PANIC: A common language for branding?

Building sustainable relationships in PR is hard.

Clients like shiny objects. They grow addicted to media hits at the expense of substantive brand development. Even when media coverage is bountiful, the measurement tools we use are irrelevant, symptomatic nonsense like “clicks” and “ad-value.”

That makes PR seem like hocus-pocus, while it obscures an ugly secret: There’s no real ballast steadying most client-agency relationships other than glossy graphics of bad data and the fear inspired by the old PR-client mantra—“What have you done for me lately?”

To build lasting relationships and create potent media campaigns, communicators must begin with a keen understanding of a brand.

That might sound obvious, but there’s a vast gulf between knowing that branding is important and actually comprehending how it works. Branding seems relatively unstructured, chiefly because so much of it is about feel—hard to quantify, even harder to harness. A common language to validate branding as a discipline has for too long remained elusive.

A solution: PANIC (Purpose, Aesthetic, Narrative, Influence and Craftsmanship).

PANIC is a branding diagnostic that isolates the elements of branding, breaking down abstract concepts into concrete qualities that can be measured, analyzed, and put into action. PANIC is an objective and accountable standard, a Newtonian First Law of PR in building strong client relationships and effective campaigns that deeply connect to company interests.

Here’s how it works:

PANIC solves two vexing PR issues

It standardizes brand terms and applies rigorous benchmarks for success. It establishes a five-part framework for thinking about brand elements.

Each element is further defined, further broken down, and assigned a value. This initial measurement, a high-definition brand snapshot, brings out PR goals and offers clear directions for encouraging growth and measuring progress.

PANIC metrics serve as the foundation for more selective direct polling that produces richer data on brand perception, internally and externally. I believe that this more precise method of brand analysis could become a new standard in market surveys, replacing surveys that yield data only loosely connected to the brand.

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I believe PANIC develops better strategies that nurture business—not just media coverage, clicks or hits. PANIC tactics have established new best practices for Qatar Airways that produce massive media effects in new US PR opportunities. These tactics also strike a balance between commerce and community service. Preserving this balance as an element of Qatar’s brand emerged only after a PANIC analysis.

PANIC’s fixed-value standards make it more than an external PR tool

The structure of PANIC makes its analysis accessible to clients. They better understand budget allocation and targets—the very things that PR communicators fight for. By using PANIC metrics to find the value of media in PR campaigns, you increase clarity in mission (and purpose) in your team, and increase the value of your work.

Great things can happen. Our industry qualifies as an intellectual pursuit, and rigorous thought is the core of PR.

We must put our mouths where our data are, and claim a bigger piece of the pie that marketing and advertising now hog. We must justify our craft more intelligently.

Marco Larsen is a principal at Public in New York City. His organization lectures at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business, where his method is taught as part of the luxury-marketing curriculum.

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