Qasim Raza

Evolving together In today’s fragmented world, integrating marketing and communications is more than just a trend: it can be a matter of organisational survival. Communication Director MagazineIssue FocusMarketing Today’s fragmented and complex media landscape presents an ever-changing set of challenges to marketing and communications professionals. Confronted by demanding yet distracted consumers on the one hand, and a fast-paced and volatile business environment on the other, marketing and communications professionals are hard pressed to steer consumer behaviour and effectively measure responses to campaign performance. As any experienced business leader knows, developing outstanding products and assembling a highly talented management team only gets you to the starting block. Ultimately, the race for business success hinges on persuading significant numbers of customers to select your company’s products or services over those of other businesses. The question then...

Measurement Resources Guidance for Quantifying Public Relations' Impact on Business Outcomes Measurement and evaluation are critical elements of every public relations practitioner's professional competencies and are central to making a "case" for public relations. Organizations and professionals who understand and believe in the benefits of public relations evaluation are able to: Validate the results of their efforts. Link the results to business outcomes that further the achievement of organizational goals. Credibly merchandise the impact of those results to those who fund public relations programs. Set smarter objectives, develop better strategies and employ more compelling and engaging tactics. Make midcourse program adjustments and corrections. Adapt their measurement approaches over time in light of changing objectives, new competitors and emerging best practices. Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards PRSA has join...

It is at this time of year that SME business owners begin to think about the year ahead and growth goals for their enterprise in the incoming year. PR and Marketing communication campaigns play a critical role in achieving SME business growth, particularly now in the digital marketing era. The problem is evaluating and measuring PR and marketing campaigns has in recent years become more complex – particularly with the continued growth of digital. As technology advances, new methods to measure the effectiveness of that technology need to be developed. This is as true for new digital marketing techniques and technologies as other business technologies. Globally there has over the last 5 years been something of an explosion of new measurement techniques and methods being developed. In this environment choosing the right measurement technique for the right PR campaign objective has become more challenging. A direct consequence of that is it is becoming increasingly important...

Most public relations professionals don’t think their functional namesake will accurately describe their work in the future. That’s according to the 2017 Global Communications Report, from the Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism at USC.   The report found “87% of PR executives believe the term ‘public relations’ does not describe their future.” Why?   The evolution of digital media has facilitated the integration of previously distinct marketing disciplines.   The lines blurred and responsibilities were woven together – with the benefit of tighter integration. Does this mean the end of the road for the PR?   Will the professional communicator be subsumed permanently by marketing? No, I don’t think that’s the case.   It’s just the opposite. Instead, the approach good PR professionals champion is permeating marketing.   I’m not sure PR pros are ready for this because it dramatically raises bar on what is excellence. ...