Chapter Eight:

Evaluation
 Overview
 The Purpose of evaluation

 Objectives

 Status of evaluation and measurement

 Measurement
 Production
 Exposure
 Awareness
 Attitudes
 Action
 Supplemental activities
 The Purpose of Evaluation

The fourth step of the

public relations
process is evaluation –
the measurement of
results against established
objectives (194).
 --- Continued
_ Evaluation is the measurement of results against
objectives , this can enhance future performance
and also establish whether the goals of
management by objective have been met .
_ Evaluation is well described as ( the systematic
assessment of a program and it’s result , it is a
mean for practitioners to offer accountability to
Clients and to themselves .
 Objectives:
A Prerequisite for Evaluation
• Before any public relations program can be
properly evaluated , it’s important to have a
clearly established set of measurable objectives ,
these should be part of the program plan but
first some points need to be reviewed .
1. Public relations personnel and management
should agree on the criteria that will be used to
evaluate success in attaining objectives .
 … Continued
2. Don’t wait until the end of public relations
programs to determine how it will be evaluated .
( Evaluating impact starts in the planning stage ,
you break down the problem into measurable
goals and objectives then after implementing the
program , you measure the results against goals
)
_ If the objective is informational , measurement
techniques must show how successfully
information was communicated to target
audiences .
 …Continued
Motivational objectives are more difficult _
to accomplish , if the objective is to
increase sales or market share , it’s
important to show that public relations
efforts caused the increase rather than
advertising or other marketing strategies ,
But if the objective is to change attitude or
opinion , research should be done Before
and after public relations activity to
measure the percentage of Change
 Objectives:
A Prerequisite for Evaluation
Evaluation Questions
 Adequately planned?
 Message understood?
 How more effective?
 All primary and secondary audiences reached?
 Organizational objective achieved?
 Unforeseen circumstances?
 Within budget?
 Steps to improve?
Current Status of Measurement and
Evaluation

The proportion of public relations Budgets _

devoted to measurement and evaluation grew
over the 1990s to about 5 percent . On the most
basic level , practitioners can measure message
distribution and media placements . The second
level would be measurement of audience
awareness , comprehension and Retention . The
most advanced level is the measurement of
change in attitudes , opinions and behaviors
Current Status of Measurement and
Evaluation

Sophisticated Techniques

 Computerization

 Clips as evaluation supplanted by many

methods

 Management demands more accountability to

the bottom line
 Measurement:
Production
_ One elementary form of evaluation is simply to count
how many news releases , feature stories , photos ,
letters and the like are produced in a given period of
time
_ This kind of evaluation is supposed to give management
and idea of staff’s productivity and output .
_ P.R professionals , don’t believe that this evaluation is
very meaningful , because it emphasizes quantity
instead of quality . It may be more cost effective to write
fewer news releases and spend more time on the few
that are newsworthy .
 Measurement:
Production
_ Another side of production approach is to specify
what the public relations person should
accomplish in obtaining media coverage .
_such evaluation Criteria not only are unrealistic ,
they are also impossible to Guarantee because
public Gatekeepers not the public relation make
such decisions. Management may argue that
such placement goals provide incentives to
public relation staff and are tangible criteria in
employee performance Evaluation
 Measurement:
Exposure
The most widely practiced form of evaluating
public relation programs is the compilation of
press clippings and radio – television mentions .
Public relation firms and company departments
working primarily on a local basis often have a
staff member scan and clip the area newspaper .
Large companies with national and international
outreach hire clipping services to scan large
numbers of publications , it’s also possible to
have electronic clipping services monitor .
 Measurement:
Exposure
Measurement of exposure relies on:

 Media impressions

 Hits on the internet

 Advertising equivalency

 Systematic tracking

 Requests for 800 numbers

 Cost per person

 Audience attendance
 Media Impressions
_ In addition to the number of media placements ,
P.R departments and firms report how many
people have been exposed to the message,
these numbers are Described as Media
impression , the potential audience reached by a
periodical or a broadcast program .
_ National news story can generate millions of
impressions by simple multiplication of each
placement by the audience of each medium
 Continued

_ Media impressions are commonly used in

advertising to document , this figure give
a rough estimate of how many people
are exposed to a message , they disclose
how many people read or heard the
stories and more important how many
absorbed or acted on the information .
 Hits on the Internet

