Public Relations Practice from Malaysia¶s Experience: A Case Study on Genting Berhad 1.
Introduction
Genting Berhad is a very success example in gambling and entertainment industry. The case study is focus on how the Public Relations of Genting Berhad play a role in managing and promoting the corporation. Genting Berhad was founded by Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong. Genting Highland Hotels starts to open for business after got the casino license in year 1971 from Malaysia¶s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman and being public listed in Kuala Lumpur Exchange. In year 1977, Genting Company invests in plantation division. After that Genting Company restructures as Genting Holdings that goes public in year 1989 and has a subsidiary, Resort World Bhd. Genting Highlands consist of indoors and out door games, that include roller coaster, indoor ice room, a nd others. others. Genting Holdings launches Star Cruises, than become Asia-Pacific¶s leading casino cruise operator in year 1993. After that, Genting Holdings diversifies with purchase of Sanyen Paper Mill complex and a 720 MW power plant that placed under Genting Sanyen Power Sdn Bhd in year 1994. In two year after that, Genting Holdings enters in oil and gas exploration market by purchase 45 percent stake in British Gas¶Muturi PSC in Irian Jaya, Indonesia. Indonesia. Other than t han that, Genting Holdings also investing in other country companies such as Australia, Philippines P hilippines,, Canada, Bahamas, Bahamas, UK and others. In year 2000 Genting Holdings begins it construction of it new 6,300-room First World Hotel, at Genting Highlands, which is also being call as the world largest hotel, Genting Holdings acquires equity interest inpower plant in India as part of continued industrial and geographic diversification. Genting Holdings have business in the star cruise business, properties propert ies business. After 33 years of Genting Gentin g Holdings, the founder of of Genting
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Highland Hotels, Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong decided to retire at age of 86 and let his son, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay to run the business. After three years of retirement, the founder of Genting Hol dings, dings, Tan Sri S ri Lim Goh Tong pass away in 23 October 2007. Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay become the CEO of Genting Holdings and builds a memorial land of Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong named as Goh Tong Memorial Park located 600meter from Goh Tong Villa. Genting Highlands became the well known with their gambling and entertainment. After few years, Genting Holdings start to invest in gambling and entertainment in other country such as New York, Malina, United Kingdom, and also Hong Kong. Genting now has become a well-known entertainment and gambling company. Genting Holdings successfully s uccessfully to gain a net profit of RM245.4mil in the quarter end in 31 December compare with a net loss of RM120.78mil a year before 2010 (Genting Malaysia Berhad, 2011).
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2.
Literature
Review
The research is focused on the business of gaming and entertainment. Therefore we are choosing Las Vegas Sands Corporation as our literature review company. We will focus on the Public Relations practices of Las Vegas Sands Corporation in terms of their marketing public relations, corporate social responsibility, corporate image a nd investor relations. Las Vegas Sands Corporation (LVS) is founded by Sheldon G. Adelson in 1988. It is a Fortune 500 company and the leading global developer of integrated resorts which includes hotel, gaming, resort and exhibition/convention. exhibition/convention. It is a multinational corporation which headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, United State. In United State, the properties of LVS including The Venetian and The Palazzo, Five-Diamond luxury resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. Besides that, LVS brought the similar concept into Macau and owns the business including The Venetian Macao, Four Seasons Hotel Macao and t he Four Seasons-branded serviced-apartments at its Cotai Strip development, as well as t he Sands Macao on the Macau peninsula. In 2008, LVS won the first concession for the Marine Bay Site in Singapore. LVS is an integrated resort with approximately 7,100 suites and approximately approximately 225,000 square feet of gaming space, which includes approximately 230 table games and 2,640 slot machines. The Venetian Las Vegas has 4,027 suites situated in a 3,014-suite, 35story three-winged tower rising above the casino and the 1, 013-suite, 013-suite, 12-story Venezia tower situated above a parking garage. The casino at The Venetian Las Vegas has approximately 120,000 square feet of gaming space and includes approximately 110 table games and 1,370 slot machines. The Palazzo features modern European ambience and design, is situated adjacent to and north of The Venetian Las Vegas, and is directly connected to The Venetian Las Vegas and Sands Expo Center. As in 30 September 2011, the net revenue for the third quarter of 2011 was a record of $2.41 Billion, an increase of 26.2% compared to $1.91 billion in the same quarter of 2010. In
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2010, Sands Expo Center has attracted approximately 0.9 million visitors to attend meetings, trade shows and conventions. (Las Vegas Sands, 2011) 2.1.
