Researching and. Unit12: Researching and analysing data for public relations. Key term

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1 Unit12: Researching and analysing data for public relations 12. 1analysing Researching and data in PR Successful PR campaigns depend on research. Being able to carry out research and analyse data is an incredibly important skill for a PR professional. The most successful PR strategies and campaigns are all based on a solid understanding of the market, your own or a client s business and the target audience. Research will provide you with the data to build this understanding and support your decision making. Key term Target audience a well-defined group of people that a brand is trying to reach with a PR activity. Conducting relevant research allows you to: gather information and knowledge about a company, individual or issue that can be used to create a more effective PR strategy identify a target audience, how to reach the audience and the messages to send to them understand how a company, individual or issue is perceived, and what strategies they should use to improve, change or build on this reputation evaluate the success of a PR campaign and work out how to improve future activities. 1

2 1 Planning and conducting research Research in PR may be carried out in a number of contexts. You may conduct research to: find out how a potential client is viewed to support your pitch for its business monitor what the media says about your organisation or client in order to track its reputation find out how the public views a competitor. When a PR strategy is backed up with good research, this makes it more effective and more successful. It will therefore be better received by your client or CEO. Purposes of research Key terms Demographic a broad category which can be used to group certain types of people, e.g. age, gender, level of education, social class, ethnicity or income level. Thought-leadership programme a plan to present individuals or organisations as authorities in their field. This can help them win business or attract media attention. Research can help you in many ways. For example, you may use it to: understand how a subject, company or individual is already perceived by others. This information can help you plan and prioritise your communications activity. If you work for a PR agency, the research can also support a pitch for new business understand the awareness of, or attitudes towards, your company or issue among key stakeholders such as your employees, investors or customers identify the target audience for a campaign and its existing views. This could involve working out who is most likely to buy a company s product or who has the most power to influence a decision that is important for your organisation. This might be a politician, a high-profile journalist or a certain demographic group (for example, young women aged 18 25). What do they already know about your organisation or client, and how do they feel about it? Remember that although demographics are often used by PR professionals to help define their audience, it is a relatively crude method of profiling people understand how to reach your target audience. Are they more likely to get their news from the TV or a newspaper? What magazines do they read? Do they use social media? What sort of messages will they listen to? The answers to these questions will shape your PR campaign understand the context for a PR campaign. It is useful to find out what competitor businesses or clients are doing, and it can help you find out if there are other companies or organisations that might have similar goals. For example, an organisation that is lobbying for a change in the law might be able to partner with another organisation that has similar views. This could make a bigger impression on the politicians with the power to make the desired change. Or you may discover there is a big event about to take place and this would be a good platform from which to launch a new campaign develop thought-leadership programmes. Research can help you work out where there are gaps in knowledge or ownership of an issue, and then you can commission or conduct further research to help position your organisation or client as a leader in the area understand how the media might respond to a campaign. Researching how different media outlets and journalists cover topics will give you an 2

3 understanding of how they will cover your stories. What type of stories are they writing? What topics are they negative about? Which media brands will be most interested in your campaign? test campaign ideas with a small group of people before you launch a big campaign. This can help you refine your ideas and make sure they work for your target audience judge how successful your campaign was by monitoring the media to see how effectively you got your messages across to your target audience. Sector-specific use of research Table shows how specific sectors may use data from research as the basis of their PR activities. Table : How sectors may use research data Sector Charities Health authorities Brands Financial services Use of research data Campaigns, fundraising appeals, to influence change in policy and legislation To change people s lifestyle and habits For new product development, to increase market share To build reputation Selecting the right research method Key terms Objective what you are hoping to achieve. The goal of an activity or campaign. Sponsor the person or organisation who has requested research. Sample the number of people whom you want to take part in your survey. Primary research the process of collecting original information from one or more sources, for example, surveys, focus groups, interviews with stakeholders or analysis of website traffic. Secondary research the process of collecting existing or previously published research. This could involve looking at published research reports, media articles on research or government statistics. Research objectives Research is useful only if it is relevant. In order to make sure you collect the right data, you must be clear about why you are doing the research and what you are hoping to learn from it. Research objectives should be specific, agreed with your team and sponsor, and should take account of the resource limitations you have to work within. The team should also give some thought to the level of validity that is required for the research. For example, employing a specialist research agency to interview a large sample of customers may produce very valid results, but is likely to cost a lot. It is often advisable that PR professionals use research specialists. As well as conducting the research professionally and to industry standards, they will be able to help ensure your research methodology is valid and that the conclusions you draw are accurate. They can provide an objective opinion and protect the integrity of your research. This can help improve the reputation of your research. Once you are clear about why you are doing the research and what you hope to achieve, you need to think about what type of research would best suit your purpose. There are many different methods of research that will provide different types of information, but they can be roughly divided into two groups: primary or secondary research. 3

