No more a clothesline to hang the unmentionables

TT Abraham, DGM, corporate communications, Ashok Leyland, and past chairman, Public Relations Society of India, Chennai, talks to Venkatachari Jagannathan on PR communications

Thomas T Abraham"India is apt to make communication professionals and companies complacent and smug unless one cares to check, monitor delivery and seek feedback," remarks 54-year-old Thomas T Abraham, deputy general manager, Corporate Communications, Ashok Leyland Limited and a past chairman of the Chennai chapter of Public Relations Society of India (PRSI).

Explaining the challenge he adds, "India is highly fragmented in demographic segmentation. The multiplicity of media itself fragments this audience equally."

According to him, even if 10 newspapers carry a communication from the company, the message actually reaches only a fraction of the target audience. Therefore, he says, "Communication professionals should not be satisfied with the number of publications that carried the message."

A communication professional with three decades of experience, Abraham says the effective way of conveying a message is to make the target audience participate in the event.