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A Professional and Practitioner S Guide To Public Relations Research Measurement and Evaluation Second Edition David Michaelson
A Professional and Practitioner S Guide To Public Relations Research Measurement and Evaluation Second Edition David Michaelson
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THE BUSINESS A Professional and Practitioner’s Public Relations Collection
D. MICHAELSON • D. STACKS A PROFESSIONAL AND PRACTITIONER’S GUIDE TO PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH, MEASUREMENT, AND EVALUATION
EXPERT PRESS Guide to Public Relations Don W. Stacks and Donald K. Wright, Editors
DIGITAL LIBRARIES
Research, Measurement, and
EBOOKS FOR Evaluation
BUSINESS STUDENTS
Curriculum-oriented, born- Second Edition
A Professional
digital books for advanced
David Michaelson • Don W. Stacks
business students, written
Contemporary public relations practice has developed
by academic thought
and Practitioner’s
over the last several decades from the weak third sister
leaders who translate real- in marketing, advertising, and public relations mix to a
world business experience full player. To help you keep up to speed with the exciting
Guide to Public
into course readings and changes and developments of publications, this book has
reference materials for been updated to provide you with the necessary under-
standing of the problems and promises of public relations
students expecting to tackle
Relations Research,
research, measurement, and evaluation.
management and leadership As a public relations professional, this book will guide
challenges during their you through the effective use of methods, measures, and
Measurement, and
professional careers. evaluation in providing grounded evidence of the success
(or failure) of public relations campaigns. This second edi-
POLICIES BUILT tion takes a best practices approach—one that focuses on
BY LIBRARIANS
Evaluation
choosing the appropriate method and rigorously apply-
ing that method to collect the data that best answers the
• Unlimited simultaneous
objectives of the research. It also presents an approach to
usage public relations that emphasizes the profession’s impact
• Unrestricted downloading
and printing
on the client’s return on investment in the public relations
function. Second Edition
• Perpetual access for a
David Michaelson has over 30 years’ experience conduct-
one-time fee
ing research for numerous Fortune 500 companies, univer-
• No platform or sities, and philanthropic organizations. He has an extensive
maintenance fees background in communication testing, message develop-
• Free MARC records ment, measurement of communications e ffectiveness, and
• No license to execute branding. Along with Dr. Stacks, he is the author of numer-
ISBN: 978-1-60649-984-9
www.businessexpertpress.com www.businessexpertpress.com
A Professional and
Practitioner’s Guide to
Public Relations Research,
Measurement, and
Evaluation
A Professional and
Practitioner’s Guide to
Public Relations Research,
Measurement, and
Evaluation
Second Edition
David Michaelson and Don W. Stacks
A Professional and Practitioner’s Guide to Public Relations Research,
Measurement, and Evaluation, Second Edition
Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2014.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other
except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Keywords
content analysis, evaluation, experimentation, focus groups, goals and
objectives, interviewing, measurement, media analysis, nonfinancial
indicators, public relations, quantitative research, qualitative research,
research, research methods, return on expectation (ROE), return on
investment (ROI), sampling, secondary research, standardized measure-
ment, statistical analysis, survey and poll research
Contents
Preface��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xi
References�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������259
Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������265
Preface
Four years ago we had just completed the first edition of A Practitioner’s
Guide to Public Relations Research, Measurement, and Evaluation. In the
introduction to that edition, we noted that while the technology sur-
rounding the profession of public relations has changed dramatically over
the past several decades, the core principles of the research as well as the
value of effective measurement remained the same. In almost all respects,
we continue to hold to that perspective. Nonetheless, public relations
research remains a dynamic field and the advances in the field over the
past several years, particularly in the developments of standardized meas-
ures of public relations, led us to update our thinking about the needs
of the profession. These advances include new ways of thinking about
research ethics, how to measure program effectiveness, and an under-
standing of the dynamics for assessing the overall efficacy of public rela-
tions and corporate communication.
This edition includes new treatments on each of these subjects with
the overall emphasis of the book expanding from how to do research,
measurement, and evaluation (best practices) to also include what needs
to be measured (standards).
While these changes in the second edition are significant, we still
strongly believe that the guiding principles that led us to write the first
edition of this book remain the same—“building a solid foundation of
fundamental research skills based on best practices . . . with the practical
application of conducting research [that] improves the day-to-day prac-
tice of public relations” (Stacks and Michaelson 2010, 9). This edition
retains and reinforces that foundation and builds upon it with new chap-
ters and sections on standards for the conduct of public relations research,
measurement, and evaluation, research ethics, social media measurement,
and the evaluation of program efficacy.
