ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN MARKETING-PR an international

ISSUES, CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN MARKETING-PR: an international perspective Paul Willis Centre for Public Relations Studies Leeds Business School p. a. willis@leedsmet. ac. uk leedsmetleads

A BIT ABOUT ME • • • 20 years in practice: agency and in-house deputy managing director of Ptarmigan PR Week ‘Consultancy of the Year’ team of 50, £ 4 million turnover two-thirds of our income from marcomms leedsmetleads

WHO I’VE WORKED FOR leedsmetleads

MY BRIEF FOR TODAY • • • consider PR in a marketing context a specific focus on evaluation how do you measure PR’s impact on sales? about a call to action: did you win or lose? an international perspective/the bigger picture leedsmetleads

AND… leedsmetleads

RUNNING ORDER • • evaluation and public relations practice useful evaluation models issues to consider the importance of a consultancy approach case studies the future a health warning conclusion leedsmetleads

1. EVALUATION AND PR PRACTICE leedsmetleads

HOT AIR AND RHETORIC leedsmetleads

MIND THE GAP leedsmetleads

A DOMINANT CONVERSATION Mc. Coy (2005) suggested that the most common buzzwords in PR in the last ten years have been evaluation and accountability leedsmetleads

DON’T BE DEFENSIVE • a challenge for all managers • hard and complex for all functions • accountability issues across marketing “the historic rift between marketers and the finance department, caused by marketing’s reluctance to be accountable for what they do is as marked as ever” (Deloitte 2007) leedsmetleads

2. USEFUL MODELS leedsmetleads

WHAT CAN BE MEASURED? • input: quality of writing, graphics, research, creative treatment • output: cuttings, readership, OTS, footfall, SMS read, website hits • out-take: messages received, event participation, enquiries, coupons, text replies • outcome: awareness, attitudes, behaviour • outflow: the cumulative effects over time, reputation leedsmetleads

WATSON AND NOBLE (2007) leedsmetleads

THE SHORT TERM MODEL Media Simple objective Media relations strategy and tactics leedsmetleads analysis YES/NO Target response analysis

THE CONTINUING MODEL STAY ALIVE Research Objectives set out Effects Strategy Tactical selection choices chosen Effects Multiple formal and informal analysis SUCCEED leedsmetleads

EFFECTS-BASED PLANNING • associated with management-by-objectives a programme’s intended effects serve as the basis from which all planning decisions are made • set separate objectives for each public • decisions based upon intended effects • a continuing evaluation process leedsmetleads

3. ISSUES TO CONSIDER leedsmetleads

EVALUATION AND RESEARCH INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT Corporate & business Identify key strategic issues strategies Identify implications What must be Policies Synthesis of issues on communicated Internal Issues stakeholders Prioritise issues Strategic communication plan How must it be communicated Media plan Employee Comm plan Stakeholder plan Analysis Crisis comm plan Specific communication plans/campaigns/programmes leedsmetleads

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UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH The ‘What’ Facts & Data The ‘Why’ The ‘So What’ Understand why Insight leedsmetleads

WHY DEMOGRAPHY ISN’T INSIGHT Demographic male born 1948 British 2 nd marriage affluent well known family leedsmetleads

SETTING REALISTIC OBJECTIVES • SMART • sort out PR objectives from other issues • understand which is achievable - easier to reinforce favourable opinions - harder to neutralise hostile ones • it is easier to get people to think than do leedsmetleads

ROGER’S ADOPTION PROCESS Early Innovators 2. 5% Early Late Adopters Majority Laggards 13. 5% 34% 16% leedsmetleads

IT’S MORE COMPLICATED THAN THIS! Message Domino Knowledge Domino Attitude Domino leedsmetleads Behaviour Domino (From Grunig & Hunt, 1984)

COMPLEXITY OF THE ASK? • Appeals to – self-interest – reason – group interest – societal interest – altruism leedsmetleads

MULTI-FACETED COMMUNICATION leedsmetleads

4. THE IMPORTANCE OF A CONSULTANCY APPROACH leedsmetleads

CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR leedsmetleads

BEING A CONSULTANT Mindset Knowledge Process skills Competencies leedsmetleads

5. CASE STUDIES leedsmetleads

(Watson and Noble) leedsmetleads

1. Research • • • Wordtracker and Yahoo consumer search insight pay-per-click for PR 1. 3 million v 400, 000 immediate impact leedsmetleads

2. Editing skills • • • self taught adapt and develop standard releases optimise headlines and body copy more weight placed on visible text out-performs key word meta tags leedsmetleads

3. Hyperlinks • • • attention deficit order (people are lazy) hyperlinks embedded in first/second paragraph unique hyperlink for PR ‘deep’ and ‘trackable’ quick link to the ‘purchase’ page leedsmetleads

4. Distribution leedsmetleads

5. Test “airfare to Philadelphia” “low fares” “ 22 new daily non-stop flights with low fares starting at $29 one-way” leedsmetleads

(Paine, Draper and Jeffrey, 2008) www. instituteforpr. org leedsmetleads

ISOLATING PR’S IMPACT • • • standard marketing package Dallas/Fort Worth a unique PR component ‘Art Sunday’ at JCPenney higher rates of sale greater credit card usage leedsmetleads

6. THE FUTURE leedsmetleads

Econometrics (aka marketing mix modelling) leedsmetleads

7. HEALTH WARNING leedsmetleads

SERGIO ZYMAN (2000) “Marketing has to move consumers to action. Popularity isn’t the objective. I don’t want virtual consumption - the phenomenon that occurs when customers love your product but don’t feel the need to buy it…Convincing consumers to buy your products is the only reason that a marketer is in business. ” leedsmetleads

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DON’T GET STUCK IN THE FOOD CHAIN leedsmetleads

8. CONCLUSION leedsmetleads

…ALWAYS REMEMBER “not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts” leedsmetleads

ANY QUESTIONS? leedsmetleads