PUBLIC RELATIONS RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION
Public relations practitioners conduct research
before launching any program or activity
Public relations research is a key element for
developing the organization’s strategy.
It has the potential to build the foundation not
only for better public relations, but better
organizations in general
Broom and Dozier (1990) define research as the
controlled, objective, and systematic gathering of
information for the purposes of describing and
understanding.
Research is an integral part of the public relations
process.
Public relations research is a fundamental part of
identifying important issues to the organization, developing
strategically based public relations programs, and
measuring the impact of those programs on the
organization
Public relations research depends on public opinion –
how the public perceive you and your service. You will
have to look at:
customer
competitor
supplier
neighbor
government
 Prominent issues in public
relations research
1. Corporate image
What do people outside there think about us?
It incorporates you as an entity i.e corporate
identity feature
How do you look?
How are you different from a competitor?
How do you look in the eyes of your customer?
2. Interaction
How do you communicate?
How do you respond to complaints?
How are you receptive to new ideas?
How do you do business with others
3. Basis of public opinion
What is the basis of this opinion?
Is it based on what people know or what people say
about you?
4. Media of public relations
How do you reach the public e.g if you wanted to
talk to your supplier which is the best media to
reach them?
5. Impact of PR campaigns/programs
e.g A company trying to relaunch their corporate image.
You need to find out how people perceived it. Someone
outside the organization could also do for you this
research. How socially responsible are you as an entity?
How do your employees perceive you?
The justification of research is that research enhances
the quality of decision and action.
 Role of Research in Public
Relations
Generally, public relations research provides the foundation for
almost everything communicators do, including identifying and
understanding key publics, framing important issues, developing
public relations and organizational strategy, and measuring results
(Gronstedt, 1997).
Helps provide the practitioners with appropriate information to
make decisions that have real impact. Research is critical to public
relations management because it focuses the practitioner on goals,
objectives and results, not on outputs, and creates a systematic
method of doing so.
It provides a means for the organization to scan the environment
to identify key publics issues early.
Research uncovers potential areas of concern so that
the organization can build relationships, develop
programs and take corrective action to prevent small
problems from becoming major issues (Broom & Dozier,
1990; Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2000).
Research is done to measure relationships themselves
and identify reliable indicators of good organization-
public relationships (Grunig & Hon, 1999).
It can also be used to gain publicity
Research helps public relations departments identify
its key issues at the moment, so the organization can
focus its attention on areas where it will deliver the
most impact, and value.
Research helps identify the existing knowledge,
predisposition or behaviors of key publics, their
preferred information sources, and how best to reach
them.
It facilitates objective allocation of resources.
Management will be able to understand why you want
to reposition your corporate identity
Research makes public relations
activities strategic by ensuring that communication
is specifically targeted to publics who want, need, or
care about the information.
Without conducting research, public relations is
based on experience or instinct, neither of which
play large roles in strategic management.
It prevents wasting money on communications
that are not reaching intended publics or not doing
the job that we had designed them to do.
Research makes communication two-way by
collecting information from publics rather than
one-way, which is a simple dissemination of
information.
Research allows us to engage in dialogue with
publics, understanding their beliefs and values,
and working to build understanding on their part
of the internal workings and policies of the
organization
Research allows us to show results, to measure
impact, and to refocus our efforts based on those
numbers.
 For example, if an initiative is not working with a
certain public we can show that ineffectiveness
statistically, and the communication can be
redesigned or eliminated.
Thus, we can direct funds toward more successful
elements of the public relations initiative.
 Formal Research
Research in public relations can be formal or informal.
Formal research normally takes place in order to generate numbers
and statistics that can be used to both target communications and
measure results.
Formal research is also used to gain a deeper, qualitative
understanding of the issue of concern, to ascertain the range of
consumer responses, and to elicit in-depth opinion data.
Formal research is planned research of a quantitative or qualitative
nature, normally asking specific questions about topics of concern for
the organization.
Formal research techniques
To generates conclusive data, formal research picks up
from where informal research ends.
1. Secondary data
From library and data bank sources including online
databases. Some organizations have created sections in
the internet where publics can lodge in complaints.
2. Content analysis
Investigations of an issue in detail e.g defective product.
3. Survey research
Investigation touches on all members of the public.
4. Experimental research
This is more of laboratory or field experiments.
Collecting formal research
data
1. Descriptive
Describing the features of a particular unit. Take a sample,
measure certain characteristics and make certain conclusions
about the entire population.
2. Inferential
◦ Observation
◦ Interview
◦ Questionnaire
The outcome of research is to be able to move clearly state your
problems and opportunities.
◦ In PR generally research is equivalent to environmental
analysis in business
 Informal Research
Informal research is collected on an ongoing basis by most public
relations managers, from sources both inside and outside of their
organizations.
Informal research usually gathers information and opinions through
conversations.
It consists of:
asking questions,
talking to members of publics or employees in the organization to
find out their concerns,
 reading e-mails from customers or comment cards,
other informal methods, such as scanning the news and trade
press.
