Meet Rahul Singh: The man who believes that brands can make or break businesses

When I mention photocopy, ‘Xerox’ comes to your mind. When I hint at a soft drink, ‘Coca-cola’ rings a bell. This is what brands do. Branding is the invisible thread that ties it all together: product, story, vision, target customers, solution. Meet Rahul Singh, the founder of The Publicity Dude, an award-winning PR agency who affirms that branding is a powerful communication weapon that can transform any business into a successful one.

With a non-related background in finance, Rahul made a modest beginning as a business columnist for companies in India and the US. He has published diverse write-ups on business, marketing, and PR. He also worked for a Singapore-based start-up which painted his story in a whole new light. It was then where Rahul realised that this was his breakthrough as he was paid for something he aspired to do. Rahul took a lot of inspiration from publicists in the US who carefully weaved success stories to aggregate business and wanted to furbish this mechanism for Indian businesses. It took no time for him to realize that this industry has tremendous potential in the near future. This embarked his journey as an entrepreneur where he set out to build The Publicity Dude in the year 2017. Rahul believes that in the field of communications, it is never about the amount of effort, but always about how closely the outcomes are aligned to expected results. The Publicity Dude has been bestowed with various awards and accolades by reputed media organizations.

 

Today, the digital empowerment of customers means one viral video from one customer can rewrite your whole narrative in a moment. What does that mean for 10-15 years in the future? Customers will own a brand’s narrative, and the brand’s job will be to curate, evolve, and engage that narrative in real-time. Branding will move from the outside in. The focus on projecting will transform into a process of revelation. Brands will worry less about positioning to match the audience and more about matching purpose to actions. The top brands of the future must create great products and be authentic in understanding the benefits and identify those products provided to their users. This means first creating strong awareness, with a defined point of view about your company. Once people start to know and love you, your top ambassadors and influencers will create content and market for you. If you listen to what they’re saying, they will help craft your future performance marketing messaging.

The x-factor of Rahul’s team is that they can combine data with content vis-à-vis certain tools that have been developed internally. Neuromarketing is his approach where Rahul assists his clients by calculating the risks and eliminating them. The Publicity Dude uses different simulation techniques for the distribution of press releases, tracking the coverage, and many more. The company stresses improving public relations to drive improved business solutions. While the company has placed its footprints at a PAN India level, it aims to build multiple subsidiaries in Bangalore by 2021 as well as Delhi and Mumbai. Rahul says that although the industry has evolved manifold, change being the only constant, the industry is yet to witness a real disruption. If you want to enhance your communication with your customers and generate leads, then companies need to have an inclusive online content strategy; while the trend of influencer engagement is there to stay, what is becoming increasingly difficult to measure is direct Return on Investment (ROI) through such engagements; Artificial Intelligence (AI) is only going to strengthen and evolve at a breakneck pace; less content and more campaigns to drive conversions and build audiences will become the approach. To all aspiring brand advocates, he sends out a message: ‘Keep your dreams alive! Be yourself, work at your own pace, and chart your own definition of success. He believes that you can’t wait for the right time to start a business because it never arrives. It is important to start whenever, most importantly start now. ’

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