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aybe it’s just human natureto focus on the most recentresult rather than on patternsand trends, but it’s certainlybeen the traditional approachto measuring public relationsperformance and ROI.

What’s more, most public relations agencies anddepartments tie results only to clips rather than tomeaningful business outcomes. Essentially, thesetwo elements all but ensure that public relations’role will never be first-tier.

New methodologies and technology are beingintegrated today to foster the “science” of publicrelations and to ensure optimized public relationsperformance. One of the most important emergingforms of this integration is Six Sigma, a qualityand performance philosophy that originated atMotorola and that is now under way at many of theworld’s leading companies.

WHAT IS SIX SIGMA?Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approachand method for eliminating defects (or deviation).The term itself is derived from statistics, wherebyone tracks “defects per million opportunities.” Inthis case, a “defect” is described as anythingoutside of customer expectations. By definition,Six Sigma is less than 3.4 defects per million, ora success rate of 99.9997 percent. Given thatmost companies perform at a two-to-three sigmalevel (roughly 70 to 93 percent), a four sigmalevel, or 99.38 percent success rate, soundspretty good—it would mean a solid “A” in school.But it also means that 6,210 of every millionairline flights would end in disaster.

Clearly, the impact for achieving high qualityis much more critical in some fields (air travel)than in others (pizza delivery), but the stakes areenormous if one extends the analysis to the costof imperfection, as even a pizza company canrecover tens of millions of dollars through on-time delivery, pizzas not dropped or burned, andcorrect orders. Clearly a lot of money is beingleft on the table in the course of “doingbusiness.” Six Sigma companies such as GE(US$2 billion annually), Texas Instruments(US$600 million), Johnson & Johnson (US$500million) and Honeywell (US$1.2 billion) attributeenormous annual savings to Six Sigma.

Mark Weiner is CEO of DelahayeMedialink Worldwide. He can be reached at

mweiner@delahaye.com, or visit www.delahaye.com.

by MARK WEINER

MApplied Research for Improved

Six Sigma

<< New methodologiesand technology

are being integratedtoday to foster the “science”

of public relations and to ensure

optimized public relations

performance. One of the

most importantemerging forms

of this integration is Six Sigma, a quality

and performancephilosophy that

originated at Motorolaand that is now

under way at many of the world’s

leading companies. >>

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<< Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approachand method for eliminatingdefects (or deviation).The term itself isderived from statistics,whereby one tracks“defects per millionopportunities.” In this case, a “defect” is described as anything outside ofcustomer expectations.By definition, Six Sigma is less than3.4 defects per million,or a success rate of 99.9997 percent. >>

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Essentially, the purpose of Six Sigma is to gainbreakthrough knowledge on how to improveprocesses to do things better, faster and at lowercost. It can be used to improve every facet ofbusiness, from production to human resources, totechnical support and, yes, even to corporatecommunication. Unlike other quality-improvementefforts, some of which may have been the latestfad at your organization, Six Sigma is designedto provide tangible business results, which is tosay, cost savings that are directly traceable tothe bottom line.

The Six Sigma process begins by first gainingan important understanding of one’s internal andexternal customers (in PR, internal customers arethose people who fund PR; an external customermight be a journalist, an analyst, an employee oran actual customer). Second, but no lessimportant, one must understand the needs ofcustomers so that customer expectations can bemet. Commonly used tools in the process aresurveys, focus groups and customer panels, andbecause many of PR’s internal clients are lookingfor media coverage, content analysis of newscoverage may be critical in satisfying their needs.

A CASE STUDY: GE APPLIANCESThe Problem: In the late 1980s, Work-Out was thestart of GE’s quality management journey. ThroughWork-Out, GE created a culture open to ideas from

everyone and everywhere, decimating thebureaucracy and making boundary-less behavior areflexive, natural part of the GE culture. Thiscreated the learning environment that led to SixSigma. Today, Six Sigma, in turn, has embeddedquality thinking—process thinking—across everylevel and in every operation of the company,including public relations.

Although Six Sigma’s customer-focused, data-driven philosophy has been applied throughoutGE, it had not been consistently applied tocommunication functions within the organization.GE Appliances’ corporate communication teamwas convinced it could use the Six Sigma qualityprocess to better “control” PR execution andensure that media coverage always met or exceededthe team’s targeted effectiveness/productivitymeasurements.

The Solution: GEA and its research partner,Delahaye, began to explore how the measurementdata Delahaye compiled for the company monthlyand quarterly—particularly Delahaye’s WeightedImpact & Net Effect method (a proprietary formulafor distilling PR effectiveness into a single scorefor the purposes of evaluating and planning PRprograms)—could help accomplish this goal.

