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Chapter 8
Public Relations Research: The Key to Strategy
If you previously ascribed to the common misconception that public relations is a simple use of
communication to persuade publics,Bowen (2003), pp. 199–214. you might be surprised at the
important role that research plays in public relations management.Bowen (2009a), pp. 402–410. We
can argue that as much as three quarters of the public relations process is based on research—
research, action planning, and evaluation—which are three of the four steps in the strategic
management process in the RACE acronym (which stands for research, action planning,
communication, and evaluation).

8.1 Importance of Research in Public Relations Management

Public relations professionals often find themselves in the position of having to convince management
to fund research, or to describe the importance of research as a crucial part of a departmental or
project budget. Research is an essential part of public relations management. Here is a closer look at
why scholars argued that conducting both formative and evaluative research is vital in modern public
relations management:

1. 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. Scholars find that two-way
communication is generally more effective than one-way communication, especially in instances
in which the organization is heavily regulated by government or confronts a turbulent
environment in the form of changing industry trends or of activist groups.See, for example,
Grunig (1984), pp. 6–29; Grunig (1992a; 2001); Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier (2002); Grunig and
Repper (1992).
2. Research makes public relations activities strategic by ensuring that communication is
specifically targeted to publics who want, need, or care about the information.Ehling and Dozier
(1992). Without conducting research, public relations is based on experience or instinct, neither
of which play large roles in strategic management. This type of research prevents us from wasting
 money on communications that are not reaching intended publics or not doing the job that we
had designed them to do.
3. Research allows us to show results, to measure impact, and to refocus our efforts based on those
numbers.Dozier and Ehling (1992). 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.

Without research, public relations would not be a true management function. It would not be
strategic or a part of executive strategic planning, but would regress to the days of simple press
agentry, following hunches and instinct to create publicity. As a true management function, public
relations uses research to identify issues and engage in problem solving, to prevent and manage
crises, to make organizations responsive and responsible to their publics, to create better
organizational policy, and to build and maintain long-term relationships with publics. A thorough
knowledge of research methods and extensive analyses of data also allow public relations
practitioners a seat in the dominant coalition and a way to illustrate the value and worth of their
activities. In this manner, research is the strategic foundation of modern public relations
management.Stacks and Michaelson (in press).

8.2 Purpose and Forms of Research

The purpose of research is to allow us to develop strategy in public relations in order to (a) conduct
our campaigns with specific purpose and targeted goals, (b) operate as a part of the overall strategic
management function in an organization, and (c) measure the effectiveness of public relations efforts.
By conducting research before we communicate, we revise our own thinking to include the views of
publics. We can segment those publics, tailor communications for unique publics, send different
messages to specifically targeted publics, and build relationships by communicating with publics who
have an interest in our message. This type of planning research is called formative research
because it helps us form our public relations campaign.Stacks (2002). Formative research is
conducted so that we can understand what publics know, believe, or value and what they need or
desire to know before we began communicating. Thereby, public relations does not waste effort or
money communicating with those that have no interest in our message.

Research also allows public relations professionals to show the impact made through their
communication efforts after a public relations campaign. This type of research is called evaluation
research. Using both forms of research in public relations allows us to communicate strategically
and to demonstrate our effectiveness. For example, formative research can be used to determine the
percentage of publics who are aware of the organization’s policy on an issue of concern. Through the
use of a survey, we might find that 17% of the target public is aware of the policy. Strategically, the
organization would like more members of that public to be aware of the organization’s policy, so the
public relations department communicates through various channels sending targeted messages.

After a predetermined amount of time, a survey practically identical to the first one is conducted. If
public relations efforts were successful, the percentage of members of a public aware of the
organization’s policy should increase. That increase is directly attributable to the efforts of the public
relations campaign. We could report, “Members of the community public aware of our new toxic
waste disposal initiative increased from 17% to 33% in the last 2 months.” Measures such as these are
extremely common in public relations management. They may be referred to as benchmarking
because they establish a benchmark and then measure the amount of change, similar to a before-and-
after comparison.Stacks (2002); Broom and Dozier (1990). The use of statistically generalizable
research methods allows such comparisons to be made with a reasonable degree of confidence across
various publics, geographic regions, issues, psychographics, and demographic groups.

