Monitoring an advertising campaign, analyzing its current results and assessing their effectiveness is an integral stage of the entire process of planning advertising events. Control over an advertising campaign is not a mandatory procedure, and in most cases companies do not control the progress of the process itself. Instead, managers analyze sales performance before and throughout an advertising campaign and then judge whether the advertising is working or not. However, about half of all advertising campaigns do not lead to a clear (measurable) increase in sales.

If you do not monitor the progress of the campaign, you can get such a result completely unexpectedly when it is too late to take measures to correct the situation. Large firms control and evaluate their advertising campaigns even when all market factors indicate that advertising (incentive measures, a complex of intensive marketing communications) achieves sales goals.

The head of the advertising and marketing department, interested in success, must always be sure that the sales of products are ensured by advertising, and not by other marketing factors, “misses” on the part of competitors or the market itself (when general economic conditions change). In addition, he is interested in the possible impact of advertising on future sales.

Research by various authors shows that at least 30% of campaigns conducted in the United States had a negative effect, 20% had at least no harm, 20% had a small positive effect and 30% had a pronounced positive effect.

Data for European countries look more modest: only 20% of campaigns had a pronounced positive effect. In principle, you should not expect 100% advertising effectiveness at all. However, to predict or estimate advertising expenses and obtaining at least an approximate result is certainly necessary. Spending on advertising in developed civilized countries has long been a kind of tribute to the market, so as not to get lost among competitors.

Tracking an advertising campaign requires a significant amount of financial resources. First, you need to conduct a preliminary, or control, study, if it was not carried out during development advertising strategy. Then, during the campaign, one or more “waves” of research are conducted, the results of which are compared with control ones. In this way, the effectiveness of advertising is monitored. The cost of each interim study depends on the objectives of the survey, the size of the sample of respondents, the size of the questionnaire or questionnaire, the likelihood of making a purchase, but in any case it remains quite high.

• 1) contact with advertising;
• 2) assimilation of information;
• 3) effects of communication and brand positioning;
• 4) actions of target buyers;
• 5) sales volume or market share;
• 6) profit.

A contact is usually called the opportunity to see or hear an advertising message at least once. This happened, i.e. contact occurs when an advertisement is placed on one or more advertising media that reaches the target consumer. The degree of consumer attention (whether they noticed or did not notice the advertisement) is usually assessed at the next stage - the stage of assimilation of information.

It should be noted that contact research is associated with measurements of the advertising power of an advertising medium, which can subsequently be correlated with sales volumes or other advertising effects. The power of a product can be measured in different ways: from the overall assessment of advertising costs, its placement in monetary terms and the total amount advertisements necessary to achieve the desired level of awareness (GRP), to a more accurate estimate of coverage at the minimum effective frequency of advertising repetitions (effective coverage).

The cumulative number of advertisements placed over a given period of time is also a gross advertisement contact estimate. Indicator CRP does not take into account the number of contacts of individual consumers and is a simple calculation of the required number of contacts (often repeated) of the audience with advertising.

Indicator GRP can be compared with total advertising costs (GRP on monetary unit for a given period of time). Their ratio shows whether financial resources are spent effectively. The higher the value, the cheaper each contact with an advertising message costs.

GRP can also be directly linked to sales volumes. The result will be a rough estimate of the effectiveness of the media plan. Rough for the reason that the indicator itself can be assessed in different ways.

An important indicator when researching contact with advertising is effective coverage. This is coverage target audience with the minimum effective frequency of advertising and the most accurate assessment of contacts with advertising. To measure effective coverage, the number of contacts with various advertising media is directly assessed (direct combination) or the frequency of advertising recognition is measured. The minimum effective frequency is calculated for each advertising cycle, however, coverage at a given minimum frequency is an indicator that can be recalculated for any period used for other control measurements.

If at the end of the measurements it turns out that effective coverage is not related to sales volumes, then the work advertising communications something was left out. Moreover, we are not talking about the use of advertising media, but about the advertising strategy or its creative execution.

The concept of advertising effectiveness simultaneously contains such heterogeneous concepts as economic effect, psychological impact on representatives of target groups (psychological effect), social effect, expressed in a certain impact on society as a whole (in particular, influence on the formation of people’s taste preferences , their views and concepts about various moral and material life values etc.). Based on this, comparing and linking together the monetary costs of advertising events, the profit received, consumer preferences, the prestige of goods and favorable public opinion about the activities of the advertising organization is an extremely difficult, often practically impossible task.

Therefore, despite the fact that leading experts from many countries around the world have been working on the problems of determining the effectiveness of advertising for a long time, this issue is one of the most intractable, and today there is not yet a single perfect formula or technique that allows one to accurately measure the effort expended and cash with final results.

Economic and psychological effectiveness are interrelated, but the criteria for assessing their effectiveness are different (Fig. 12.1).

C. Sandage, W. Freiburger and K. Rotzoll compare the decision-making process of an advertiser with a “black box”, which symbolically includes a large number of existing factors (socio-economic conditions, advertising, competition, sales promotion, packaging, distribution, price), and only one outgoing factor comes out in the form of a specific action of this advertising recipient.

It should be especially noted that, contrary to popular belief, advertising is far from the only “engine of trade”, but only one of many. IN common system extensive

Rice. 12.1.

