global

The Authentic Enterprise Study. (n.d.). Retrieved from Https://instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Authentic_Enterprise_White_Paper1.pdf.

Tormsen, D. (2018). 9 ways KFC is completely different in other countries. Retrieved from https://www.mashed.com/29305/9-ways-kfc-completely-different-countries/

What is Airbnb? 12 questions answered on the world's fastest-growing holiday website. (2018). Retrieved from https://home.bt.com/lifestyle/travel/travel-advice/what-is-airbnb-11363981595930

Why KFC is China's reigning fast-food champion (2017). Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/food/why-kfc-is-chinas-reigning-fast-food-champion