The excellent reasons for undertaking market research, and including it in any public relations strategic process, include that it generates information to create the best possible comms strategy, it helps determine appropriate benchmarks against which communication activity can be measured and it uncovers a range of issues that can be leveraged in PR programs.

For Angela Sinickas, measuring business communication is all about creating a “chain of evidence”, linking the tactical activities we do on a daily basis to the financial bottom line of the organisation. This is chain is created by looking at: communication activities, audience perceptions, audience actions and the financial impact on organisational goals. Paul Cheal analyses a ‘Measuring ROI on Communications’ workshop.

“Relationships are a means to getting more of the behaviors companies want. I think most PR people don’t realize this and therefore don’t build the right relationships or build them in ways that will directly benefit the organization tangibly, not just intangibly,” said renowned public relations exponent, and a passionate advocate for the setting of objectives, Angela Sinickas, in a this interview. She also purported that behavioral change is the ultimate form of impact for PR programs.

It’s interesting to observe that the traditional divide between the marketing (paid messages) and public relations (third party endorsement) professions still seems to be alive and well judging by their positioning in most organisations. Each profession is usually either placed in an independent organisational silo, or PR is positioned as a subset ‘add-on’ of marketing, which as we know inevitably leads to turf wars. However this need not be so in practice and it is worth the effort to step across the silos, as the following case study demonstrates…explains Sue Corlette, an experienced professional communicator and educator, in this guest post.