In this section, we will provide a brief overview of the most common forms of research in public
relations management and providing examples of their uses and applications and professional public
relations. Building upon that basic understanding of research methods, we then return to the theme
of the purpose of research and the importance of research in the public relations function.

Formal Research

Research in public relations can be formal or informal. Formal research normally takes place in
order to generate numbers and statistics that we can use to both target communications and measure
results. Formal research also is 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 is both formative, at the outset of a
public relations initiative, and evaluative, to determine the degree of change attributable to public
relations activities.

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, and 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 public
relations professional spends a great deal of time communicating informally with these contacts, in an
open exchange of ideas and concerns. This is one way that public relations can keep abreast of
changes in an industry, trends affecting the competitive marketplace, issues of discontent among the
publics, the values and activities of activist groups, the innovations of competitors, and so on.
Informal research methods are usually nonnumerical and are not generalizable to a larger population,
but they yield a great deal of useful information. The data yielded from informal research can be used
to examine or revise organizational policy, to craft messages in the phraseology of publics, to respond
to trends in an industry, to include the values or priorities of publics in new initiatives, and numerous
other derivations.

8.3 Types of Research

Research in public relations management requires the use of specialized terminology. The term
primary research is used to designate when we collect unique data in normally proprietary
information, firsthand and specifically relevant to a certain client or campaign.Stacks (2002). Primary
research, because it is unique to your organization and research questions, is often the most expensive
type of data to collect. Secondary research refers to research that is normally a part of public
domain but is applicable to our client, organization, or industry, and can be used to round out and
support the conclusions drawn from our primary research.Stacks (2002); Stacks and Michaelson (in
press). Secondary research is normally accessed through the Internet or available at libraries or from
industry and trade associations. Reference books, encyclopedias, and trade press publications provide
a wealth of free or inexpensive secondary research. Managers often use secondary research as an
exploratory base from which to decide what type of primary research needs to be conducted.

Quantitative Research

When we speak of research in public relations, we are normally referring to primary research, such as
public opinion studies based on surveys and polling. (The following lists quantitative research
methods commonly employed in public relations.) Surveys are synonymous with public opinion polls,
and are one example of quantitative research. Quantitative research is based on statistical
generalization. It allows us to make numerical observations such as “85% of Infiniti owners say that
they would purchase an Infiniti again.” Statistical observations allow us to know exactly where we
need to improve relationships with certain publics, and we can then measure how much those
relationships have ultimately improved (or degraded) at the end of a public relations initiative. For
example, a strategic report in public relations management for the automobile maker Infiniti might
include a statement such as “11% of new car buyers were familiar with the G35 all-wheel-drive option
3 months ago, and after our campaign 28% of new car buyers were familiar with this option, meaning
that we created a 17% increase in awareness among the new car buyer public.” Other data gathered
might report on purchasing intentions, important features of a new vehicle to that public, brand
reputation variables, and so on. Quantitative research allows us to have a before and after snapshot to
compare the numbers in each group, therefore allowing us to say how much change was evidenced as
a result of public relations’ efforts.

Methods of Quantitative Data Collection

Internet-based surveys
Telephone surveys
Mail surveys
Content analysis (usually of media coverage)
Comment cards and feedback forms
Warranty cards (usually demographic information on buyers)
Frequent shopper program tracking (purchasing data)

In quantitative research, the entire public you wish to understand or make statements about is called
the population. The population might be women over 40, Democrats, Republicans, purchasers of a
competitor’s product, or any other group that you would like to study. From that population, you
would select a sample to actually contact with questions. Probability samples can be randomly
drawn from a list of the population, which gives you the strongest statistical measures of
generalizability. A random sample means that participants are drawn randomly and have an equal
chance of being selected. You know some variants in your population exists, but a random sample
should account for all opinions in that population. The larger the sample size (number of
respondents), the smaller the margin of error and the more confident the researcher can be that the
sample is an accurate reflection of the entire population.