4 Key term Trending currently popular. Table : Advantages and disadvantages of primary research Primary research Primary research activities include: surveys over the telephone, online or face to face focus groups, where a small group of people are brought together to discuss a topic, answer specific questions or try out a new product interviews with stakeholders to assess attitudes or awareness levels for example, an internal communications specialist might ask employees what they think about their company and if they know about a new section on the intranet analysis of online website traffic to see what sections are the most popular and understand how people use the site. Increasingly social media is being used as a way of researching what the general public, high-profile figures and journalists think about a topic by listening to what they say, particularly on sites like Twitter. It is an easy way to work out what topics are trending, how widespread a conversation is and what influential people are saying about a topic. Social media can be used to research opinions on a topic. For example, you could search for a company s name on Twitter and find out what people are saying about this company in real time. But you should be careful not to believe this is a true representation of what people think about a company. People may be more likely to complain about a company than be positive. And only people who have a Twitter account can comment, so you can only see opinions from a select group. There are (often free) tools that allow you to set up online surveys. Survey Monkey is probably the most well known. It allows you to create a web survey quickly and easily, collect responses and then represent them graphically. These are useful for simple surveys but have limitations. Crowd sourcing is another method that PR professionals are using to find ideas from people outside of their own staff. An open invitation to provide ideas or information may be put on a company s website or social media. This helps organisations to bring in ideas or information from a wider variety of people with different skills, experiences and perspectives. It can help build up a database, spark attention and fix a problem cheaply. However, it also has its disadvantages such as lack of privacy (the company s problem is being fixed openly so competitors can view it) and there are questions over ethics for example, whether contributors are being properly compensated for their work. Table shows the advantages and disadvantages of primary research. Advantages of primary research Ability to tailor data-gathering activities to meet your specific objective. In control of questions asked. In control of methods used (e.g. focus groups, large survey). You own the data, which may be valuable to others. Your unique angle may be useful to pitch to the media. Information you have and competitors do not competitive advantage. Disadvantages of primary research Can be costly, especially if an external market research company is required to manage a large-scale survey. Demands on resourcing as it can be time-consuming and costly. Management of logistics (e.g. arranging focus group venues, recruiting sample). Need to have expertise (e.g. question design, running focus group sessions, interpreting findings, ensuring validity). 4

