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Industry News  PR Measurement Firm works to grade good press |
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Firm works to grade good press
Print - FPinfomart - MCT Regional News - Thursday January 24th, 2008
Jan. 10--Public relations services can be expensive, and companies want to be assured that their money is well-spent.
But quantifying the results can be challenging, said Wayne Bullock, a senior vice president of Cision, a Norwalk-based firm offering public relations measurement.
Bullock addressed about 35 members of the Fairfield/Westchester chapter of the Public Relations Society of America yesterday at Luca's restaurant in Greenwich.
Placement of a story, the headline, dominance on a page, visual presence and extent of an article in a publication all play a role in determining the success of an effort to promote a company or its product or service, Bullock said. He uses a similar formula to measure a client's appearance on television or radio.
"If everything happens, you have done 100 percent and all you can do," said Bullock, a New Canaan resident. "We apply this to every article we analyze. When a reader stops and reads an article, it's a result of these factors."
Seasoned public relations professionals know from experience when their efforts are successful, he said, but an increasing number of clients want more tangible measurements.
Companies can measure the return on their investment in promoting a product or service through sales figures, Bullock said. But determining the value of a image campaign is a different matter.
"When we talk about value, it's return on expectation. The goal of public relations is to help organizations achieve their business goals," he said.
A company's reputation can be ruined or elevated by how it is seen in the media, Bullock said.
"Some people may not like what your company does to raise its stock price. Reputations create behavior toward your company," he said.
Determining how successful it is in informing the public about its programs and needs is crucial for the Bridgeport-based Aquarion Water Co. of Connecticut, which serves 587,000 people in 36 municipalities in the state, including Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk, New Canaan and Westport.
Aquarion staff has developed a process to measure its public relations results.
"We're very proud of our partnership with the Stamford Museum & Nature Center," particularly its programs for watershed and pond ecology for first- through sixth-graders, said Adam Brill, public relations specialist. "We want to make sure residents are aware of that. This kind of research helps us meets those needs."
As operators of small public relations agencies, Wendy Van Parys, president of Wendy Van Parys Marketing Communications in New Canaan, and Cheryl Lechok, president of Cheryl A. Lechok Communications in Stamford, get a close look at the impact of their efforts with their small-business clients.
A small business can see the direct result of a newspaper article, Van Parys said.
"I get comments on the headlines and where the quotes are," she said, adding that she measures her success by seeing whether her clients' messages are clear in an article or broadcast.
More clients are asking for evidence that their public relations money is well-spent, said Lechok, who counts several health care and life sciences businesses as clients.
"They're starting to look at concrete metrics," she said.
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