Research and evaluation lecture

The PR process

4 Execution 1. Problem/
opportunity

3 Planning 2 Research

Friday, 7 January 2011
The entire PR process can be summarised this way:

1 Problem/Opportunity
2 Research
3 Planning
4 Execution

These are the four main things we do when carrying out PR.

Last week we looked at stakeholders and publics. This is where PR is carried out - among these groups. This is
where your problems will arise and your opportunities lie.

The

Problems and opportunities

• Proactive – taking initiative
• Reactive – knee-jerk

While this lecture is mostly about research and evaluation, itʼs important to recognise that all your PR will be in response to problems and
opportunities.

Problems are easily identifiable ... but usually after they have happened. The real skill comes in identifying problems before they become issues,
and then crises. There is a lecture on the art of avoiding problems in week six, when we look at issues and crisis management. While this is a skill,
it is probably not quite as hard as identifying opportunities.

Examples of problems:

1. Donations to our charitable organisation have decreased by 50% in the past year.
2. No one is visiting our website, because they donʼt know that it exists.
3. The public is losing trust in our brand, because of a recall over safety issues in the past.

Opportunities are also identifiable. Youʼre not trying to fix something thatʼs wrong, but instead take advantage of a potential way to improve your
current positive standing.

Examples:
1. they can simply be an opportunity to present news from a publicity angle. For example: you have secured Pink to be the opening act of the Perth
Festival.
2. There arenʼt any musicians in our specific genre well-known in the region, so we have an opportunity to position ourselves through an image
campaign.
3. An event or special occasion is approaching, and we can directly tie our organisation to it to “ride” on itʼs media appeal.
4. Our organisation regularly needs volunteers. We have an untapped audience of potential volunteers at a local college campus, and if we can
mobilise this group, our events can be more fully staffed.
5. Opportunities can arise from problems and crises. For example: While the bushfires ravaged the countryside, it has highlighted the need to
introduce new building methods (form some builders - an opportunity).

In essence, as a PR practitioner you will first have to determine if you have problems or opportuinities on the horizon. Much of that only comes with
hands-on experience, because it involves knowing the way your particular organisation and its publics (and the media) will react to circumstances.

Whether you are dealing with a problem or an opportunity, you will approach it from one of two ways:
• Reactive
• Proactive

In the PR planning process, identifying your public relations problem or opportunity is one of the two research-intensive aspects (in addition to the
post-campaign evaluation). It involves identifying your target audience on at least a general level, as well as figuring out your precise needs.

research
noun
the systematic investigation into and study of
materials and sources in order to establish facts
and reach new conclusions

evaluate
verb [ trans. ]
form an idea of the amount, number, or value
of; assess

And so on to this week’s main topic – research and evaluation.

Research
and
evaluation

• Neglected
• Necessary
• Numbers

There are two components to this topic. Both are always hot topics of debate within PR.

This is an important subject, because initial research is so often neglected by PR practitioners ... mostly because
the organisations they work for don’t see the value in paying for something that is often seen as not quantiﬁable.

PR practitioners have to be able to evaluate the success or failure of their work. However, there are some
problems with how they do that.

In many ways it is the PR person’s fault, because many haven’t studied research and how it contributes to the
success of PR. They therefore don;t have the ability to be able to show management why it’s necessary.

Unfortunately, many PR people also shy away from it because they aren’t good with numbers. This is a common
trait among PR people, who do have the tendency to be more about the “creative” rather than the rational.

There’s a gap between what academics believe (that research is essential) and what is practised. Though, that
said, some practitioners (KD Payne in the US) are in agreement with academics.

Why do PR research?
• Knowledge
• To set goals and
objectives
• Plan PR campaigns
• Credibility
• To succeed

In fact, why do research for anything? That includes assignments.

With no research there is no end result which can be based on fact, and consequently no action can be taken that won’t be based on pure
chance. And that just won’t wash in business. Very few organisations base their course of action on gut feeling.

