National Economics University
Faculty of Marketing
Chapter 2
Formative Research
PhD. LÊ THỊ THU MAI
Faculty of Marketing
Email: maile@[Link]
Sđt: 0946203410
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At the end of the chapter, students will be able to
• Understand the content and methods of situation analysis in public
relations.
• Understand the content and methods of organizational analysis in
public relations.
• Understand the content and methods of audience analysis in public
relations.
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Contents
2.1 The importance of analysis
2.2 Situational analysis
2.3 Organizational analysis
2.4 Publics analysis
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Process of PR research
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The importance of formative analysis
A PR program without necessary research is shooting in the dark.
• trying to hit a target that you cannot see.
• not doing your homework before coming to class.
• Communication tactics might risk being ineffective.
➢ sending messages of little value to the organization
➢ Sending messages of little interest to publics
• During crises, when reaction time is minimal, take time to do research to
get a quick read on public opinion.
Formative research = the collection and analysis of research, which will
be the data used to build the communication program.
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The importance of formative analysis
Strategic reseach
• systematic gathering of information about issues and publics
that affect an organization
• Directly impact the organization’s overall mission
Tactical research
• information obtained to guide the production and
dissemination of messages
• Help do tasks effectively
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The importance of formative analysis
• Gather background information on the issue
• Assess the organization’s performance and reputation
• Catalog its resources
• Identify and analyze key publics.
(1) situational analysis (The situation the organization is facing)
(2) organizational analysis (your org. or your client)
(3) intended publics analysis
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Public Relations Situation
Publics
Impact of the
Resources industry
Organizational
Timescale Organization growth
stakeholders Characters of the
organization
Specific
problems
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Phase 1
ANALYSING THE SITUATION
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Analyzing the situation
• carefully and accurately identify the situation facing your
organization
• a situation: a set of circumstances facing an organization
• without an early and clear statement of the situation to be
addressed
➢ Not be able to conduct efficient research
➢ Not be able to define the goal of your communication program later in the
planning process.
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Analyzing the situation
• Give examples of PR situations.
• A situation is similar in meaning to a problem.
➢ “problem” in Greek and Latin:
❖ “a task proposed”
❖ “a thing put forward.”
• A public relations situation is a possible course of action that can
be either a positive or negative:
➢ Opportunities: offer a potential advantage to the organization or its publics
➢ Obstacles: limit the organization in realizing its mission (such as fear of
at-risk youth, or fan loyalty if the team is losing).
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Learning from research
• Researching what others think about the situation and what they
have done in related areas can both save valuable time and
provide considerable insight into solving the problem at hand.
(1) reviewing academic and professional literature and analyzing
relevant studies and articles;
(2) identifying other organizations that have successfully navigated
the same waters that you find yourself in.
- Best practices approach
❖ Document and analyze the behavior of an acknowledged leader in the field.
❖ identify a benchmark, which is a specific and measurable standard against which an
organization can compare its own products and services, with an eye toward
improvement.
❖ A benchmark: an organization, a standard of performance that you aspire to achieve.
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Obstacles into opportunities
• Turn negative stereotyping into consumer-friendly advocacy
➢ Being accused in 1993 that medical syringes had been found in cans of the
company’s product, Pepsi issued video news releases showing how its
production process made it impossible to contaminate the product before it left
the plant.
➢ Johnson & Johnson used satellite news conferences when it reintroduced
Tylenol after several people were killed in 1983 after someone tampered with
the over-the-counter medicine.
➢ Sued in 2011 for false advertising that its tacos contain only 35 percent beef,
Taco Bell countersued, then launched a media campaign, largely digital: “Thank
you for suing us. Here’s the truth about our seasoned beef.” The media blitz
explained that it serves tacos that are 88 percent beef and 12 percent seasoning
to enhance the flavor.
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Reaching concensus
Four research touchpoints:
• An initial meeting with the client to develop a common
understanding of the client’s research needs, resources, and
expected uses
• A meeting to agree on the scope of the project, particularly its
costs and other resources
• A meeting to refine the research questions and discuss potential
approaches and limitations
• A meeting for agreement on the proposed study approach
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Issue management
• An issue is a situation that presents matters of concern to
organizations.
• An issue is defines as a trend, an event, a development, or a matter
in dispute that may affect an organization.
• Issues exist within a changing environment and often are the result of
conflicting values (either different values held by the organization and
one of its publics, or a different balance among similar values).
• An issue is “a social problem, often conflictual, that has received
media coverage” (1996, p. 4).
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Issue management
• study the issue
• orient to deal with the issue
• better identify and potentially involve with its publics
• Questions in analyzing issues
➢ Which stakeholders does the issue affect?
➢ Who has an interest?
➢ Who is in a position to exert influence?
➢ Who ought to care?
➢ Who started the ball rolling?
➢ Who is now involved?
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Issue management
• An organization tries to anticipate emerging issues and respond
to them before they get out of hand, perhaps even before they
break onto the scene.
• A process of monitoring and evaluating information.
• Issues management involves potential change.
➢ Insurance companies, hospitals, pharmaceuticals, health-advocacy
groups, and health-maintenance organizations are all trying to predict
trends—both within the health-care industry and in the political
environment—that may have some kind of impact on the future.
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Issue management
• Issues management
➢ not try to control; not involve one-way communication nor manipulation of
a public.