Informal research comes from the boundary spanning role of
the public relations professional, meaning that he or she
maintains contacts with publics external to the organization, and
with internal publics.
 The data yielded from informal research can be used to:
 examine or revise organizational policy
craft messages in the phraseology of publics
respond to trends in an industry
 include the values or priorities of publics in new initiatives, and
numerous other derivations.
Informal research
techniques
1. Record keeping
These are records for critical incidents e.g a heavy
complaint, who is complaining and why.
In many organizations, complaints that do not look
critical are ignored.
So if you rely on record keeping, you may not get
exhaustive information.
Another weakness is that the person involved may
be the one complained to and he may hide this.
2. Personal contacts
If it is an item to be published, if you have contact
with someone working in the media who can
inform you before the item is published, so that if
you can do something about it, you do it early
enough.
3. Key informants

These are people who understand or are experts in

a particular field. They are respected and have
influence on the others.
4. Advisory boards or committees
They advise you on what to do. They give you
information i.e considered opinion on an issue.
5. Focus group
These are usually created to brainstorm or to investigate
specific issues. That investigation constitute PR
investigation.
6. Ombudsman
This is an office that receives complaints from the public.
This complaints act as feedback to the organization.
Many companies do not call them ombudsman they are
usually found in R & D department
There are two types of ombudsman;
Those who receive complaints and transmit them to
management. These perform the same work as suggestion
box.
Those that receive complaints and they take corrective
action e.g punish an employee ,
Other methods include;
call in telephone lines could be toll free lines, hotlines e.g
police, pager services etc
Mail analysis
This consist of Called write-ins.
They write whether it is a complaint or appreciation.
PR people open these daily and count the number of times you have
been mentioned i.e. whether positive or negative.
 It shows how active you are. More important is the content analysis
of the substance that is in the mail.
Field reports.
This is where you actually send staff to gather information and report
about a situation.
 Research process
(1) Formulating the research problem; must be stated clearly
(2) Extensive literature survey;
The earlier studies, if any, which are similar to the study in hand,
should be carefully studied.
(3) Developing the hypothesis;
Working hypothesis is tentative assumption made in order to draw
out and test its logical or empirical consequences
The role of the hypothesis is to guide the researcher by delimiting
the area of research and to keep him on the right track.
 It sharpens the researchers thinking and focuses their attention on
the more important facets of the problem.
It also indicates the type of data required and the type of methods of
data analysis to be used.
(4) Preparing the research design;
The preparation of the research design, appropriate for a particular
research problem, involves usually the consideration of the following:
(i) the means of obtaining the information;
(ii) the availability and skills of the researcher and his staff (if any)
(iii) explanation of the way in which selected means of obtaining
information will be organized and the reasoning leading to the
selection
(iv) the time available for research.
(v) the cost factor relating to research, i.e., the finance available
for the purpose.
(5) determining sample design;
The researcher must decide the way of selecting a sample or
what is popularly known as the sample design.
In other words, a sample design is a definite plan determined
before any data are actually collected
for obtaining a sample from a given population i.e simple random
sampling
(6) collecting the data;
There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which
differ considerably in context of money costs, time and other
resources at the disposal of the researcher. Primary data can be
collected either through observation, questionnaires and
interviews.
(7) analysis of data;
The data should necessarily be condensed into a few
manageable groups and tables for further analysis. Thus,
researcher should classify the raw data into some purposeful and
usable categories.
(8) Generalizations and interpretation
If a hypothesis is tested and upheld several times, it may be
possible for the researcher to arrive at generalization
(9) preparation of the report or presentation of the results
Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report of what has
been done.
Report should be written in a concise and objective style in
simple language avoiding vague expressions such as ‘it seems,’
‘there may be’, and the like
The layout of the report should be as follows:
(i) the preliminary pages
(ii) the main text,
(iii) the end matter.
 In its preliminary pages the report should carry title and
date followed by acknowledgements and foreword. Then
there should be a table of contents followed by a list of
tables and list of graphs and charts, if any, given in the
report.
The main text of the report should have the following
parts:
(a) Introduction: It should contain a clear statement of the
objective of the research
An explanation of the methodology adopted in
accomplishing the research.
The scope of the study along with various limitations
should as well be stated in this part.
(b) Summary of findings: After introduction there would
appear a statement of findings and recommendations in
non-technical language. If the findings are extensive,
they should be summarised.
(c) Main report: The main body of the report should be
presented in logical sequence and broken-down into
readily identifiable sections.
d) Conclusion: Towards the end of the main text,
researcher should again put down the results of
his research clearly and precisely.
It is the final summing up.
 OUTCOMES OF PUBLIC
RELATIONS RESEARCH
Public relations research results into:
Good public relations
Better decision making
Facilitates proper response to key publics such as
activists
Development of effective communication programmes
Better understanding of key publics
Formulation of proper organizational strategy
 Gain publicity