5 Omnibus surveys can be useful and cost-effective sources for PR professionals. They are run by professional market research agencies such as Ipsos MORI and ask a series of questions to a nationally representative panel of respondents. PR professionals can submit a few questions to be asked at the same time as other questions. Table : Advantages and disadvantages of secondary research Secondary research Secondary research activities involve you finding and compiling information from existing sources (i.e. primary research carried out by someone else). Sources include published research reports, media articles on research, government statistics, public records and market research sector reports. Table shows the advantages and disadvantages of secondary research. Advantages of secondary research Less demanding on resources can be done from your desk. You can use multiple sources to build up a broad picture. It can help you find the specific area where new primary research would be valuable. Buying access to existing research can be more cost-effective than commissioning your own. Disadvantages of secondary research Limited by what other people have researched already unlikely to find research to match your specific objective. No control over methods used or questions asked. Harder to check validity of data. Target market/audience may be different from yours. Market research reports can also provide very valuable data for PR practitioners researching specific market places. These reports will give detail on sectors, such as fast food companies, or beauty brands. Mintel and Key Note are two of the most well-known companies that provide these reports. Keeping to time and budget Before you start any research, you should find out what resources you have available and your deadline. How much time will you be expected to spend on the research and will anybody else be working with you? Do you have any money to spend? This will play a big part in your decision on what research methods to use. Project plan A project plan is a document that outlines the aims and objectives of the research and the steps required to achieve them within a specific budget and time frame. The plan should contain: the aims and objectives of the research a list of the actions and activities required to achieve the aims and objectives information about the resources available (e.g. time, budget, number of researchers) a list of milestone dates including agreed reporting points and the final deadline a schedule which shows the milestone dates and gives details of the specific tasks required to achieve them. A detailed schedule will help you track your progress and will alert you to any problems for example, if a certain part of the research is taking longer than expected. 5

6 Link For more information about planning projects and managing workload, see Unit 11: Plan and manage your own workload. Key term Pilot a small-scale survey, carried out before the main survey. Adjusting the project plan Make sure that your project sponsor is happy with the project plan. They will need to approve the final outcomes of your research and will need details of the milestones in the plan and the reporting methods and frequency for the project. They may want to make adjustments to the plan, so allowing some contingency time in the schedule is a good idea. Conducting the research Implementing the research plan As you implement your research plan, you may want to consider whether the following are necessary. A pilot, or exploratory survey, which can be used to test whether the method selected is sound. It can help you improve the design of your research by testing your questions, showing you how long the full survey may take and working out whether the suggested sample size will give valid results. Regular or ad-hoc meetings to communicate progress, interim results or changes to the project plan to the project sponsor or other team members. Keeping everyone up to date is important. Regular monitoring of the results of research against objectives. Collecting data For any project, you need to consider what type of research is most appropriate to achieve your stated aims and objectives: primary or secondary research or a mixture of the two. If you conduct secondary research, what sources will you use? If you conduct primary research, what techniques will you use to gather data? Refer back to pages 4 5 to review the potential primary and secondary source choices. When collecting data, you need to ensure that the methods you use will give accurate, valid, reliable and relevant data, and that you will be able to keep any sensitive data you collect secure. To ensure validity, you need to look very carefully at the assumptions behind your research. These assumptions need to be correct to ensure you design questions that record relevant information. To ensure accuracy, you need to assess the degree to which the information you collect correctly describes the subject it was designed to measure. In experiments and second-hand data, the accuracy of a result can refer to the percentage difference between the experimental result and the accepted value. To ensure reliability, you need to consider how dependable your results are. If you repeated the research, would you be likely to get the same results? For secondary data, reliability will depend on how trustworthy a source is. You can make an assessment of the reliability of a source by checking the date of publication to ensure that the information is not outdated, that the publisher or author is credible, and by cross-referencing with several more sources to check for consistency. 6

7 To ensure relevance, you need to ensure the information you collect meets the aims and objectives of the project and the needs of the project sponsor. You must ensure that the responses and personal information you collect are kept securely and are only used for the purposes you intended. According to the Information Commissioner s Office s website: If you handle personal information about individuals, you have a number of legal obligations to protect that information under the Data Protection Act Go online to if you want to find out more. You can find more information on validity and reliability on page 9. Checklist Do you know your research objective? Have you agreed this objective with your project sponsor? Do you know what resources you have (time, money and manpower)? Have you worked out what research methods are most suitable (primary, secondary)? Have you worked out a plan to deliver the research? Portfolio activity , 2.1, 2.2 Gather evidence from a number of research projects to show that you have: 1 agreed research objectives and the resources available for the research with the project sponsor 2 decided, and agreed, the research methods that you will use to achieve these objectives 3 drawn up a project plan, identifying milestones and deadlines and final outcomes 4 conducted primary and secondary research according to your plan. 2 Analysing and presenting research findings Once you gather all your data together, you need to analyse and interpret the findings. What is the data telling you and how can you use it to answer your objective? What does the data mean for your organisation or client? What is the most interesting, surprising or unusual insight to emerge? What is the newest information? What are the key things people need to know about the research? Research can be divided into two types quantitative and qualitative. These require different types of analysis. 7

