The Foundation of Research

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So, I’ve been asked to put together a Public Relations campaign. What’s the first step I would take? Research! It’s important that I create a strong foundation with solid research.


What to research?


First, I will learn all I can about the specific product, company, service or public personality I’ve been asked to work with.

One of my research goals would be to find out everything possible about my target segments, my stakeholders and my publics. This will determine the type of voice used for the campaign, what kind of strategy to use and what the key message will be. I will want to align the campaign message with their worldview, with their habits and behaviour, and with their beliefs.

I will also need to research what the consumer trends are, what the needs, wants, opinions, problems and buying habits are.

I also can’t forget to follow current events, internationally, nationally and locally so that I’m always aware io anything that could affect the campaign either positively or negatively.

As I research I will become educated, knowledgeable, perhaps even an ‘expert’ in this field. Having set up objectives and goals, I will research the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats of the campaign.

Solid research will enable me to be prepared during any press conferences or meetings with my stakeholders and publics. My goal would be to be able to answer all questions that might come up, with informed, clear and concise responses.

Lastly, I need to conduct evaluative research. Were the objectives met, goals achieved, publics and stakeholders reached in a successful way? I will need to measure and evaluate the outcome of the campaign.
 

How will I actually get this research?


One of the first ways to start my research would be to talk with whoever hired me for the campaign - to flesh out the objectives, the goal and also find out more about the product, company or object of our campaign. Some of the methods I’ll use would be taking polls and surveys or speaking with a focus group that represents my public, my target audience. Getting first-hand information in this way is called primary research data; research that I am personally gathering. This is effective in that I can ask precise questions I might have, that are specific to my particular PR campaign. I may want to do a trial run of my campaign with a focus group, perhaps even letting them try out the product if there is one and getting feedback about it, in order to be even better prepared. Social media will be an important tool that I'll access throughout this process. Primary research involves a lot of listening and processing the feedback in a way that will bring positive results for the campaign.

One of the most obvious ways of researching is to find online databases, to find secondary research – research that has already been done by others. This might give me information about consumer buying trends, the specific demographic I’m attempting to reach, the habits, successes and failures of similar companies, and of similar PR campaigns. There are many ways to access secondary research. The internet is a major resource, as are journals, articles, blogs, libraries, and much more.

Both qualitative and quantitative research will be used during these processes. Quantitative research is ‘hard’ data, measurable and more structured. This might be statistical data, or perhaps structured techniques such as mall interviews, telephone polls, panel studies or one-to-one interviews. This might be followed by qualitative research which is more unstructured and usually non-statistical. However, it can provide insights into possible problems or positive outcomes. The amount of feedback may be less, since the audience is often smaller than quantitative research polls, but with the use of open-ended questions the respondents may provide feedback in a way that is unexpected, or that was overlooked by the campaign team. Social media can be a wonderful tool throughout this process. Qualitative research allows us to gain more understanding of underlying motivations and potential pitfalls that we can avoid.


Why spend so much time, effort and money in research?
 

The effective campaign is built upon solid research. Without this strong foundation the entire campaign will collapse. What is gained throughout the research process will determine the strategy that is used for this particular campaign. It will determine the type of key message, it will mimic the voice of our publics - speaking in their lingo, seeking out their wants, touching their emotions, and creating in them a desire for our product. The entire strategy of the campaign can only be decided upon once the research is completed and analyzed. The effectiveness and scuccess of the campaign is hinged on this research process.

Lastly, the evaluative research will provide the company with ongoing effective strategies. This evaluation will be a constant throughout the campaign and even once the campaign has run its course. Research in PR, as this post states over and over, is crucially important!