Goals

Effective public relations should have a purpose. Each public relations action should be designed and intended to achieve something for the organization or person developing it. It is the pursuit of a purpose that makes public relations strategic. Goals can be called directional statements because they provide the overall direction for the public relations actions.

Goals are an essential part of developing public relations strategy and evolve from formative or background research. A goal is a general statement [Page 398]of what practitioners want to achieve with their public relations action(s). A goal emerges from formative research where practitioners analyze problems and opportunities that confront them and the organizations they serve. Goals cannot be set until a practitioner understands the public relations situation. The goal is framed as the rationale to solve the public relations problem or to exploit an opportunity.

A few examples will help clarify the discussion of goals. Consider two goals: (1) “to increase awareness of the Chevrolet Volt” and (2) “to improve community perceptions of Merck.” The Volt is a newer electric automobile model for Chevrolet. The problem is that people may not know about it and, therefore, may not consider it as an option when buying a new car. The general solution (direction) is to create awareness of the Volt. There is an opportunity to use public relations to help increase awareness and sales of the Volt. Merck personnel may have found that local communities where they operate do not believe it is a good corporate citizen. The problem is a negative view of Merck's corporate citizenship. The general solution (direction) is to improve community perceptions of Merck. The goals are vague; we do not have a clear idea of the exact outcome that is desired. Objectives provide the specific outcomes for the public relations action.

Objectives are specific and measurable, whereas a goal is vague and probably not measurable. To translate the two goals used in the example above into objectives requires much more detail. Here are two potential objectives that could be drawn from our original goals: (1) “to make 75% of potential compact car buyers aware of Volt as a purchasing option” and (2) “to increase perceptions of Merck as a strong corporate citizen from 20% to 40% in communities where Merck has facilities.” In each case, the objective provides more details. The Volt objective specifies the target percentage of awareness (75%) and the specific target public (potential compact car buyers). The Merck objective seeks a specific increase in perceptions of “strong corporate citizen” (from 20% to 40%) among a specific target public (people in communities where Merck has facilities).

Goals are dangerous when they become confused with objectives. If a goal is used instead of an objective, proper evaluative research is impossible.

A goal is too vague and offers no true measure of success or failure. The public relations practitioners will be unable to clearly determine if their strategies were successful. Let us return to the simple goal “to improve community perceptions of Merck.” What is the measure of success or failure? Do efforts succeed if just one member of the community expresses a more positive perception of Merck? Practitioners cannot determine the most effective way to assess their efforts it they only have goals.

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