ANALYSING levels of most organisations’ visibility in the eyes of each group of stakeholders can be worrying. And considering an English adage that ‘out of sight; out of mind’; one can argue that most organisations which don’t increase their visibility risk being written off in the minds of their stakeholders.
But before I continue, I would like to thank our esteemed readers of this column for your untiring efforts to give us feedback about how beneficial this column is to you, to your Public Relations (PR) career and indeed to your organisations.
Notable on such readers are Gabriel C Banda, Christopher Hamukali, Mafipe Mwanza and many others.
Mr Banda and Mr Hamukali are both Lusaka residents; and state that such articles are eye-openers on PR studies and on various issues that positively and negatively affect organisations. Mr Mwanza, a Kitwe
resident, says as a lecturer in PR, he uses such articles to add practical aspects of his PR lessons. Mr Mwanza reports that even his PR students find such articles very helpful in their PR studies.
Like Eustance Ng’andu, a University of Zambia Mass Communication lecturer, Mr Hamukali and others have advised me to compile a PR book from such articles so that many people can read such articles in one volume.
Encarta Dictionaries define visibility as ability to be seen; public prominence or the degree to which somebody or something is easily noticed by and catches the attention of the public or a group of people. This is what each organisation is supposed to do on a regularly basis.
Now take few seconds to reflect on how effective your organisation is in visibility strategies with each group of your stakeholders. When did your organisation last have a meeting with each group of its stakeholders? What does your organisation do to be seen, heard, felt and or to be smelt in the local communities? How prominent is your organisation among various stakeholders in the whole community you serve?
As a manufacturer of a certain good or as a service provider, do people know your chief executive officer (CEO) or any member of top management? How often does your organisation visit various stakeholders to get timely feedback; and learn about how your product or service is performing with respective customers or clients respectively?
Do you regularly try to learn about any change of need, taste or technology from your customers,  clients, distributors and or agents?
For instance, late President Michael Sata used to encourage members of Parliament (MPs) to visit their respective constituencies regularly.
He also encouraged his cabinet ministers to go out in rural areas to see how people were living so that they (ministers)  can apply themselves accordingly; and make Government relevant to the electorate.
Have you made your organisation relevant to your customers or clients and to the community you serve or that stiff competition is eroding your relevance to the community you are supposed to serve?
Similarly, consider how some political parties have been marketing themselves to the electorate. While Zambia boasts of having more than 32 political parties, few of such political parties are visible to electorate in most parts of the country.
Just as some political leaders are only heard of or seen during elections, some organisations rarely go out to get a feedback; and learn from customers, clients or users about how their product is performing.
Little do most organisations know that by not increasing their visibility with each group of their stakeholders, they risk being forgotten in the minds of such stakeholders. They also risk losing business and support from many customers and stakeholders. Such a situation gives or has already given an opportunity to competitors to take over your market.
And when competitors take over your customers, it is more costly to recover each of such customers. You can imagine how some political parties which stopped campaigning in some far flung areas might struggle to remind the electorate of such political parties’ existence if they participate in the next presidential election.
It is from such a background that one can argue that most organisations that are successful are those which have high visibility with their stakeholders.
To have high visibility, an organisation should continuously interact with various stakeholders; and attract support from many stakeholders.
British Institute of Public Relations (BIPR) states that PR is a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding and goodwill between an organisation and its publics (As revised in 1987).
Such PR definition reminds us of the need to have a deliberate effort to continuously interact with each group of stakeholders, attract as many PR publics as possible, create an open-door communication policy with each group of stakeholders, do what they need and expect from the organisation, contribute to addressing their challenges or concerns in order to make them see, hear, feel, taste and smell our presence in their communities at all times.
Establishing and developing an open-door communication policy is critical in effective PR because it facilitate collection of timely information that can be synthesised, interpreted and used accordingly in promoting mutual understanding between an organisation and each of its publics.
Moreover, while one can argue that an organisation has representatives at local level to interact and seek support from stakeholders at that level, top management officials are supposed to reinforce such presence at local levels.
One can also argue that establishing and developing an open-door communication  policy with stakeholders such as effectively using a suggestion box, running radio and television live phone-in programmes, writing a column in a newspaper or magazine and holding meetings with relevant stakeholders when need arises is costly to an organisation.
However, actually it is the simplest and cheapest way of conducting some forms of PR research which can be beneficial to an organisation when one considers how pro-active such an organisation can be in issues that might positively and or negatively affect your organisation.
Additionally, it is an open-door communication policy that leads to mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. Mutual understanding easily leads to mutual benefit between an organisation and its stakeholders.
And mutual benefit culminates into goodwill for an organisation from its publics.
While one can argue that good products or services which are sent or provided on time to our customers is enough visibility in the eyes of our customers, one can also argue that while you feel that the presence of your products or services in the local community are enough visibility in that area, your competitors might be appealing to all five senses to all groups of stakeholders; making your competitors more visible and with high goodwill in the eyes of their stakeholders than your organisation.
Such a situation might make your organisation lose out a lot on customer loyalty and stakeholders’ support.
Don’t behave like a crocodile which when it hatches the eggs, between itself and its children, it is each crocodile for itself; and God for us all. Interact with your customers, clients and agents regularly.
Let them see, hear, feel, smell and taste your organisation’s presence at that level at all times.
Therefore, increase the visibility of your organisation. Ensure that each group of stakeholders sees, hears, feels, smells and tastes your organisation at all times.
Regular presence of CEO and other top management officials at community level is critical in increasing visibility strategies.
Make the name of your organisation a household name not only to your customers or clients but also to all community members. Increase your organisation’s visibility for more support from all your stakeholders,  more customer loyalty, more sales and more profits for your organisation.
The author is a PR Trainer and Consultant.
For comments and ideas, contact:
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