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In December last year, this Indian IT giant showed the promise of grabbing
the top slot in the DQ-Cirrus Image Index. Infosys has not disappointed. The
company moved ahead full throttle, switched on the after-burner and overtook
Microsoft by a huge margin in the first month of calendar year 2002. It grew by
71% from the December 2001 Cirrus image points (CIP) of 2,907 to post figures of
4969 in January 2002. In comparison, Microsoft, which had fallen from the peak
of 2,140 CIP in November 2001 to 998 CIP in December 2001, could manage to
spruce up its image by a meager 20% with 1,198 CIP.
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The big news from Infosys that really helped the company score high was the
handing over of the reigns from Narayana NR Murthy to Nandan Nilekani–the
former becoming the ambassador and the other in-charge of the company. This
earned Infosys 38% of the CIP. The second news that propelled them to new
heights was the Q3 financial results. Almost 19% of the image points were scored
on this subject. Another 12% came from the company’s tieup with the Chinese
government. Microsoft lost much ground in January because of the negative image
points earned by it from coverage of its ongoing legal battles. Finance and
financial results coupled with negative product related stories also pushed the
company’s overall CIP down. Interestingly, despite a 23% drop in image points–from
2,066 CIP in December 2001 to 1593 CIP during January 2002–Wipro has already
emerged a clear number two.
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In terms of quality of exposure (EQ) index, which is a ratio between the
image and visibility points–greater the index, higher is the ratio of positive
coverage in relation to total coverage received–IBM, CMC and Microsoft slipped
in January over the last quarter. In other words, out of all the articles that
appeared for these companies, the ratio of neutral articles far outweighed the
positive coverage, thereby adversely affecting their total image points. HP,
Cisco and Satyam have had more positive articles vis-a-vis others.
SHUBHENDU PARTH In New Delhi
METHODOLOGY
Cirrus, a service from agencyfaqs, is a quantitative evaluation tool that
evaluates a company’s media relation activity in relation to that of the
competition by tracking on daily basis news and articles featuring more than
1,000 companies in over 100 leading publications. Each piece is run through two
measurement tools–the first measures the visibility of a company, while the
second interprets the exposure tonality. A number of companies are now employing
Cirrus to bring in measurability and, hence, accountability to their media
relations programs.
The model assigns quantitative weights to factors like gross reach, article
space and prominence of coverage. Each news item is then measured for these
positive determinants and collectively they make up the calculation of
visibility points assigned to the company. The visibility points, however,
represent only the coverage received by a company but does not address the
nature it. To measure exposure tonality, each news piece is interpreted for its
reporting tone (positive/neutral/negative slant).
Once the tone level has been established, the visibility score is overlaid
with the tone to arrive at the attendant Cirrus Image Points. A piece that has
been ascribed a negative level will bear negative image points. Therefore,
greater the item visibility, greater the negative image points credited to the
company.
(Write to sandeep@agencyfaqs or to srinibalram@agencyfaqs.com
for more details on Cirrus)