Linda Locke showed the 200 or so attendees at PRNews’s Measurement Conference a sophisticated reputation measurement program filled with excellent strategy and intuitive, interesting metrics.
At the heart of the strategy is the statement, “behave well; communicate what matters.”
Locke, group head of reputation and issues management, identified three main influences to reputation: Stakeholder Experiences, corporate initiatives and messaging, and third party conversations. Mastercard’s measurement efforts concentrate in all three of these influences, drawing upon extent information in the media and direct research in other areas. The company’s “reputation framework” includes seven dimensions — leadership, performance, products/services, innovation, workplace, governance and citizenship — that contribute to four outcomes.
Feeling, esteem, admire and trust summarize the messages that the company transmits and evaluates among its stakeholders.
Specifically, Mastercard looks at issues specific to their industry, tracking the life cycle of each through 16 vehicles, breaking down specific types of media, academic research, talk radio, conferences and symposia, Web postings and chatter.
Because fear is such a potent driver of opinion, Mastercard attends to its potential presence in the vehicles it tracks — yet doesn’t overestimate the ability of public relations activity to manage through that fear. Instead, Locke says, Mastercard seeks to simply demonstrate its reputation through its organizational behavior, not simply its public relations behavior.
Locke summarized the reality of reputation management thus:
- Messages in the media create a reaction
- Absent first-hand experience, stakeholders modify their beliefs based on the information environment
- Some outcomes of media coverage are predictable
- The media itself is a rich source of market intelligence that can be mined
- Third-party measurement is essential to bring objectivity to PR
- Communications people are well-positioned to protect the company
One reason I saw such value on Locke’s presentation is that it embodied the ethical public relations framework that the largest percentage of those of us in the profession live by. Too many media stories about PR focus on the exact reverse — the “spin doctors and liars” frame. The presentation also demonstrated that measurement and evaluation are gaining influence in the profession — a necessary development as we move from tactical excellence to strategic imperative.
