"As the science of influence, public relations plays a central role in building and sustaining corporate reputation through powerful communication of a company’s good work. As we look forward into 2010 and beyond, we will see public relations being leveraged far beyond traditional press relations to enable deep stakeholder engagement on a sustained basis, forming a key to protecting and enhancing corporate reputation."

Manager-Marcom & PR, Canon India

Shobha Vasudevan has been with Canon for eight years and has over 12 years of experience encompassing PR, branding and advertising. She is spearheading public relations and advertising for Canon in India.

Vasudevan’s contribution in building Canon as a brand in India speaks volumes. The IT sector has constantly been evolving and she kept pace with the developments. She has been successful in making Canon a strong brand in a highly dynamic and competitive market place. She has played a pivotal role in building a positive image for Canon in the country and has effectively implemented communication and marketing strategies to achieve Canon’s goal of providing the masses with quality and superior products. She has also come up with some innovative marketing campaigns from time to time to reach out to Tier II and III cities. Canon’s city-specific projects for its divisions have led the company to reach out to the regional markets, which have been Canon’s focus.

Vasudevan has also been instrumental in making Canon No. 1 in terms of quality of coverage in the hardware category as per a survey by Business Today. She has also won two Canon India President's award for best advertising campaign in 2007 for ‘Aamchi Mumbai’ and in 2009 for Laser Printers.

Prior to Canon, she had worked for a year with Sportz Convergence Group, the first sports project management and consultancy company in India, which provides online and offline convergence in the field of sports technology content and events. Her responsibility for corporate communications and PR was to ensure accuracy of messaging and managing celebrity clients such as Sourav Ganguly, Muttiah Murlidharan, Navjot Singh Siddhu, and Chetan Sharma. She has also worked with the International Management Group (IMG), the world’s largest marketing and management company.

In conversation with exchange4media’s Pallavi Goorha Kashyup, Vasudevan speaks at length about Canon’s communication strategy in India and the latest developments in public relations in the country.

What kind of vision have you outlined for Canon for the year ahead?

The corporate philosophy of Canon is ‘kyosei’, which literary means “Living and working together for the common good”. At Canon, we define it as, "All people, regardless of race, religion or culture, harmoniously living and working together into the future”. Global companies must foster good relations, not only with their customers and the communities in which they operate, but also with nations and the environment. They must also bear the responsibility for the impact of their activities on society. For this reason, Canon’s goal is to be the leading company in the digital imaging industry through innovative technologies, revolutionary marketing activities and sustainable growth. Canon India aims to be the company that is respected by people. People, who work for Canon and those related with it, will take pride in their association.

In terms of strategic direction, Canon will aim to consolidate its leading position across many product categories by focusing more on developing B and C towns and reach technology to the masses. We will have regular programmes like ‘Canon on Wheels’ and city-specific programmes like ‘Capture Mumbai’ to provide technology experience to the consumers.

Essentially, what are the key plans for Canon?

Our focus is to accelerate the pace to reach out to our audiences. The focus this year will be to provide customers hands-on experience of Canon products and reach wider audience. For this, we have launched two customer focused campaigns – ‘Canon on Wheels’ and ‘My Ixus, My Style.’

‘Canon on Wheels’ – Canon Image Mobile Express – aims to connect not just with its customers in the metros, but in Tier II and Tier III cities as well. To materialise this novel concept, Canon on Wheels has a caravan of four vans that move in different cities to set up ‘Canon Image Fest’ mini expo that provides a touch and feel experience. This will travel to cover 50 cities across India and target over 5 lakh customers.

Canon India will soon launch its television commercial – ‘My Ixus, My Style’. The new creatively rich commercial focuses on youngsters and will be aired from March 2010 onwards. Canon will also be creating Ixus corners with a total of 500 outlets, out of which 150 will be in Mumbai. Canon is also focused on targeting more channel partners to educate them so that they can communicate efficiently to our customers.

We will also focus on various government projects on e-governance, which require technology products such as digital cameras, projectors, scanners, printers, copiers, etc.

How has the growth of Canon been?

We have carried on our momentum of last year and are doing well. The overall revenue of last year was Rs 840 crore, which is a growth of 28 per cent over the previous year. We also achieved the No. 1 position across six product categories, including laser printers, D-SLR, etc. Canon India’s target for 2010 is Rs 1,100 crore.

