✅ What does quality mean in communications consulting?

There is no shared understanding of quality between clients and public relations or corporate communications consultants. It undermines expectations and value.

A study by Daniel Ziegele, Caroline Siegel and Ansgar Zerfass from Leipzig University, published in Public Relations Review, investigates the fundamentals of a good consulting relationship in communications.

It draws on 60 in-depth interviews - half with Chief Communication Officers (CCOs) from major corporations and half with senior professionals directly advising senior corporate clients. These are strategic advisers with influence over how organisations communicate at the highest levels.

Yet, despite this level of expertise on both sides of the table, the study reports a fundamental problem: there is no agreement about what communication consulting is or what makes it high quality.

The researchers found:

• There’s no consistent definition of communication consulting. Clients and consultants describe it very differently.

• Quality is even more contested. It’s often equated with vague concepts such as “success” or “professionalism” - without a shared benchmark.

• Twelve recurring issues were identified. These ranged from unclear briefs and inconsistent expectations to confusion over roles between advising and executing.

• Four root causes include lack of standards, blurred boundaries and a lack of a common vocabulary or quality framework.

The outcomes mirror the PRCA Pitch Forward research report published last year about agency procurement. It identified significant challenges in communication consulting, including unclear roles, budget transparency issues and the need for quality standards.

To address these issues Ziegele, Siegel and Zerfass propose an applied management model that sets out three layers of quality. It’s a practical framework that breaks down the often subjective notion of quality into three tangible variables.

Table: A conceptual framework distinguishing between structural, process and outcome quality in communication consulting (Ziegele et al, 2025)