Assessing “Cause and Effect”: Objective Based Measurement for Public Relations

Despite numerous proposed approaches, the public relations profession has failed to develop a widely adopted method for the measurement of public relations activities. In this paper, the authors propose an objective-based approach to measurement that assesses the impact of public relations by applying a “cause and effect” model based on message delivery. This approach is based on an actual measurement protocol used by a leading global industrial manufacturing company and is consistent with well-established communication theories. In this model, the authors propose a five-stage approach to measurement that includes message development and testing, message distribution, message delivery, message delivery and message impact.