The changing role of PR firms in Poland<BR>

It's a multi-million dollar business with the nine companies on the WBJ's list which disclosed 1994 income making around $7 million between them.
Although the lead players are big Western companies like Burson-Marsteller, Polish firms are making an impact.
First Public Relations, one of the first Polish public relations firms, has on its client list big names like Boeing, AT&T and General Electric. While the first clients mainly were international companies, the client base now includes a growing number of Polish companies, such as the insurance company PZU Zycie and Zywiec brewery.
Not knowing the Polish market and not understanding the Polish mentality means that "public relations done in a Western way does not work, the tools of passing information are different," says Piotr Czarnowski, president of First Public Relations.
PR companies say part of their job is to write press releases, organize press conferences, seminars and cocktail parties for companies. Some like Alcat Communications and Burson-Marsteller act as business consultants.
But under the paper work and tablecloths, they're really selling a company's image. And that's a complicated, problematic job.
In a competitive market, image can make all the difference for small companies seeking to make a name for themselves. While the concept is well-understood in the West, PR firms here have had to go out and teach their clients about what they do and what they can do for their clients. Convincing owners and managers who have never had to market a corporate image isn't easy, public relations experts say.
"In the previous set-up the last thing people wanted to do was sell something," says Alma Kadragic, managing director of Alcat Communications.
Burson-Marsteller staff sits down with clients to talk about specific business plans, company strategy and goals and "what the target audience really wants," says Paul Vosloo, company managing director.
From what the experts say, Polish companies think all they have to do is pay the public relations companies to write a press release and they'll be successful.
Companies "don't distinguish between public relations and a spokesman," says Agnieszka Dziedzic, president of Feedback, a small Polish public relations company established in November 1994.
Educating clients is not the only problem PR firms face.
Some public relations firms themselves "mistake what (PR) is, they see it as advertising," says Czarnowski of First Public Relations.
While the market for public relations companies has grown, experts anticipate another boom when more than 400 companies in the Mass Privatization Program (MPP) hit the market. Companies planning to go on the Warsaw Stock Exchange "need to communicate with institutional investors and need help communicating with analysts," says Vosloo of Burson-Marsteller.