Friday, January 06, 2006
Visit the web site of almost any global public relations firm, and you’ll find a commitment
to market research. There’s a reason. Good market research is critical to building and
measuring effective public relations campaigns.
Most people know, of course, that opinion polls can be good ways of generating visibility.
They provide news and interesting facts that can help draw media attention and get a
brand or a message into the news.
But market research plays a much bigger role. It can be invaluable in uncovering the
insights and understanding needed to come up with that big idea on which to rest a
program. It can be used to develop and test messages, to make sure that they’re as
relevant and compelling as possible. It can be used to develop and test materials—that
is, the speeches, brochures, Web copy, toolkits, advertisements, and the other collateral
that can bring a campaign to life. And, of critical importance, it can be used to measure
effectiveness.
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