NO. 4 EVALUATION

EVALUATION

- Measurement of results against established objectives set during the planning process
- The systematic assessment of a program & its result
- Basic evaluation questions that any PR practitioner should ask:

1)Was the activity/ program adequately planned?

2)Did recipients of the message understand it?

3)How could the program strategy have been more effective?

4) Were all primary & secondary audiences reached?

5) Was the desired organizational objective achieved?

6) What unforeseen circumstances affected the success of the program/ activity?

7) Did the program/ activity fall within the budget set for it?

8) What steps can be taken to improve the success of similar future activities?


Measurement & Evaluation

Measurement of Production
-To give management an idea of a staff’s productivity & output by emphasizing on quantity

-To specify what the PR person should accomplish in obtaining media coverage as a tangible criteria for employee performance evaluation

-E.g. count how many news releases, photos, letters are produced in a given period of time


Measurement of Message Exposure
-Measuring by using..

i) Compilation of press clippings & radio- TV mentions
-How many times TV & radio mention about the program
ii) Media impressions/ potential audience reached
-How many people may have been exposed to the message
iii) Hits on the Internet/ website
iv) Advertising equivalency, calculated by converting news stories to cost of a comparable amount of paid space
-Calculate the value of message exposure
v)Systematic tracking by use of computer databases
-Analyze the content of media placements
vi) Requests for additional info through toll- free telephone numbers
-compile the number of requests for the info.
vii) Audience attendance at special events
-Counting attendance at events
-Poor attendance indicate inadequate publicity & promotion
viii) Determining the cost to reach each member of the target audience
-Commonly used in advertisements

Measurement of Audience Awareness
-To evaluate whether the audience became aware of & understood the message by using survey research
-to determine the level whether the audience aware & understand the message

Measurement of Audience Attitudes
-Changes in audience attitude can be evaluated through a baseline study (percentage differences in attitudes & opinions as a result of increased info & publicity)
-Measuring awareness & opinion before, during & after a PR campaign

-Measurement of Audience Action
-To help the organization to achieve its objectives through change in audience behavior whether this involves sales, fund- raising or election of a candidate

- Measurement of Supplemental Activities

i)A yearly audit is necessary to ensure all publics received the appropriate messages; pretesting a PR efforts

ii)Can use a pilot test, a split- message approach, a perception analyzer system or the think- aloud method

Split message approach
-Two or three different appeals may be prepared by an organization & sent to different audiences
-The response rate is then monitored to learn what message & graphics most effective
Perception Analyzer
-Subjects view speeches, public service announcements (PSA) etc.
-PR identify which passages work best or which message strategies are most effective
Think- aloud method
-Comments are collected as the subjects browse the various websites. The comments are then recorded & analyzed

iii)Split message approach
-Two or three different appeals may be prepared by an organization & sent to different audiences
-The response rate is then monitored to learn what message & graphics most effective
Perception Analyzer
-Subjects view speeches, public service announcements (PSA) etc.
-PR identify which passages work best or which message strategies are most effective
Think- aloud method
-Comments are collected as the subjects browse the various websites. The comments are then recorded & analyzed

Meeting & event attendance can be measured both by the number of attendees & by their behavior as an indicator of their acceptance of a message

iv) Newsletter readership can be evaluated by content analysis, readership interest surveys, article recall & advisory boards

Content analysis
-Systematic analysis on the newsletter
-Look at the percentage of the publication
Readership interest surveys
-To get feedback about the types of stories employees are most interested in reading

Article recall
-Individual evaluation of selected articles for accuracy & clarity
Advisory boards
-Periodic feedback & evaluation is done several times a year to discuss the direction & content of the publication