In a complex of marketing activities, advertising is, as a rule, not the dominant element. In particular, according to the estimates of some marketing scientists, in the total amount of factors influencing the adoption of positive purchasing decisions, advertising accounts for only "/32 to "/in shares.

Practice shows that the most significant factors determining an increase or decrease in sales of any product are, first of all, the quality and consumer properties of the goods themselves, their price, the general market situation, the actions of competitors, etc. That is why assessing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns based on the sales results of the advertised products can lead to very serious errors.

Distinguish economic efficiency advertising and effectiveness of psychological influence individual means of advertising on human consciousness (attracting attention to advertising, fixation in memory, etc.). Moreover, psychological influence is most effective if it leads potential consumers to make a purchase. Thus, the economic effectiveness of advertising depends on its psychological impact.

The economic efficiency of advertising is most often determined by measuring its impact on the development of trade turnover. It is possible to most accurately determine what effect advertising has had only if an increase in product sales occurs in cases of advertising new consumer goods.

At the same time, the purchase of an expensive durable product is usually preceded by mandatory deliberation. In this case, the effect of advertising may not appear immediately. First of all, the buyer learns about the release of the product, then he is interested in detailed information about its quality and properties. After this, the buyer can give preference to the advertised product and become convinced of his desire to purchase it, and only in the end does he purchase it.

To identify the extent to which advertising influenced the growth of trade turnover, operational and accounting data are carefully analyzed. It should be borne in mind that in addition to advertising, the sale of a product is affected by its quality and consumer properties, price, appearance, as well as the location of the trading enterprise, the level of customer service culture, and the availability of similar products or products for sale.

In this regard, when determining the effectiveness of advertising, it is necessary to establish which of the listed or other factors could have influenced the increase in turnover along with advertising.

Additional turnover under the influence of advertising is determined by the formula:

where Tr is additional turnover under the influence of advertising, rub.; T - average daily turnover before the advertising period, rub.; P - increase in average daily turnover for the advertising and post-advertising periods, %; D - the number of days of accounting for turnover in the advertising and post-advertising periods.

The economic result is determined by the ratio between the profit from the additional turnover obtained under the influence of advertising and the costs of it.

To calculate the economic effect, you can use the following formula:

where E is the economic effect of advertising, rub.; T - additional turnover under the influence of advertising, rub.; N - trade markup on goods, % of the selling price; 11r - advertising expenses, rub.; And - additional expenses for the increase in trade turnover, rub.

In this case, we compare the effect obtained from the advertising event with the costs of its implementation. The results of this relationship can be expressed in three ways.

• 1. The effect of a promotional event is equal to the costs of its implementation.
• 2. The effect of the advertising event is greater than the costs (profitable).
• 3. The effect of the advertising event is less than the costs (unprofitable).

However, the data obtained is not yet sufficient for comparison economic efficiency costs for various promotional events. More precisely, the effectiveness of advertising costs characterizes its profitability.

The effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising means is characterized by the number of consumers reached, the brightness and depth of the impression that these means leave in a person’s memory, and the degree of attracting attention.

The effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising on consumers can be determined through observations, experiments, and surveys.

Observation method used to study the impact of individual advertising media on consumers. This method is passive in nature, since the observer does not influence the buyer in any way, but, on the contrary, makes observations unnoticed by him. According to a pre-developed scheme, the observer records the data obtained, which is then comprehensively analyzed. An observer, for example, notes which stand of a fair or exhibition-sale attracts the most attention from buyers, how long pedestrians linger at a particular display window, how many people enter the store after looking at the display window, which product on the display is of greater interest and what demand it is in .

The observation method allows us to evaluate the psychological impact of advertising in natural conditions, in direct communication between the consumer and a certain advertising medium.

When assessing the effectiveness of individual advertising media, it is first determined whether this means achieves its intended purpose. Yes, for determining the degree to which customers are attracted to outdoor advertising(showcase) you can use the following formula:

where B is the degree of attracting the attention of passersby; O - the number of people who paid attention to outdoor advertising(showcase) for a certain period; P is the total number of people who passed by the storefront in the same period.

where D is the effectiveness of publishing an ad; K - the number of visitors who bought the advertised product; C is the total number of customers who made any purchase in the store.

Such data can be obtained from the readings of checks punched at summing cash registers and by registering facts of purchase of the advertised product by cashier controllers.

An indicator of the effectiveness of media advertising itself retail establishment, is the ratio of the number of store visitors during the period of application of these funds to the number of visitors on average per day. These data can be obtained by observers or using a photocell.

When using observation method In all cases, the following conditions must be observed: observation must be carried out in weekdays, not characterized by increased intensity of customer flows (preferably in the middle of the week); The duration of observations depends on the nature of the advertising medium whose effectiveness is to be established.

Along with the observation method, they are widely used experimental method, which is active. The study of the psychological impact of advertising here takes place under conditions artificially created by the experimenter. If during observation they only record how the consumer feels, for example, about a certain display of goods, then the experimenter can rearrange the goods and then observe the change in the reaction of buyers.

In the same way, the experimenter can create a variety of combinations of advertising media and, by comparing the reactions of customers, select the most successful one.

Especially widespread development received a study of the effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising by conducting experiments in foreign countries. This method is used to determine the impact of display windows, packaging, press advertisements, radio and television advertising on customers. So, if you need to assess the psychological impact of product packaging on the buyer, then the same product (for example, washing powder) is placed in different packaging.

