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Lesson 3: Research Process
The Research Process in Strategic Communication
Strategic communication research gathers information to better understand a situation. We can check assumptions about audiences including what they think of our brand, what media outlets they pay the most attention to, and what social issues are most important to our audiences. We can use the results of our research to help craft messages, create media plans, and develop programs to improve social concerns.
Research can also be used to anticipate consequences from our decisions. Its main purpose is to reduce uncertainty in decision making. Research helps with this by showing us which tactics will be most effective with our audiences. It can help us do the following too:
- Understand audience perception and interests
- Save time and money by making sound decisions
- Avoid mistakes by identifying potential problems with our campaign plans
- Justify our efforts
- Gauge our success
Research for strategic communication uses a process that begins with identifying a problem and ends with presenting findings and replicating the study. Here’s how it works.
Example
Throughout the semester we will be following John Reynolds, a communications coordinator for an environmental nonprofit GreenGood, as he uses research to help improve a communications campaign.
The biggest fundraiser of the year is coming up for GreenGood, and John has developed a campaign to promote it. Unfortunately, ticket sales have been slower than expected, and John's organization is about to start a second round of promotional advertising and publicity. He is wondering whether the problem is the promotional materials. To help identify the issue and create a better strategy for the next stage of promotion, he decides to conduct some research.
Click on the steps below to see the process that John will be following this semester. You will learn more about his process in Video 3.1.
DENISE BORTREE: Research happens in a series of steps. Throughout the semester we will be walking through the process one step at a time. Here are eight steps that we will look at.
- Identifying the problem
- Defining the problem
- Developing the hypotheses and research questions
- Determining an appropriate methodology and research design
- Collecting relevant data
- Analyzing and interpreting the results
- Presenting the results in an appropriate form
- Replicating the study
Let’s talk about each one of the steps and how John from GreenGood implemented them carefully to gather useful information for his organization.
The first step in the research process is identifying the problem. For John, the problem is the lack of ticket sales. But, is this a problem that can be addressed with research? By defining the problem we can determine what we need to know to solve it.
The second step is defining the problem. Taking a closer look at what you know about the problem will help determine what you need to know before you can make a good decision about communication. Here are a few questions to get the process started:
- When is this a problem? Is it a problem now or in the future?
- Where is it a problem? Is it a problem in just one location or are you experiencing the problem everywhere?
- How is this a problem? How does the problem affect your organization or your community?
- And finally for whom is this a problem? What groups are affected by the problem?
John realizes that his problem is happening now, and it’s a problem that is happening in his community—people are not purchasing the tickets to the fundraiser. This creates an issue for the organization because it depends on the annual fundraiser for a large portion of its operating costs. John suspects that an important question that he will need to answer in his research is the WHO question—who should he be targeting and with what messages.
To further define the problem, John will conduct background research. He will start by looking at reports from research his organization has conducted in past years, and he will search for research reports on outdoor sports enthusiasts. Any information he can gather through background research will save him money and time in the long run because he will not have to gather the information through primary research methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and surveys.
The third step in the process is developing hypotheses and research questions. These are questions or statements that you will investigate in the research. They help guide the types of information that is gathered in the research process. A hypothesis states the relationship between two variables; for example: “Environmentally responsible consumers are willing to pay more for green products than other products.” This is a statement that can be tested. You may find that the data you collect supports this statement or you may find that the environmentally responsible consumers that you talk to are not willing to pay more for green products, so the statement would not be supported.
A research question allows the researcher to explore the relationship between variables. For example, “how do environmentally responsible consumers make decisions about green products?” This is NOT a statement that can be supported. Rather, it is a question that an investigator uses to explore the decision making process of eco-friendly consumers.
John does not have enough background information to develop hypotheses for his research investigation, so he will likely develop a few good research questions to help focus the research.
The fourth step in the research process is determining an appropriate method and research design. There are two general types of methods—qualitative methods and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and ethnography—provide indepth information that helps a researcher better understand how people make meaning of messages and experiences. Quantitative methods—such as surveys, content analysis, and experiments—provide numerical information that allows researchers to conduct statistical analysis and determine the significance of the findings from the study. The methods chosen are dependent on the questions that are being asked. Hypotheses are always tested with quantitative methods, but research questions can be investigated with either type. John will use a mix of both types of methods to help him answer his research questions.
The fifth step is collecting relevant data. John needs to decide from whom he will be collecting data. He has a list of members from his organization and a list outdoor sports enthusiasts. He could pull probability samples, which mean his sample would be random and he could generalize the results of his quantitative methods to his population. Or, he could pull a nonprobability sample, which is representative of his population but is not a random sample. John will pull samples that make the most sense for his methods.
The sixth step is analyzing and interpreting the results. John will analyze his quantitative data through statistical tests to find the significant relationships between his variables. And, he will analyze his qualitative information by looking for key themes and patterns in his data. The analysis will lead to important discoveries that will help him better target the right audiences with the right messages.
