Made to measure….

Tom Murphy

As I’ve written before, the lack of widely agreed metrics that attempt to measure how PUBLIC Relations programs impact an organization’s objectives is an issue for everyone in this profession.

PR Week (link courtesy to Shel Hotz) has an interesting article written by Claire Spencer, a fellow of the UK IPR.

She points out that measurement is a multi-dimensional discipline that needs to tie back to an organization’s stakeholders and audience(s).

Claire outlines five relationship concepts that could be used to reflect the success of any organisation:

  1. What qualities make people want to support an organisation? These would include integrity, ethics and values, financial strength and power, leadership, and that it’s competitive.
  2. What makes for a good organisational offering? These include products and services that deliver fitness for purpose, quality, durability, price/value and after-sales support.
  3. What stimulates demand for an organisation’s goods and services? Market availability, acceptance and desirability, strong brand attributes, distinctive marketing and promotion, good delivery and distribution mechanisms and responsiveness to the consumer.
  4. Does an organisation deliver for its employees in terms of internal communication channels, competitive pay, a good working environment, a record for health/safety, best practice recruitment policies, good redundancy handling and work-based opportunities.
  5. What makes a company good at managing stakeholder groups? It’s management of other (non-customer) ‘influencers’ in terms of recognition of their concerns, facing up to the issues, two-way communication and responsiveness.

Footnote:

Some other measurement-related reading: