Think about how much research you do before going out to dinner with a group of friends- what are the restaurant’s hours, do they take reservations, are there gluten-free options on the menu? If you were to head out with a group of 10 people at midnight, would you be likely to find a place to get gluten-free pizza by chance? No! Imagine being tasked with creating a PR campaign for a local restaurant chain- you would want to know as much as you possibly could about them before heading out in the dark hoping to meet their goals.
For me, research has always had an academic and scientific connotation. When I hear the word, I have violent flashbacks to a 30-page research paper I had to write in AP English Literature during high school. (Yeah, *shivers*) I picture a big stack of papers, trips to the library, and a headache from scouring online databases. This kind of research always made me feel like I had something to prove, rather than something of value to provide to others. Last year, I took a class about research in advertising- and it was a lot different. The research we were doing was intended to help create something new and impactful, not just to show what I know. While the information we found still came from scholarly journals and studies, we were using it to expand our knowledge, not just prove what we already knew. That’s exactly why research is essential in PR. You could be working with an incredible client, for an incredible cause, or with a cool product. But if you don’t know anything about the company, its goals, its publics, or what makes its product unique, your campaign will not be successful. Research eliminates doubt and can answer important questions in the early planning stage of a campaign, like your client’s reputation and who is/is not interested in a product. This is all information that can be gathered through varying degrees of research. I’m not just spitballing when I say that research in PR is different- attitudes towards research in the field, and who does it, is different from traditional research. An important 1988 study that “surveyed 945 practitioners in the US and concluded that ‘most public relations research was casual and informal, rather than scientific and precise’ and that ‘most public relations research today is done by individuals trained in public relations rather than by individuals trained as researchers.’” This is not to say that the kind of reasearch we do in PR isn't extremely valuble, accurate or "scientific." However, the nature of the field is often more concerned with public attitudes and perceptions of a brand or cause than quantitative data. It’s about what that data represents, rather than the exact numbers. Research is also important for evaluating and establishing KPI. This was something I was curious about- I never have been a numbers person, and being new to the field, I didn’t know how one would go about setting KPI expectations. Of course, it’s just another important role of research in PR. This is such an essential part of PR and early decision-making in a campaign, and research is key to setting achievable goals, as well as reaching them. We often lose sight of the role research plays in our day-to-day lives- be it in the activities we will be doing or the advertisements we see on the side of the road. When we limit our definition of research, we limit our final product. In PR, research is part of the creative process, and allows us to not only learn, but to create something unique and has an impact on the public.
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