8 Quantitative data Quantitative data is information that can be counted or expressed in numbers. It can be displayed in statistics, percentages, tables, charts or graphs. This can be useful because numbers are easy to present to others, and can contribute to interesting news stories. Surveys that ask people to choose from multiple-choice answers provide this type of data. Averages Averages can be used to analyse and understand research results. Some of the most common terms you might come across are mean, mode and median, which are three different ways to calculate averages. The mean is what most people understand to be an average. This is where you add up all the numbers and then divide that number by how many numbers you have added up. The median is the middle value in a list of numbers. You have to list all your numbers in order from lowest to highest and then find the middle number. The mode is the number that occurs most often. Activity Imagine you have asked 9 people their age. Their ages are 30, 58, 20, 47, 63, 31, 20, 26 and 61. The mean is 40 years old (add up all the numbers and divide by 9). The median is 31 years old (the middle number in the sequence). The mode is 20 years old (the number that occurs most often). Key terms Quantitative able to be collected or expressed in numbers. Outlier a value that is significantly higher or lower than the rest of the responses in the range. Measures of dispersion When analysing quantitative data, another thing to aid understanding is the spread or variability of the responses. By quantifying how much responses varied, you can put averages in a richer context. A few measures of dispersion are described below. Range: this is the difference between the lowest and highest response values. It can be used to show how wide-ranging answers to questions were. However, it is easily affected by unusually high or low responses, called outliers. For example, in a survey looking at how much people spend on food per week, most responses might cluster between 50 and 150. However, the range of the data would be affected if just one person s response was 1,000. The range would then not accurately describe the majority of responses. Standard deviation: this measure of dispersion uses an equation to measure the spread or variability of responses either side of the mean. It is not affected by outliers. A low standard deviation indicates that the majority of responses are clustered close to the mean average and the range is small. A high standard deviation indicates that the responses are spread over a larger range. 8

9 Take it further Look up different measures of dispersion and the methods to calculate them. Interquartile range: this measure relies on dividing the full range of values into quarters and is used in conjunction with the median average. It shows the variability of the data between the response value which lies one-quarter of the way through the full range of responses and the value at three-quarters of the way through. It is unaffected by outliers. Web-based analytics data Online analytics tools can be used to collect quantitative data about the ways in which visitors use an organisation s website. Analysis of this information can be used to make improvements to websites to produce a desired outcome for example, an increase in sales of a particular product. Analytics software has built-in tools which allow you to analyse and interpret real-time information about many things, including: the overall traffic or volume of visitors to your site the geographical location of your visitors the page a visitor came from before entering your site the most-viewed web pages or products the pages that are most likely to lead to a particular desirable outcome, e.g. a sale the average time people spend on the site where people drop off or leave the site. Qualitative data Key term Qualitative analysing issues in more depth and more opinion-led. Qualitative data captures what people think or feel about a topic. It often asks why someone thinks something rather than what they think. Analysis of this type of data helps PR professionals investigate a topic in much more depth and understand why someone thinks or feels the way they do and how they make decisions or use a product. To analyse qualitative data, you need to read questionnaires, surveys or focus group responses and identify common themes, categories, patterns and relationships. The themes and categories you identify will become the codes around which you structure a more in-depth analysis. You may want to summarise your analysis by picking out the themes most frequently mentioned by respondents or by looking more at the unusual responses. Anonymous quotations can be used to give weight to your summaries. Validity and reliability You need to think critically when you are analysing qualitative and quantitative data, whether it is primary or secondary. Ask yourself: is it valid and reliable? To ensure that the conclusions you draw are valid and reliable, you will always need to consider the following. The sample size: be careful about drawing conclusions from data with a small sample size, as it may not be representative of a wider group of people. However, when using qualitative research, sample sizes may be smaller. If the quality of the respondents is high, for example you have spoken to the ten experts in a particular field, then a small sample can be robust. 9