➢ helps the organization interact with its publics; settle the issue early or
divert it, prevent its emergence
➢ adjust itself to the issue in some way, trying to maximize the benefits or at
least minimize the negative impact.
➢ Public relations often drives this early-warning system within an
organization.
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Process of issues management
• Identify future issues that are likely to affect an organization.
➢ early-warning scanning system
➢ where the organization wants to go
➢ potential roadblocks and other outside economic, political,
technological, social pressures on the organization.
• Research and analyze each issue.
➢ Carefully gather as many facts as possible about these.
➢ Consult specialists who are particularly familiar with the issues.
• Consider options in responding to each issue.
➢ Use creative problem-solving techniques to discover as many
alternatives as possible to deal with the issue at hand.
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Process of issues management
• Develop an action plan
➢ Select the most appropriate option (cost- effectiveness, practicality,
and organizational fit).
➢ Develop a specific plan to address the issue.
• Implement this plan
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the response
➢ during its implementation when there is still time to make appropriate
adjustments
➢ when the program is completed.
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Risk management
• the process of identifying, controlling, and minimizing the impact of
uncertain events on an organization.
• Public relations people sometimes need to prod their organizations
and clients to listen to criticism.
• Many public relations disasters are rooted in the myopic failure to
learn from others’ mistakes or in the shortsightedness of not
addressing internal flaws.
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Crisis management
• When an issue is not prevented from happenning, the issue
becomes a crisis.
• Crisis management is the process by which an organization
deals with out-of-control issues.
➢ steers a sailboat and PR executives are more like trying to ride out a
storm.
➢ prepares for potential events, risk management is about implied threats,
and crisis management involves reaction to actual occurrences.
• Less nimble organizations that always seem to be in reactive
mode are the ones likely to be caught off guard by a crisis.
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Crisis management
• Preparedness is the key to effective issues management,
particularly in crisis situations.
(1) early and competent leadership;
(2) a prioritized approach;
(3) strategies to preserve and/or recover the organization’s reputation;
(4) implementation of effective plans;
(5) pre-authorization for the organization to act quickly on its own;
(6) a response based on openness, truthfulness, and empathy.
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Strategic principles for crisis management
• Existing Relationships.
➢ During a crisis, communicate with employees, volunteers, stockholders, donors,
community leaders, customers, government and professional authorities, and
other constituent groups, as well as with colleagues.
➢ Keep everyone informed, because their continued support will be important in
rebuilding reputation following the crisis.
• Media-as-Ally.
➢ Treat the news media as allies that provide opportunities to communicate with
key publics.
• Reputational Priorities.
➢ Your top priority after safety issues is to your organization’s reputation.
➢ Focus attention on doing what’s best for customers, employees, and other key publics.
➢ Set objectives that deal with maintaining (or if necessary, restoring) credibility.
➢ Use the crisis as an opportunity to enhance reputation for social responsibility with
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Strategic principles for crisis management
• Quick Response.
➢ Be accessible to your publics as quickly as possible.
➢ One-hour rule: first message available to its publics, particularly the media (which generally is the most
compelling public in the early stages of an active crisis).
• Full Disclosure.
➢ Silence is not an acceptable response during a crisis.
➢ Everything the organization knows should be made available.
➢ Any decision not to release certain information should be based on careful deliberation
with specific justification for the silence.
➢ Use of misleading or false information is never an ethical option.
• One Voice.
➢ A single, trained spokesperson represents the organization.
➢ If multiple spokespersons are needed, each should be aware of what the others are
saying, and all should work together from the same set of facts and the same
coordinated message.
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Public relations and ethics
• an examination of ethical aspects
• the basis to make ethical decisions.
Deontological ethics Teleological ethics Situational ethics
• Obligation, duty • Goal, result-oriented • Actions are ethical to
• The approach to • The approach to the extent they reflect
decision making is decision making is particular social norms.
rooted in a standard or rooted in the notion • Case-by-case basis
moral code that good actions • Respect cultural
• Proclaims honesty, produce good results diversity & conflicting
integrity, fairness, • PR practitioners values
accuracy consider • Inability to judge the
consequences of basic rightness or
actions wrongness of actions
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Situation 1
• Because it has received permission to expand from a two-year to
a four-year program, Upstate UPSTATECOLLEGE College wants
to develop a strategic communication plan to deal with student
enrollment and retention, financial contributions, and community
support.
• Conduct a situational research on academic and applied articles
on enrollment management, fundraising, and community support
for higher education.
• Focus on lessons to be learned from other institutions that
expanded into four-year programs within the last six years.
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Situation 2
• In the wake of the highly publicized recall of a defective crib toy,
Tiny Tykes Toys needs a strategic communication plan focusing
on consumer confidence and the eventual expansion of its
customer base.
• Research will identify both academic and applied articles dealing
with product recalls, particularly those dealing with products
affecting safety of children.
• The research will develop case studies of actual organizations
that have faced product recalls, with particular attention to those
that successfully emerged from the recall phase with a strong
customer base.
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Situation 3
• Select an organization
• Start with the basic planning questions
➢ What is the central issue of the situation facing the organization?
➢ What is the background of the situation?
➢ What is the significance or importance of the situation?
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Existing information
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Existing information
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Existing information
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Research findings
Indicate here your findings as they shed light on the issue facing
your organization
Write a brief summary of the issue facing your organization.
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Research program
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