Marketing Talk: The "What If?" factor: how managers can improve their odds

In our communications-obsessed world, size has an advantage: bigger countries with larger economies inevitably make a bigger impact, and because they command a lion's share of the media attention, make a bigger splash.

Similarly, bigger brands - and bigger budgets - always attract more media attention, and thus make a bigger impact when it comes to advertising and public relations.

During the Asean Summit, however, Cambodia, a smaller player within the bloc, managed to make both a global and domestic impact, and almost managed to overshadow the event itself.

Hun Sen, Cambodia's prime minister, stole the limelight from the host, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and even diverted attention from the arrival of Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, with his vocal support for ousted Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The reaction to this unanticipated event should serve as a lesson for all managers on the value of preparing media strategies to be employed when unforeseen events arise.

Crisis management has been necessary on numerous occasions for managers responsible for brand image in the pharmaceutical, beverage and motor-vehicle industries, to name but a few.

In the private sector, management - particularly communications managers - and public-relations teams are waking up to the fact that it is vital to carefully prepare and effectively execute a strategy to manage media when volatility or unpredicted events arise during the life cycle of a brand.

Most of these strategies employ some form of crisis-management technique to minimise the negative effects of such occurrences.

Returning to the Asean Summit, the Thai government could have used such a strategy to better manage the media response to the rift that developed between Thailand and Cambodia in the wake of Hun Sen's comments.

The incident took on a life of its own, spreading across viral and traditional media and growing beyond the level of diplomacy, which can be safely dealt with at the Foreign Ministry level.

It became a popular issue, fraught with political implications and providing opportunities for political groups to score points with the public at the expense of the Thai people's happiness and economic welfare.

Eventually, our government, I am sure, will resolve the issue and prevent it from weakening regional unity.

But the event demonstrates the necessity for all of us to put on our thinking caps and take steps to better deal with potentially unpredictable situations as they relate to our country, company or brand.

The "What if?" factor must be kept in mind when devising an integrated marketing and communications strategy.

As a matter of fact, this concept should be part of marketing training and put to the test regularly, like a fire drill.

The moral of the story, in the advertising and public-relations game, is that small fish can eat big fish. And for our political leaders, the social network is rapidly becoming a politically powerful tool that must be reckoned with.

Look at Google, Facebook and Twitter: communications channels are no longer limited to print, radio and television. Web journalism and the Web economy are very real.

They grow on consumers, marketers and communicators alike.

Most importantly, this is a global phenomenon. A few years ago, who would have envisioned online gambling websites?

These sites are being advertised in the Thai language, inviting Thais to bet (yes, bet!) on football games being played in England. Games are broadcast live via satellite on cable and the Internet. I cannot in good faith discuss the laws of this land regarding gambling: I used to love to gamble, too, and I must confess I broke those laws on occasion.

The point is, the "What if?" factor must be kept in mind if unpredictability is to be managed, be it in business or politics. If not, the risks are huge: it doesn't make sense to gamble when you don't know the odds.