10 The sample: who is taking part in the survey or focus group? Are they relevant for your purposes? Are they likely to skew the results? For example, if you only asked fans of a football team what they think of their club, but then wanted to draw a conclusion about what non-fans think of the club, this would not be data on which you could base a valid conclusion. The survey: the phrasing of questions can affect the answers gained. For example, if you ask Do you like cake?, those answering could say yes or no. If you ask How much do you like cake?, this is more of a leading question because it assumes people like cake, and those being interviewed may feel that they have to say they like it. People may also say what they think the interviewer wants to hear, rather than what they really think. Statistics: these are easy to manipulate. If a piece of research has found that 51 per cent of people say your product is healthy and 49 per cent say it is not, one person might write, The majority of people think that our product is healthy. Another might write, Nearly half of the public do not think our product is healthy. Definitions: make sure you understand how researchers are defining key terms. For example, which average are they using? As demonstrated above, whether they use the mean, median or mode can create very different figures. The motivation: always ask yourself why someone has conducted a piece of research and what their motivations are for publishing it. For example, if research says that women think men are sexier if they use a credit card to pay for dinner was conducted by a well-known credit card company, you should question the reliability of the results. Take it further Read more about gathering data and using statistics in the CIPR s Best practice guide for using statistics in communications on the CIPR s website. Limitations Different types of research have different limitations. For example, people taking part in focus groups may all say the same thing because they want to fit in, even if they do not agree with a certain viewpoint expressed in the group. Certain types of people might be more inclined to fill in a survey than others and they may not represent all the types of people you were hoping to reach. If someone cannot read English very well, they might not fill out a questionnaire because they think it will be too difficult. Another person might not want to speak to someone on the phone because they cannot hear very well. If you are holding a focus group in London, your findings may be limited as you have not spoken to people who live in different parts of the country. Activity Pick a topic that is relevant to a client with whom you are working. Do some secondary research on the topic. Find five online sources and rank their research according to how credible you think it is. Is the sample size big enough? Who is behind the survey? Is it relevant? 10

11 Presenting findings and conclusions Once you have analysed all the data, you need to think about the best way to present your findings. The conclusions you draw should address the original objective(s) and the way you present these should reflect the needs of your audience. Your findings could be set out in a number of ways, including: an giving key findings a meeting a presentation a detailed report an executive summary a series of graphs and other visualisations a summary spreadsheet of quantitative data a part of a wider pitch for a new PR contract a story to gain media coverage a speech given by a key spokesperson. Make sure you tailor your output method to your audience. Your client will want the information presented differently from a journalist. Think about what your audience wants to find out from your data. A colleague in the finance department might want to use the data to work out how to increase sales of a product. A communications professional might want to use it to identify the target audience for a campaign. A journalist might want a news story based on a surprising statistic. Your audience will also shape how you talk about or write about your research. Choose a presentation depth, style, tone and vocabulary to suit the audience. Make sure you consider the audience s needs in terms of: their level of expertise of the subject, as this will affect the tone and language you choose. However, do not make too many assumptions about people s understanding. They have not spent as much time looking at the topic as you, so all your conclusions need to be clear and based on the research the amount of time they have to read or listen to your findings. People may not have long to digest your findings, so you need to have edited the information so they see the most interesting pieces of information first. You must filter out anything that is irrelevant and not related to the original objective. Creative uses of research Once you have your data, there are many ways you can use and exploit it in the short and longer term. You might be able to present your business or client as a thought leader in a particular industry or area by publishing a research paper or by asking one of your senior colleagues to present the findings at a high-profile conference or an event run by your organisation. 11

