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April 30th, 2003 Letters to the Editor A
Biased Survey, We have several interesting letters this issue, all in response to statements made in our last issue. Survey of international PR professionals biased? To the
Editor, The final answer to the question of credibility is the opinion of the population as a whole. From various surveys we know that between 70 and 75% of the U.S. population consider the Iraq war necessary, and more than 50% approve of President Bush's performance. With such data, who cares about the opinion of "international PR professionals"? ... Just wondering: Do you hold a grudge against Pres. Bush and try to bolster your opinion by quoting surveys that aren't worth very much? —Juergen from Germany TMS replies: Dear Juergen from Germany, Thanks for your comments. I agree that the results of the survey were surprising, and I, too, would have liked to know the details of the sample and actual survey process. The source of this information was PRWeek UK, a reliable publication. For your reference, I have attached the text of their report. You posed the question: "...who cares about the opinion of 'international PR professionals'?" The answer is that we do: Our newsletter is written for and read by international PR professionals. We cover material that concerns the successes and failures of all sorts of PR campaigns, and we especially value the opinions of PR pros on these. Our interest is more in how the PR is done, than in the particular events that the PR concerns. We find this particular survey interesting because it demonstrates an intriguing PR situation, as judged by PR professionals themselves. —Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard Juergen fom Germany replies: To the Editor: Thank you for your mail. I followed up on the info you gave and found the results of the survey, carried out by a German PR company. The link is: http://www.kommpassion.de/news010403.php I am German, and I live in Germany, owning a PR evaluation company (which is the reason why I subscribed to your newsletter), so I can read and interpret the results. Regarding the survey, the one reason that makes its results practically worthless: 54% of the "423 international PR professionals from U.K., U.S. and Europe" were... Germans! 22% were from other Western European countries, 8% from Eastern Europe countries resp. Russia, and just 7% from the U.S. 9% were from other countries (for example, from Asia). This is basically a survey among Germans, with some Europeans added, and next to nobody from non-European countries. Breaking up the results by region shows: the few U.S. participants found the communications policies of the U.S. government rather credible, while especially the Germans overwhelmingly felt this not to be the case. I can assure you that the German media are almost hysterically anti-American these days, and any survey that defines "international PR professionals" as consisting of a majority of Germans will certainly mirror this bias. I leave it to you to interpret the position of Russian participants of this survey... Best regards, —Juergen from Germany PS: OK,
this isn't fair to you—but why not reporting on an evaluation
of Israel's communications policies based on a survey of international
PR professionals consisting of 54% Palestians, 30% other Arabs, and
16% of other countries? Sure would be interesting to know... Beers article: PR or politics? To whom it may concern, Is this a public relations platform or a political one? As quoted from the Beers article, "The former head of two agencies ought to know that actions speak far louder than words, and that even $1 billion worth of advertising is not going to make Muslims love you while you are preparing an unprovoked attack on a Muslim country..." Your reference to an unprovoked attack on a Muslim country sounds very political, and I don't feel it is necessary in providing relevant public relations information and I don't see how it added value to your story! —Nina Zapala, Society of American Travel Writers TMS replies: Dear Ms. Zapala, We here at The Measurement Standard are interested in measuring the success of PR, and we have found that PR is often unsuccessful when it contradicts actual events. What is interesting in Charlotte Beers’ case is that her PR program seemed to contradict U.S. statements and actions, at least in the minds of the intended audience for that PR. That is, to those in the Muslim world, Iraq was not the deadly threat to the U.S. that the Bush administration claimed it was. Certainly not enough to provoke an invasion. And as to politics, we'll stay out of that: History will decide whether or not Iraq actually has “weapons of mass destruction that can attack the U.S. in 45 minutes,” and whether or not such claims should be adequate to provoke—or justify—a war. —Bill
Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard Burrelle’s Media Analysis and AVEs Dear Katie Paine, I read with interest your recent piece on AVE in The Measurement Standard. I recently joined Burrelle's to head up their media analysis and coverage reporting business. Since joining the firm, I have been encouraged to find Burrelle's reporting services have moved far beyond AVE reports to look more appropriately at media value as a measure of prominence and in connection with broader analysis components. I was also reassured to find no evidence of Burrelle's representing this information as a scientific measure or a single solution for coverage reporting, but rather as a reasonably valuable guide to understanding trends in media coverage and prominence. For many clients, Burrelle's reporting on media value is an important part of their media monitoring, reporting and analysis programs. This information is often complementary to analysis of communications campaigns, topics of coverage and brand favorability over time. Interestingly, we have also noticed an increase in the use of media value as a component of our clients' reporting programs since the announcement by PRTrak/Surveillance Data Inc. that media value has been proven to closely correlate with outcomes, including sales. Although I can't speak to the approach taken by Bacon's and others, I suspect you get what you pay for with those offerings. As for Burrelle's, I've found their menu includes a very savvy and cost effective suite of services for media coverage reporting. I would welcome the posting of this message on your site. Best regards, —William
Jefferson Black, Managing Director, Katie Paine replies: Dear Mr. Black, Thanks for your comments, we appreciate the additional information about Burrelle's. As for the PRTrak/Surveillance Data Inc. announcement, we have looked at the data and don't feel that it proves any correlation between AVEs and sales. It does show that bigger stories are more memorable and appear to tie to behavior patterns in certain industries. Thank you, —Katie
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