Marketing Public Relations
According to Kotler, Marketing Public Relations (MPR) is t he the narrow aspect of Public Relations which involves an organisation¶s interactions with consumers or with other publics such as governments regarding marketing matter like safety. MRP not only delivers a strong share of voice to win share of mind and heart; it also delivers a better, more effective voice in many cases. (Kitchen, 1999). There are few examples of MPR activities that are used public relations techniques and tactics and also applied of selling the organization¶s products and services such as special special events, booklets and brochures, trade shows and exhibits and sampling. MPR can benefit the selling of the organization¶s products or services in terms of credibility because of organisation¶s responsible action, media endorsement, useful information and social responsibility. To gain trust, organizations must be visible to consumers to build confidence and reassurance in their products¶ safety and value (Harris, 1998). MPR can benefit the selling of the organization¶s products or services in term of trust because of organization creating familiarity with the organization and its brand, making the organization more accessible and visible. According to Harris (1991), marketing public relations can be defined as the process of planning, executing and evaluating programmes that encourage purchase and consumer satisfaction through credible communication of information and impressions that identify companies and their products with the needs, wants, concerns, and interests of consumers. Responsible Gaming Program is one of the efforts by the MPR of Las Vegas Sands Corporation to generate media publicity and customer satisfaction through executing long term ongoing campaign. MPR of LVS collaborates with the expert from Harvard School of 4
Medicine, Division on Addictions to research on the behavior of gamblers. One of the programmes under this campaign is ³Play Responsibly´. They partnered with the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennyslvania (CCGP) to create training seminars on responsible gaming. CCGP is a non-profit organization affiliated with the National Council on problem gambling with the purpose to educate and disseminate information on compulsive gambling. MPR conduct training to train more than 6,000 team members to understand the warning signs of a problem gambler and commit to social responsibility in addressing the problem gambling occurs in Bethlehem and statewide. The team was educated to resolve the problem of gamblers and attempt to reduce harm that r elated to gambling problems.
Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem has provided a series of workshops and seminars for the public to educate problem gambler and during these events, trainers from the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania provided information on how to handle and resolve gambling addiction. Furthermore, there is a 17 days advanced training sessions which allowed clinicians to pursue their certification and to become approved providers of care for problem gamblers and their families. There were over 1,100 people attended the training. Besides that, they also provide hotline to assist t heir customers who are in gambling addiction.
In year 2011, LVS is also participating in AGA¶s Responsible Gaming Education Week, from August 1 till August 5. New educational brochures about house advantages, actual mathematical probabilities on winning, and addressing gaming myths and superstitions will be provided. Everyday there will be messages about the importance of responsible gaming posted around on television, LVS internal newsletter and poster.
According to Jim Pappas, executive director, Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania,
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³Sands Bethlehem started their responsible gaming initiative l ong before their doors were even open and the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania is grateful for their insight and dedication to responsible gaming outreach and education in an effort to lessen gambling problems in Bethlehem and statewide.´ (Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania, 2009)
During the 23rd National Conference on Problem Gambling in Indianapolis in year 2009, Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem was received Award from the National Council on Problem Gambling for their outstanding contribution and commitment to the community. The award recognized Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem¶s effort on responsible gambling.
MPR of LVS also extends this campaign to the international level. In year 2007, Venetian Macau Limited also started to i mplement a similar program which is adapted to the needs and culture of Macao and the specifics of this socio-economic environment. The purpose of Responsible Gaming Program is to create public awareness of a responsible gaming environment. This indirectly increases the credibility of the corporation. Sheldon Adelson, Las Vegas Sands CEO, ³Casino don¶t cause problem gambling, but we all have a responsibility to help compulsive gamblers.´ LVS able to win over the customers¶ mind and heart as the special event reflects the corporation of concerning the welfare of people instead of focusing on earning.
2.2.
Corporate Social Responsibility
³Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was described as a concept whereby a company integrates social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with t heir stakeholders on a voluntary basis´ (European Commission, 2001).
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CSR is playing an essential role in society and consists of responsibility for community, employees, the environment, shareholders and other stakeholders.
Carroll (1991) suggested CSR should be classified into four parts which consists economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities. Economy responsibility refers to the profitability of the corporation to maximize its earnings per share, whereas legal responsibility is refer to the obligation of complying with nation¶s laws and regulation. For ethical responsibility, it describes that corporations¶ operation should implement by obeying law. Philanthropic responsibility is the charitable expectation of the society a nd the voluntary services that could be contributed by corporations.
Kotler and Lee (2005) has listed different types sector t hat corporations contribute to society such as health, safety, education, employment, the environment, community and economic development, and other basic human needs and desires. Other than that, they also suggest few methods that can be implemented in CSR programs include: cash contributions, in-kind contributions, sponsorship, and employee volunteering. In order to enhance corporation¶s reputation, corporation¶s PR has to ensure these few sectors and methods are including in CSR programs.
