Knowledge

Communication controlling is a key challenge for public relations, customer, financial and employee communication. The European Communication Monitor 2007,  a survey among 1,087 PR heads in 22 countries, shows that almost one in two communication managers believes convergence of corporate strategy and communication to be one of the top three tasks from now until 2010 (Zerfaß et al. 2007). Two out of five respondents also say they aim to develop new evaluation methods.

Industry and agencies have little experience to date

The reality is very different: a knowledge of the impact of communication is not widespread among industry and service providers. Modern methods of planning and controlling communication are barely known. For instance, only one out of four communication, marketing and financial directors in German stock corporations are familiar with the variants of the Communication Scorecard, a tool that has inspired discussion in expert community for a number of years now.

Know-how in demand at multiple levels

Anyone engaging with the issue of communication controlling will soon encounter a variety of takes on the topic. Using the fundamental principles and definitions of communication controlling and its key issues as a starting point, the objective is to understand the various levels at which communication has an impact, and explore ways of evaluating that impact. Another aspect is the communication-strategy link and an exploration of how (successful) communication helps to add value. Based on those insights, it is then possible to identify typical indicators for the various areas of corporate communications. A range of procedures and reference models are available as an aid to putting that knowledge into practice.

References

Zerfaß, Ansgar et al. (2007): European Communication Monitor 2007 - Results and Findings of the Survey on Future Trends in Communication Management and Public Relations in Europe [www.communicationmonitor.eu]

Sommer, Christian (2007): Vision und Realität des Kommunikationscontrollings, in: Bentele, Günter/Piwinger, Manfred/Schönborn, Gregor (Eds.): Kommunikationsmanagement (Loseblattwerk), Köln, Nr. 4.27 [www.hlv-kommunikationsmanagement.de]

Author of "Knowledge" texts

Prof. Dr. Ansgar Zerfaß, University of Leipzig