Action Plan: A detailed plan showing how major marketing or PR tasks will be managed and implemented, who will do them, and when.

Activism: Intentional action or inaction to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.

Attitude Surveys: Data collection techniques designed to collect standard information from a large number of subjects concerning their attitudes or feelings. These typically refer to questionnaires or interviews.

B2B: Public relations marketing communication dedicated to providing information resources between businesses. Includes professional services, training, human resources and office supplies.

B2C: Same as B2B, but between businesses and consumers.

Benchmarks: Measures of progress toward a goal, taken at intervals prior to the programme’s completion or the anticipated attainment of the final goal.

Bias: The extent to which a measurement, sampling, or analytic method systematically underestimates or overestimates the true value of an attribute.

Brand Equity: The marketing effects or outcomes that accrue to a product with its brand name compared with those that would accrue if the same product did not have the brand name. The study of brand equity is very relevant today as marketing researchers have concluded that brands are one of the most valuable assets that a company has.

Case Study: A method for learning about a complex instance, based on a comprehensive understanding of that instance, obtained by extensive description and analysis of the instance, taken as a whole and in its context.

Code of Ethics: A formal statement of an organisation’s values on certain ethical and social issues.

Communications Audit: A strategic tool designed to help organisations achieve consensus regarding their primary positioning and messaging, and, in so doing, fulfil their vision and build stronger stakeholder relationships. The concept of an audit is based on the principle that all communications should be consistently aligned with an organisation’s values and objectives, its market opportunities, and its customers’ needs.

Communication Channel: The medium chosen to convey the message from sender to receiver. Communication channels can be categorized into two main categories: Direct and indirect channels of communication.

Communications Cycle: A communications strategy designed to generate targeted exposure in a cost and time effective manner, using a step-by-step approach which allows communicators to organise their activities around a framework that will help produce measurable results. The cycle can be broken down into five steps: Messaging, Targeting, Distribution, Monitoring and measurement and Assessment.

Community Relations: Enhancing an organisation’s participation and position within a community through outreach efforts for the mutual benefit of the organisation and the community.

Consultancy: Externally hired public relations services, either an individual consultant or a public relations consultancy.

Content Analysis: A set of procedures for collecting and organising non-structured information into a standardised format that allows one to make inferences about the characteristics and meaning of written and otherwise recorded material.

Copywriting: The production of text for publications, advertising, marketing materials, websites etc. Most agencies employ specialists skilled with a direct and succinct writing style.

Corporate Associations: A generic label used for all information about an organisation that a person holds, including perceptions, inferences, and beliefs about an organisation.

Corporate Branding: The practice of using a company’s name as a product brand name, in an attempt to leverage corporate brand equity to create product brand recognition.

Corporate Communications: Public relations for a corporation integrated as part of the company’s strategic objectives.

Corporate Governance: The set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the corporation’s stakeholders and the goals for which the corporation is governed.

Corporate Image: Consisting of two components; functional and emotional. Functional relates to tangible characteristics while the emotional component is associated with psychological dimensions that are manifested by feelings and attitudes towards a company. Can be described as a profile or sum of impressions and expectations of that organisation, built up in the minds of individuals who comprise of its stakeholders.

Corporate Personality: The sum total of the characteristics of the organisation or a distinct organisational culture, which reflects the organisation’s (or founder’s) distinct mission and philosophy

Corporate Philosophy: The business mission and values espoused by the management board (or founder).

Corporate Reputation: A collective representation of an organisation’s past actions and results that describes its ability to deliver valued outcomes to multiple stakeholders.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): Borne from the belief that trade brings obligations, CSR makes companies responsible for their use of resources, both environmentally and socially. The role of public relations in CSR strategies is to communicate effectively to build corporate accountability and transparency.

Credibility: The objective and subjective components of the believability of a source or message. Credibility traditionally comprises of two primary dimensions: trustworthiness and expertise.

Crisis Management: Maintaining relations with the public, government agencies, news media, employees, shareholders, and other affected parties on behalf of an organisation involved in a crisis situation.

Data Collection Plan: A written document describing the specific procedures to be used to gather information or data. The document describes who collects the information, when and where it is collected, and how it is obtained.

Disclosure: The giving out of information, either voluntarily or to be in compliance with legal regulations or workplace rules.

E-PR/Online PR: Communicating over the web and using new technology to effectively communicate with stakeholders.

Employee Relations: Typically representing an organisation’s management to inform and motivate the organisation’s employees through internal communications, training, awards programmes, and other events.

Environmental Communications: PR sector specialising in communication on sustainable use of resources, environmental impact of business and corporate social responsibility.

Evaluability Assessment: A systematic process used to determine the feasibility of a programme evaluation. It also helps determine whether conducting a programme evaluation will provide useful information that will help improve the management of a programme and its overall performance.