The psychological effectiveness of an advertising medium such as an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine is determined by the following experiment. The advertisement includes a coupon with the text of a request to send a prospectus, catalog or sample. The buyer must cut out this coupon and send it trading company, the address of which is indicated in the text of the advertisement. Based on the number of coupon requests received from readers, the advertiser judges whether his ad was noticed in periodicals and whether the text of this ad turned out to be sufficiently convincing and interesting. However, it should be noted that the small number of requests received may be a consequence not of the poor quality of the advertisements, but of the fact that the advertised product itself, for some reason, was not needed by customers. That is why this method of determining the psychological effectiveness of advertisements in periodicals is acceptable only when it is already known in advance that the advertised product is in demand.

The survey method refers to active methods determining the psychological impact of advertising. This method is labor-intensive, but much more reliable than others, since it allows us to directly identify from the buyer his attitude not only to the advertising medium as a whole, but also to the individual components of this medium. Using the survey method, you can evaluate the impact of an advertising medium on customers and determine which elements of its design attract the most attention and are better remembered.

To determine the effectiveness of a particular advertising medium, questionnaires are compiled, which, according to a pre-developed program, are brought to the attention of consumers in writing, in personal conversations, on radio or television. Analysis of the responses received allows us to draw appropriate generalizations and conclusions.

By asking you can determine which advertising medium has the greatest influence on the buyer when he purchases a certain product (poster, advertising film, ad, display of goods, etc.). For example, you can identify which advertising medium attracted the buyer’s attention to a new product using the following questionnaire.

How did you find out about the availability of a new product:

• a) from friends;
• b) from an advertisement on the radio, in a newspaper;
• c) saw in a store window;
• d) during the inspection of goods in the store;
• e) from a television program.

Conducting surveys requires a significant investment of time and the involvement of a large number of people. However, the results obtained cannot be sufficiently complete. After all, it is often unclear even to the buyer himself whether he bought the product under the influence of advertising or on the advice of a friend, or was guided by some other considerations. In addition, sometimes verbally interviewing customers can make them wary. Therefore, it is more expedient to invite them to fill out a questionnaire, outlining the objectives of the survey, so that the buyer knows the purpose and tries to answer the questions more accurately.

In some cases, surveys are combined with experiments. Thus, the study of the psychological effectiveness of radio and television advertising is carried out as follows. A group of people are invited to the studio and asked to fill out a short questionnaire, indicating information about age, profession, etc. After this, the group listens to or watches advertising programs and everyone writes down their comments and impressions on special sheets. All comments are appropriately motivated. Then a discussion of the program is organized. Sometimes the effectiveness of advertising is assessed based on voting data. Such listening and discussions of advertising programs make it possible to more or less accurately determine the positive and negative aspects in their preparation, as well as to identify which form of presentation is most intelligible for a particular contingent of radio listeners or television viewers.

The effectiveness of an advertising event or individual advertising medium can be expressed by the number of consumers reached by advertising, as well as by the amount of costs per viewer, reader, etc. Thus, the feasibility of publishing a newspaper advertisement in a particular print media is determined by determining the total number of people who will be able to read it (this number depends mainly on the circulation of the newspaper), or the cost of the advertisement per reader. The more readers are reached by advertising, the lower the cost per person will be.

Data on the effectiveness of the psychological impact of advertising allow us to predict its effectiveness.

In developed foreign countries, to study the effectiveness and efficiency of advertising, various techniques preliminary testing of representatives of target groups (make it possible to simulate approximate results of future advertising campaigns, make the necessary adjustments to their creative strategy and thereby significantly increase effectiveness); various sizes of the effectiveness of individual promotions during advertising campaigns using special surveys, questionnaires, return coupons, etc. (make it possible to analyze and, if necessary, improve and increase the effectiveness of these promotional activities); detailed studies of the results of advertising campaigns based on processing incoming requests, organizing special conversations with new clients, business partners and consumers.

One of the widely practiced methods for assessing the economic effectiveness of advertising is the method of identifying the approximate monetary cost of one advertising contact as a result of ongoing advertising events or advertising campaigns.

If 3,100 rubles were spent on organizing and conducting direct mail advertising. (of which 1000 rubles - production of an advertising and information letter with a circulation of 2000 copies, 2000 rubles - purchase of 2000 mailing addresses of representatives of target groups; 100 rubles - postage costs) and as a result 500 requests were received, then the cost of one advertising contact equal to 6 rubles. 20 kopecks

Summing up the results of this small advertising campaign, which included three events with a total cost of 46,100 rubles, as a result of which 2,800 requests were received, we can conclude that the average cost of one advertising contact in this case is about 16 rubles. 46 kopecks

This technique is widely used by many advertisers to comparative analysis the effectiveness of individual advertising media that they use in advertising work. However, this technique is also imperfect, since some requests (contacts) ultimately turn out to be more productive, others less productive or not at all productive. In addition, this technique does not make it possible to evaluate various promising business contacts, which can give good results only after a certain, sometimes quite long period.

The greatest practical interest for determining the effectiveness of advertising events is the method proposed by V. Glazunova, who notes that for an advertising organization, the effectiveness of advertising is associated with achieving the goal that was set for the advertising campaign or promotion. Based on this, the effectiveness of the promotional activities can be roughly assessed in the following terms:

• o goal achieved;
• o the goal was partially achieved;
• o the goal has not been achieved at all.