In PR, the there several reason we do research.

Knowledge - to be able to understand why we are doing something. Depending on budget, the research may have to be simple. We might
simply look at things that have been done previously. This might involve just asking people within the organisation, or looking at old ﬁles.

To set goals and objectives - Research will show us what has been done before, and what needs to be done now. A research survey of a
target group will show us that group’s expectations, so we’ll have a clear understanding of what they want and what we need to do.

Planning - They types of ﬁndings in research will guide the construction of a campaign. For example, we might learn that people in your
age group are not using Twitter, which from my research they are not. So it would be a waste of time to incorporate that in your planning
for a campaign which target that group.

Essential if you want to achieve credibility with management.

For success - It is impossible to conduct any PR campaign without some form of research, no matter why type it is.

A cyclical process
•Monitor
•Identify
•Measure
•Provide data

Research in public relations is a cyclical process through which practitioners:

• Monitor the environments of organizations and their publics.

• Identify and track events and trends that may influence public relationships.

• Measure the productivity of public relations efforts.

• Provide data to enhance the program’s efficiency and effectiveness.

• It’s important to remember that it is ongoing - and that applies during a campaign. Mechanism must be put in place to enagle
monitoring at all phases (this may be a focus group, or a simple telephone hotline).

RACE ROSIE ROPE 10-pt PLAN

Research
Research Research Research 1. Background
2. Problem
3. Objectives
Action Objectives Objectives 4. Target audience
Planning
Communication Strategy Planning 5. Message
6. Strategy

Evaluation Implementation Evaluation Action
7. Channels
8. Timetable
Evaluation 9. Budget
10. Evaluation

Research is the ﬁrst stage in any PR program. Even the most basic research It is essential.

Research is part of the planning process, of which there are many variations which assist people to plan their
activities.

Already we are learning one of the key lessons of the planning process, but more of that in the next few weeks.
But what is common to all is the recognition that research comes before all else. ANd evaluation is also not to be
neglected.

More about the detailed planning process next week.

The role of research

• Define publics
• Pretest messages
• Evaluate results
• Follow-up

• Identify and define target publics involved in specific situations.
• Pretest messages and media to ensure that programs will produce the best possible results.
• Evaluate the results of programs and campaigns.
• Design and execute follow-up activities.

Types of research

• Primary
• Secondary
• Qualitative
• Quantitative

There are four basic categories of research:

These you should know. But weʼll recap:

Secondary research uses existing information in books, magazine articles, electronic databases to produce data.

Primary research is produced when new and original information is generated through a research design that is directed to
answer a specific question. Eg, survey or focus group

Qualitative research affords the researcher rich insights and understanding of a situation or a target public. Information may not
be generalisable.

Quantitative research is often more expensive and complicated, but it enables a greater ability to generalise to large populations.

Preliminary research
• Libraries • Newspapers
• Databases • Film/TV archives
• Internet • Previous reports
• Electronic • Casual i/views
publications
• Polls
• Govt. documents • Casual monitoring
• Prof. orgs. • Org. records
We often begin by doing secondary research such as:
• Libraries
• Databases
• Internet
• Electronic Publications
• Government Documents and websites
• Professional Organisations
• Newspapers
• Film and TV archives
• Previous reports
• Interview key people
• Polls
• Casual monitoring (email, phone, Twitter, blogs)
• Organisation records (personnel, sales, production, sales, profit)

Libraries

• Journals
• Govt. docs.
• Directories
• Prof. pubs.
• Newspapers

Let’s run through each of them.
Libraries contain a wealth of information, both on and off line. They are still places where information can be obtained quite rapidly.
Some of the material includes:
1. Academic journals
2. Government documents
3. Directories and reference works
4. Professional and trade publications
5. Newspapers and periodicals

Databases

• Academic Universe [consisting primarily of periodicals]

• Dialog [a gateway to hundreds of databases – the industry’s largest]

• ERIC [a repository for academic research]

