Objectives & Performance Measurement

What is it and why is it important? 

The secret to objectives is in the name – they are objective!

People have different opinions, expectations and experiences that inform the way they judge performance. This is subjective.

Good objectives remove personal subjectivity and provide shared goals that everyone can work towards and measure against.

Clearly defined objectives set the expectations for the business, brand or employer brand and the project itself before embarking on the journey.

This enables us, as your business partners, to know what success looks like to you and the people within your business. It helps us keep the project on track and ensure we deliver the appropriate research design and outcomes, strategies and plans that meet action standards prior to go-to-market. Ultimately objectives empower the team to drive business results.

As we progress through the approach and more information is gathered, objectives are refined, narrowed in focus and detailed. They’re drawn up as key performance indicators for the programme in market, against which success is measured.  

Whilst we may not know all this information up front, it is important to understand initial expectations and establish parameters around how the programme will measured. This provides us with valuable insights as to how the project will be implemented within your organisation and the depth and breadth of our project scope.  

How we go about it

We develop objectives that are SMART – simple, measurable, actionable, relevant and timely – throughout the project, along with the performance measures.

There are a few key stages when objectives, performance measures will be developed throughout the programme:

Prior to project commencement

Prior to developing the project scope and refined during the initial briefing session:

• Business objectives
• Brand or Employer brand objectives
• Research objectives
• Project objectives

At this time, we will also look to understand how they will be measured, whether there are specific action standards that we have to meet in order to proceed between the project stages, and specific data points this project needs to shift.

For example, brand objective: Increase market value share from 10% to 20% by the end of 2022, measured by Company X annual monitor.

Moving from discovery into strategy development

Based on the information gathered and insights formed, we will be able to refine objectives and/or set new ones.

When the discovery phase leads to market opportunity identification and sizing, this provides substantial information into objectives for the rest of the project.

We will also have the intel to develop audience-specific goals for customer, employee and stakeholder marketing.

These objectives are likely to be used to measure the success of strategy development through further research, as well as in-market.

For example, customer goal: Convince 2m life lovers who currently buy mainstream car brands to buy our everyday premium car brand by the end of 2022, measured by Company X annual monitor.

Between strategy development and planning

How the strategy will be executed is determined across the creative expression, marketing mix and deeper into each element of the marketing mix.

Objectives will be set for each of these, as well as setting key performance indicators and how they will be measured – prior to launch, during any test market phase and for market launch.

For example, graduate recruitment campaign: Increase the number of quality candidate applications from 200 to 300 YOY.

Measurement means and process

As part of the scope, we can set up measurement means and process. This can include:

• Defining research objectives
• Strategic direction into research method, sample and design
• Defining questions for tracking such as brand attributes, customer satisfaction or employee engagement
• Working with your internal team and/or 3^rd party partners to set up the research
• Developing the internal process for review, action standards for evolving tactics vs strategies

Monitoring performance

We also offer brand coaching to work with your team monitoring performance for a period of time, and brand counsel where we review performance at specific intervals, such as quarterly, and offer our recommendations for action. 

How to brief objectives

From the outset, it would be good to understand key objectives you have, from existing information, and how you think they will be measured.

Regardless of the type of project, we will require business objectives to ensure that any research, strategy and planning that is conducted is strongly connected to the business.  

As part of the project scope, we will recommend how these objectives are refined throughout the process.

How can we help you?