Despite the very conditional nature of such assessments, this fairly simple technique can give each advertising organization an idea of ​​the degree of effectiveness of the advertising campaigns carried out, if their goal is formulated quite clearly.

There are several main reasons low efficiency advertising.

• 1. Lack of specific goals and objectives of the advertising campaign.
• 2. Incompatibility of the goals and objectives of the advertising campaign with the goals marketing activities, as well as corporate strategy.
• 3. Lack of information about the target consumer and the sources of information he receives (channels of access to the consumer).
• 4. Lack of feedback from the consumer.
• 5. Segmentation errors.
• 6. Low qualifications of employees responsible for advertising, as well as employees of advertising agencies.
• 7. Lack of systematization and consistency in advertising campaigns.

It should be noted that the field of activity also leaves a certain imprint on the effectiveness of advertising as a method of promotion.

• o increase in trade turnover from 10 to 15%;
• o preparing consumers for the opening of a new store;
• o reminding consumers about the availability of a product in trading network etc.

• o reach at least 40% of the target audience;
• o increase the level of active fame to 25%;
• o optimization of the advertising budget - reducing its size by 10% due to the redistribution of sources of information.

Economic efficiency advertising campaign is determined by the relationship between the result obtained from advertising and the funds invested in its implementation over a certain period of time. True, it is precisely when calculating the effectiveness of advertising that the question arises: “Where did the advertising hit, and where is the influence of other factors?” Here we can advise you to analyze the influence of the above factors on changes in trade turnover. For example, studying sales trends based on seasonal factors over several periods (months, years); study of consumer sentiment in connection with inflation expectations; identifying price elasticity for your product when using sales promotion methods, etc.

Another way to determine economic efficiency can be a method where several comparable markets are taken and, other things being equal, they are exposed to different advertising influences. Then they compare financial results, the difference in which is compared with the difference in advertising budgets and a conclusion is drawn about the contribution of advertising to the company’s turnover.

where (2і and (22 are the sales volumes of the 1st and 2nd company, respectively, for the period of time; V] And U-> - the amount of advertising expenditures of these firms for the same period.

It is clear that they are being compared financial indicators and advertising costs and, according to the above scheme, look at the contribution of advertising to the dynamics of turnover.

Information (communicative) effectiveness of advertising shows how effectively a specific advertising message conveys the necessary information to the target audience and (or) forms the desired point of view.

Evaluation of the communication effect begins at the advertising development stage. There are many methods for evaluating advertising before its large-scale implementation: these are association tests, visibility tests, etc. The most important thing is that the advertisement reaches and remains in the minds of the target consumer. There is a method for measuring advertising memorability (M. Pikuleva), which is based on three components: "spontaneous memory" - advertising is recalled when a product category is mentioned (for example, the category “washing powders”, the product is “Tide”); "memory upon presentation of the product" - advertising is remembered after pronouncing the name of a specific product or its demonstration; "memories after retelling the advertisement." The sum of these three indicators is the proportion of the target audience that remembered the advertising message. Moreover, they look at how the indicators relate to each other.

Where Hu,- the number of consumers who remembered the advertisement spontaneously, %; X -21 - the number of consumers who remembered the advertisement after being presented with the advertised brand, %; X#- the number of consumers who remembered the advertisement after retelling its content,%; Kts, K .2b Ky - are used when the consumer names several competitive brands at the same time and it is necessary to determine their weight in terms of consumer preferences.

This coefficient allows you to quite accurately determine the effect of an advertising campaign and can be used to evaluate advertising own company, and to evaluate competitors’ advertising.

Also, the type of access channel to the target audience (television, radio, newspapers, etc.) has a strong impact on the effectiveness of advertising. For example, for everyday goods it is advisable to use television advertising, and for promotion banking services It is best to post information in magazines. That's why right choice information dissemination channel is one of the stages in developing an effective advertising campaign. Moreover, it is necessary to determine the source in which the advertisement will be placed directly (for example, the channel is television, the source is the ORT channel, the program is “In the Animal World”).

An advertising campaign is a set of interrelated, coordinated actions developed to achieve strategic goals and solve problems of the enterprise, and resulting from an overall advertising plan for different but related advertising messages placed in various media over a certain period of time.

From the definition we can highlight the fundamental points for any advertising campaign:

• - advertising campaign- this is a process that includes several successive stages, starting with goal setting and ending with performance analysis;
• - an advertising campaign involves the integrated use of advertising means.

Lack of budget and lack of time are the two most frequently cited reasons why analysis of the effectiveness of PR campaigns is not carried out. However, there are other factors that influence the implementation of performance measurement.

At the core of the PR industry's approach to research and evaluation is the history and nature of PR practice. 4 models of PR by James Grunig (see Appendix No. 1) allow us to understand the evolution of PR and suggest why research and analysis of campaign effectiveness were not used as often as we would like.

The concept of "public relations" was born in press agencies, which concentrated almost exclusively on advertising in the illustrious era that gave rise to the phrase "all advertising is good advertising" This was followed by the evolution of a public awareness model that became dominant after the 1950s. This model went beyond publicity, events and other communicative actions, but was still focused on disseminating information. This information could be tracked and measured by counting the number of articles, the number of lines in the advertising column, the number of publications in general, and so on, so to speak, the information was “weighed in kilograms.”

