In the Tuesday evening, a cozy audience of GSOM SPbU was filled with guests - graduates, corporate partners, students and employees of the School. Within the framework of the Alumni Expertise Club meeting, the GSOM Family team together with PR Club SPb gathered leading experts in the field of marketing. Natalia Belkova, Director General of the Agency for Business Communications 4D, Kermen Mandzhieva, PR Director of the North-West Branch of OJSC MegaFon, and Valeria Ivanova, Head of PR and Advertising Department of Losevo Company, talked about the specifics of communicative strategies of the companies. The moderators of the discussion were Stanislav Smirnov, Head of the Marketing and Customer Support Department at TKB Investment Partners, and Maria Smirnova, Associate Professor of the Marketing Department at GSOM SPbU.

 

Openness in the trend   In the regime of an ever-changing world, it is necessary to "be alert" - to track trends and technological achievements, and for companies it is very important to be flexible and to have ability to adapt quickly. The company "Losevo" is the production of natural dairy and meat products, has actively developed the last few years. Its first full-fledged advertising campaign company held only in 10 years of its existence, but this did not prevent the active sales growth. In favor of development, both the introduction into the trends of healthy nutrition and the conditions for import substitution, as well as the competently constructed policy of communication with consumers through social networks, active interaction with the media and well-established communication processes within the company played great roles in this growth. Valeria Ivanova highlighted: direct and prompt interaction with the consumer and the openness of the company's internal processes are always in the trend.

Services for the client of the era of digital   Multilateral business platforms, the boom of which we have seen on the market in recent years, influenced the attitude towards property: "verification" has touched many processes, and now for the the digital era customers the main value is not the products that he can possess, but the services that he can receive. At the same time, what these services will be is the consumer dictates. Natalia Belkova mentioned that even companies that usually create a mass product turn in their communications into personalization, and the main focus and emphasis of marketing strategies is shifted to the needs of the audience. In turn, the client is important to see that the company understands and takes into account its needs. In this regard, advertising agencies do not approach each PR campaign in a standard way, but they immerse in the specifics of the client company in detail, actively interact with both its managers and employees in order to understand the features and uniqueness of the company product.

What does it mean to have a sense of beauty for a professional communication?   Kermen Magdiyeva, PR director of the North-West branch of OJSC Megafon, noted the importance of using technologies and trends to build communication with consumers. For people it is important to meet with the brand both online and offline. Separately, Kermen, as a representative of the Russian Association for Public Relations, touched upon the issues of the professional standard of a communications specialist. Education and professional skills, or "hard skills", which were previously the focus of attention in the first place, now go to the background, and at the first - come out "soft skills", i.e. personal characteristics, which include, among others, the ability to motivate, delegate, proactivity, reflexivity, attentiveness, communication skills, etc. All this in the professional standard is called "human capital". The expert paid special attention to the availability of such competence as "a sense of beauty" among the specialists, for her opinion it helps to write a good text, evaluate the creative and work with anti-crisis communications. PR director of Megafon at the same time noted that the professional standards are a non-permanent substance: new trends and an ever-changing world make the specialists also change, develop, and correspond.

   

 

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