The Importance of Research in PR Campaign

Many people are often confused about what PR practitioners do. Many believe that it is simply event planning to raise publicity about a client. However, for the most part, that is not the case. A proficient PR campaign consists of numerous steps including Research, Action, Communication and Evaluation (otherwise known as the RACE model). The first step in the process is often the most important, research. Without the essential research elements taking place before a campaign, a practitioner will not know in what area to focus their efforts.

Research tells you, what your public thinks about your client, the best methods for approaching that public, what message should be sent to that public to incur a specific action or a change in beliefs. Research will allow you to set goals for your campaign by giving you a beginning margin to evaluate your results against. It will tell you what other organizations did in similar situations (best practices). Research will tell you all this and more.

There are two ways to classify research methods, primary and secondary OR qualitative and quantitative. To give examples of each, I will share the research we conducted for my current PR campaign for Independent Living Services for Youth. Primary research elements are ones a person conducts himself or herself. Our primary research elements include: focus Group, interviews, ethnographic study and surveys. Secondary research is research that has already been conducted. Our secondary research elements included a demographic study of Norman, Okla., a media audit and bibliography/content analysis. 

Quantitative data is data that is numerical and statistical in nature. Qualitative is not numerical; it captures information that is not statistical. Quantitative data included demographic studies and surveys. Qualitative data included our focus groups, interviews and ethnographic observations.

The following links give more information about research elements.

social research methods

primary vs secondary research

My First Client…Independent Living Services for Youth

When my PR Campaigns class began the semester, I had no idea what I was about to get into. Was the class going to be hard? Or fun? Was it going to be rewarding? Will I gain the knowledge I need to work in the real world?
When ILSY (Independent Living Services for Youth) confronted our class about implementing a name change, PR Perceptions jumped right into the campaign with the most important step, research. We began our research with some secondary research and ultimately, found other organizations similar to ILSY. We also researched how implementing a name change can be a positive step in an organization and can create positive publicity and increase awareness.

My group also conducted primary research such as interviews, surveys, and focus groups. We began our primary research by interviewing Debra Krittenbrink, executive director of ILSY. This helped us gain more knowledge about what our client wanted in the new name. She told us she wanted the name to be short, about 1 to 3 words, and also said she did not want an acronym. We also interviewed ILSY board members and got their input about the name change.

Our next step was to create a survey to send to our publics, which were churches, donors and teachers/counselors. We created a survey with 14 questions and sent it out to about 40 people. Overall, we found that most of the participants agreed that the name ILSY was hard to remember. All agreed that a name change was needed.

From there, we came up with three different names: 1.) Bridge to Beyond 2.) Step to Tomorrow 3.) Uniting Futures for Youth. These name were well researched by our group to insure we were not violating copyright laws. We then conducted the last phase of our research, a focus group. We held the focus group on a Saturday morning and 4 people attended, including people from Norman Public School and churches. We asked them a wide range of open-ended questions to gain feedback. We found that they all agreed ILSY needed a name change, as some could barely remember what the acronym stood for after we told them for the first time. We found that they liked the names Bridge to Beyond and Step to Tomorrow.

Ultimately, our client chose the name “Bridges- Empowering Students Who Live Alone to Succeed”. Our group was thrilled that we helped chose the name, as it came from our name “Bridge to Beyond”. Overall, the campaign was a complete success and our research was a big reason why.

Teenage Independence

Teenage Independence

By Sheila Frazier

Whether you are aware of it or not, there are many independent and homeless teenagers in this country. Norman, Oklahoma, is one such place. But unlike other places, Norman has decided to do something about it.

Bridges, former known as Independent Living Services for Youth (ILSY), is the only regional organization to assist independent teenagers in high school.

Any high school student in the Norman area (attending Norman High School or Norman North High School) that has had some kind of crisis and is forced to live on their own can benefit from the program. Bridges houses students and assists students that live on their own elsewhere.