Information dissemination, what the Public Awareness model has focused on, is a one-way flow of information focused on producing a product (in this case, information) rather than achieving a result. According to this approach, responsibility for the information disseminated - which is read, understood, remembered, believed - is not considered the prerogative of the PR specialist. Therefore, there is no need for evaluation studies.

However, as shown in Grunig's 4 PR models, the most effective model will be one that evolves from two-way asymmetry to two-way symmetry in relationships with the target audience. In the two-way model, the focus shifts from simply disseminating information to persuasion and creating rapport, which includes changes in attitude and behavior. While such changes are possible, achieving these goals and providing concrete numbers for these changes require in-depth research.

Today, private and public sector customers expect and demand persuasion, not just information - whether it is purchasing a product, a service, donating money to charity, etc. The dominant paradigm of practice today is to find a balance between PR and persuasion.

If we follow the theory of communication psychology, we can distinguish 6 stages of persuasion:

• 1) Presentation
• 2) Attention
• 3) Understanding
• 4) Acceptance
• 5) Memorization
• 6) Action

Public awareness focuses only on the first point - presentation. To achieve a persuasive effect, PR and communication must create a situation where points 2-6 are used by the target audience. In most cases, the attention, understanding, acceptance, retention and action of target groups can only be monitored through research.

However, in a large number of cases, PR and communication remain a one-way dissemination of information, focused on the “release” of information, which is a barrier to the establishment of PR as a strategic management function.

New interactive communication technologies such as websites, chat rooms, and online forums are potential platforms for two-way communication. However, if there is an opinion that new technologies will help facilitate and establish dialogue with stakeholders, there is another thing - these technologies are just a new channel for disseminating information.

PR professionals need to learn to apply new strategic approaches to communication, and find a way to create a two-way interaction process aimed at obtaining results. This will also make research more meaningful: both formative research to determine the opinions and needs of the audience, and evaluative research to measure the level of change.

Another important factor influencing the assessment of PR effectiveness is the lack of correctly set goals, that is, goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-appropriate.

Most PR programs have too broad, vague and imprecise goals that are impossible to achieve even if they have good budget. In projects, goals are often formulated as follows:

increase awareness of the program;

successfully launch a product or service;

improve the image of a company or organization.

Such goals are formulated too generally, so it is not clear by what criteria to evaluate the result. What level of awareness exists currently? Which target group requires more awareness? What is the current image of this company, and what is the desired image?

Many leading PR specialists note that the lack of setting clear goals slows down the development of PR and communication processes. James Gruenig, for example, talks about “the typical setting of ill-defined, unreasonable, and unmeasurable communication effects that PR people call set goals.”

According to Dennis Wilcox, before any PR program can be evaluated, it is necessary to clearly formulate measurable goals.

Validity is also an important factor in setting goals correctly. Many companies and organizations have already established corporate and marketing goals, and PR can inherit them. PR campaign goals and corporate communication goals must complement and interact with overall corporate goals, they must be reasonable and clear, only then can results be tracked. If PR communication in a company has common goals advertising and direct marketing, then determining the effectiveness will be quite difficult.

The principle of micro- and macro-dimensions is one of the most effective approaches when setting a goal. Macro measurement refers to establishing the overall outcome for a company or organization. Micro measurements are necessary to determine the effectiveness of individual events: product release, publicity, briefings. Macro measurements are important in order to know the overall result in the end; micro-measurements are needed in order to:

• 1) determine success and find out whether this or that activity is worth continuing;
• 2) identify the cumulative effect in relation to the overall result in the long term.

Using the above-mentioned measurements and considering that the measurement of the results of the set goals should include numbers and percentages, approximate PR communication goals could be as follows:

• - increase in profit by at least 10% compared to last year;
• - improving the image of the organization in the eyes of leading journalists;
• - attracting at least 40,000 visitors per month to the company’s website;
• - increase presence at special events by 20%;
• - reduction in the number of customer complaints by 25%.

These goals (which can also be called key performance indicators) provide a basis for measuring results and can be used in PR communications.

Another important detail when setting goals is agreeing with management. It is necessary to convince managers that achieving a particular goal will be beneficial both for general corporate goals and for marketing strategies. Very often, PR specialists develop a whole set of targets that management does not like and lead to inevitable disappointment on both sides.

To ensure the effectiveness of the results of their goals, PR specialists must have at least a basic understanding of the theory of communication. Misconceptions about what can be achieved by communication methods lead to incorrect and often overly optimistic statements, which in turn make evaluation problematic.

The third factor influencing research in the field of public relations and corporate communication is the predominantly humanitarian education of most PR specialists and the lack of experience in conducting research.

Until relatively recently, research was not included in the study program of PR and communication, which led to the fact that people who came to the field of PR did not have necessary knowledge they had no knowledge of statistics, psychology, or sociology on how to plan and conduct research.

The paradigm of Edward Bernays, on which until recently the idea of ​​modern PR was based, needs to be supplemented and new approaches such as, for example, Grunig's Bilateral Symmetrical PR Model.

Grunig's paradigm defines public relations as a form of communicative persuasion that tilts public opinion in the direction of systematization. “Co-orientation theory” uses two-way approaches to communication in which audience sectors and organizations meet in the middle, or at least somewhere between the poles of their views.

