Need of P R Research for PR communication

Friends, thank you very much for taking out time from your very busy schedule to read my blogs at www.sureshgaurprguru.blogspot.com and www.medium.com/sureshgaur56 . Sharing knowledge of PR with you has become my passion now.

Today, I’m happy to present my 88^th blog on the topic “Why need of P R Research for a successful PR communication”.

Friends, Research is the key to any successful public relations, communications and/ or marketing efforts, not only in the business world, but also in the non-profit and government sectors. Without research, those who administer public relations, public affairs, promotional, and related communications programs and activities for their organizations would be operating in the dark, without any guidance or clear sense of direction. 

Public Relations Research, as the name implies, focuses on the entire public relations process and examines the communications relationships that exist among and between institutions and their key target audience groups. For the public relations or public affairs P R Research is an essential tool for fact and opinion gathering - a systematic effort aimed at discovering, confirming and/or understanding through objective appraisal the facts or opinions pertaining to a specified problem, situation, or opportunity. Most public relations/public affairs officers have come to recognize the following as real needs for conducting public relations research:

1. To collect information that public relations professionals need to have and to know to do their jobs more effectively.

2. To obtain benchmark data regarding the views of key target audience groups.

3. To plan, develop, or possibly refine a public relations, public affairs or marketing communications program or activity.

4. To track or monitor programs, activities or events that are or can be important to the institution.

5. To evaluate the overall effectiveness of a particular public relations or public affairs program or activity, by measuring outputs and outcomes against a pre-determined set of objectives.

6. When facing a sudden and unexpected crisis, to put the issues involved into proper perspective through emergency monitoring or polling.

7. When circumstances allow, to provide appropriate support in publicizing or promoting a specific program, activity or event.

For truly effective public relations research, advance planning is necessary. Before you begin, clearly define your goals and objectives. Ask yourself what you want and need the research to do for you. Remember, finding out “why” things are the way they are or the reasons individuals feel and act the way they do are often much more important for public relations planning and evaluation than simply finding out “what” the facts are or “how” people feel.

A useful starting point when considering public relations research is to remember the classic one-sentence definition of the communications process first described by Harold D. Lasswell. He said, if you can figure out who says what, to whom, how, with what effect, you will have come a long way in understanding how communications work. Here WHO refers to the sources, or disseminators, of information; WHAT to the messages that are being disseminated; WHOM to the targeted audiences or intended recipients of the messages; HOW to the channels of communications; and WITH WHAT EFFECT to the eventual output and outcome of the communications effort.

As part of the communications research effort, public relations practitioners are interested in….

a. measuring the credibility or believability of the information source,

b. the relevance and overall importance of the messages being disseminated, c. finding out as much as they possibly can about the opinions,

d. attitudes and behavior patterns of those in the target audience groups i.e. they respond or do not respond to the various messages being disseminated and

e. in pinpointing the best and most effective communications channels to use when disseminating messages.

There are only two types of public relations research…

1. Primary, which involves doing an original study, and

2. Secondary, which involves examining data already available.

In PR research, secondary research comes first. Please do not reinvent the wheel. Any time you are considering a possible public relations research assignment, do not automatically assume that a completely new study is needed. There is a good chance that someone else has already done a similar study or gathered similar data. Start out with a review of what is already been done in the area of your interest. That is called doing a literature search and secondary analysis. There is more existing data out there than you may suspect. With the growing wealth of data on the internet and in printed source books and periodicals, there are literally hundreds upon hundreds of places to which you can go to obtain background information. A logical starting point is academic, trade and professional journals and the infinite World Wide Web (www).

Primary research is usually either Qualitative or Quantitative in form. Qualitative research usually refers to studies that are somewhat subjective, but nevertheless in-depth, using a probing, open-end, free response format. Quantitative research usually refers to studies that are highly objective and projectable, using closed-end, forced-choice questionnaires. These studies tend to rely heavily on statistics and numerical measures.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

When communications researchers consider doing qualitative studies, the data collection methodologies that usually pop quickly into mind are focus groups and depth interview studies. Focus groups are an exploratory technique in which a group of somewhere between 8 and 12 individuals, under the guidance of a trained moderator are encouraged, as a group, to discuss freely any and all of their feelings, concerns, problems and frustrations relating to specific topics under discussion. 