Evaluation: Measuring the impact of a public relations campaign. This process is typically linked with planning and research.

Evaluation Plan: A written document describing the overall approach or design that will be used to guide an evaluation. It includes what will be done, how it will be done, who will do it, when it will be done, and why the evaluation is being conducted.

Feasibility Study: A study of the applicability or practicability of a proposed action or plan.

Feedback: In communication, the response from the person or group receiving information or a message. This may, for example, take the form of a critical response (negative feedback), or it may be an affirmative response (positive feedback).

Fees: The charges consultants and consultancies make for the time of their staff working on client programmes, usually invoiced in regular monthly instalments or quarterly in advance.

Fundraising/Sponsorship: Looking for partners to provide financial support or support ‘in kind’ for an event or activity where both parties will benefit.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): A global network of stakeholders who pioneered the development of the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework. This framework sets out the principles and indicators that organisations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance.

Globalisation: A process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society. This process is a combination of economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces.

Government Affairs: Representing an organisation’s interests to governing bodies and regulatory agencies, often through direct “lobbying” efforts, and also through public affairs and other PR activities building issue constituencies.

Halo Effect: Bias created by an observer’s tendency to rate certain objects or persons in a manner that reflects what was previously anticipated.

Healthcare Communications: PR sector specialising in public and private healthcare provision, including leisure health, effect of drugs and impacts of medical research.

Impact Evaluation: A type of outcome evaluation that focuses on the broad, long-term impacts or results of programme activities.

Implementation Strategy: The plan for development of a programme and procedure for ensuring the fulfilment of intended functions or services.

In-House: Staff within a company or organisation responsible for public relations function.

In-House Magazines/Newsletter: A tool to communicate with employees about news, issues and developments of interest to them about the organisation they work for.

Input: Organisational units, people, funds, and other resources actually devoted to a particular programme or activity.

Internal Communications (IC): Serves as a conduit for information flow between management and the ranks. Grounded in communication theory, IC taps tools of newsletters, Intranet pages, management memos, position statements, presentations and special events to disseminate information regarding company updates, management policies, Human Resources issues & benefits, business initiatives, crisis management, etc.

Investor Relations: Developing confidence and positive relations for your organisation with investors in the financial community. Also called Financial Relations and Shareholder Relations.

Initial Public Offering (IPO): The first sale of stock by a private company to the public. IPOs are often issued by smaller, younger companies seeking capital to expand, but can also be done by large privately-owned companies looking to become publicly traded.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Financial and non-financial metrics used to quantify objectives to reflect strategic performance of an organisation. KPIs differ depending on the nature of the organisation and the organisation’s strategy.

Lobbying: Those aspects of public relations communication involving relations with governmental or statutory bodies or their semi-official organisations through sophisticated use of political intelligence and pressure.

Marketing Communications: Within the four P’s of Marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion), PR helps meet the marketing communication needs of promotion (along with components of the other P’s) to advance sales of products and services. PR plays a role in advertising, publicity, packaging, point-of-sale display, trade shows, and special events. Also called Marcom.

Media/Presentation Training: Training to help when dealing with the various media, with journalists and when making a pitch to prospective clients.

Media Monitoring: Monitoring a company’s coverage, both positive and negative in nature, in the various types of mass media.

Media Relations: Conducting outreach or responding to the news media on behalf of the organisation or client. Media relations is often considered a specialised function within a public relations campaign.

Media Strategy: A plan which details how messages will be delivered to specific stakeholders. It involves identifying the characteristics of the target audience, who should receive messages and defining the characteristics of the media that will be used for the delivery of the messages.

Monitoring: An on-going process of reviewing a programme’s activities to determine whether set standards or requirements are being met.

Mission Statement: States the company’s current status. It concentrates on the present, defines the customer(s) and critical processes, as well as informs about the desired level of performance.

New Media: The marriage of mediated communications technologies with digital computers. Relying on digital technologies, new media allow for previously separate media to converge.

Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs): Legally constituted organisations created by private persons or organisations with no participation or representation of any government.

Outcome Evaluation: An evaluation used by management to identify the results of a programme’s effort. It seeks to answer management’s question, “What difference did the programme make?” It provides management with a statement about the net effects of a programme after a specified period of operation.

Output: Immediate measures of what a programme did.

Performance Evaluation: An evaluation that compares actual performance with that planned in terms of both resource utilization and production. Used by management to redirect programme efforts and resources and to redesign the programme structure.

Performance Measurement: Involves ongoing data collection to determine if a programme is implementing activities and achieving objectives. It measures inputs, outputs, and outcomes over time.

Pilot Test: Preliminary test or study of a programme or evaluation activity to try out procedures and make any necessary changes or adjustments.

