Would new language to describe the science advance measurement?

I started my communications career with a much respected public relations firm housed in its parent advertising agency’s London headquarters. We learned massively from the discipline of the advertising teams, especially the planners. The planner’s three key questions about a client’s product or business are as relevant – and sharp – today as they were then.

 

Where are we?
Where do we want to be (and when)?
How are we going to get there?

 

Where am I going with this? Addressing the first of the three questions, I think “we” are in danger of being left behind by language which lacks the sense of urgency, or perhaps clarity, to work in the pressure pit that is a recession.

The work of Walter K. Lindemann established much of the discipline and the language at the heart of the evaluation of public relations today, through Outputs, Outtakes and Outcomes. Other companies use Return on Investment (ROI) as a key metric. Still more use Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s).

 

A meeting I attended the other day, however, got me thinking in a different direction – of believing that it is time to review the language at the core of the research science. Why – because I think there is now a new generation of business managers and professional communicators who would welcome fresh thinking in order to be able to sell the benefits of measurement and evaluation within their business or to their clients.

 

The AMEC/IPR European Summit on Measurement in Berlin in June would perhaps be an ideal time to see what others think. But in the meantime, turning to the planner’s third question, “where do we want to be”, the reality in an economic downturn is that whether you are a Government department or a brand manager, there is more pressure, right now, for you to show that your expenditure is working.

 

And preferably by using language that everyone understands….

Comments

[Tom Watson]

Barry: You might like to look at my post on the language of evaluation, http://dummyspit.wordpress.com/2007/11/01/output-out-take-and-outcome-on-the-way-out/. The concensus from comments was that Output, Out-take and Outcome were still valid and well understood.

[Term papers]

Great effort and I would like to thank the author of this article for contributing such a lovely and mind-opening article.