Publics Relations of Las Vegas Sands Corporation also actively involves themselves into various types of CSR activities. The main focuses of their CSR activities are environment, community and also sponsorships. One of the most significant CSR initiatives on environment is Sands Eco 360°. It is a global Sustainable Development program which is based on three pillars including people, planet and profit. One of the programmes under this Sands Eco 360° is Eco-Linen program. They replace the traditional laundry operation with the new technologies which help to reduce 72% of water use. Besides that, they also use detergents that carry the Eicosapentaenoic acids of DfE (Designed for t he Environment) 7
Certification and non-perchloroethylene dry cleaning solvents which is environmental friendly. PR of LVS also partner with one of the charitable organizations- Clean the World to collect, recycle and distribute hotel soaps and bottled amenities to those in need in the United States and more than 45 countries, diverting more than 1.2 million pounds of waste from local landfills.
The company also has developed a property-wide recycling program, which recycles enough materials to make it one of the largest single-property recyclers in Las Vegas. This campaign has help Las Vegas Sands to make a great impact on the environment in several key areas. Its energy and water conservation practices save electricity annually which is enough to power 6,500 average American homes and saving 130 million gallons of potable water per year.
This programme helps LVS to earn a lot of recognition in international level. The launch of Sands Eco 360° which is conducted by the company¶s Venetian Resort and Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas had achieved LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for Existing Buildings Gold certification awarded by U.S. Green Building Council. The combined Venetian, Sands Expo, and Palazzo Las Vegas, which in 2008 received LEED for New Construction Silver certification, now comprise the largest LEED building in the world. It also earned the recognition from Jon C. Portal, one of the Member of Congress.
³The Palazzo Resort Hotel Casino¶s conservation program has allo wed for the development of a more energy efficient resort. Today, we celebrate as a community your efforts to design, build, and operate a resort property that is environmentally and socially responsible.´
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2.3.
Corporate image
Corporate image is the perceptions of consumer about the brand, or how they perceive it, which may not coincide with the brand identity. Companies have to work hard on the consumer experience to make sure that what customers see and think is what they want them to. Image is the perception of constituencies on how an organisation actually presents itself (Van Riel, 1995; Argenti, 1998) Whetten and Mackey (2002: 401) defined image as µwhat organizational agents want their external stakeholders to understand is most central, enduring and distinctive about their organization. The image in the stakeholder¶s mind which is the result of the interaction of all experiences, impressions, beliefs and feelings that people have about the organisation concerned¶. Wei (2002: 270) argued that reputation should not subsume image, but rather image should subsume reputation.
The concept of Las Vegas Sands Corporation is to become an integrated resort which integrates world-class luxury hotel, casino and resort with a design and ambience reminiscent of high-end locales. In order to communicate this concept clearly into people¶s mind, PR of LVS has using gold as the corporate color. As colors can stimulate, excite, and form different emotions (Perry & Wisonm, 2003). Therefore, even though each casino under LVS has different logo, but there is a consistency where the logo is gold color. Corporate slogan is also an important element to build up the corporate image. One of the famous tagline for LVS ± ³What happens here, stays here´ created by PR of LVS has successfully adding the value of mystique for Las Vegas.
According to Argenti (2004), CEO takes up the name of reputation management in conveying the organization¶s good image to all the company¶s key constituencies through the appropriate media. Sheldon Adelson, the founder of Las Vegas Sands Corporation has build up the reputation and image of the corporation in US and global arena. In 2011, Sheldon 9
Adelson has won the G2E Asia Visionary Award during this year¶s Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E). According to Macau Business, The G2E Asia Visionary Award recognizes Mr Adelson¶s contributions to the gaming industry and key role in setting the stage for the next phase of gaming in Macau with the Sands Macao, the Venetian Macao and the ongoing development of the Cotai strip, the organisers of the award said in a press release. Under his leadership, last year the company opened the Marina Bay Sands i ntegrated resort in Singapore, now one of the most profitable casinos in the world. (Macau Business, 2011)
Since LVS was established, it has won a lot of award and recognition which represent its successfulness in managing the multinational corporate. Those awards including Recognition of Contributions and Support (U.S. Vets Las Vegas), Enrichment Award Recipient (Urban Chamber of Commerce), Corporate Giving Award (HELP of Southern Nevada) and Tourism Award (Latin Chamber of Commerce). (Las Vegas Sands, 2011) 2.4. Investor
Relations
Financial relations is part of a public relations department that primarily focuses on public relations concerning financial/investment matters. Investor relations is defined as ³a strategic management responsibility that integrates finance, communication, marketing and securities law compliance to enable the most effective two-way communication between a company, the financial community, and other constituencies, which ultimately contributes to a company¶s securities achieving fair valuation. (Laskin, A.,2008).
