PR Measurement injects KAIZEN into CorpComm & Brand Reputation ERPs

The euphoric moment for PR Measurement is not just when we get to establish ROO and ROI from the communication efforts. The benefits go further wide & deep which are grounded, extends last mile and actually help an organisation continuously better its corporate communication and brand reputation management functions. Come to think of it – Measurement injects KAIZEN into an organisation’s Corporate Communications & Brand Reputation Management ERPs – Efforts, Resources & Processes.

Kaizen, a Japanese term, means continuous improvement. As business management scenarios evolve, the supporting corporate communication function’s framework should follow suit. PR measurement is the only route that brings last mile rolling benefits for an organisation’s communications & brand reputation management framework, through the year.

BY ERPs, we mean:

• PR & Corporate Communication Efforts
• PR & Corporate Communication Resources
• PR & Corporate Communication Processes

Before we explore how Measurement injects Kaizen into each of Efforts, Resources & Processes, we should first refer back to measurement’s basic or elementary construct which is – COMMUNICATION INPUT – COMMUNICATION OUTPUT and COMMUNICATION OUTCOME – discussed in one of my previous articles.

1. Kaizen in Corporate Communication Efforts: What come under efforts are items such as understanding stakeholders’ mood, derived business objectives, converting them into communication objectives, building a plan, working out an evaluation matrix, etc – basically putting together of the account planning framework. In simple terms, it helps us understand the overall block of INPUT required to communicate. PR Measurement helps understand whether INPUT block worked well and if not, why or which component of INPUT planning turned up to be a weak link! There have been cases where the communication objective derived from business plan was inaccurate, or benchmarking and target setting was not well thought through or the communication plan itself was not detailed with the necessary parameters.
2. Kaizen in Corporate Communication Resources: The term resource, when it comes to Corporate Communications, includes a variety of things such budgets allocated, internal team or talent, internal organisational data pool, external communication agencies, and other vendors and partners. Measurement precisely helps us in pin point and construct the SWOT grid under each type of resources mentioned above. There are very interesting examples of how measurement has helped optimise budgets, Consultancy’s performance & improved Client-Consultancy relationship, fine-tuned the KRAs and KPIs of team members, improved performance evaluation matrices, leveraged internal and external data sets more efficiently, and many more.
3. Kaizen in Corporate Communication Processes: The drivers that ensure last mile success are processes. Corporate Communication ought to have processes not only with its Top Management customers and Consultancy service providers but also internally. If the task of Corporate Communications is well beyond media relations, serious and scientific processes need to be in place across the assembly line, starting from the Top Management desk, through the communications desk and ending with the communications consultancy. Scientific measurement data has the power to pin point strength and weaknesses within the processes mesh across the assembly line and operations desks.

Any data, especially those coming out of the measurement framework, should have the potential to map, address gaps and improve the Corporate Communication ERP matrix. Without Kaizen, the purpose of measurement becomes pretty much futile.

This is exactly why the individual blocks of measurement design and execution should be of paramount importance. Not just that, the monthly/rolling report card numbers should be studied in detail, well beyond just the share of voice (SOV) slide and the publication & journalist details.

The domain of Brand Reputation is getting complicated by the day. Its influence on business survival demands constant improvements in management ERPs. Kaizen in corporate communication ERPs automatically becomes a priority!

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Siddhartha Mukherjee

Siddhartha is the founder of Brand Balance that helps the C-suite & CCO collective optimize its Brand Reputation Management ERPs (efforts, resources & processes) across stakeholders. His professional mission is to establish the Corporate Communications function as the only engine towards brand reputation and valuation success.

Before setting up Brand Balance, a neutral organization, his past 23 years of holistic learning curve includes leadership roles across all the three sides of the industry – corporate communications, communications firms and as a business head of a brand data analytics, audit, research & measurement global behemoth. During spare time, he bikes across the Indian highways, writes articles, consults students & professionals and teaches at media and business schools.