Internet

• Search engines
• Publishers
• Govt. agencies
• Prof./business sites

Provides access to:
• Search engines
• Online publishers
• Governmental agency databases
• Professional and business web sites, Corporate web sites

Govt agencies

• Parliaments
• Local govt
• Regulators

• Information compiled by governmental agencies at all levels is accessible via the Internet. Included are databases from…
• Legislative bodies such as the…
• The Senate
• House of Reps.
• state Parliaments
• Municipal councils - FOI
• Regulatory agencies at all levels:
• Food and Drug authorities
• local zoning boards (eg Landcorp)
• Every organisation operates under Federal, state, county and municipal regulations. Regulation generates two types
of records:

• Those maintained by organisations to comply with regulations.

• Those maintained by governmental and regulatory bodies.

• Most are available for public inspection

Key contacts and influencers

• Elected/appointed officials
• CEOs/owners of businesses
• Civic/community leaders
• Clergymen

Every community has its leaders. They include:

• Elected and appointed officials of all governments
• Executives and owners of business organisations
• Elected leaders of civic, fraternal and community organisation (so not just the mayor, but people who head up local special interest
groups, such as environmental groups, etc). For next week, find out what interest groups operate in your local area.

• Clergymen, educators and leading members of other disciplines

How many others can you name?

Special committees in PR

• Identify issues
• Suggest action
• Provide opinion

RBA Equity and Diversity Committee

As part of the research process, decision makers and opinion leaders can be assembled regularly or on an ad hoc basis to help organisations:

There was a summit held by LandCorp a week ago, focussing on a vision for WA 30 years from now. Key speakers included Lindsay Fox,
Peter Cosgrove, the Premier.

The aim of these is to:

• Identify issues before they become problems.

• Suggest alternative courses of action.

• Provide objective views of matters that are difﬁcult for ‘insiders’ to evaluate.

This is also known as community consultation and is another highly specialised area of PR.

Prof. orgs.

• Member info.
• Survey data
• Links

Many organisations maintain Web sites that may contain …
• Survey data dealing with their industries and/or members.

• Archives of their publications and other materials.

• Links to other sites or ﬁles containing information of value to practitioners.

Clear your brain


• Qualitative
• Small groups
• Share demographic
characteristics

Focus groups

Okay, we switch suddenly now from looking at various types of secondary research to primary research – focus groups and surveys.

We will look look at focus groups in a little more detail, because they are so important to the PR research process.

Focus groups are:

• Most commonly used in qualitative research.

• Usually composed of small numbers of individuals…who share one or more demographic characteristics

• What are demographics? A system of categorising people according to particular traits, such as gender, age, race, religion,
education, occupation, salary, location

• Moderator
• Observer
• Participants

Focus group structure

FOcus groups are a highly organised way of obtaining what’s know as “rich” data. It’s more than just getting the statistics of a
population. It’s about delving into people’s perceptions and feeling on an issue or product.

Focus groups consist of :

moderator - guides discussion
observer - takes notes/technical (video/tape)
participants

Questions and video

• Open-ended in focus groups
• Non-verbal responses important

You have to take a certain approach when conducting focus groups.

When conducting research, whether qualitative or quantitaive, you ask questions, of which there are two types –
open-ended and closed.

CLosed questions require a speciﬁc answer (e.g, yes or no, male of female, or choose from one of the boxes).

• Open-ended questions allow respondents top provide their opinions. Surveys often consist of both types, but a
focus group will only have open-ended questions, aimed at prompting interaction and gaining insight into
people’s attitudes, opinions and beliefs.

For next week: think of some open-ended questions you would ask if you were among a group of Fremantle
residents and you were trying to gauge their feelings on bring lead through the port.

• Focus groups are usually ﬁlmed so researchers can look at visual responses later. Often a person’s body
language will tell you more about their attitude than a verbal answer.

Other formal techniques

• Surveys
• Content analysis
• Longitudnal

• Experimental

• Survey Research. This is the formal tool used 90% of the time in public relations. Itʼs usually the quickest to use and
serves as a basis for providing the background for focus groups.

