PR in the East and West: The differences are big

• Source: Global Times
• [11:38 November 04 2009]
• Comments

By Richard Burger

I've worked in public relations in the US and China for quite a few years, and when a friend recently asked me what Chinese and American PR people can learn from one another, it got me thinking.

Product marketing and branding are relatively new concepts in China, so it's not surprising that the approach of Chinese mainland companies to communications is quite different from that in the West.

Public relations in China is only now coming into its own. But that's not to say we can't learn anything from our Chinese counterparts. For example, I am always amazed at the ability of a good Chinese PR pro to own their media relationships.

That is to say, they are wonderfully adept at building strong relationships with the reporters who cover their clients, to sensational effect. This is something that I often feel the US media relations industry has lost touch with – the "relations" part of "public relations."

The Chinese PR experts I know are unsurpassed at cultivating relationships among the media and using this skill to win great results for their clients. We in the West would do well to re-learn the art (really more a science) of building, fostering, maintaining and leveraging our media relationships.

As Chinese companies expand their horizons and play on the international stage, I believe they're going to adopt more and more Western communications practices, which include an emphasis on giving reporters fast access and ample information.

We in the West are far more willing to badger the executive who doesn't want to answer a question, to the point of nearly insisting that they get in front of the media and answer questions. For cultural reasons that go far back, Chinese PR people often see a high-level executive as someone they take orders from, not someone they counsel and tell what to do.

In the West, good PR practitioners are always of the mind that they have two clients – the media and the actual, paying client. Reporters are a client we go far out of our way for, to get them anything and everything they want, even faster than they need it.