Beginning in 2000, GE and Delahaye worked totest, refine and verify Delahaye’s method and todemonstrate that it could provide the consistentlyreliable data required for the Six Sigma process.Later that year, GEA began the initial series of SixSigma analysis projects that continued into mid-2001. The business objective was to developa real-time strategy for consistently improving andcontrolling overall PR productivity (costs), ROI,and effectiveness in reaching and influencing GEA’starget consumer, customer and investor segments.

Method: At its core, Six Sigma revolves arounda few main concepts:> Critical to Quality: Attributes most important tothe customer> Defect: Failing to deliver what the customer wants> Process Capability: What your process can deliver> Variation: What the customer sees and feels> Stable Operations: Consistent, predictable processesto improve what the customer sees and feels.

The objectives of GEA’s initial Six Sigma analyseswere to identify and then control the independentvariables influencing their Weighted Impact Scores(quality and quantity of news coverage) andproduction of positive media impressions. Byunderstanding which factors are controllable byPR, they would be able to focus their efforts ondriving these factors to ensure optimum mediaperformance and PR productivity.

The methods and quality processes used tocomplete these Six Sigma projects included“Design for Six Sigma,” a systematic methodusing tools, training and measurements tofacilitate the design of products and processesthat meet customer expectations and can be

SIX SIGMA PROJECT IDEAS FOR PR> Reduce time for press release approval.> Improve media targeting (identify media that have proven reach among your

target audience).> Assess journalists’ preferences and satisfaction with current PR initiatives.> Assess “internal client” preferences and satisfaction with current PR initiatives.> Improve the ratio of releases sent versus releases used.> Improve the ratio of placements featuring critical messages.> Improve the ratio of placements featuring a company spokesperson.> Improve the ratio of stories featuring visuals or graphics.> Improve the ratio of stories that are either exclusives or feature-length.> Improve the ROI of events and event sponsorships.> For agencies, improve percentage of billable hours.

<< As Six Sigma metrics lend themselves to projects, there are a number of projects you can undertake.

As you look to identify your own projects, keep in mind that they must be meaningful,

measurable and reasonable. >>

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produced at Six Sigma quality levels. In other words, the Six Sigma process guides

communicators through the following steps: > Define> Measure> Analyze> Improve> Control.

Weighted Impact & Net Effect is Delahaye’sresearch-based formula for gauging the effectivenessof a company’s media coverage. Story attributes thatcan influence a media placement’s level of audienceexposure, the reader’s level of awareness and recall,and the reader’s takeaway impression are weightedon the basis of the attribute’s level of contributionto the placement’s overall impact. A computer-generated score between +100 percent and –100percent is assigned to each placement. The editorialtone of the placement determines whether thescore is a positive or negative number. The auditedcirculation figures or audience reach of the placementis then multiplied by its Weighted Impact Score todetermine its weighted reach, or Net Effect.

Conclusions: GEA’s corporate communicationteam has developed a PR Effectiveness ControlPlan based on the two Six Sigma projects completedto date. It can be used throughout their PR efforts,including media relations strategy (i.e., mediarelationship management, media mix targeting),product exposure strategy (i.e., product exposureguidelines) and overall resource allocation. Theseefforts will also ensure a closer alignment of PRobjectives with the strategies and business goalsof the organization. Research findings verify thatthe business impact is significant, specifically:> a substantial improvement in overall PRproductivity (costs)> a 16-percent decrease in “cost per positivemedia impression” produced> an 8-basis-point increase in the number ofpositive media impressions produced> a 20-basis-point decrease in the number of

negative media impressions produced.The Six Sigma quality process requires ongoing

analysis to ensure continued process improvementand productivity growth. GEA is now preparing tobegin its next series of Six Sigma projects thatwill incorporate an even broader set of data fromother GEA communication operations. The GEAppliances corporate communication team is thefirst within GE to attain Six Sigma certification.

GETTING STARTEDTypically, public relations and corporatecommunication departments do not take the leadin Six Sigma programs. So although you may havemetric systems to contribute, you may have to goin search of your organization’s Six Sigma leaders,known as “Black Belts.”

As Six Sigma metrics lend themselves toprojects, there are a number of projects you canundertake (see sidebar). As you look to identifyyour own projects, keep in mind that they must bemeaningful, measurable and reasonable.

Although research and public relations are newpartners, the application of research and PR continuesto grow as companies demand to know how theirmoney is spent and how it can be spent morewisely. Six Sigma has met with enormous success;it is unlikely to be just the latest business fad.

So the next time someone asks “what’s new inPR?” you may be able to answer in ways that younever thought possible with an impact muchgreater than ever before.

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<< The Six Sigma quality process requires ongoing analysis to ensure continued process improvement and productivity growth. >>

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