Many PR professionals have only a vague understanding of Otto Lerbinger's four main types of PR research: evaluation environment, examination of public opinion, examination of communication channels, social examination. Many people use these terms interchangeably, which is incorrect; many do not have an idea of ​​​​the principles of compiling public opinion polls, compiling questionnaires and, thus, experience some difficulties in conducting and planning research.

Another barrier standing in the way of research is the “multimedia” nature of PR. This concept does not refer to multimedia technologies, but to the numerous disciplines that make up PR and the channels used by PR.

PR includes such areas as relations with the press, employees, public, government, shareholders, and so on. In all these areas of relationships, specialists use a wide range of communication means to interact with the target audience: publicity, publications, video and multimedia programs, events, websites, sponsorship.

Some studies evaluate public relations as a general rating system that uses the same methods for all areas. However, many experts state that different areas of PR use different techniques to suit their goals and audiences. There is no single study or method that can be applied with equal effectiveness to all PR disciplines.

PR and communication specialists must recognize the existence of separate techniques specific to a particular area. There is also a wide range of tools that are also used in narrow areas - publicity, publications, events. No single technique can be applied to all areas of PR.

A fifth important factor in evaluation and measurement is the traditional belief that evaluation occurs at the end of work. Throughout the 20th century, management theory defended the PIE Model - planning, implementation, evaluation.

However, the PRO model is ineffective in research and evaluation. To begin with, there is no need for formative research before the project begins. In addition, evaluation at the final stage of a project faces three main problems that make it ineffective:

• 1. In practice, in most cases, PR specialists do not have enough time and money to conduct research by the end of the project.
• 2. Management usually does not wait until the end of the program to see evidence of effectiveness.
• 3. More importantly, it is too late to evaluate the results after the project is completed because it does not provide much strategic benefit. Why do you need to find out after the letter was published, no one read it? Or, why find out that employees want access to the Intranet after spending money from the budget on an expensive multimedia presentation.

Evaluation at the end of the program does not provide much benefit and carries some risk that the results will be unpleasant. And ultimately leads to the emergence of “fear of evaluation research.”

Revealing all these weaknesses in the traditional form of “we evaluate the effectiveness of the project upon its completion” has led to the creation of new evaluation approaches that debunk the old concept. Modern approach is that research and surveys should be conducted before the start of the project. Marston introduced a new RACE formula, where R is research, A is Action, C is Communication and E is Evaluation.

Based on systems theory, Richard Carter coined the term "behavioral molecule" for a model that describes actions that occur in a chain reaction. In the context of this formula, Grunig identifies the following elements of PR: discover, create, define, select, confirm, develop, discover.

Craig Aronow and Otis Baskin take this idea further: “evaluation is not the last stage of the PR process. In practice, assessment is the beginning of the effort. The research function is important in planning, action and evaluation. These are interconnected processes that, once set in motion, have neither beginning nor end.”

This approach eliminates the “fear of assessment” that has been a major barrier to wider use of assessment. That is, repositioning of the assessment is required directly in the field of PR: from the assessment of work already completed to the process of constant systematic accumulation of information, in order to more effectively plan future actions.

Costs, both monetary and time, can be a barrier to conducting research.

If the PR professional does not recognize the importance of two-way communication and focuses only on achieving results such as changing attitudes, behavior and building relationships, the assessment will be irrelevant and he will remain a “technical communicator”.

Without clearly defined goals, activity costs may exceed budget.

If evaluation is still scheduled for the final stage of the project, it may not be completed due to lack of time, money, or both. And even if it is done, it will be too late to use the results in strategic planning.

In business, everything can be calculated and measured. We can calculate the return on investment to the nearest ruble. contextual advertising, evaluate the effectiveness of the sales department. But in the field of PR, it is almost impossible to accurately determine the effect being achieved and to reflect it in numbers (in monetary units) and graphs. However, methods still exist. Upon request, experts from the media research agency Ex Libris give a master class: how to conduct a PR analysis and evaluate the impact of a PR campaign on business results.

PR- analysis in money:AdvertisingValueEequivalent

Modern instrumentsPR analysis

All considered indicators have disadvantages and limitations. However, there is a need to express the effect of PR campaigns in numbers and calculate ROI (return on investment).

The most rational and affordable solution to this problem today is to build correlation models, in which media analytical indicators are correlated with financial results.

One of the most successful and promising media analytical indicators is Perfectness Rate(approximation factor to ideal), abbreviated PRT. Its main advantage is that it adapts to the specifics of each specific case.

PRT takes into account indicators related to:

• with the source (type and influence of media, target audience, etc.)
• material (genre, visibility of the material),
• object of research (density of brand mentions, tone, presence of quotes from speakers).

Each of the indicators is assigned one or another significance coefficient, which affects the values ​​of the final index. The PRT formula is customized not only by the number of quality parameters taken into account, but also by the way they are combined. Thus, you can not only choose which qualitative characteristics should be involved in calculating the final index, but also choose which mathematical operations should be performed with the selected variables.

How it works: the case of the Coffee and the City coffee shop chain

In our case, the reference criteria are:

• Media with high penetration into the target audience,
• positive tone of the news;
• headline mentioning the brand;
• presence of a logo in the article;
• conveying a key message about the convenience of the “Coffee to go” format (“coffee to go”).

If a publication initiated by the PR department meets all of these characteristics, the PRT is equal to one.

