PR 3310Principles of Public Relations

Wednesday, 6/3/09

Class Objectives

Lecture A little bit a marketing terminology Ch. 5, Qualitative research

Homework assignment Ex. 2 due tomorrow Read chapter 5, page 139-149 in book

NOTE: my Tech e-mail is s.kubik@ttu.edu (send all notes to this e-mail from now on)

What’s in the news today? WHO is considering raising the level of the H1N1 flu (swine flu)

to 6 or a global pandemic http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/06/02/swine.flu.who/inde

x.html The WHO’s Assistant Director General says that raising the

level does not indicate the severity of the disease, only the spread of it

Fear is that raising the level to the highest will cause economic diaster

Fact is that more people die of the “regular” flu each year than have died of the swine flu

From the CDC: 36,000 Americans die on average per year from the complications of flu.

Deaths from swine flu so far= 117 from 64 countries Take a look at the definitions

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/avian_influenza/phase/en/index.html, phase 5 is only for 2 countries, phase 6 is for 3?

Some terminology

Target audience A specified audience for which an

advertising message is designed Targeting a specific market does

not mean that you have to exclude people that do not fit your criteria from buying from you. Rather, you focus your marketing

dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other markets.

Demographics

Many, if not most, marketers define their target audiences in demographic terms

Information describing and segmenting a population in terms of age, gender, income, educational level, marital status, occupation, ethnic background

e.g. Single Caucasian males, 18-34 years of age, high school graduates, working part-time

Although not PC, stereotyping does occur here

Psychographics Another way to define your target audience; are more personal

characteristics of a person including: Personality Attitudes Values Interests/hobbies Lifestyles Behavior

Determine how your product or service will fit into your target’s lifestyle. How and when will they use the product? What features are most appealing to them? What media do they turn to for information? 

Do they read the newspaper, search online or attend particular events?

How do I find out who my target audience is? Research!

Try searching online for research others have done on your target audience.

Search for magazine articles and blogs that talk about or to your target audience.

Search for blogs and forums where people in your target market communicate their opinions.

Look for survey results, or consider conducting a survey of your own.

Ask your current customers for feedback. Free demographics data and studies at Pew Internet,

Scarborough, Arbitron, U.S. Census Bureau Called secondary data analysis

Again, why should I define who my target market is? Once you know who you are targeting, it is

much easier to figure out… …Which media you can use to reach them …What marketing messages will work with

them. Save $$ and get a better return on investment

E.g. Instead of sending direct mail to everyone in your zipcode, you can send only to those who fit your criteria.

Clients of PR messages

End consumers = Individuals who buy and use a product or service

Reporters, journalists to pass on your story Other corporations

The majority of businesses do not make consumer products (called b2b)

Other buyers of a product/service Distributors (who will resell the product) NPO’s (e.g. Tech buys a lot of toner

cartridges)

Branding

A function that differentiates products and their source from all other products.

Branding sets your company, product or service apart from the competition

Could include The symbol or logo associated with

a product The name associated with a product Customer service (Saturn)

Competitive Advantage

An advantage (real or perceived) that puts a company ahead of its competitors.

When a firm sustains profits above the average for its industry, it is said to have a competitive advantage over its competitors

Branding could be a competitive advantage… But not all cases (don’t need to brand some

commodities… copper is copper) … Key is to get customer to repeatedly buy the

product

Competitive Advantage

Image of Product Cool (Nike, Target, Cadillac) Green (Prius)

Reputation of firm Apple Loyal customer base

Benefit Product works better (John Deere)

Proprietary knowledge (better engineered gear box) Patents or Trademarks (KFC) Better design (iPods) Cost/Product is cheaper (Taco Bell)

Being a new product or having new features (push to talk)

The dreaded “R” word

Most people get shivers when they hear the word “Research”. Why is it? Perceptions are that

It’s no fun: a slow process that takes a lot of work It’s not creative: number crunching = yuck! My idea is unique; I don’t have to waste time looking

to see what others have done. Given this reputation, who would want to do

research? You should… it’s a unique notch on your belt that most

people don’t have. It’s high-paying when done well. It’s becoming more important as marketing budgets are

shrinking.

What is purpose of doing research?

From book: In PR, research techniques are as simple as gathering data and information We assume you want to also interpret and

communicate your findings Allows for a greater fragmentation of the

audience (niche) Management is isolated, probably do not

represent the end user Research is meant to save time and $$$

Initial research questions

What is the problem? What information is needed? How will the results be used? Who is the target audience? What technique will we use in our research?

(literature review, mailing a survey, face-to-face interviews)

Additional questions to ask

Is data being collected from internal users or external?

Are questions open ended or closed? How will data be analyzed,

reported/communicated to clients, applied? What is the deadline? When do you need

deliverables by? What is the cost/research budget?

Ways to use research

Define target audiences Formulate strategy Test messages Help mgt keep in touch and establish

credibility with management

Research can…

…help prevent a crisis … help monitor the competition … sway public opinion … generate publicity … be a measurement of success

Research by using the Internet

Lowest level of “research” (and I hate to use that word here) is to “Google” something Positives: fast, OK at retrieving relevant

information Negatives: not very trustworthy

Links may be outdated or inactive Who posted the content? (are they an expert?

has it been reviewed by experts? how current is the information?)

Research by using the Internet

A more trusted way to use the Internet is to use on-line databases such as psychinfo, EbscoHost,(see http://library.ttu.edu/). 1,500 plus used for research, staying on top of the

news Positives: fast to retrieve, content is more credible in

that it has been peer reviewed or reviewed by industry experts if it is in a journal or conference proceedings

Negatives: some types of information is already dated once it gets published (reviewing takes time), may need to subscribe/pay to get access to databases and journals

Qualitative Research

An in-depth understanding of human behavior Smaller, more focused sample sizes of participants

Convenience sampling, purposeful sampling Historically was perceived to be less credible than

quantitative (statistics-based) research Ways of interpreting the data are less objective (e.g.

the researcher must interpret data rather than use #s) In reality, it would be super if you could do both

Qualitative allows for deep exploration Quantitative allows for data to be tested, especially

with a larger number of participants If only have time/budget for 1, see what others have

done in your discipline

Qualitative Research: Case study

The gathering of detailed information on a specific individual.

Perhaps this one person is special in some way Former president, star athlete

Positives: get rich data Negatives: can’t generalize past the person you

are studying. Generalize: a made-up academic word that

means to draw from specific cases for more general cases

Qualitative Research: Interviews

1 on 1 Incept interviews: People

are intercepted in public places

Pros: quality information Cons: expensive, people

are resistant Cons: hard to get

participants (esp. if you have to wear a vest to identify you as a Tech researcher while standing outside of a football stadium)

Cons: for intercept interviews, considered highly unscientific because of convenience sampling

Qualitative Research: focus groups

Focus groups are 8 to 12 people matching characteristics of target audience

Focus groups are a form of group interview that capitalizes on communication between research participants in order to generate data. Focus groups explicitly use group interaction.

Can be in person and, increasingly, on-line Positives: one person can prompt an idea in

another Negative: one person may monopolize the

interview

Qualitative Research: Naturalistic observations This is the simplest way we study behavior.

You simply observe the behavior in its natural environment.

This is frequently informal is usually the first step to allow you to get a better understanding of the behavior which allows further, more in-depth investigation.

When might we use this in PR? Children playing with toys