The Financial relations of Las Vegas Sands Corporation play an important role in maintaining two ways communication with its current investor and potential investor. The LVS¶s Fiscal year falls on ends of December. Before end of December, they will conduct
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Annual General Meeting to meet up with their shareholders and all the annual r eport will be available at their corporate website.
Every quarterly, IR of LVS will conduct call conference to explain with the analyst and investor about the financial position of the corporation. The purpose is to ensure the stakeholders are confident with the performance of the corporation which will in turn invest more on the LVS. To maintain the communication with the foreign investor, they will conduct videoconferencing. Besides that, they will record the conference and webcast it on the corporate website so that everyone around the world are able to watch it.
In their corporate website, there is a section called email alert which allows the shareholders to subscribe on their a nnual report, press release, quarterly report, webcast, events and also stock information. By subscribing it, shareholders will constantly receive email from IR of LVS to know the updating financial information. (Las Vegas Sands Corporation, 2011) 3. Analysis 3.1. Marketing Public Relations
According to Kotler, marketing and PR practitioners manage distinct activities. However, they are interdependence in what they are performed. For examples, they share some interrelationship in conducting certain activities. Activities for marketing public relations including image assessment, customer satisfaction, surveys, media strategy, corporate advertising, employee attitudes and atmospheric. 3.1.1. Surveys
Before they conduct a campaign, MPR of Genting will do surveys to collect information about its customers. This is to ensure a better understanding to their customers which in turn build a stronger customer loyalty base. In 2009, Genting started to use 11
Statistical Analysis Software (SAS) in creating customized campaigns based on the analysis of data derived from the customers for many of its brand such as Casino de Genting brand. In recent years, Genting has integrated large a mounts of demographic, geographical and behavioral data from multiple sources. Using advanced analytics from SAS, Genting get a better insight about their customer segments. This allows Genting to launch more effective campaign and a positive customer satisfaction. According to, Senior Vice President, Casino Marketing: ³[SAS software] has increased our operational efficiencies and allowed us to better manage our resources by channeling them into the right programs and services. It is being utilized in marketing, resource and operations planning, and finance to manage our performance. Supported by relevant data, we are able to identify key success drivers in our campaigns, which enables us to make better decisions, saving us time and money´ (SAS Institute, Inc. 2008).
Over 50 various joint MPR campaigns were undertaken in 2009 to promote the WorldCard Loyalty Programme with participating merchants, thus creating greater awareness and interest in the WorldCard programme. One of the campaigns is popular ³888´ promotion, which allowed members to redeem room packages with minimum WorldCard points, the WorldCard Movie Mania campaign offering members attractive room-and-movie packages, Meetings, Incentive Travels, Conferences or Exhibitions (MICE) pri vilege card promotions, the Astounding Awana Savers WorldCard Points Redemption and the newly re-branded Corporate Reward Programme called GICC WorldCard. To approach those youngsters, WorldCard began to use Facebook and Twitter to provide members with daily updates on its latest marketing promotions and offers. That campaign had a great success as in 2009, the WorldCards membership base reached 3.2 million with over 260 participating merchants that have 1,681 outlets located throughout 12
Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. This shows a great success of Genting after MPR start using survey and SAS analysis. This survey and analysis allows MPR of Genting to understand each niche target audiences and implement an appropriate strategy to approach them. MPR of Genting also plays an important role in international level. MPR of Genting has been operating the loyalty card programs in the Asia Pacific region. MPR has done the research on customer from Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, China, India and Australia. The new customer database has developed and helps the Genting to cross-sell and implements marketing campaigns for Genting International¶s Holiday P ackages for the Genting Highlands Resort in Malaysia and SCL¶s cruise packages/cabins based on demographics, spending profile and seasonality. According to the research done by Multimedia University Malaysia, both male and female respondents shows expressed preference for indoor and outdoor games offered by the theme park. They are 57% of respondents are satisfy with the variety of entertainment and leisure which includes theme park, sport and games, stars of arena, international showroom and casino. (Refer to table 1) For the customer satisfaction regarding the resort apartment¶s services, out of 39.5% female and 30.5% male respondents there are 26.5% female and 20% male respondents felt the hotel and apartment service was fair. These results shows that the improvement of Genting after using SAS software has successfully increase the satisfaction of customer. (Refer to table 2) 3.1.2. Special Event
MPR activities involved marketing and public relations t echniques to gain media attention and generate free publicity for organization. There are few examples of MPR activities that are used public relations techniques and tactics and a lso applied of selling the organization¶s products and services. Advertorials, contests, special events, booklets a nd
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brochures, trade shows and exhibits, sampling, demonstrations, parades, festivals, sport events, entertainment, news conference, media tours are some examples of marketing public relations activities. Genting Trailblazer is one of the MPR activities which generate a free publicity and earn a good reputation for Genting. Genting Trailblazer is a running event which is conducted in rainforest surrounding Awana Genting Highlands and it is organized since 2005. The objectives of the special event is to develop a green mindset to preserve environment specifically rainforest. Echoing the Ministry of Tourism¶s call for 1 Malaysia Green, 1 Malaysia Clean campaign, the theme in 2010 is ³An eco run in a million years old forest.´ MPR has developed a special website which provides any updates about the Genting Trailblazer. During the launching ceremony, YB Dato James Dawos Mamit a pplauded Resort World Genting for the initiative in organizing Genting Trailblazer which provides an opportunity for Malaysian to know the resources which will in turn helped to promote tourism. The two-day Genting Trailblazer 2010 event brought together 1,403 participants from all over Malaysia and overseas to the scenic Awana Genting Highlands Golf & Country Resort.
