Book Notes Monday December 7 2015 6 57 PM Why do we do research Integral part of the planning program development and measurement process Effective public relations professionals conduct formative research research carried out prior to the campaign to lay foundation or to inform the campaign and evaluative research research done during and right after the campaign to determine evaluate whether tactics are working to meet objectives Studies show that public relations departments typically spend 3 5 of their budgets on research however some experts say it should be as much as 10 Primary and secondary research Primary research new and original information that is generated to answer a specific question Interviews Focus groups Surveys Secondary research the use of already existing information in books magazine articles electronic databases etc Library and online data bases Organizational materials The internet Qualitative research Soft data Usually uses open ended questions unstructured Exploratory in nature probing fishing expedition type of research Usually valid but not reliable Rarely projectable to larger audiences Typically uses nonrandom samples Examples focus groups one on one interviews observation participation role playing studies convenience polling Quantitative research Hard data Usually uses closed ended questions requires forced choices high structured Examples focus groups one on one interviews observation participation role playing studies convenience polling Quantitative research Hard data Usually uses closed ended questions requires forced choices high structured Descriptive or explanatory type of research Usually valid and reliable Usually projectable to larger audiences Typically uses random samples Examples Telephone polls mail surveys mall intercept studies face toface interviews shared cost or omnibus studies panel studies Random sampling Everyone in the targeted audience as defined by the researcher has an equal or known chance of being selected for the survey A group selected in this manner is also called a probability sample Different Survey types Mail questionnaires Telephone surveys Personal interviews Piggyback surveys Omnibus survey a organization buys a question in a national survey conducted by a survey organization