Head to Head: Should PR be directly tied to brand performance and sales?
In this series, Mumbrella invites the most senior PR professionals to share their opposing views on the industry's biggest issues. This week, Red Agency's Grant Richmond-Coggan goes head to head with WE Buchan's general manager Gemma Hudson.
This week’s debate asks: should PR be directly tied to brand performance and sales? Red Agency’s Richmond-Coggan argues yes, stating that although measurement of PR impact is difficult, it must be able to prove its worth beyond the headlines.
On the contrary, WE Buchan’s Hudson says public relations does much more than drive sales, including issue management, crisis communication and building relationships with stakeholders.
Who do you agree with?
Should PR be directly tied to brand performance and sales?
Yes, argues, Grant Richmond-Coggan, business director, Red Agency
“I’m not quite sure how any senior PR can walk in to a CMOs office and justify their budget if they can’t or won’t align that spend with delivering on brand performance and sales. Our profession has often struggled with credibility precisely because we have been unable to justify genuine performance ROI or even frightened to link what we do to sales.
“It would take us back years.
“So, the answer is obvious, it simply has to be yes. And more than that we should embrace it.
“Now don’t get me wrong, measurement of direct PR impact is not easy and something the industry has been grappling with since its inception, but that does not mean that we should not strive – in partnership with our clients and fellow agencies – to implement capability to measure not just media output, but also real business outcomes and impact. This need for measurement and accountability has also been reflected in industry award entry standards and requirements across the gambit.
Richmond-Coggan says PR can’t work without proving the investment by marketers drives sales
“The approach must begin with the agency investing time to truly understand their client’s business and organisational objectives as well as their marketing KPIs. As communications professionals, if we don’t know why the client has appointed us, what business problems we are helping to solve, and how that is going to be measured, then we shouldn’t be taking their money. It is a road many contemporary agencies have been on for some time – a journey from fluff to tough.
“If PR wants to stay relevant in today’s fast-paced and multi-faceted marketing world, where attribution is spoken of daily, it must be able to prove its worth beyond headlines. We must set up for successful measurement from the get go, and do it in a collaborative and integrated fashion by working closely with our clients as well as their other partners from brief to optimisation.
“Ultimately, if any agency in today’s market cannot link their work to creating brand or business value then what is the value in having an agency partner in the first place?”
No, argues, Gemma Hudson, general manager WE Buchan:
“While I agree that PR can play a role alongside marketing as a driver of brand performance and sales, I disagree that it should be its sole purpose or evaluation metric. The practice of brand communication and brand storytelling aims to achieve a far broader range of outcomes for a business, and to measure a PR campaign simply on the metrics of sales alone would be to ignore the very heart of public relations – to communicate with, and build relationships with stakeholders.
“In today’s disrupted environment, consumers are looking to brands for much more than transactions as we discovered from our recent proprietary Brands in Motion study. Australian consumers are increasingly looking to brands and businesses to provide stability, and 68% of Australians agree that brands should take a stand on important issues. A good PR plan is vital in helping brands achieve this, whether it is by showing they take a social or political stance, or can show they are simply providing stability. Focusing on just the bottom line and ignoring this would be completely detrimental.
Hudson says there are metrics much wider than just sales and brand performance including crisis communications and social responsibility
“Now, let us talk about PR for social good. Our findings also discovered a trend we have labelled The Unilever Effect, named after CEO Paul Polman’s ambitious vision for Unilever to increase focus on providing positive social and environmental impact, and implement long-term, sustainable business strategies. Our data found that 69% of consumers in Australia expect brands to provide social good in addition to functionality. The Unilever Effect tells me that PR campaigns are not always about increasing ROI, sales – but can and do deliver a strong impact on overall brand sentiment and perception.
“Finally, another non-sales function of PR is issues management and crisis communication. While consumers may love a brand, they have no qualms in shaming it if it steps out of line. For this reason, it is critical that every brand has a crisis communication plan at the ready.