Considering that an ideal publication (“Top story”) is considered to be a publication with a PRT of 0.75 or more, you can set KPI by the number of “Top stories” in the reporting period and/or KPI by the average PRT value for the period.

Connecting PRT with business results: the Vimpelcom caseLtd

To see how media analysis data influences business results, let’s take the case of one well-known international company, Vimpelcom Ltd. Let's compare the price of its shares on NASDAQ with the change in PRT and Media Presence indicators over six months in the leading and most influential international media.

Such a comparison is quite justified, since everyone knows automatic algorithms that are quite widely used on financial exchanges and take into account the media field that has formed around the company. This helps traders quickly make decisions about the value of assets. In this regard, we will take for analysis all references to Vimpelcom Ltd and its subsidiaries in the international and most influential national media, which have the greatest influence on the decision-making process on the purchase or sale of shares.

Based on data build a two-factor nonlinear regression model and we obtain the correlation coefficient R = 0.9397. The model demonstrates a strong relationship between the growth of the company's shares and the average monthly indicators of PRT (M-PRT) and Media Presence.


According to confidence intervals for data for 2H2014, with an increase in M-PRT by 1%, quotes increase by 3%, and with an increase in Media Presence by 1%, the value of Vimpelcom’s assets strengthens by an average of 1.4%. Meanwhile, for the purpose of additional verification of the model, the influence of general market factors was studied. The “dependence” of the Vimpelcom Ltd share price on fluctuations in the NASDAQ index was calculated. This correlation turned out to be not only weak, but also negative (-68%), which may mean a complete absence of dependence and a strong influence of other reasons and circumstances. However, at the same time, the actual value of the Fisher criterion turned out to be greater than its table value (11.33 versus 9.55), which indicates the adequacy and sufficient reliability of this model.

Taking into account all of the above, such a technique, in our opinion, represents a promising tool for conducting similar types of research in the near future. However, attention should be paid to a number of significant limitations. Since the impact of some information events has a certain delay, there is no need to talk about forecast values ​​online.

In addition, you need to keep in mind that PR department employees are limited in their ability to influence the tone of publications in a number of cases (for example, messages about the company’s unprofitability, bankruptcies, decreased sales volumes, etc.).

Evaluating the effectiveness of a PR - public relations campaign is under the close attention of the sponsor, who wants to know that the efforts, money and time spent on implementing the program contributed to the achievement of the set goals.

The problem of assessing the effectiveness of public relations campaigns and actions is widely discussed and causes serious debate, both among practitioners and in scientific circles. This is due to the fact that it is impossible to find objective criteria for evaluating PR programs and accurately measure their effect, so the expected results are often assessed subjectively, intuitively, and taken on faith.

Due to the difficulty of measuring the results of a public relations campaign in full, experts suggest assessing its effectiveness using the following indicators:

• · change in public interest, which is determined on the basis of monitoring public opinion;
• · increase in the number of requests to the company’s press service;
• · frequency of mention in the media;
• · size of the audience that received PR messages
• · volume of messages transmitted through different channels;
• · time spent on achieving certain positions in the market.

In the West, two schemes are used to evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign - open and closed.

• · Open assessment- involves measuring effectiveness taking into account factors that are not controlled by the program and are not included in its framework. Factors are identified through continuous monitoring external environment(changes in social, economic and political context).
• · Closed assessment-based on an analysis of the PR impact on the target audience in isolation from other factors. This scheme involves preliminary testing of messages and communication channels.

IN Russian practice The most common method for assessing effectiveness has become the analysis of publications in the press, which consists of constant monitoring of the press and other media that affect the topic of the ongoing PR campaign. Press clipping and analysis of press publications are the most proven methods for assessing effectiveness.

But there are also other methods for assessing effectiveness. These include: content analysis and expert survey.

Also, according to the classical theory of communication by G. Lasswell, the scheme of the communication act is as follows: WHO communicates WHAT through which CHANNEL TO WHOM with what EFFECT. For any component of communication, you can develop criteria with which you can measure the results of PR actions. Thus, analysis of the totality of all elements of the act of communication allows for a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of PR.

Criteria for each component of the communication structure: see Fig. 1

The effectiveness of a PR campaign in public relations is most accurately measured by complex techniques that combine both formal and informal methods. According to British specialist R. Heywood, the most used criteria for the effectiveness of a PR campaign are:

• · budget, that is, the implementation of activities within the planned material and time capabilities;
• · increased visibility of the organization among certain audiences;
• · a shift in the audience’s relationship with the organization;
• · change in coverage (in level or tone) of the activities of a media organization;
• · change in the organization’s position in the market in relation to competitors;
• · revitalization of feedback channels, that is, an increase in requests received as a result of the campaign;
• · growth in the market value of the organization associated with the willingness of investors to invest capital in it;
• · a change in sales volume or price caused solely by public relations activities.

In the process of assessing the effectiveness of a PR campaign, it is necessary to take into account some features:

• - A real assessment of the effectiveness of a PR campaign is possible when its result is correlated with the set goal;
• - Basic indicators should be laid down at the planning stage;
• - If several goals are set for a PR campaign, then an assessment of several indicators is necessary;
• - Conducting an “evaluative study” of a PR campaign, which involves the inclusion of a corresponding item in the budget;
• - It is important to take into account the “delayed effect”, which is difficult to assess;

There are also basic forms of assessing the effectiveness of a PR campaign:

• · “plan fact” system - the effectiveness of a PR campaign is assessed in terms of the implementation of all planned activities;
• · system from “achieved” - used for regular promotions of the same type;
• · the “goal - final result” system - here the effectiveness of a PR campaign is assessed as the implementation of the set goal, taking into account various compliances with the plan.

