Research

Research is an effective tool to guide not only marketing communications programs but also broader marketing programs as well. A better ongoing understanding of the marketplace’s perception of your organization will help direct the promotional message transmitted through all your marketing communications. Setting measurable objectives is the key to this process. Having measurable PR goals in place enables and supports overall business objectives, shows PR activities are strategic, and shows measurable results based on objectives.

Most research falls into two categories—primary and secondary.

Primary research is the investigation to obtain original, proprietary data through personal interviews, mail and phone surveys, etc. Within primary research there are two methodologies: qualitative and quantitative research.

Qualitative research is used as an exploratory tool where the emphasis is on “understanding” rather than simple measurement i.e., ad A is remembered first before Ad B (quantitative information), but how does A work as an ad and why is it more effective than B? Much qualitative research is concerned with empathizing with the customer and establishing the meanings he or she attaches to products, brands and other marketing objects. Another focus is motivation. For example, why does one product rather than another meet customer needs and what are these needs that are being met? Qualitative research is conducted with a sample but in this case usually a small one since there is no attempt to extrapolate to the total population. In the case of attitudes to brands, for example, qualitative research may determine that there is a specific view held about the brand whereas quantitative research would tell us what proportion holds that view.

Quantitative and qualitative research is often complementary and in a research design both may be used. The qualitative element frequently takes place at the front end of the study exploring values that need measuring in the subsequent quantitative phase. The “qualitative” research may offer a diagnostic understanding of what is wrong while the “quantitative” research provides hard data across different respondent groups that can lead to specific recommendations with measures that can be used as controls to determine the effectiveness of actions.

Focus Groups

Focus groups are essentially group discussions which rely heavily on the interaction between group members and the relationship between the researcher and the respondents. Focus groups have been a dominant form of qualitative data collection in market research for more than 30 years.

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