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| Source - suitsusafans.com |
If
I had to choose one TV series to watch all my life, it would be Suits. Besides
a list of actors who portray their characters impeccably, the dialogues are
written intelligently and wittily that it becomes obvious how much research and
thinking has gone into writing the script and building the characters; so much
so that viewers can pick up a lesson or two from watching the series. Okay,
that’s probably an understatement.
You’re
probably thinking – how in the world does a legal drama relate to Public
Relations (PR)? Directly, they don’t; but the series is not merely about Harvey
and Ross trying to get through a day without being found out that Ross had
never attended law school, but it is also about attaining facts and developing
strategies to defend their clients. And
we all know those make quite the portion in PR too.
To
begin with, here are a couple of lessons I took from Harvey Specter. Rest
assured you won’t be reading an essay (I leave that to Craig;) So, here goes!
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| Source - starkeeper.tumblr.com |
“Study, learn and
know your competition”
In
the Orchan office, each individual is known for something. I’m known as The
Stalker, but really, that’s because I do a lot of research. As with any field
of work, when representing a Client, it is always good to know who its
competitions are. But why stop there when you can go a step further, and get to
know the people who are working with or representing the competition?
It
isn’t always easy, but the Internet is vast. Even if it’s a written piece by
the person working with or representing the competition, there is always a
chance to understand their thought process – what goes into their strategy,
what is their focal point when it comes to their different clients, or at least
how they approach a brand of a certain kind (be it FMCG, start-ups, etc.).
Sure, you may end up as far as scratching only the surface, but you never know
how this little information can help you at a later time; for example not
repeating a certain style of launching in the coming two weeks knowing that the
Media had already witnessed it just a week ago.
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| Source - mentalmasala.com |
“Play the man, not
the odds”
So,
you’ve got your research done. You’ve got the facts; you’ve got a gist of your
competition’s strategy. But that isn’t going to cut it. At the end of the day,
your target audience is your focal point. If the strategy was to simply address
them based on facts and numbers, and the growing pride of making the launch
different than what the competition did three weeks ago, it simply isn’t going
to come close to influencing the target audience. That is why considering their
emotional intelligence is key, as that associates your client to the target
audience.
Part
One – over. Do share with us if you’ve got some favourite lessons you took away
from watching Suits; or we could always meet up for coffee if you’d like. Here’s
one of my personal favourite quotes from my favourite episode (Season One,
Episode 3 – Inside Track) to end. Although it doesn’t have direct relations to
the above points, it is a quote I believe applies to practitioners of all
fields. Okay, it is a long quote:
“Doing
good work isn’t the whole job (…) you were giving me sh*t this morning because
I come and go when I want to. You know why I can do that? Because when I got
here, I dominated. They thought I worked a hundred hours a day. Now, no matter
what time I get in, nobody questions my ability to get the job done. Get it
through your head. First impressions last. You start behind the eight ball
you’ll never get in front.”
Cheers,
Christina
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