Andrej is a BBS lecturer, the president of BrandBusinessSchool and the head of Module 1.

He is a co-founder of Formitas BBDO, marketing communication agency – caring for the excellence of communications of domestic and international brands.

• 1979 - he began his career as a market researcher at Iskra
• 1983 - manager of business fairs in the electronics industry for Iskra
• 1986 - account manager at the Studio Marketing advertising agency
• 1988 - marketing director of Hewlett-Packard in Yugoslavia
• 1991 - together with partners he founded the Formitas BBDO agency in which he did great work as a creative director
• 2003 - he was occupied by strategic communication questions and new business opportunities
• 2008 - President of the BrandBusinessSchool

You can read Andrej's article bellow and download it by clicking here.

National sport brands in collaboration with nature. -

He wrote the book (together with the co-author Franci Vidic, M.Sc.) A guide through the marketing galaxy. He is an active author of several articles and texts in the marketing and creative fields and is also a co-author in different miscellanies.

He is involved in diverse international and domestic competition juries, round tables, seminars and festivals. He actively co-operates with the University of Ljubljana.

He is a composer, producer and performer of numerous music projects in advertising and in the areas of pop and jazz music.

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Who cannot live without whom?

Since I’ve been working in the market communication area, and it means for decades, there was always the question that did not allow me to sleep: why are PR people and why is PR as a communication branch disconnected from other market communications, or why do PR people think that they are doing something totally different from advertisers, sales promoters and other market communicators.They are all working for the same sake: well being of a company! The more I dig in brand science this question comes even more in front.

Everything is based on mind orientation of business people who should in first place understand that there is only one conception that really matters when they are not in person in the market. This phenomenon is not a thing but somebody called THE BRAND.

PR should be considered in wider sense

PR people are trying to achieve a high image of the company with help of transparent and objective communication of company subjects. They communicate with different publics and they care for the company’s reputation. That is clear, but… There is something that is not correct in actual times. We are living in hectic times and a lot of PR stuff is unseen, unnoticed. Too much information, too many messages, all dull and logic. Have PR people ever thought of a fantastic source for much more attractive and adorable PR messages? Is there something within the company that can serve as an inspiration? Has a company something that represents it fully? Is this phenomena regarded as something very important?

Brand is your representative in the market. It communicates your business instead of you.

I’m asking you – what fully represents a company? Are these PR people, managing directors, employees or is it the company’s brand? My other question is – what has the longest durability and remains unchanged? Are these PR people, managing directors, employees or the company brand? The answer to all these questions and also many others is THE BRAND. It can be the company brand or the product brand. People are moving form company to company, employee loyalty is not a virtue any more.

We all know that communicating means creating interactions. But interactions cannot always be interpersonal, frankly speaking. When, for example, PR people cannot be present when making communication with different publics there should be someone there instead of them. And that is the greatest market personality – THE BRAND.

No brand = No credibility

The BRAND in fact is the most stable market personality. If properly managed it creates a strong company reputation and helps in every single market communication. Also in PR communications! The brand covers your back and gives power to your PR muscles. Imagine sending out two different press releases: one from BMW and the other from Saratogata. To which more attention will be paid? Or organize two events: to the first people are invited by McDonalds and to the second by Noodleland. Where do you think more important people will gather?

A big opportunity used too seldom

There are practical cases where the company or the product brand was and is used as the strongest PR weapon. Just think about The BodyShop or Starbucks. Or maybe RedBull and Gorenje? All these cases are market communication cases and they all used brands as the main players. The image of these brands is strong and they are all credible and transparent. They all have strong PR stories. Think about yourself and your company’s PR activities. Have they ever taken your brand as the main communicator? Have they ever create or use the company – brand story for better attention?

This is the reason why there is no doubt: first you need a strong brand and then you can have a strong PR. It could be the opposite but it will cost you too much energy, time, money and efforts.

Remember

There is one important mindset that you should adopt: NO BRAND - NO BUSINESS. NO BRAND – POOR PR!

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