La Cultura de evaluar en Relaciones Públicas

Abstract

This article identifies ideas and practices about the evaluation developed by Costa Rican public relations agencies for their clients, with the purpose of recognizing the processes carried out to verify the effectiveness of their services. Through the collection of data through qualitative and quantitative techniques, the study conducted a retrospective analysis of the cultural practices of the evaluation of agencies with more than 10 years of operation and whose central business core are public relations. The agencies recognize the importance of evaluation and incorporate it regularly in their operation, most of them include production and exposure measurements (outputs), performance indicators and AVEs. To a lesser extent, the changes in perceptions or attitudes (outtakes) are determined and with exceptions the impacts or behaviors adopted as a consequence of the communications, both in the activity and in the business (outcomes). Informal methodologies of gathering information about the process predominate. There is a lax culture in Costa Rican public relations agencies to evaluate their services.