Pitch: A presentation of a recommended public relations programme, generally carefully researched and costed, which can take up to four weeks to prepare and for which some consultancies reserve the right to charge a fee if not subsequently appointed.

Planning: The process of anticipating future occurrences and problems, exploring their probable impact, and detailing policies, goals, objectives, and strategies to solve the problems. This often includes preparing options documents, considering alternatives, and issuing final plans.

Press Office: Handles all media enquiries and puts out all company messages to the media on behalf of the organisation.

Press Release: Statement describing an event or item which is considered to be of sufficient interest to readers/viewers/listeners for an editor to publish reference to it. Also known as a News or Media Release.

Print Production: The process of producing printed material such as brochures, posters and leaflets.

Policy: A governing principle pertaining to goals, objectives, and/or activities. It is a decision on an issue not resolved on the basis of facts and logic only.

Policy Analysis: An analysis used to help managers understand the extent of the problem or need that exists and to set realistic goals and objectives in response to such problem or need. It may be used to compare actual programme activities with the programme’s legally established purposes in order to ensure legal compliance.

Process Evaluation: Focuses on how a programme was implemented and operates. It identifies the procedures undertaken and the decisions made in developing the programme. It describes how the programme operates, the services it delivers, and the functions it carries out.

Programme Analysis: The analysis of options in relation to goals and objectives, strategies, procedures, and resources by comparing alternatives for proposed and ongoing programmes. It embraces the processes involved in programme planning and programme evaluation.

Programme Effectiveness Evaluation: The application of scientific research methods to estimate how much observed results, intended or not, are caused by programme activities. Effect is linked to cause by design and analyses that compare observed results with estimates of what might have been observed in the absence of the programme.

Public Affairs: Involving an organisation in the development of public policy, or helping to adapt the organisation to public expectations. Public Affairs is sometimes used synonymously to refer to public relations activities (especially in the government and military).

Public Opinion: The aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs held by the adult population towards an individual or collective.

Public Relations (PR): The determined, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. Also understood as reputation management, the PR craft can be categorised into several broad practice areas, such as media relations, investor relations, corporate social responsibility, corporate communications, marketing communications, issues management, government relations, employee communications, stakeholder relations, change management and crisis communications.

Publicity: Furthering an organisation’s or client’s interest through target-media coverage of strategic messages and events. A good publicist knows how to work the angles for free media coverage.

Reputation Management: The process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions and opinions; and reacting to that report creating a feedback loop. The tracking and reporting may range from word-of-mouth to statistical analysis of thousands of data points.

Research: Finding out background information about a company, product or person to assist with a public relations campaign.

Resources: Assets available and anticipated for operations. They include people, equipment, facilities and other things used to plan, implement, and evaluate programmes.

Qualitative Analysis: An analysis that ascertains the nature of the attributes, behaviour, or opinions of the entity being measured.

Quantitative Analysis: An analysis that ascertains the magnitude, amount, or size, for example, of the attributes, behaviour, or opinions of the entity being measured.

Staffing: Personnel required for a programme or a project.

Stakeholder: A stakeholder is a party who affects, or can be affected by, an organisation’s actions. They usually include an organisation’s employees, consumers, surrounding communities, shareholders, investors and the government. In a broader context, stakeholders may also include suppliers, labour unions, government regulatory agencies, industry trade groups, professional associations, NGOs and other advocacy groups, prospective employees, prospective customers, competitors and the general public.

Statistical Analysis: Analysing collected data for the purposes of summarizing information to make it more usable and/or making generalizations about a population based on a sample drawn from that population.

Strategic Evaluation: An evaluation used by managers as an aid to decide which strategy a programme should adopt in order to accomplish its goals and objectives at a minimum cost. In addition, strategy evaluation might include alternative specifications of the programme design itself, detailing milestone and flow networks, manpower specifications, progress objectives, and budget allocations.

Strategic Planning: An organisation’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.

Summative Evaluation: A type of outcome evaluation that assesses the results or outcomes of a programme. This type of evaluation is concerned with a programme’s overall effectiveness.

Survey: The collection of information from a common group through interviews or the application of questionnaires to a representative sample of that group.

SWOT Analysis: A strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective.

Target: An objective or expected result set by management to communicate programme purpose to operating personnel.

Target Population: The population, clients, or subjects intended to be identified and served by a programme.

Triple Bottom Line Reporting: The three bottom lines are people, place and profit. It entails expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial performance. A commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting. Attributed to John Elkington,1980.

Usability Evaluation: Assesses the degree to which a product or item can be operated by its users, the efficiency of the product/item and/or satisfaction with the product or item by the users.

Vision Statement: An outline of an organisation’s aspirations. It concentrates on the future, is a source of inspiration, and provides clear decision-making criteria. To become really effective, an organisational vision statement must become assimilated into the organisation’s culture.