12 Interesting statistics can be worked up into stories you can pitch to the media along with opinion from a spokesperson to gain media coverage for your organisation. Results of research may also mean you are better placed than a competitor to pitch for and win a new client. As well as immediate uses for your research, you may also want to think about how you could use it in the longer term or on an ongoing basis. For example, a comparative survey in a year s time may help you identify trends before other people and you can then exploit these to your advantage. Activity Research PR campaigns using the links below. Try to identify the ways in which research may have been used in the campaigns Constraints The presentation and the conclusions you draw from your research must take account of the limitations placed on the use of data by the Data Protection Act 1998 and other legalities. See page 7 for more information about keeping the data you collect secure. Be aware that any research findings are potentially commercially sensitive. You may have a really interesting story that you would like to sell into the media, but your organisation may not want details of its research to be made public. It may not want its competitors to know that it is thinking of launching a new product, or has researched how the organisation is viewed in comparison to its rivals. There may be some information such as sales data or specific insights that a company wants to keep to itself. Always get permission before you share the data widely with anyone outside your team or client. When presenting conclusions, be careful that you do not oversell. Make any data limitations or assumptions clear. Did the circumstances in which the data was gathered affect the result? For example, if you only spoke to people in a particular demographic, make this clear. If some of your conclusions are based on secondary research, be clear about the dates which relate to the information and the methods used. Finally, when presenting conclusions, consider whether there any upcoming events or announcements that might substantially affect results if the research were repeated. 12

13 Mary Pollard, senior account director Mary Pollard is a senior account director at PR agency Bell Pottinger Business & Brand. The agency provides corporate, B2B, CSR, integrated social media and international thought leadership. Mary uses research for a variety of purposes. One is to find out about a potential client so she can understand their business, their position in the market, what their competitors are doing, how they are perceived in the media and any reputation problems they may have. She also runs many thought-leadership programmes for her clients. For these, she will work out what broad topics her client would want to speak on; she will research what is currently being said about that topic and identify any gaps. Then she will often commission a research agency to produce original findings for her client that will help present them as thought leaders in a certain area. Mary will often ask her team to do some research for her. For example, she might ask her staff to research 10 companies and find out whether they have a reputation as a sustainable business: Just ing me a document that has a company s entire website cut and pasted into it is of no use to me. I only have a small amount of time, so I want you to give me the most interesting information about a company quickly. The best people I ve worked with are those who try to answer the question why?. If you have discovered that a company s stock price dropped in 2008, I want you to explain why that happened. Or if a company is seen as a leader in sustainability, explain why they have that reputation. Checklist When analysing the data, are you taking into consideration the different limitations of both quantitative and qualitative research? Have you assessed the validity of your research findings? Have you made sure you are complying with data protection and commercial sensitivities? Are you presenting the most relevant conclusions in the right way for your audience? 13

14 Portfolio activity , 4.1, 4.2 Gather evidence from a number of research projects to show that you have: 1 analysed the quantitative and qualitative data you collected in relation to the objectives of your research 2 drawn valid and reliable conclusions from research, supporting your conclusions with evidence 3 identified limitations that affected the validity of your research 4 presented research findings in a manner and method that was appropriate for your audience 5 demonstrated that you know the constraints on your research and ensured that your use of the research is compliant with any relevant legislation (e.g. the Data Protection Act). Further reading Websites Best practice guide for using statistics in communications at For more on the Data Protection Act 1998, go to Books Stacks, D.W. (2011) Primer of Public Relations Research, New York: Guilford Press. Credits Produced by Pearson on behalf of the Skills Funding Agency. The publisher would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce images: Dmitriy Shironosov/Shutterstock.com, Blanche/Shutterstock.com. About the author of Topic guide 12.1 Kate Magee is associate editor at PRWeek, responsible for features and special projects including the PowerBook: the definitive guide to the most influential UK PR professionals and the Top 150 PR Consultancies: the annual ranking of PR agencies by fee income. Research is at the heart of her job. As well as teasing out industry insights from her contacts, she regularly commissions market research specialists to uncover unique insights for her articles and has advised companies on their research projects. As a journalist, she is also on the receiving end of many research story pitches from PR professionals both good and bad! She studied English Literature and Language and Modern History at the University of Birmingham. 14