Focus groups are ideal for brainstorming, idea-gathering and concept testing. Depth interview studies are those that rely on a probing, open-ended, largely unstructured interviewing format, and usually are carried out in person or by telephone. As part of the exercise, respondents are encouraged to talk freely and in great detail about given subjects. There are other forms of qualitative research that often do not come readily to mind, which also can prove to be quite useful forms of data collection.

These include….

1. Convenience polling,

2. Ethnographic research, and

3. Inquiry studies

As the name implies, a convenience poll is a type of non-probability study in which whoever happens to be available at a given point in time is included in the sample. It sometimes also is referred to as a “haphazard,” “informal,” or “quick and dirty” poll. As you might expect, convenience polls are viewed by most researchers as highly unscientific, unreliable and invalid and the findings are certainly not projectable to the total population under study. However, in our professional judgment, they could be of some value to the public relations and, thus, are worth considering if all you need at a given point in time is a “quick read” of people’s views, feelings or sentiments regarding a particular issue and if you recognize that the data you collect in this manner is little more than a rough, informal“ sounding board” pertaining to a handful of people’s opinions. 

Ethnography is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. Ethnographic research looks at the social interaction of users in a given environment. This research provides an in-depth insight into the user’s views and actions along with the sights and sounds they encounter during their day. It provides the researcher with an understanding of how those users see the world and how they interact with everything around them.

Ethnographic research methods include direct observation, diary studies, video recordings, photography and artefact analysis such as devices that a person uses throughout the day. Observations can be made anywhere from the user’s workplace, their home or while they are out with family and friends. The length of the studies can vary depending on the research that is being conducted. They can range from a couple of hours of observation, to studies that last several months.

An inquiry study is a systematic review and analysis using content analysis or sometimes telephone, mail and internet interviewing techniques to study the range and types of unsolicited inquiries that an organization may receive from key audience groups with which it frequently communicates. For business establishments, for example, it could be of great benefit to conduct informal interviews with prospective customers who contact company officials for background information and/or promotional materials. Although those who contact the institution on their own would, in effect, constitute an unscientific, self-selected sample, the mere fact that they are calling could provide the organization with a very useful source of qualitative information about target groups that are, obviously, very important to the company.

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

Quantitative studies can be carried out using a broad array of different data collection techniques, including the following: via e-mail, fax, face-to-face interviewing, mall - shopping center interviewing, omnibus polling - where data on a wide variety of subjects is collected during the same interview, panels, telephone and web-sites.

Conducting surveys via e-mail or through web-sites is growing in popularity because of the benefit that survey can be attractively designed with the support of audio, video, and graphic concepts and Survey responses are collected Public Relations in databases, which eliminates the need for manual data entry. For public relations research to provide support and assistance to the strategic planning and program development process, a mix of both qualitative and quantitative research is preferable. 

Usually, qualitative research (e.g. focus groups, depth interviews, etc.) ought to be carried out first, to obtain exploratory information, to be followed by some type of quantitative research (e.g. a telephone, mail, or internet survey, etc.) with representatives of key constituent groups, to obtain information that is both more descriptive and explanatory in nature.

The two together i.e. qualitative research followed by quantitative research will give us a good mix of in-depth information that will tell not only HOW and WHAT people think, but also something about WHY they hold the views they do. This in-depth information can then be effectively utilized for strategic PR planning and program development purposes.

To conclude;

Without research, public relations would not be a true management function. It would not be strategic or a part of executive strategic planning, but would regress to the days of simple press agentry, following hunches and instinct to create publicity. 

As a true management function, public relations use research to identify issues and engage in problem solving, to prevent and manage crises, to make organizations responsive and responsible to their publics, to create better organizational policy, and to build and maintain long-term relationships with publics. 

A thorough knowledge of research methods and extensive analyses of data allow public relations practitioners a seat in the dominant coalition and a way to illustrate the value and worth of their activities. In this manner, research is the strategic foundation of modern public relations management.

 

Thank you for reading the blog.

 

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