TheTenth

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings are that research and evaluation are imperative to a public relations campaign. Evaluating the outcomes of a campaign will help practitioners determine the effectiveness of the steps taken into planning and managing and that will ultimately help the practitioner decide whether he should take the same steps for future public relations programs.

There are three phrases to undergo when conducting research: ‘input’, ‘output’ and ‘outcome’ research. They are crucial in every public relations campaign and act as a guide for public relations practitioners to keep to. Input research measures what issues and opportunities are present, what perception and beliefs of publics are, decides upon the tools and methods to take when communicating with target audiences.

Practitioners will make adjustments and improvements to the implemented plans in the output phase. Changes include the number of messages sent and placed, the activites implemented/ designed and who receives the messages.

In the final phase, the outcome research will reflect how successful or unsuccessful the strategy is and how effective planning and communication has been for the event.

Different research techniques(surveys, case studies, environmental monitoring, etc) can be employed depending on the objectives of the organisation.

The readings made me think more about public relations theory and practice in that I didn’t use to think a public relations practitioner’s job scope includes having to conduct research before executing any campaign and events. Research is essential and has to be done before planning for a campaign or project. Now I think that public relations practitioners, like marketeers, have to go through great pains researching but they will stand to reap benefits out of it.