Today's thuggish business climate, streamlined staffs and increased emphasis on bottom-line accountability make the need for PR measurement obvious.
Issues such as cost, the ongoing and inadequate practice of only counting publicity hits, and a lack of standardization and in-house proficiencies all make measurement a far
more complex issue than it seems at first glance.
"People are comparing [PR's] function to other functions [within the company], and if we don't ante up, we're going to lose," says Bruce Jeffries-Fox, EVP of InsightFarm, a
Burrelle's/VMS news analysis company based in Livingston, N.J.
Those anteing up are using several strategies to ensure they uncover tie-ins to sales, brand equity, marketplace recognition and overall reputation. These strategies are based
on getting buy-in from management so that PR measurement conforms to other company-wide return-on-investment analyses.
Don't approach measurement as "job justification" if you expect to receive that buy-in from management. Instead, view evaluating a campaign as an integral part of the campaign
itself - a forethought, not an afterthought - and a process of finding out what works best and budgeting for it. That attitude will win you instant credibility with
management.
And while there may not be any universal standards for measurement, higher standards and shared methodologies throughout the industry are building consensus and unity within
the PR community about what methods deliver the sound, credible results senior execs expect.
New Standards
Just recently, the Institute for Public Relation's Commission on Measurement and Evaluation placed on its Web site (http://www.instituteforpr.com) its "Measurement Tree," a graphical methodology which includes its latest definitions of terms, guidelines,
white papers and best practices for employing measurement.
The smart approach to measurement entails identifying quantifiable, instead of subjective, goals, says Jack Felton, president of the Institute for PR. "Instead of saying, 'We
want people to love our company,' which is really impossible to assess, establish goals that can be measured. Say, 'We want this many more requests for our annual report' or 'We
want this many more inquiries from IR experts or this many investor interviews.'"
Management focus is on such quantifiable goals: executives want to hear about margins and revenues. Tom Nicholson, director of public relations and communications at Sears,
says metrics PR professionals have traditionally used haven't answered those questions for execs. Nicholson has wrestled firsthand with how to answer them in the context of
today's streamlined staffing and smaller budgets.
In the early '90s, the PR staff at Sears included more than 100 people. Today, there are less than 40 staffers; the most recent cuts took place last October and November and
were tied to restructuring that includes company-wide productivity initiatives.
"Now, we are reducing 'nice-to-do' programs in favor of activities that deliver top- and bottom-line results," Nicholson adds. "Whatever measures you use, you need buy-in from
the rest of the company."
For Sears, that meant directly linking the impact of PR to sales. When an article including information on Sears fashion footwear appeared on the front page of the New York
and New Jersey editions of The New York Times, Nicholson charted a sales spike in footwear in the New York and New Jersey districts in the week following the article. Sales in
those areas were up more than 20 percent that year, significantly surpassing Chicago, which Nicholson and his team used as a market control, along with national figures. The
strategy established PR credibility that far surpassed ad equivalency or other less relevant measures of communications impact.
The Continued Challenge
"Everyone is looking for the silver bullet. [But] that's like searching for the Holy Grail. In measurement, you need to look at multiple things," says Steve Lombardo, president
and CEO of StrategyOne, a subsidiary of Edelman PR that is a full-service research and consulting group. "Clearly laid-out objectives on the front end are important. And if you're
spending $500,000 or $1 million on a PR program, you ought to spend $30,000 to do research, advises Lombardo.
"Measurement in and of itself should not just be to cover your butt or decide thumbs up or thumbs down on something," says Lombardo. "It should also be a fine-tuning tool. And
you should use these tools to find out whether you're using the right messages."
For instance, StrategyOne, for the launch of a new pharmaceutical product, undertook in-depth research that included a corporate overview, media analysis, online discussion
analysis, landscape assessment and market assessment. The report resulted in recommendations for its client's future branding, communication, promotion and education
strategies.
And Lombardo, just like others at the forefront of the measurement debate, continue to point to the simplistic and antiquated practices of only counting clips and using
advertising comparisons to measure the success of PR as muddying the measurement waters. Many believe that both of these factors have led to the prevailing knowledge gap
concerning measurement.
"Measurement education has been a slippery slope," says the IPR's Felton. "People are still taking the number of inches of a story that appeared in a publication and comparing
it to the cost of an ad. But I think we are getting closer [to common standards and more in-depth research] and if we get the idea down of using modules and methodologies for
different kinds of PR, we will be much more consistent and begin to think of measurement in a uniform way. And we will all be in step when we talk about how effective we've
been."
(InsightFarm: Bruce Jeffries-Fox, 877/839-9770; IPR: Jack Felton, 352/392-0280; Sears: Tom Nicholson, 847/286-5231; StrategyOne: Steve Lombardo, 202/371-0200)
Getting the Measure of Top Metrics
Bruce Jeffries-Fox, EVP of InsightFarm, and his firm are developing new ways of looking at the old practice of collecting clips. Scoring stories creates a more meaningful
measure, for example, than counting them. A published story could be scored on a favorability scale ranging from -10 to +10, with +10 meaning a story completely agrees
with/reflects your messages and -10 meaning a story completely disagrees with your messages.
Jeffries-Fox's top tips on measurement overall:
- Go deep rather than wide. Pick out several projects to measure and do a thorough job on those instead of a so-so job on many projects.
- Don't waste time on halfway measurement efforts that result in more questions than answers -- for instance, correlating news coverage with stock price.
Specific savvy strategies include:
- Using attitudinal surveys in areas where you're conducting a product launch or other PR effort. Pre- and post-measures can offer a wealth of stats on the impact of your
communications efforts. - Correlating data streams like an increase in press coverage and an increase in sales figures or service inquiries, while taking into account other marketplace factors (like
advertising).