What potential trends do you see in the PR domain? How do you see the future of your business?

The trend that I notice very clearly is people exploring and effectively using social media. Twitter and Facebook have spread like fire and individuals to companies are using this form of communication. Today, the blogging bug has bitten so many and it is increasing in India as well. This clearly shows that we are marching towards a digital lifestyle and becoming technologically more equipped.

We also have a blog on our website www.canon.co.in where conversations range from photography to future trends and more. Canon’s website, ‘Canon Edge’, also has more than 10,000 customers, who can discuss anything from tips and tricks to camera angles, etc. Also, we would look at using social media more to communicate with potential customers and also stay connected with the existing customers and partners. This new medium will help us understand our audiences better and we, too, will be able to keep them updated with the latest happenings.

Coming to broader issues, where would you say the PR industry stands today?

As the science of influence, public relations plays a central role in building and sustaining corporate reputation through powerful communication of a company’s good work. As we look forward into 2010 and beyond, we will see public relations being leveraged far beyond traditional press relations to enable deep stakeholder engagement on a sustained basis, forming a key to protecting and enhancing corporate reputation.

As more and more brands compete for the consumer’s share of the wallet, the emergence of buying power of the youth of India will form a pivot for change and innovation. This ‘youngistan’ will continue to grow in the coming years, the information and influence sources will increasingly shift to ‘New Media’ and the Internet, too, has become a dominant medium for the Gen Next to share information and express themselves. With the advent of 3G networks and the growing penetration of notebooks, companies would need to effectively harness these new developments to connect and converse with their audiences. Virtual media, such as online journals and magazines, personal blogs, podcasts, community radios, and other fast growing ‘social media’ like Facebook, Orkut, Flickr, etc., thus need to be understood and leveraged effectively by public relations professionals.

And finally, the engagement with the Government will grow as the momentum towards accountability, transparency and responsiveness grows. This will lead to a growing demand for public affairs expertise as the Government evolves from a player in the arena to a referee and the third umpire our journey of nation building.

What, according to you, is the outlook of PR in India and globally? What are the new developments taking place in the field of PR? What about the future challenges?

According to me, the PR industry in India is at par with the PR industry globally. In fact, the number of print and electronic media that we have is much more than any in even the developed countries. Also, the regional media that we have in India and tapping them efficiently takes a lot of understanding and is very challenging.

The PR industry has evolved over the years and we have come a long way. We have seen global agencies setting up their businesses in India, which is proof that India is an important market and the role of PR is crucial for companies. Though we all are globally connected, news still has to be localised and made relevant to each market for effective messaging.

How will you differentiate between PR and corporate communication?

Just like journalism and PR go hand-in-hand, so do corporate communication and PR. Both aim at reaching the right audiences, at the right time, to communicate the right message. Corporate communication is an integral part for any organisation. It includes not only interacting with the external media, but also timely updating the employees with effectual internal communications. Being into corporate communication allows us to focus on one company and do a lot of in-depth work for them. It allows concentration on brand imaging, messaging and telling the story behind the brand.

Public relations provide a service for the company by helping to give the public and the media a better understanding of how the company works. PR also helps the company to achieve its full potential by engaging not only with the media, but also provide support in communicating to the board customers with apt messaging. The role of PR and corporate communication is inter-linked.

The only difference that I can think of is that corporate communication allows us to focus on one company, while as public relations professionals you tend to work for more than one brand at a time.

Essentially, what are the key communication plans for Canon?

Canon is about ‘Delighting people’, capturing memories and bringing a smile to their faces. Our key communication plan is to always pursue this philosophy. Our well-structured communication campaign aims to inform our consumers about new products, latest offerings and also about our company’s health. This process involves doing a thorough research of timing the release of our products and also coming up with technologically advanced products. It also helps to develop a stronger, more controlled image for Canon.

What factors do you take into account before deciding on the communication strategy for Canon?

The key focus before deciding any communication strategy for Canon is to maintain the reputation of my company and co-relating it to achieve business objectives. There is a lot of research that we do before designing and implementing the plans. We are in the business of communing an organisation's story through the media. We focus on telling a story that will be useful to our partners. Our communication strategy is designed to be holistic between different focus divisions, that is, Imaging Communications Product, Consumer Systems Product, and Business Imaging Systems.