Providing sound evidence of success in communication

Providing sound evidence of success in communication

Providing sound evidence of communication success is a great wish of all professionals. The CommTech working group has therefore launched an initiative to address the question of how communication successes can be presented in impact levels in a dashboard. The result is the Value 4/9 Dashboard, which uses nine key figures to illustrate communication success from input to outflow. Lena Wouters from the Körber technology group was part of the initiative. Körber is one of the 12 companies currently piloting the dashboard.

AG CommTech: What was the main motivation for you to take part in the initiative? What were the circumstances that led to the desire for measurability of communication success?

Lena Wouters: The desire for concrete evidence and measurability has existed at Körber and especially in our “Brand & Communications” team for some time. Where do we come from? By 2020, Körber had more than 40 individual brands, some of which are known as B2C brands in their respective industries, which we support with our offerings as a B2B technology leader. Since 2020, we have consistently relied on the Körber brand worldwide and in all Business Areas. In addition to many related tasks that we have since implemented as a team with the aim of “brand excellence”, this has naturally increased the need to make their impact measurable and therefore more visible.

AG CommTech: What significance does a formulated corporate and communication strategy have in this context?

Lena Wouters: Both are the essential foundations! Those who know what they want to achieve and therefore measure, and have anchored this in the communication strategy in the form of smart target formulations, achieve results with which communication and brand work contribute to the company’s success. Our communication strategy, derived from our Group strategy, starts right there. We have defined target dimensions – internal, external and organization-related – and set clear targets for each. Now we measure regularly – using various measures. Based on the results, we make adjustments and further develop our measures. One measurement method is our integrated communication dashboard based on the Value 4/9 model, which covers the external target dimension in particular.

AG CommTech: What data points were available to you? Were there any difficulties you had to overcome to gain access to data? What advice would you give to colleagues starting out on their journey?

Lena Wouters: Here, we initially concentrated on our own external Group channels, which we actively use with content and over which we have the most direct influence.

These are our Group website koerber.com, our virtual platform Körber Xperience (xperience.koerber.com) and Körber’s LinkedIn account. Our paid activities are also included in the measurement. Our dashboard allows us to see which activities resonate (e.g. initiate further reporting) or have a reputation-supporting effect and where this is happening (in the German-speaking or international language area). A comparison with our market competitors is particularly interesting for us. It was helpful for us to deliberately start with a tight set-up in order to see initial successes quickly. This allowed us to quickly assess whether we were getting enough added value from the dashboard for our work and which additional parameters we might still need. And this is exactly how we are also looking at the further development of the dashboard: what else do we want to see tomorrow and what course do we need to set for this today? I would recommend this approach to anyone.

AG CommTech: How important is the presentation of topics for you, also in comparison to market competitors?

Lena Wouters: The more precise presentation of topics within our dashboard gives us orientation as to which types of topics strengthen our reputation – and therefore also our brand value – and which contribute less to this. This in turn helps us in the team to make more informed decisions. A look at market competitors completes our perspective. This gives us a further indication of which topics work and at the same time provides us with information about the relevant context.

AG CommTech: At the moment, the pilot relates to your channels, which you control from Group Communications. What is the further plan or is there one?

Lena Wouters: We are currently in the process of drilling down further into the topic. In the long term, we want to see as holistic a picture as possible – which also includes the activities of our business areas.