A second survey, by communication research consultants Metrica of
the UK’s 1,000 largest companies, has proved what most consultants have
known all along - that a large proportion of UK companies fail to define
the business objectives they hope to achieve through PR.
More than half of the respondents who have responsibility for PR said
that they still believe that up to 10 per cent of a company’s PR budget
should be spent on measurement, and 61 per cent claim to carry out
measurement programmes.
Investment in measurement, without well defined objectives is, however,
little more than an exercise in post-rationalisation. The PR Week Proof
campaign target of 10 per cent of budget relates to both evaluation of
results and, crucially, the use of research to enable companies to
define objectives and properly plan campaigns. It is only by defining
the business objectives of public relations campaigns and meeting them,
that the worth of PR as a key component of business success can be
proven.