3.2. Corporate Social Responsibility
Genting Group is a responsible corporation that emphasizes its CSR activities and has supported many corporate philanthropy programmes towards various charitable bodies, nongovernmental organizations, sports associations, educational institutions and health organizations. CSR used to close the gate with community and contribute to public. As one of the world¶s entertainment and gaming company, the mission of Genting Group¶s CSR programme is to satisfy the needs and wants of their guests by providing them quality products and services, to attract and retain most talented staff by providing them
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world-class training and personal development programme, to manage risk and ensure returns for shareholders by informing them the business operations and financial performance in open and transparency communication, to reduce the environmental problem that could affect our earth, and to make sure their operations are safe by contributing for local communities. In order to participate in the activity that is eco-friendly, Genting Group organised the ³Love Our Nature´ programme in cooperation with Rakan Muda Cinta Alam and the Ministry of Youth and Sports. This local event was organised as a part of Genting¶s CSR programme to promote the love of nature among the youths. The purpose of the event is to create and increase their awareness on importance of environment conservation. Through this event, they hope youths can appreciate the beauty of Mother Nature and realise the impact that could brought if they are not participate in protecting environment. On another note, this programme also provides a platform for youths to participate in healthier activities such as one of the event in the programme, Eco Trek Treasure Hunt. Participants also joined the EcoYouth Environmental Innovation Programme (EYE), which taught them the use of r ecyclable items to show the 3R techniques ± Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Apart from environmental activity, Genting Group also tends to emphasize on community development to ensure their progress and expansion could bring benefit directly to the community. Genting contributed to different sectors such as education, sports, youth development, disability groups, culture and arts, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) because they focus in their philanthropic contributions, support NGOs and employee volunteerism through GENM We CARE Team. The purpose of creating GENM We CARE Team which consists close to 1,000 members is to contribute to the community and provide opportunity for the volunteers to do community work. One of the programme of Genting is the µBerbuka Puasa¶ session with poor families. This programme is considered as part of Genting¶s caring and sharing programme during the
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month of Ramadhan which organised by GENM We CARE Team and it is located in Hulu Selangor. There were 40 volunteers from Genting Malaysia Berhad¶s We CARE Team participated and contributed in the programme to cultivate the µgotong-royong¶ spirit among them. All families and children enjoyed to have delicious dinner prepared by We CARE Team volunteers and received hampers and goodies that arranged and provided by Genting. Besides µBerbuka Puasa¶, the team also organised other activities in Selangor and Pahang included provide free tuition classes for the orphans, distribution of food supplies, and visit t o folk homes and orphanages every month. Other than local events that have mentioned above, Genting also participate in international event by donated more than RM3.5 million t o those victims who affected following the tsunami tragedy which happened on 26 December 2004. T he RM3.5 million included the donation of RM1 million each to support the Malaysian Tsunami Disaster Fund, the Indonesian Tsunami Disaster Fund and the Force of Nature Foundation, and follow by the remaining RM0.5 million contributed to the Pahang Tsunami Fund. There are various donation programmes were held at Genting Highlands Resort to gain public, guests and employees support in order to response to µThe Star¶ Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund, through these programmes, RM60,000 was collected for this fund. Best practice of CSR can be reflected by the contribution of a corporation provides through CSR programmes in various sectors such as education, environment, community and workplace. Genting Group focuses on the needs of customers, community, business partners and employees by creating positive impact on society, as a result of this, it enables corporation to gain better reputation and brand image. Enhancing reputation through CSR programmes can help to build up the brand of the corporation and attract more business. The CSR effort of Genting is recognised at the international level. This year, Genting has won the
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fifth place in the best Corporate Social Responsibility in Hong Kong base FinanceAsia poll. (Refer to appendixes 1) 3.3. Corporate I mage
Chief Executive Officer plays an important role in building and maintaining the corporate image of an organization as CEO is more trustworthy and credible compare to the celebrities endorsement. According to Argenti (2004), CEO takes up the name of reputation management in conveying the organization¶s good image to all the company¶s key constituencies through the appropriate media. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong, the founder of Genting Holdings who also known as the King of Gamble in Malaysia. He managed to gets the license of opening casino on top of the hill from the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra to start his first attempt to success and succeeds to get the Genting Holdings to be listed in global share. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong¶s legend is being well known by the whole Malaysia and the whole world as the great history of a tycoon that success in his career and business. As part of the PR strategies, Genting holdings PR used Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong¶s history and books as a tool to promote the success and the achievement of Genting Highland as a legend. Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong published a book entitled ³My Story: Lim Goh Tong´ which describe about his own story of his journey to succeed the business and his life. With the publication of the book, there will be more people knowing that he is the founder of the Genting Holdings and will increase not just the image of the author, but it also increase the image of the company. After the Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong pass away, the share price of Genting drops tremendously by almost 44%. This shows that in people¶s mind Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong represent the Genting. Although in 2004 Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong already pass the CEO to his
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son, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, investors lost their confident in investing in Genting as the most trustworthy person pass away. However, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay proved his ability by implementing a lot of strategies such as initiate the acquisition of Genting UK which create a lot of excitement among the investor. He successfully gains back the investor¶s trust and confident. The brand of Genting as Casino remains as the one of the most valuable brands in 2007. At that time, its brand value is RM4.6billion, the fourth most valuable brand in Malaysia. Genting remain as one of the most popular tourist destinations either by tourist as well as foreigners. One of the strategies for Genting PR to attract new customer is build up the Memorial Hall. In 2011, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay has won the award named Asian Leader for Global Leisure and Entertainment Tourism in the inaugural Seagull Philippines Asian Leaders Awards. This award proves that Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay is capable and has excellence and best value practice in the entertainment and gambling field. Genting Holdings corporate color is their logo that red in color, its logo was use in all of their corporate event and also their venue such as their theme park and casino. PR maintains the logo from the start of Genting Holdings to maintain their image and build up their image from the beginning. With the maintaining of the organization logo, it helps the company to build up the organization images that are well known and memorable. Initially Genting Berhad is much more focus on its gaming business. In 1990s, due to the increasing opposition from an increasingly conservative Muslim population, Genting has come out with the concept of integrated resort. The theme of family casino resorts transforms the Genting Highland into a tourist and family entertainment place. Genting Theme Park is one of the components of Genting City of entertainment. In order to promote Genting Theme Park as an independent identity, Genting PR tries to associate Genting Theme Park with fun. To do so, they have created a new brand logo especially for Genting Theme Park to reflect its
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vibration and energy. They also created a lot of campaign portraying the emotional experience of Genting Theme Park. Genting Holdings is well known by its industry in entertainment and gambling that was start in Genting Highland. Genting Highland is well known by its name as the City of Entertainment because of the theme park, casino and First World Hotel, its world largest hotel. Genting Highland started as the Highland Hotel that just a normal hotel, that further being expand into a larger company, that consist of cabel car, casino and also theme park as its attraction for tourism. PR manage to maintain the image of Genting as a tourism area more that a commercial industry. Since after Genting Berhad was established, it has won many awards and recognition in Malaysia and international level. For example, MIS Asia IT Excellence Awards 2009, Malaysia¶s Top 50 Brands 2008, Asia Best Managed Companies 2009, Asia¶s Most-Admire Companies: Malaysia, Corporate governance Asia Recognition Awards. This shows that Genting Berhad was well managed and they are performing effectively and efficiently. The image of Genting as Casino and the city of entertainment are deep inside customers¶ mind. In May 2010, Resort World Genting won the Gold Award for Family Tourist Attraction Category in Malaysia which is awarded by Reader's Digest. It also won the Most Innovative and Best All-Round Cuisine under the categories of The People¶s Choice. (Ministry of Tourism October 2010). This shows that Resort World Genting has a strong brand identity inside customers¶ mind compare to other travel destination in Malaysia. Genting Highland Resort as the Malaysia 1 st casino also gets its name in the global by getting the award as the World¶s Leading Casino Resort for twice in year 2004 and 2007. Genting Highland Resort also being voted as the Asia Leading Casino Resort for three consecutive years (2005, 2006 and 2007). Genting Holdings successfully to gain their
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company names in the global arena, which help Genting Holdings to build up their image and reputation. Resort World Genting at Genting Highland mainly focuses on leisure and entertainment of Genting Berhad. It is one of the world¶s well known integrated resort and popular tourist destination in Malaysia. With the monopoly of gambling license, it attracts a lot of visitors from all over the world and boost up the tourism industry in Malaysia. According to Tourism Malaysia statistics, there are about 24.6million tourists visited Malaysia in 2010 and in the same year the Resort has received 19.9 million visitors. Singaporeans are the largest international group of visitors, at 6% of total visitors (2009: 6%). Singaporeans were also the largest group of foreign hotel guests at the Resort, at 21% (2009: 22%). Genting also attract other international visitors were mainly from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and Middle East. With the high performances of the company profit, this makes the company more credible to be invested. Corporate image will be build through the reputation of its profit earning result from the company annual year report. 3.4. Financial Relations