_ A cyberspace version of media impression

is the number of people reached Via an
organization’s world wide web site or
home page . Each instance of a person
accessing a site is called a Hit or a Visit .
 Advertising Equivalency
_ Another approach is to calculate the value of
message exposure , this is done by converting
stories in the regular news columns or on the air
into equivalent advertising Costs .
_ some practitioners even take the approach of
calculating the cost of advertising for the same
amount of space and then multiplying that total
three to six times to reflect a number of
research studies that show that a new story has
Greater Credibility than an advertisement .
 Systematic Tracking
As noted earlier , message exposure
traditionally has been measured By Sheer
Bulk , new advances in computer software
and database , now make it possible to
track media placements in a more
sophisticated way .
_ Computer databases can be to analyze the
content of media placements by such
variable as market penetration …
 Systematic Tracking
_ The value of systematic tracking is
manifested in several ways one is
continuing regular feedback during a
campaign to determine if an organization’s
publicity efforts are paying off in terms of
placements and mention of key
messages , tracking coverage and
comparing it over a period of time is called
Benchmarking .
 Requests and 800 numbers
_ Another measure of media exposure is to
compile the number of requests for more
information , a story in a newspaper or an
appearance of a company spokesperson
on a broadcast often provides information
as to where people can get more
information about a subject .
_ Requests for materials also show the
effectiveness of a public relation program
 Cost Per Person
_ A way to evaluate to the message is to
determine the cost of reaching each number of
the audience , the technique is commonly used
in advertising to place costs in perspective .
_ Cost effectiveness , as this technique is known,
also is used in public relations.
Cost-per-thousand (CPM) is calculated by taking
the cost of the publicity program and dividing it
by the total media impressions (discussed
earlier) .
 Audience Attendance
_ Counting attendance at events is a relatively
simple way of evaluating the effectiveness of
pre-event publicity.
_ Poor attendance at a meeting or event can
indicate inadequate publicity and promotion.
_ Another major cause is lack of public interest,
even when people are aware that a meeting or
event is taking place.
_ Low attendance usually results in considerable
finger-pointing, thus an objective evaluation of
exactly what happened – or didn’t happen – is a
good policy.
 Measurement of Audience
Awareness
Techniques of measuring audience _
exposure and accurate dissemination have
.been discussed
A higher level of evaluation is to _
determine whether the audience actually
became aware of the message and
.understood it
 …Continued
The tools of survey research are needed to answer such _
.questions
Members of the target audience must be asked about the _
.message and what they remember about it
Public awareness of what organization sponsors an event _
.also is important
Another way of measuring audience awareness and _
.comprehension is day-after recall
Under this method, participants are asked to view a_
specific TV programme , the next day they are
. interviewed to learn which message they remembered
 Measurement:
Attitudes
_ Closely related to audience awareness and
understanding of a message are changes
in audiences perception and attitudes . A
major technique determine such changes
is the baseline study .
 Measurement:
Attitudes
Measurements of audience attitudes
can be accomplished through:

Baseline Studies – a measurement of

attitudes before, after, and during a
campaign. It’s also called benchmark studies
 Measurement:
Audience Action
Measurement of audience
action is determined by a
campaign objectives …

…where they met?

 Measurement:
Supplemental Activities
Measurement of supplemental activities
includes:

– Communication audit
– Pilot tests and split messages
– Meeting and event attendance
– Newsletter readership
– Content analysis
– Readership interest surveys
– Article recall
– Advisory boards
 Communication audits
_ communication activity of an organization
should be evaluated at least once a year
to make sure that every primary and
secondary public is receiving appropriate
messages
_ A communication audit could include the
following :
 --- Continued
1. Analysis of all the communication
activities
2. Informal interviews with rank and file
employees
3. Informal interview with community
leaders .
 Pilot tests and split messages
_ A variation of Pre-testing is the pilot test ,
before going national with the P.R
messages , companies often test the
message and copy points in selected cities
to learn how the media accept the
message and how the public reacts .
_ The split message approach is common in
direct mail campaigns
 Pilot tests and split messages
_ With perception analyzer systems , some
times called theater system , selected
subjects are asked to view speeches .
_ The think- aloud method can be used to
asses with content in a similar fashion to
the perception analyzers .
 Meeting and event attendance
_ P.R practitioners use a number of
information methods to evaluate success
of the meeting , but they also employ
more systematic methods . The most
common technique is an evaluation sheet
that participants fill out at the end of the
meeting .
 Newsletter readership

_ Editors of newsletters should evaluate

readership annually , such an evaluation
can help ascertain 1. reader perception
2.the degree to which stories balanced 3.
the kinds of stories 4. topics that should
be covered 5. the credibility of the
publication 6. the extent to which the
newsletters is meeting organizational
objectives
 … Continued
_ A newsletters can be evaluated in a
number of ways :
1. Content analysis
2. readership interest surveys
3. Article recall
4. Advisory board
 Content analysis
_ Based on representative samples of past
issues
_ this systematic analysis will show the
percentage of the publication is devoted to
each category
_ stories may be categorized under general
headings such as New product
developments , Job related information
 readership interest surveys
_ The purpose of these surveys is to get
feedback about the types of stories
employees are most interested in reading ,
the most common survey method is simply
to provide along list of generic story to
picks and have employees rate each as
1.important one 2.to some what important
3.or not important
 Article recall

_ The best kind of readership survey occurs

when trained interviews ask a sampling of
employees what they have read in the
latest issue of the publication .
 Advisory board

Periodic feedback and evaluation can be _

provided by organizing an employee
advisory board meet several times a year
to discuss the direction of the publication
this is a useful technique because it
expands the editor feedback net work and
clear comments that employees might be
.hesitant to tell the editor face to face
Thank you 