Why Are All PR Objectives Objectionable?

Well, not all public relations objectives are objectionable, just the ones you and I didn’t write. That’s probably a more accurate statement. Every public relations practitioner, agency and institute of learning has its own way of writing objectives for a plan, proposal or campaign. Students who graduate with a degree in public relations can expect to be confronted early on the job by a supervisor who says, “That’s not how we write objectives.” Such a statement reveals three things: one, that in practice, we acknowledge that there are different ways to write objectives; two, that various entities have preferences for how objectives should be written; three, that some entities believe that their way is the only way to write an objective. Let’s look at objectives taken from a PRSA Silver Anvil award-winning plan to see if they are acceptable or objectionable. Here’s one: Objective: Convince investors that management’s strategy to gain back market share would work. As a plan reviewer I would want to know if the target of this objective is existing or potential investors or both. Next, I would try to view it from a cost/benefit standpoint. I am expected to approve an expenditure for convincing investors, but what is the benefit? What could I expect investors to do as a result of being convinced that management’s strategy to gain back market share would work? How does this objective contribute toward achieving the plan’s goal? I don’t see a stated benefit. If a benefit is not stated, how could I determine any return on investing in this objective? Here’s another one: Objective: Gain longer-term support from moderate growth investors to justify a higher valuation. The proposed action is to gain longer-term support, in other words to get shareholders to hold onto the stock. The target is investors with moderate growth goals. The purpose of the objective is to show others that moderate growth investors must be retaining shares because they have reason to believe the stock is undervalued or worth more than the current market price. To survive cost/benefit scrutiny, maybe the objective should be written this way: To convince investors with moderate growth goals to retain the company’s stock for a longer time so that their retention of shares will suggest to other investors that the stock is worth more than the market price and that there might even be some growth potential in its value. As I said, we all have our own ideas of how to write objectives. So I will end this blog with my rules for writing objectives. 1) An objective should have three parts: It should tell 1) what must be done; 2) with whom, 3) and how it contributes toward accomplishment of the plan’s goal. a. Part I. Tells what must be done. The action must be stated and preceded by the word “to,” used in the sense of producing or causing a result, to form an infinitive phrase. Example: To provide… b. Part II. Tells with whom an action is to be taken. An objective should always include a target audience because nothing can be accomplished without some form of human involvement. c. Part III. Tells how taking an action with a particular target audience is expected to contribute toward the achievement of a plan’s goal. d. Example of an objective: To show industry analysts the company’s latest application of cost-saving technology so they will be motivated to publish “buy” recommendations for the company’s stock. e. In other words, an objective should have an action, receiver of the action and desired behavior of the receiver as a result of the action. 2) An objective should be measureable; it must include a desired outcome that can be measured. That is not to say that it should specify a means of measurement; it should be stated in a way that enables measurement. 3) An objective must be achievable; it must aim at a result that is possible to obtain cost effectively. 4) An objective may include a target date or deadline; however, that information is easier to review and assess when presented in a plan's timeline. 5) An objective should include only aims over which the plan developer has complete control; goals for sales, return on investment and employee productivity, for example, involve factors that are the responsibility of management areas over which public relations has no control.