“So, while I agree that PR must demonstrate ROI and can definitely support marketing to increasing sales and brand performance, it is also important to look at much wider metrics than just this in isolation. We need to also put value on relationship building and brand perception. With such short attention spans, we can’t afford to ignore how important this is.”
- As told to Abigail Dawson. If you’re a senior PR professional who would like to take part in a future Head to Head, please email abigail@mumbrella.com.au
Abigail Dawson was Mumbrella's senior content journalist covering event content. She left Mumbrella to move into an agency role in 2020.
Linkedin
What utter self serving crap from the second person. “.. to ignore the heart of public relations ” is not an argument. Companies are in business and unless you are a NFP, you exist to provide a product or service and deliver returns to your shareholders. Marketing and PR is not the end goal, it is a means to achieve the outcome desired which is growing brand market share and sales and profits. I’m surprised heads of PR agencies still haven’t grasped this.
I get that PR involves other things like crisis management etc but taking those out, the day to day PR bread and butter campaigns are all designed to drive interest , awareness and ultimately increased take up / sales of brands. Most work done is on brand campaigns.
Is the 2nd person seriously walking into client CMO offices saying “let me spend a few hundred thousand of dollars on PR for your brand and it won’t have any impact on your sales but you should do it anyway”??
User ID not verified.
Well said Gemma. Today, brands demand sales from PR and too many are using it as their only or largest ‘sales’ channel. PR can support sales but its ROI shouldn’t be evaluated completely on sales. How are sales going to go if a brand does not have a good reputation, or much awareness?
User ID not verified.
Just wondering if you read her entire article or just picked the parts you disliked?
Encouraging brands to position PR (and PR campaigns) to aspire to MORE than just sales, could achieve multiple outcomes. From her article I think her sales pitch would be “let me spend a few hundred thousand dollars on PR for your brand and not only will it generate awareness/sales, but have a resounding impact on the perception of your brand as MORE than you realised it could be”.
#cheaptakedown.
Personally I think Richard is correct and I align myself with his thinking. We need to justify genuine performance and demonstrate impact on sales, as this how our industry resonates with CMO’s.
But Gemma presents an interesting idea. In ignoring the chance for brands, and PR professionals, to be more and continue to evolve with society, we allow brands to stagnate and suffer. Therefore, its only our industry that will suffer.
So use the numbers to resonate and sell your services to the CMO’s, but bring ideas that do more for the brand then they realised was possible.
Great thoughts from both, look forward to more from both
User ID not verified.
Let’s get one thing straight — PR and marketing are not creative altruisms but necessary business activities. They are funded by the business because they help the business sell more product to more people, more profitably and faster, than they would be able to without marketing and PR. For example, PR’s ability to influence and motivate a company’s audience translates to highly correlated impact on profitability and cash flow from revenue because PR boosts customer confidence and trust, which make customer buy more and buy faster than they otherwise might. This same dynamic is evident in not-for-profit, where the goal is to encourage an audience to “buy in, buy in more deeply, and buy in faster” to the organization’s mission.
I know it’s strong language to say this, but the idea that PR and marketing exist to produce some sort of ethereal result is intellectually and ethically bankrupt. If that’s true, then no business should spend another dollar or pound or euro on these professions because the opportunity cost is unsupportable. Thankfully, that’s not the case — PR and marketing drive provably huge incremental business value and are well worth the expense. A Fortune 500 CEO recently published this article about marketing and PR transformation — it is well worth the time to read. https://www.holmesreport.com/latest/article/why-the-'proof-gap'-is-an-existential-threat-to-cmos-ccos
User ID not verified.
Reputation and awareness have to monetize, and they do — you just made the case yourself! Awareness is highly correlated to deal generation. Reputation is highly correlated to deal size and how long it takes most deals to close. Reputation and awareness and other similar factors are not ends unto themselves — they exist for a higher business purpose, and that is sales impact and financial return.
User ID not verified.
You lost me at ‘second person’. Seriously? The woman has a name!!! Gemma Hudson. Jesus…
User ID not verified.
Found it difficult to read this article simply because I don’t buy into the question. What exactly is ‘brand performance’? Could be interpreted in any manner of ways.
User ID not verified.