Currently, there is no unified classification of methods for assessing the effectiveness of PR activities, but experts in the field of PR agree on some methods:

1 method. The effectiveness of a PR campaign is assessed based on the implementation of all goals and objectives set at the planning stage. It is necessary to take into account who set these goals - the PR manager, the head of the company, the client.

Method 2. Measuring and counting quantitative indicators of PR activities: how many information materials were prepared, how many calls were made, how many media outlets published articles. The disadvantage of this method is that it does not take into account the quality indicators of the campaign.

Method 3. Calculation of “feedback”: how much the audience’s awareness of the company or product has increased; whether it was possible to divert public attention from negative information; how public opinion about the PR object has changed; how many responses were received?

Method 4 Measuring income indicators: how much sales have grown, what is the growth in profits, capturing new target audiences.

Using these methods together, you can obtain the most complete assessment of the effectiveness of PR activities. It is impossible to say whether one method is better or more accurate than another. Much depends on the area in which they are applied - internal corporate PR, external PR, GR.

In practice, when faced with the problem of assessing the effectiveness of a PR campaign, you can use another method - analyze the individual tools of the entire PR campaign:

1) Distribution of company press releases

Estimation of the number of press releases prepared and published in the media. It is possible to calculate the exact percentage of press releases published. For example, 30 press releases were sent out and 20 were published. Thus, the mailing efficiency was approximately 66%;

- « feedback» - what kind of reaction was received after sending out press releases: the number of comments from journalists, the number of calls and letters from representatives of the target audience.

2) Holding press conferences

Formation of the circle of necessary media;

Comparison of the indicators “target media” and “accredited media” - the percentage ratio of these two indicators;

Comparative analysis of the indicators “accredited media” and “journalists who came to the press conference”. It is optimal for 80-90% of the total number of accredited journalists to be present at the conference;

Counting the number of questions from journalists;

Analysis of questions asked by journalists and answers to these questions;

Counting and analyzing the number of publications after the press conference.

3) Corporate media, corporate events, special events - management speech at the conference

Mass surveys and questionnaires;

Publications in the media.

4) Using the media for publications (qualitative methodology)

The main method used here is media monitoring, that is, tracking information about the company in print media.

Type of publication - announcement, news, article, review, analytics;

Publication volume - whole page, 1 page, etc. (in sq.cm);

Circulation of the publication; the nature of the publication - positive, neutral, negative;

Number of publications;

Publication cost (USD);

Studying the media audience.

After assessing the effectiveness of specific PR tools, changes in the opinions of the target audience should be analyzed. The main methods here are mass surveys and public surveys before and after the PR campaign.

When assessing the economic component of PR, methods such as mass surveys and focus groups are often used.

Often the effectiveness of a PR campaign can only be measured using internal resources. For example, specialists themselves can evaluate the effectiveness of sending out press releases or collaborating with partners, investors, and shareholders; conduct media monitoring. The only thing that experts cannot evaluate is the effectiveness of PR influence on the general public. In this case, a general study is usually required at a fairly high cost.

The result of a PR campaign can partly be measured by quantitative indicators, the other part comes down to the subjective assessment of the performer or customer about the work done and the results.

It is the combination of these two indicators (quantitative and “non-quantitative” assessment) that can serve as the golden mean in measuring the effectiveness of PR activities.

According to Norman Stone, the following PR performance indicators can be calculated:

1) The percentage change in “concern” (concern, interest) can be calculated by survey.

2) Increase in the number of requests received.

3) Reducing the number of complaints received.

4) Frequency of mention in the press.

5) Opportunities to see or hear a certain opinion (calculated by survey).

6) Improving the company's position in the market in relation to competitors (marketing research).

7) Time spent achieving certain positions in the market (occupying a certain market share).

Based on the results of the theoretical presentation of the material, the following conclusions can be drawn:

PR is a very capacious concept, the effectiveness of which cannot be defined only as “publication in the media” or “promotion” of the company.

When assessing the effectiveness of PR activities, it is necessary to consider it in the context of this specific campaign, taking into account the audience to which it is aimed, as well as the PR tools used. Then the assessment of effectiveness will be more objective.

Conclusions on Chapter I

The first chapter revealed theoretical aspects topics for the possibility of practical analysis based on its results. The concept was considered marketing research, their role in the organization’s activities, the main directions of the company’s marketing research. Based on professional literature, it was given general characteristics marketing research as a process, its main stages are considered. In addition, a description of the study of the effectiveness of PR activities using marketing methods is given.

Summing up Chapter I, we can say that successful business is impossible without continuous monitoring of the market environment. Marketing research is a function that, through information, connects marketers with markets, consumers, competitors, and all elements of the external marketing environment. No research can begin until the nature of the problem is determined, so the problem definition stage is the first step in the process of finding a solution. The collection of secondary information precedes the collection of primary information. The effectiveness of an organization's PR activities can be assessed more objectively using a combination of quantitative and subjective measurements.

All the information collected in Chapter I will help you understand practical example, which marketing research methods will help analyze the effectiveness of PR activities of a particular company.