The seventh step is to write up and present his result in an appropriate form. Most certainly, John will write a report that can be shared with others in the organization. He will also create a presentation that he can deliver to decision makers at the organization.
And finally, the last step of the process is replicating the study. Good study design will reduce error in sampling and analysis, but sometimes the findings of a study are not valid for other reasons, so repeating the study with another group or at another time would help confirm ( or call into question) the findings of the study.
By working through this process, John will better understand who to target in the second phase of his campaign and what messages might attract the public to his fundraiser. In this lesson your will read more about the way John implemented the process. And, throughout the semester we will revisit John to learn more about the eight steps in the research process.
Identify the Problem
The research process begins when a problem is identified. In this case the problem is the lack of ticket sales. But, is this a problem that can be addressed with research? By defining the problem we can determine what we need to know to solve the problem.
Define the Problem
Defining the problem will help you identify what you already know and what you need to know about the problem. Here are a few questions to ask to help define the problem.
When, where, how, and for whom is this a problem?
- When: Is this a problem now? Or is it something that you anticipate encountering in the future? Is the problem different from something you've experienced before?
- Where: Is this problem only happening in one place or with one group of people? Could it be a location issue or an audience issue?
- How: In what ways does this problem affect the organization or the audience?
- Who: Who does the problem affect?
What do we already know about the problem?
- Do some background research to see if you can find the answers to your questions. Background research is much less expensive than conducting primary research (collecting data and analyzing it).
Develop Hypotheses and Research Questions
Once we have asked questions to define the problem, and we have looked at prior research, we can create a list of questions or hypotheses that guide our research process.
- First, we need to decide WHAT we want to learn from our research. Do you need to know about the audience’s communication style? Do you need to know how certain messages are perceived or whether an audience member would be willing to change a behavior?
- Second we need to define the variables (or attributes) that we plan to measure. For example, one variable that a company could measure is its reputation. But, first you need to define reputation. The term could be defined as the degree to which a company meets the expectation of its customers. Or, it could mean the degree to which stakeholders like the brand image of the company. And, still, it could mean the degree to which the company provides a good product at a reasonable price. How you define a variable will determine how you measure it. For each of the definitions above, you would ask different questions to assess a company’s reputation.
- Third, this leads to the creation of hypotheses or research questions.
- Hypotheses are statements that suggest a relationship between variables. For example, if you work for a tutoring center and your company wants to test the impact of its product, you might create this hypothesis “SAT prep classes have a significant positive effect on SAT scores.”
- On the other hand, if you are not confident in predicting a relationship between the two variables, you may propose a research question about the variables, for example, “Is there a relationship between SAT prep classes and SAT scores?”
- Hypotheses are more powerful as they allow you to design your research to confirm a relationship.
Determine an Appropriate Methodology/Research Design
Once the research questions and hypotheses are developed, the next step is to decide how to collect data that will help answer the questions or test the hypotheses. This semester we will learn about two types of research methods—qualitative methods and quantitative methods.
- Qualitative methods give an indepth understanding of an issue by providing direct quotes and insights from participants. Some examples of qualitative methods are interviews, focus groups, and ethnography.
- Quantitative methods provide numerical data—numbers, percentages, averages, etc. Some examples are surveys, content analysis, and experiments.
How do you decide which methods to use? It all depends on your questions and hypotheses. We will take a closer look at this during the semester.
Collect Relevant Data
Next, a researcher needs to decide how to get data. An important part of the research design is sampling. In research with human subjects, a sample is the group of people that you invite to participate in your study. You need to decide who you will invite and draw a sample that is appropriate for your method.
- A random sample is a sample in which the researcher knows the chances of everyone in the population being in that sample. In general, this means that each person has an equal chance (or another known chance) of being selected to be in the sample. For example, if I were to sample five people from the class to survey about online learning experiences, I would want everyone to have an equal chance of being in the sample. The class members are the population for the study. By pulling a random sample and surveying the sample, I can generalize to the rest of the population (the class). We will talk more about why this is later in the semester.
- On the other hand, qualitative research often uses a representative sample. That means that the people who are selected to be in the study represent the group that we want to get to know better, but they are not selected randomly. We are not assuming that we can generalize results to the rest of the population. Rather, we are looking for insights into how people think and feel about phenomena.
Analyze and Interpret the Results
The method of analysis that you use depends on the data collection method that you have chosen. Qualitative and quantitative methods take different approaches to analysis.
- Quantitative data is analyzed through statistical tests. We will talk more about that later in the semester.
- In qualitative research the researcher looks for key themes and patterns in the responses of participants to try to better understand and shed light on phenomena.
After analyzing data, the researcher should consider the value of the findings and how they apply to the problem.
Present Results in an Appropriate Form
In strategic communication, the most common form used to present research findings is the research report. Agencies, companies, or nonprofits will put together a summary of the purpose of the research, the methods used to collect data, the analysis used, the key findings, and a discussion of the implications of the research.
Replicate the Study
Sometimes sampling problems can influence the results of the study. So, it is always best to replicate your study with another sample to be sure you can trust the results that you found.