Reach

Reach, as used in public relations, remains close to the general definition of the verb to reach, although in public relations it most often appears as a noun. As a verb, reach has been in the English language since the 16th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), originally meaning to stretch out, extend, thrust, to touch or grasp, often by extending a part of the body (usually a hand). Today, [Page 735]according to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, reach also means to make an impression on, to communicate or, as a noun, the distance or extent of reaching or the ability to reach. This meaning comes closest to our usage in public relations as well as in marketing and advertising. Of course, today, reach goes far beyond the hand or voice.

In public relations, reach is useful as a measure. Reach refers to the number of connections a public relations program, campaign, or even press release achieves within the targeted audience. Reach may be defined to include the quality of connections. Many people who heard the campaign message that “seatbelts save lives” did not act. They were reached with the message but not motivated to act, to use seatbelts. To motivate the audience to “buckle up” took legislative clout in addition to the educational message.

Reach may also define the distance a public relations message travels as it connects. In today's global economy, public relations often must plan for global reach. A press release sent to and published by an energy trade publication in Houston, Texas, may be read in Melbourne, Australia, and Aberdeen, Scotland. Today's public relations message may require a global reach within a targeted segment of the world's population.

Whatever the distance, reach within a public relations campaign indicates the connectivity within the targeted audience. A press release announcing business news that is published in a daily newspaper may be read by many who are outside the target population and of no interest to the sending organization. Reach, to be useful, is defined within the target. The reach may be broken into levels. It may ripple out from the primary receiver. In the daily newspaper example, there is first the media that receive the release, narrowed to those that use it. Next are those who read the article and are a part of the targeted audience, then those who learn by word of mouth. Beyond those groups within the target audience, in keeping with the goals and objectives of the campaign, the reach of the message has minimal or no usefulness to the business. For instance, the popular AT&T advertising campaign slogan “Reach out and touch someone” is still alive and well. In a Google search, it yielded 18,800 entries, long after the campaign was ended. Most have no mention of (or value to) AT&T at all.

The question arises: How do we identify the reach, how do we count it, how do we evaluate it? Instruments exist, but measuring public relations reach is far from an exact science, even today. Clippings count the media publishing press release information. Circulation numbers count those receiving (but not necessarily reading) the information. A direct mail letter reaches those on the mailing list, or if it doesn't and it went first class, subtracting letters returned from letters sent gives a close estimate but doesn't include letters received but not read. If the campaign asks the recipients to take a measurable action, the number who do so provides a qualitative reach figure to go along with the quantitative reach (those receiving the letter). These are simple instruments used only as an example.

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