• Content Analysis is a statistical sample of content. So for example, you may simply be wanting to know how many
times your organisation (and a specific project) has been mentioned in the media (print, electronic and online). You may
also want to know the key words uses in relation to it. In the case of the Fremantle Port Authority, it would be analysing
media content for these things as one way of guaging public opinion. So the data would be converted into statistics (ie,
16 positive, 12 negative mentions). This type of date is usually mentioned over time, and is then known as longitudnal
research.

• Experimental--Used some with control groups. These are conducted in controlled environments (ie, where all scenarios
are factored in and to minimise external factors influencing the experiment). Some are conducted in the field, in which
control is sacrificed to observe reactions in real environments. Clinical trials of new drugs are examples. Some people
question whether an effect found in a lab would hold in a real world setting. The field experiment lets you find out. (Milgram
experiment)

" Each technique offers potentially different results that vary in reliability.

As you may see, all of these techniques cost money. ANd this is one of the barriers PR constantly faces.

Pre-testing

All research is pre-tested. This is where a sample of the survey is sent to a number of people to test its validity. In
PR is may also involve providing draft copies of brochures, newsletters, advertisements and web sites. In case
you’re wondering, this chap (Howard Stern) was a pre-tester for the Palm Pre.
Pre-testing is also experimental research.

Populations and sampling

When we conduct research we do

Types of sampling

RANDOM NON-RANDOM
• Simple random • Convenience
• Systematic • Quota
• Stratiﬁed • Purposive
• Cluster • Snowball

There are two types of sampling, random and non random.

Random sampling produces unbiased representative samples of the population, whereas non-
random does not. It is selective.

• For our purposes we will look at Random sampling. I have also placed a summary sheet in this
week’s Blackboard folder. Just aquaint yourselves with this. This is not a research statistics unit.

Outsourcing

As you note from those five very basic types of sampling, research is a complex business. For that
reason, PR practitioners more often than not outsource this. However, as you progress, you will
have to develop a basic understanding of research, which I am sure most of you will encounter if
you are doing marketing units.

For next week: find out how many market research firms there are in Perth. What services do they
offer? How many people do they employ and anything else of interest.

• Reducing road
deaths/injuries
• Exhibition
attendance
• Awareness
of homeless

Be speciﬁc
Keep in mid this important point when you do research. Your research outcomes have to be speciﬁc. That is, what do you want to
discover when you do the research? This can only be achieved through setting measurable goals and objectives (as we’ll look at in
coming weeks)

Environmental scanning


Evironmental scanning

Environmental scanning (or monitoring)
is now the fastest growing category of
public relations research.
REHAME, Media Monitors, Google



In PR it’s important to grasp how an organisation relates to the factors that surround and
effect it. In this context, “the environment means the whole setting in which the
organisation operates” (Galloway).

Think of it as looking for warning signs. It is particularly relevant in the ﬁeld of issues
and crisis management, which is a third year unit.

What environments?

Social
what’s happening in society?
Political
Physical
the immediate and personal
space we live in


What is it?

“The monitoring, evaluating and
disseminating of information to key
decision makers within an organisation.”

(Public Relations: The Profession and the Practice.
Lattimore, Baskin., Heiman and Toth. 2007)


Anticipating issues

“Environmental” scanning
Media

Blogs
Speeches
News forums
Customer service feedback
Employee feedback
Stakeholder satisfaction surveys


Key to media monitoring

Don’t just scan for direct mentions
Look at trends, developments and what
your competitors are doing.
Examine PR problems and opportunities


West Australian 23 Feb 2008


West Australian 16 Feb 2008

Pure adventure
In summary, whatever the reason why PR research is not embraced as much as it should be, PR people still know that to proceed
without it is “pure adventure”. It’s like taking off on a journey without knowing where you’re going, without a map to guide you.

Research and evaluation lecture

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