This is no cake walk, however. The students in the program are required to pay rent and utilities, along with keeping their grades up and staying out of trouble. Bridges works to give students a second chance to succeed in education. Bridges also assists students after high school, by helping them find jobs or attend college. Career coaching and other incentives are offered as well. Bridges strives to maintain secrecy of all students in the program for the students' protection.

Bridges has just recently undergone a name change. Right now the organization is working to promote its new name to the public. An event will be hosted in April to launch the new name to the media and the public.

Norman Organization to Implement Name Change

Norman Organization to Implement Name Change
By Sally Swafford What’s the name again? What does it mean? Is it a cow? Isn’t that some sort of dairy product? These questions, along with many others are asked when the name “ILSY” comes to mind. Independent Living Services for Youth is far from being a dairy manufacturer.

ILSY serves as one of the few organizations that houses high school students. Many have lost their homes due to different circumstances, whether it is abuse or simply turning into a legal adult and being kicked out of the house by their parents. About half of the 200 students involved in the organization have the opportunity to live in the apartments, which are owned by ILSY. The other students are given the assistance of finding homes and managing their finances. Through ILSY, many students can find a positive influence or mentor, which may be lacking in their lives.

The story of ILSY begins in the early 1990s with a few high school counselors. Noticing many students could not attend school without a parent signature, the issue of homeless high school students was brought to their attention. These counselors, and many other passionate volunteers helped get the OU School of Social Work helping with this case. Though this organization may be striving in many ways, it is certainly lacking in one major area: its name. Many people when hearing its acronym don’t immediately know what the organization does. The name isn’t catchy and is often confused with the Department of Human Services, which is government funded. ILSY, on the other hand gains its funding from the United Way of Norman and other independent donors such as churches and families.

Independent Living Services in Need for a Change

Independent Living Services in Need for a Change

Morgan Byram

Norman Oklahoma's Independent Living Services for the Youth program, (ILSY) created in the early 1900s strives to "empower high school students in family crisis to pursue education without obstacles," as acknowledged by their mission statement. ILSY is funded by rental income, grants, donations, and United Way of Norman. ILSY provides services for around 110 students per year, and houses 20 students per semester.

Team Purple has conducted research and analyzed current data on independent living services throughout the United States and looked into organizations like ILSY in the Oklahoma community. Many current independent living services throughout the U.S., focus more on disabled or juvenile delinquent youth. There is not a lot of websites or articles that directly pertain to the ILSY organization. We found from online resources, the homeless population of teens is often overlooked. One program, the CHRIS Kids organization focused on foster care and juvenile systems, but did provide supervised housing like ILSY currently does. Another program found in the area is, The University of Oklahoma National Resource Center for Youth Services works with the Oklahoma Department for Human Services, Children and Family Division providing assistance to youth, foster parents, and also child welfare workers. The program works to promote planning of youth's future, but does not have the same offerings as ILSY. From our background research we came to a consensus of the increased need for awareness of youth services. Many of the organizations are not highly recognized because of their security issues and also attitudes and behavior of the community towards independent living youth organizations.

We received a triangulation of data by performing an observation, survey and a focus group of our internal publics of the ILSY organization: alumni, students, board members, staff and volunteers. We found the need for a new name allowing ILSY to be acknowledged more in the surrounding area. From our survey we found the need for a catchy name that did not necessarily state what the organization was in the name. We also held a focus group with our internal publics, and received similar results and name suggestions for the organization. 

Team Purple wants to increase the overall awareness of the current ILSY organization and help the organization obtain a new name. We want to promote a positive image and create excitement and optimistic attitudes internally throughout the organization on the new changes being made. From our research, I feel certain that a new name will help ILSY grow into one of the top independent living services in the community. The increase in awareness at the end of our campaign will generate an increase in volunteers and donation and hep gain positive news in the media. Awareness events I feel are a key element to a successful business. 

Independent Living Services-http://www.indliving.org

CHS- Corporation for Supportive Housing - http://www.chs.org

CHRIS Kids- http://www.chriskids.org/programsilp.html

NRCYS- http://nrcys.ou.edu/programs/okil.shtml

OAYS- http://www.oays.org

Morgan Byram