We also want to point out two other changes in the second edition.
When we wrote the first edition, Don Stacks was the lead author. In
the second edition, David Michaelson is lead author. Over the course of
xii Preface
David Michaelson
New York, NY
Don W. Stacks
University of Miami
Miami, FL
PART I
Introduction to Public
Relations Research,
Measurement, and
Evaluation
Part I introduces the reader to the practice of public relations and the
concept of “Best Practices.” Chapter 1 provides a quick glance on the
history of contemporary public relations practice and how a best practices
approach makes public relations results important to a company or client.
Chapter 2 presents the most current thoughts on measurement standardi-
zation and argues that for public relations to be considered a profession, it
must establish standards against which its outcomes can be compared and
set a basis for the function as a profession. The professional is the strate-
gist who designs the public relation campaign and, in turn, must collect,
assess, and evaluate data that tells him or her whether the program is on
target and make corrections as needed.
Chapter 3 lays out the role of public relations as a necessary business
function and establishes the groundwork for public relations research—
research that focuses on business goals and objectives and the stating of
such public relations goals and objectives that are measurable and indica-
tive (can be correlated with) of business’s investment in public relations
through return on investment (ROI). It also introduces the reader to pub-
lic relations’ outcomes and what is labeled return on expectations (ROE).
Finally, Chapter 4 introduces the concept of measurement, assessment,
and evaluation of public relations through a coordinated campaign aimed
at measuring predispositions toward behavior through attitude, belief,
and value measures.
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Research
and Evaluations in Public
Relations
Contemporary public relations practice has developed since the mid-
20th century from the weak third sister in the marketing, advertising,
and public relations mix to gain status as a full and equal player in the
corporate suite. Part of that development can be traced to a change in
the way public relations is practiced. The early days of public relations
functions—limited to media relations and “press agentry”— have evolved
to a sophisticated array of communications where public relations is no
longer an afterthought, but is an integral part of the communications mix.
A central reason for this change in the perceptions of and stature of
public relations in the communications world is the inclusion of research,
measurement, and evaluation as a core part of the practice—tools that
have been integral to the practice of marketing and advertising for dec-
ades. The purpose of this book is to provide the business reader and com-
munications professional with the necessary and practical understanding
of the problems and promises of public relations research, measurement,
and evaluation—and more importantly as a guide to the effective use of
methods, measures, and analysis in providing grounded evidence of the
success (or failure) of public relations campaigns.
to do and (b) the kinds of outcomes it produces. In all too many eyes,
public relations only includes dealing with media relations. That is, public
relations’ objective is to get coverage of the business—preferably positive—
through the placement of articles and the like as endorsed by journalists.
But public relations is much more than press agentry or media rela-
tions. It is better seen as an umbrella term for any number of departments
in a business or corporation that seeks to get its messages out to various
publics or audiences by managing the flow of information between an
organization and its publics or audiences (Grunig and Hunt 1976). A pub-
lic is a part of a population that has been selected for study; an audience is
a specifically targeted group within that public that has been targeted for
a company’s messages. What then is public relations? First and foremost,
public relations serves to manage the credibility, reputation, trust, rela-
tionship, and confidence of the general public in relation to the company
(Stacks 2011). As Professor Donald K. Wright noted, “Public relations
is the management function that identifies, establishes, and maintains
mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the various
publics on which its success or failure depends” (Wright 1990).
How is public relations practiced if it is an umbrella concept? Its prac-
tice can be defined by its function in the organization. Public relations
takes on the following functions, sometimes alone and at other times as
a combined function. The following list is neither complete nor is it by
importance of function:
• Community relations
• Corporate communication
• Customer relations
• Employee relations
• Financial relations
• Governmental relations
• Media relations
• Public affairs
• Strategic communication
What then are public relations’ objectives? There are three major
objectives any public relations campaign seeks to accomplish. First, to
INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH AND EVALUATIONS 5
ensure that the messages get out to their intended audiences and that they
are understood (informational objective). Second, to monitor the cam-
paign so that benchmarks regarding the acceptance of messages by target
audiences in terms of cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudinal or
belief acceptance or rejection or maintenance (“motivational objective”).
