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In every business—whether the organization is large or small, for-profit or nonprofit, local or global—there is an objective. Objectives may include generating a profit, approving legislation or giving back to the community. The purpose of every public relations program is to meet or beat its own objectives and contribute to the organization’s overall success.
While each component of the public relations process is essential, the initial objectives-setting stage is the basis for the entire program. It provides a framework for strategy, tactics, execution and evaluation. Yet setting high-quality objectives is a frequently overlooked step—a product of unwillingness rather than inability. A systematic approach places effective objectives-setting well within the reach of every PR professional. The methodical system described here will allow you to improve performance and better serve clients by linking objectives with the overall goals of the organization. In so doing, objectives become measurable, meaningful and reasonable.
As a rule, an objective must include answers to the questions of what, who, how much and when.
- What: Specify a desired output, outcome or business result.
- Who: Identify one or more target audiences.
- How much: Note the degree to which the “what” should change.
- When: Stipulate a time frame.
Following is a checklist for setting meaningful objectives.
1. Tie your objectives to the organization’s goals and objectives.
It is essential to understand the organization’s goals before fully incorporating them within public relations objectives. Your analysis should extend beyond the traditional PR purview to include factors such as financial performance, vision and leadership, workplace environment, social responsibility, and other drivers of organizational and brand success. Begin by studying your mission statement, your annual report, your web site and other available sources, then accompany each organizational goal with a corollary PR objective.
2. Lay the groundwork.
Specify desired outputs, outcomes and business results—the elements for PR success.
Outputs: Press releases, special events and web sites, and the residual visibility they generate through new and traditional media. Here’s an example of an output objective: “Increase competitive share of positive news coverage in target media by 20 percent before June.”
Outcomes: The awareness, understanding, attitudes, preference and behavior achieved among target audiences as a result of outputs. Example: “Boost brand awareness in our top 10 markets by 15 points in six months.”
Business results: The financial effects that contribute to the organization’s goals (revenues, donations, etc.) and that result from outputs and outcomes. Example: “Add one percent to unit sales in Texas during 2010.”
Each example is measurable. The organization’s decision makers will confirm whether these goals are meaningful; the degree to which they are reasonable is a matter of negotiation.
3. Make sure your objectives are objectives.
Objectives are a guide to action rather than a chronicle of activity, emphasizing ends rather than means. They should include how much, by when and among how many. If your objectives contain words like distribute or create, you have a tactical plan. Tactical plans are not bad, per se, but they are not a substitute for objectives.
4. Set a specific time frame.
Set a schedule by which objectives are to be met, and have it coincide with the goals and business calendar of the organization. Speak with peers to ensure that your objectives support theirs and vice versa. Also:
- Differentiate long-term from short-term objectives. Long-term objectives are best accomplished in an incremental fashion and should be translated into shorter-term objectives.
- Construct your objectives with respect to what PR can—and cannot—accomplish reasonably. Unreasonable objectives are a waste of time and resources. Benchmark your performance against competitors: Once you establish comparative performance levels, PR objectives become more reasonable—and forecasts more accurate—over time.
5. Define your target audience and how to best reach them.
Audience targeting is a key element in any marketing and communication initiative. By describing your target audience in terms of their demographics, lifestyle, buying patterns and media consumption preferences, you can efficiently generate meaningful outcomes. In many cases, PR targeting is a highly subjective exercise that expands the potential for explosive—if counterintuitive results. For example, knowing that a higher concentration of beer-drinkers live in Baltimore than in New York City allows PR strategists to optimally focus their limited resources. Determining that the Los Angeles Times reaches as many beer-drinkers as the free Penny Saver at the grocery store facilitates improved efficiency (i.e., “pitch-calls to placement ratio”). Identifying photo enthusiasts who also love to barbecue provides cross-marketing opportunities. And so it goes.
6. Define your audience relationship (and how you want it to change).
Do you want your PR campaign to build loyalty among existing customers or to steal customers from your competitors? For example, cola drinkers in Memphis, Tennessee are extraordinarily loyal to Coca-Cola. A new soft drink might find it impossible to unseat the local market leader as opposed to an alternative market with no such loyalty. The three key factors in the objectives setting process are “meaningful, measurable and reasonable.” It may not be reasonable to unseat the established market leader without something revolutionary. You might be better off adjusting objectives and identifying a target market where in-roads would not be quite so difficult. Good research will tell you where that market is.
It’s also worth exploring the sort of relationship you hope to build with the target audience. Many smart PR planners borrow from research conducted by other units within the company to uncover these relationships. Demographics databases offer many criteria by which audience relationships can be determined. For example, they could identify Memphis as a “cola market” (but also whether Memphis cola drinkers are your customers, prospective customers or a competitor’s loyalists).
7. Get agreement from senior management.
As a final step, discuss your findings and recommendations with key executives to ensure that your priorities are aligned with theirs. Share the three sets of objectives being proposed—outputs, outcomes and business results—before building understanding and seeking agreement on target audiences, time frame and the means by which your performance will be measured. Successful achievement of your objectives ought to satisfy questions about proving the value of public relations. An “executive audit,” a structured qualitative research instrument by which perceptions, attitudes and preferences toward PR are uncovered, can help to align the often subjective preferences of the executives who affect performance evaluation and resource allocation.
In too many cases, the public relations profession relies on vague goals and indeterminate objectives at the cost of verifiable success. By responding to the dictates of business and our profession, public relations will earn higher esteem and more influence if we choose to set, meet and beat objectives that are meaningful, reasonable and measurable.
Mark Weiner is the CEO of PRIME Research North America, a research-based consulting firm that helps clients to prove—and improve—the return on their public relations investment. He is the author of Unleashing the Power of PR. A free copy of the executive audit is available by e-mailing him at
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