Research: Are You Asking the Right Questions?

Vol 24/4

By Frank Ovaitt

Say research to public relations people and they think — well, you don’t know what they think because we use the term in so many ways.

“Measurement” and “metrics” come to mind. But if that’s the only focus, it may explain why so many professionals talk about research more than they do it. It’s thought of as a report card, and everyone hates grades.

So, stop! Think of research and measurement as a GPS, and you have something entirely different: an essential guide for everything you do and want to do better. It’s how you align public relations with organizational priorities, set meaningful objectives, execute and measure the results — to continu-ously improve your program.

The multidimensional roles of research in our field include:

• Foundational research
  
• Best practices and benchmarking studies
  
• Initial or formative research
  
• Measurement and evaluation

What follows is an explanation of each of these — and how to integrate them into public relations practice.

Foundational Research

This may seem highly theoretical to some practitioners. But beyond knowledge of psychology, sociology, economics and other relevant fields of study, there exists an enormous body of foundational research specific to our own field. Any public relations planning effort ought to include this core question:

 • In situations like the one our organization faces now, what does underlying basic research say about how opinions develop, communities form, and attitudes become action?

CASE: Science of Change Management
A leading pharmaceutical company, created through a series of mergers, could see that critical pieces of the organization were just that: pieces. Functions as vital as R&D still reflected the structures, project portfolios and management attitudes of the pre-existing companies. The company’s R&D leadership called us because they knew that unless they could get the senior team thinking and acting as one, they’d never get that from employees either. Guided by the founda-tional research of change management, they moved aggressively to establish a vision and conduct intense global team building. Every senior manager was trained to execute the most important tenet of the program: that leadership means communication.

Best practices and benchmarking studies

This kind of research helps us understand important trends in public relations practice and other factors that help answer these questions:

1. What are other companies doing in similar situations?
2. Will following the crowd work here, or does our organization need its own distinct path?

CASE: Follow or Lead?
Best practices studies of how corporations use social media have generally shown consumer-oriented industries taking the lead and B2B industries taking the time to figure it out. As valuable as it is to know what other companies are doing, however, such research sometimes defines the innovator’s point of departure. A major software company, despite its heavy focus on business markets, decided to move ahead when the company started seeing its name appear in blogs. They knew they were being talked about and couldn’t wait any longer to see what their peers did. They jumped in quickly and have since led their industry into blogs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Initial or formative research

Now it gets organization-specific as you seek to answer questions like:

1. For the program we are creating, what critical pieces of knowledge are available from existing sources, and where can we find them?
2. What additional knowledge do we need to develop through original research?
3. How will we use this formative research to set objectives, strategies, tactics and messages that support desired business outcomes?

CASE: When Research Becomes the Program
A global energy company wanted to raise the level of dialogue with lawmakers, regulators, business and civic leaders. The company president agreed to personally participate in town hall meetings in 50 cities, a two-way communications opportunity marked by research at every stage. This included opinion surveys at the beginning, midpoint and end of the campaign to track attitudes on energy issues and the company’s reputation. But the town halls themselves were an element of the research, an opportunity to gather and compile public ideas on energy security. This input was summarized in a final report distributed to all participants and key policymakers, and used by the company to hone its messages.

Measurement and evaluation

Having laid the groundwork with research, you’re ready to implement your program and measure the results — to under-stand what’s been achieved and how to achieve more.

1.    What measures of success will demonstrate the return on this program?
2.    How will we use measurement and evaluation to keep improving the program?

CASE: Measurement That’s More Than Numbers
Media measurement can mean counting clips, calculating exposure and competitive share of coverage. But that doesn’t always provide sufficient insight into the accuracy of coverage, which messages are resonating, and how the tonality compares to competitors. A regional financial company used media content analysis not to look backward, but as a real-time metric for brand and reputation risk. In a period when the company was dealing with much negative news, for example, they discovered that they actually got better treatment in new markets than in established markets, and could adjust media and marketing strategy in both.

Our Services

Makovsky + Company provides a variety of counseling services to help you understand and use research and measurement more effectively. These services include:

Integration
Integrating research and measurement into public relations planning and programming.

Interpretation
Counseling senior communications executives
on interpretation, evaluation and communication of
research results.

Education
Building necessary research skills and knowledge within your public relations staff.

Vendor Management
Identifying requirements, developing the RFP, supporting the client in hiring and managing research vendors.