Financial relations is part of a public relations department that primarily focuses on public relations concerning financial/investment matters. As a public listed company, Genting also have a special t eam to handle its specific financial communities including shareholders, investors, analysts and financial journalists, as well as others who might be interested in a company's stock or financial stability. The ta sk falls under investor relations team where they need to ensure the dissemination of financial information to the target audience in order to increase investors¶ confident and buy into the company. In Genting, financial PR is not under the control of PR department. However, both departments will cooperate when it comes to dissemination of information to the publics. For
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example, during sponsorship of English Premier League side Aston Villa by Genting UK, both departments will sit together and draft out press release by discussing which information can be sent out to the public. 3.4.1.
Local
investors
Genting takes steps to provide timely and equal dissemination of material information to its shareholders and the general public, with a key priority being the promotion of good investor relations. FPR of Genting Malaysia will try to conduct the Annual General Meeting every year which allow the shareholders to review the fiscal information for the past year and asking any questions regarding the directions the business will take in the future. The AGM for Genting Malaysia will normally held on June. Genting Malaysia also conducted extraordinary general meeting (EGM). For example, before the acquisition of Genting UK, they would have to conduct EGM in order to get the shareholders approval. Annual reports are made available to shareholders. Visitors¶ Galleria at t he Resort provides investors and guests with a first-hand look at t he Resort¶s history, operations and facilities, with guided tours by public relations personnel. Genting used a lot of strategies to maintain two ways communication with its publics. Investor relations will always check on the corporate email which is available on the Group¶s corporate website www.gentingmalaysia.com. They will try to reply the emails by replying those questions regarding the Financial of Genting Malaysia. 3.4.2. Foreign Investor
Thirty six percent investors for Genting are made up foreign institutions. Those investors are mainly come from Singapore and Hong Kong. There are a small portion of foreign investor are come from UK and US. Since Genting is a multinational company, it is very crucial to maintain a positive perception among the foreign investor. Therefore, there is an Investor Relation section on their company official website to update the investor about 21
the current financial situation of Genting. In that section, investors can get the information such as annual report, quarterly financial announcement, press release and financial s napshot. Since the website can reach worldwide, this ensures the foreign investor can fully understand the financial position of Genting. Besides that, investor relations of Genting Malaysia will constantly go to S ingapore and Hong Kong to do corporate presentation to attract them to invest more on Genting Malaysia. For example, during June 2010 which is before the acquisition of Genting UK, investor relations are conducting investor presentation such as Corporate Presentation CLSA 2010 Hong Kong to explain to the investor about the benefit of that acquisition. Besides that, they also communicate with analyst via analyst briefing. According to the Hong Kong based FinancialAsia poll results, Genting get t he fourth place in the category of the best managed company.(Refer to appendixes 2) This poll has tallied votes from over 300 investors and analyst across the Hong Kong. This shows that Genting has gain the trust and confident from the foreign investors.
3.4.3. Financial Analyst
Genting has a quite strong financial public relations which helps it to secure the investors¶ confident. For example, in 2008 the share price of Genting has once dropped to RM5.60 from its high of RM9.90. That time, there are a lot of rumors that due to the rising of raw material cost, the project of Sentosa integrated resort in Singapore will delayed and the cost will be increased. Many investors are worrying about the cost overruns which will affect their benefits. However, due to the effective communication of Genting financial PR, Genting are able to overcome the crisis. They constantly meet up with analyst through analyst briefings to explain what have been done by Genting Malaysia, what they currently are doing, and where they progressing
22
onwards. This ensure analyst to keep tract on what Genting are doing at the moment and cover Genting Malaysia latest update. FPR of Genting explain to the analyst that the construction of Universal Theme Park falls under a Chinese engineering company ensure the construction period will be on time and the strong Singapore dollar will helps to control the increases in steel price. After analyst analyses the whole situation, finally Genting had gained positive recommendation from an influential analyst even in such a bad political and economical situation. ³Genting certainly stands out as a stock which warrants a re-look by investors in the months ahead if one believes in the long-term growth of its gaming businesses in Singapore and the UK.´ Comment of analyst from research house, Macquarie in 2008.