And, third, predicting what the target audience will actually do based
on the campaign (“behavioral objective”). As Stacks (2011) points out,
each objective must be met and then monitored before the next objec-
tive can be obtained. In forthcoming chapters we will introduce a num-
ber of ideas of how a public relations campaign should operate. We will
look at how traditional public relations campaigns experienced unin-
tended problems due to a lack of research and how the failure to establish
measurable objectives, baselines, and benchmarks limits the effectiveness
of public relations. More importantly, we introduce a practical approach
to public relations research that will result in better and more effective
communications programs.
Relations, APCO, Golin Harris and Cohn & Wolfe. For the most part,
the primary function of these agency-based research departments was
similar to the work initially conducted by Group Attitudes Corpora-
tion. Most of these research departments were created internally, with
the notable exception of Penn Schoen Berland that was acquired by
WPP and later merged into Burson-Marsteller.
As early as the 1930s, methods were also being developed by advertisers
and their agencies that linked exposure and persuasion measures to actual
store sales. In essence, testing, measurement, analysis, and evaluation sys-
tems became an integral part of the advertising industry. These systems
became so institutionalized by mid-decade that an academic journal—The
Journal of Advertising Research—as well as an industry a ssociation—The
Advertising Research Foundation—were established in 1936. Other jour-
nals followed and formal academic programs in marketing research were
established at major universities throughout the United States.
During the late 1970s, it became increasingly apparent that public
relations differed considerably from other communications disciplines,
and advertising in particular, in its ability to be measured and evaluated.
At the time, advertising testing was dominated by a variety of measure-
ment and evaluation systems of which the day after recall method (DAR),
popularized by Burke Marketing Research in its work with Procter &
Gamble, was one of the most common systems in use. These advertising-
focused methods took on a source orientation and assumed that the
message was completely controlled by the communicator (Miller and
Levine 2009; Miller and Burgoon 1974). Therefore, the ability to test
message recall and message efficacy were highly controllable and, in the-
ory, projectable as to what would occur if the advertising were actually
to be placed.
With the recognition that public relations needed a different set of
measures because of the unique nature of the profession, senior man-
agement at several major public relations agencies charged their research
departments with the task of finding more credible and reliable methods
to measure the effectiveness of public relations activities. While a number
of experiments were undertaken at that time, the primary benefit derived
from this experimentation was a heightened awareness of the overall value
of measuring public relations.
INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH AND EVALUATIONS 7
1
This only includes companies headquartered in the United States and in the United
Kingdom. Other companies specializing in this area operate in other regions of the
world.
8 GUIDE TO PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH
Outputs
The Organization Activities Messages received
Values, objectives, Messages sent by audience
strategies by company Media analysis
Market research
“Mediating Factors”
Reputation &
Relationships
Internal & external
Stakeholder research
Outcomes
Audience choices/behaviors Outtakes
3rd party endorsement Audience perceptions
Recruitment/retention Content analysis
Brand equity Survey research
Regulation Market research
Figure 1.1 Best practices in public relations
and how the outtakes from those messages impact on the objectives goals
set by the organization.
As noted in a commentary from PriceWaterhouseCoopers, “Best prac-
tices are simply the best way to perform a business process. They are the
means by which leading companies achieve top performance, and they
serve as goals for other companies that are striving for excellence” (www
.globalbestpractices.com/Home/Document.aspx?Link=Best+practices/
FAQs&Idx=BestPracticesIdx).
While the concept of best practices is often applied to the operations
of a specific company, the logical extension of best practices is its applica-
tion to an overall industry through the establishment of standards against
which assessments can be made. The goal of this book is to present best
practices as they apply to public relations research, measurement, and
evaluation. This presentation of these best practices is not to provide
definitive answers to business problems associated with communication.
Rather, these best practices are meant to be sources of creative insight
for improving the application of public relations research and, in turn,
improving the overall quality and effectiveness of public relations activi-
ties overall.
Before we can move to best practices, we must first look at standards
against which measures of public relations performance are compared.
In the next chapter we focus on three sets of standards as published in
12 GUIDE TO PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH
Why Standardization?
Standardization of public relations research is the next step up from
best practices. While best practices tell us how to best meet objectives,
16
expectations
Nonfinancial
(ROE)
indicators
• Credibility
• Trust
• Reputation
• Relationships
• Confidence
Contemporary
Figure 2.1 The movement toward standardization
Source: Stacks (2011), Copyright 2011 by The Guilford Press. All rights reserved.
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