There are also other sampling methods, known as nonprobability samples, that do not allow for
generalization but meet the requirement of the problem or project. A convenience sample, for
instance, is drawn from those who are convenient to study, such as having visitors to a shopping mall
fill out a survey. Another approach is a snowball sample in which the researcher asks someone
completing a survey to recommend the next potential respondent to complete the survey. A
purposive sample is when you seek out a certain group of people. These methods allow no
generalizability to the larger population, but they are often less expensive than random sample
methods and still may generate the type of data that answers your research question.

Quantitative research has the major strength of allowing you to understand who your publics are,
where they get their information, how many believe certain viewpoints, and which communications
create the strongest resonance with their beliefs. Demographic variables are used to very specifically
segment publics. Demographics are generally gender, education, race, profession, geographic
location, annual household income, political affiliation, religious affiliation, and size of family or
household. Once these data are collected, it is easy to spot trends by cross-tabulating the data with
opinion and attitude variables. Such cross-tabulations result in very specific publics who can be
targeted with future messages in the channels and the language that they prefer. For example, in
conducting public relations research for a health insurance company, cross-tabulating data with
survey demographics might yield a public who are White males, are highly educated and professional,
live in the southeastern United States, have an annual household income above $125,000, usually
vote conservatively and have some religious beliefs, have an average household size of 3.8 people, and
strongly agree with the following message: “Health insurance should be an individual choice, not the
responsibility of government.” In that example, you would have identified a voting public to whom
you could reach out for support of individualized health insurance.

Segmenting publics in this manner is an everyday occurrence in public relations management.

Qualitative Research

The second major kind of research method normally used in the public relations industry is
qualitative research. Qualitative research generates in-depth, “quality” information that allows
us to truly understand public opinion, but it is not statistically generalizable. (The following lists
qualitative research methods commonly employed in public relations.) Qualitative research is
enormously valuable because it allows us to truly learn the experience, values, and viewpoints of our
publics. It also provides ample quotes to use as evidence or illustration in our strategy documents,
and sometimes even results in slogans or fodder for use in public relations’ messages.

Qualitative research is particularly adept at answering questions from public relations practitioners
that began “How?” or “Why?”Yin (1994). This form of research allows the researcher to ask the
participants to explain their rationale for decision making, belief systems, values, thought processes,
and so on. It allows researchers to explore complicated topics to understand the meaning behind
them and the meanings that participants ascribe to certain concepts. For example, a researcher might
ask a participant, “What does the concept of liberty mean to you?” and get a detailed explanation.
However, we would expect that explanation to vary among participants, and different concepts might
be associated with liberty when asking an American versus a citizen of Iran or China. Such complex
understandings are extremely helpful in integrating the values and ideas of publics into
organizational strategy, as well as in crafting messages that resonate with those specific publics of
different nationalities.

Methods of Qualitative Data Collection

In-depth interviews
Focus groups
Case studies
Participant observation
Monitoring toll-free (1-800 #) call transcripts
Monitoring complaints by e-mail and letter

Public relations managers often use qualitative research to support quantitative findings. Qualitative
research can be designed to understand the views of specific publics and to have them elaborate on
beliefs or values that stood out in quantitative analyses. For example, if quantitative research showed
a strong agreement with the particular statement, that statement could be read to focus group
participants and ask them to agree or disagree with this statement and explain their rationale and
thought process behind that choice. In this manner, qualitative researchers can understand complex
reasoning and dilemmas in much greater detail than only through results yielded by a survey.Miles
and Huberman (1994).

Another reason to use qualitative research is that it can provide data that researchers did not know
they needed. For instance, a focus group may take an unexpected turn and the discussion may yield