This shows that the FPR plays an important role in maintaining the share price of Genting. If there is no proper and open communication to the public, Genting might lost the trust and support of investor which will in turn affect their capital efficiency and increase its cost of capital. 3.4.4.
Investment
According to Wilcox, Cameron, Ault, and Agee (2007), International Public Relations is the planned and organized effort of a company, institution or government to establish mutually beneficial relations with the publics of other nations. Over years, Genting Berhad has practiced a very good international PR. It can be seem through various examples when Genting Berhad approaches to expand t heir business in international level. With the understanding of the differences in laws and culture must be overcome when companies conduct business in foreign countries, Genting succ essfully got the second concession for the Sentosa Integrated Resort in Singapore. As stated in Cutlip a nd Centre (1985:4), PR helps to adjust those policies, procedures and actions found to be in conflict with public interest and organizational survival. Once Genting lost t he first concession for the
23
Marine Bay Site to Las Vegas Sand, they adjust their policies and proposal in order to meet the cultural and the restriction of Singapore. At last, Genting won the second concession which at the time held 75% stake in the project. When giving the reasons for granting the concession, the deputy prime minister of Singapore said: ³Genting International & Star Cruises submitted the most compelling proposal overall that best meets our economic and tourism objectives. In particular, the proposal reflects our vision for the Sentosa IR as a large scale, family resort with its host of world class family leisure attractions and other strong offerings. We believe that the attractions will position Sentosa as a premier island resort for families and draw significant numbers of both new and repeat visitors to Singapore.´
This shows that the PR plays an important role in succeed this project as without the adaption to the vision for Sentosa Integrated Resort a nd proper communication of idea to the investor, Genting might not get this project due to high competition. Good PR becomes one of the competitive advantages for Genting to win over other companies. 4. Conclusion
After completed the case study, we found out that the public relations department is playing an important role in an organization. The image of the corporation will be taking into account by the PR practitioners before making important decisions because the image of the corporation is vital. Involved in the corporate social-responsibility¶s activities is one of the common ways to enhance the corporate image Communication with the internal and external audiences is important for any corporation with no doubt. PR department¶s responsibilities are to ensure the flow of information is correct and the audiences who included shareholders and stakeholders are well-informed. The common communication tools we found that are used by the PR practitioners included email, face to face, Annual General Meeting and corporate websites.
24
According to the analysis, PR practitioners also co-operate with ot her department in the corporation to achieve synergy, as an example, manage an event to attract more stakeholders is essential for the corporation to keep themselves competence. Thus, the public relations department will be collaborating with the marketing department to hold an event. By doing this, synergy can be achieved without wasting the human and financial power as the purpose of the event is clear for both departments. Besides holding event to gain more support from the stakeholders, PR practitioners take care of the internal audience as well. The PR department will also organize event to provide a platform for the different departments to interact and foster the team spirit. This helps to show the concern of the corporation towards the employee who have been working hard for the corporation. Indirectly, it helps to build a good reputation for the corporation. Referring to report, Genting has once lost the first co ncession for the Marine Bay Site to Las Vegas Sand, but won in the second concession. Losing of a valuable opportunity for the corporation to expand their business abroad can be a potential threat because the other competitors will be taking this opportunity to overtake your status in the industry. After the first failure faced by Genting, they learnt from the mistake which can be considered crisis and counter back in the following concession. This has shown the proficiency of the P R practitioners in managing crisis and boosting the company¶s performance. In conclusion, PR department is an important department in a corporation which helps to maintain the stability of the corporation and expand the corporation¶s business while the corporation¶s image is taking into account. PR department is also like a ³great-wall´ of a corporation to get rid of the threatening of the competitors by implementing appropriate strategy like crisis-management.
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Appendixes Best Managed Company
Rank
Company
Votes
1
Public Bank
36
2
CIMB Group Holdings
27
3
Maxis
20
4
Genting
11
5
Air Asia
10
6=
Petronas Chemicals
9
6=
BAT Malaysia
9
8=
Sime Darby
7
8=
Maybank
7
9=
PPB Group
6
9=
Digi.com
6
Best Corporate Social Responsibility Rank
Company
Votes
1
Public Bank
25
2
CIMB
23
3
Maxis
15
4
Digi.com
10
5=
Genting
7
5=
Sime Darby
7
5=
Maybank
7
Table 1
32
