Technology has Taken Over…

Public relations research has evolved from the time of the simple survey, or observation to see how the public likes a product or type of entertainment. Social media has broken through as a method of qualitative research and is being used in many industries across the country.

While reading Francesca’s blog about how social networks is connected to how the public feels about movies. The movie industry is taking a different route when deciding to conduct qualitative research. Instead of conducting focus groups, giving out surveys, or making observations they are utilizing YouTube and other social networks to get feedback from the public. The study that was done was a movie company put the movie’s trailer on YouTube and waited to see how many people commented on it, and what the feedback was. This was a great way to use social networks in a company’s advantage it is free to post on YouTube, and all of the feedback was voluntary and will work in a positive way for this company.

Another way technology was used to get feedback from the public was displayed in Laura’s blog. She discussed how social media is using forums to discuss and post questions about celebrities, fashion, and the Entertainment Industry. This is once again a great way to utilize the fast growing world of social networking. It is on the Internet, so it most likely is free and everyone has access to it. Laura makes it clear that the old-fashioned way of conducting qualitative research is probably better, but I believe this is a great start for our always-changing society.

Let’s face it technology is changing at the speed of light, or it sure feels like it, and we have to do everything in our power to keep up with it.  This is happening everywhere from college campuses basically going paperless, to the PR industry using the Internet to conduct their qualitative research. Everything we are used to is changing rapidly, and we can choose to ignore it, or embrace it and just enjoy the ride.

Conducting Research for Small Businesses

Research is a huge part of the advertising and marketing industry, as well as PR. We have been learning for a while about the different types of secondary research, one of which was focus groups. A focus group is a form of qualitative research, which usually aids to your research. I recently read an article about how focus groups can help small businesses.

            This article made a lot of great points to small businesses; it started off saying that you don’t need to be a big corporation to conduct your own focus group. This is a great way to try and help small businesses get the feedback that they need, and will allow them to be confident in doing so. The article then goes on to explain in detail how to prepare for your focus group. This can be done by determining your objective carefully, and write down what you want to learn. Then the following has to be done to make your focus group successful: write your script, have a way of recording this focus group, and find a moderator who will lead the discussion and ask follow up questions. You also need to find a comfortable location, and have food and beverages there to keep the participants happy. For the timeframe of the focus group, they suggest about two and a half hours with a short break.

            When the focus group is completed you must be able to chart your responses, review the questions, and try to be objective. It is important that the person reviewing the tapes does not try to force the answers, but instead to find them.

            Focus groups are the best way to collect data. I believe that if you have the funds and the means to conduct a focus group, no matter how big or small your company may be, you should do it. Focus groups are there to help you company prosper, and thrive in this ever changing economy. 

What’s Everyone Listening To?

      It’s week six, and we are evaluating our peers for the second time to see what they are writing about in their own blogs. As I was looking through my classmates’ blogs to see similarities, I found two specific blogs that focused on music and the types of unobtrusive research that can be done to see what everyone is listening to.

       Something that I found very interesting in BDaunno’s blog was her connection to Pandora and unobtrusive research. I have been listening Pandora radio for many years now, and have surprisingly never made the connection. This radio is excellent to see what other people are listening to, and also gives suggestions of what you may like. I can put in an artist that I listen to on a daily basis and it will give me at least five other artists during the duration of my Pandora listening experience.

       The next blog I came across was a blog I have read before, by SLapin. She also discussed music and the unobtrusive research that can be done to see who’s listening to what. SLapin said you could see what radio stations people listen to and then compare that to what type of music that radio station plays. This goes right along with Pandora, except Pandora is using a much more technological approach by using social networking. This blog gives prime examples of how unobtrusive research can be conducted, and what benefits it has when trying to figure out what types of music people listen to.

       When I began comparing blogs, I thought that it was going to be a difficult process to find a commonality between two blogs, but I was definitely wrong. I was pleasantly surprised to see that two other people shared an interest in music, or at least enough to blog about. These opinions and ideas that SLapin and BDaunno share are definitely broadening my horizons, and even letting me think outside the box a little bit more. I would have never thought Pandora could be used as a type of unobtrusive research, but now I’m curious to see what everyone is listening to. It’s a new way of thinking, and I can’t help but wonder what’s next?

What Really Catches Your Eye?

Throughout the past two weeks we have been studying unobtrusive research, and the many categories of unobtrusive research there actually are. As you all know, I am very interested in entering the advertising field when I get older, so I decided to see what types of unobtrusive research most advertising researchers do to get viewers to remember their product.

            In an article that I found on Improving Brand Recognition in TV Ads, I found that researchers are using data to track the eye movements of almost 2000 participants over 31 commercials to see how various branding patterns of activity influence consumers ignoring the commercials. The person conducting the study found that eye tracking was as unobtrusive as sitting in front of a computer monitor. An optical sensor using an infrared light bouncing off of the cornea captures the eye movements.

            The researchers also found many other things out from this study, they saw that the eye sensor measures an attention span, and due to its scarcity, is something very important to understand. They found it to be troubling, because now a days more and more people seem to ignore ads, but it seems that more and more companies are paying millions of dollars to get their ads on television.

            As the researcher neared the end of his study he found that brand presence alone would automatically increase commercial avoidance; but if you were to change the brand exposure, you can lower the rates that viewers will ignore it. He also found that while using eye tracking you could see when the viewer’s attention begins to drift. This will allow you to figure out what will keep or lose a viewers attention on any type of ad.

            This study was a great example of seeing what types of ads keep people interested, or what makes them lose their attention. I feel that this is a great tool for any advertising agency or company to use if they want to sell more of, or to just get people aware of their product. It basically says what will work, and what won’t while you’re trying to get your brand recognized.

However, there have been many ethical issues with unobtrusive research, but this I feel is a very noninvasive way to get the data you need. If you have no idea someone is watching to see when your attention drifts, then it shouldn’t really be a bother to you. I mean if this helps you to want to watch more commercials, why complain?

             

A Different View of the Entertainment Industry

One area of PR that I have never been particularly drawn to but seems to be the most popular is the entertainment side. With that said, I definitely did not have trouble trying to find two blog posts that were discussing similar topics. I came across two very interesting, but very different blogs discussing the entertainment industry, and how research results are used in two different ways.

The first blog I came across was written by Blaine this blog discussed the entertainment industry and how the media feeds off of research results. Blaine stated that the audience’s feedback was essential to determine the direction the industry may take something, but they can take this opinion into consideration, spin it, or just ignore it completely. These statements were followed by an excellent example of how the creator of “The Hills” basically spun the audience’s feedback of the show and completely caught them off guard. Everyone basically believed the show was real, but when the finale aired the creators proved it to be fake all along. I feel this was a great example of how Hollywood manipulates the public, but leading them on and always keeping them on their toes.

The second blog I came across was by slapin, it also discussed the entertainment industry and how the public can effect what direction the industry takes for their entertainment. This blog really focused on how the public influences how the entertainment industry works. They are going for that “shock” factor, everyone wants to see the most gruesome thing, or which celebrity is doing what drugs, or who’s going into rehab. All of these things aren’t good for society, but it makes for great television, and some may say great entertainment.

Both blogs discuss the entertainment industry and how the public can influence what direction they will take to make for the best ratings. Blaine’s blog discusses how the industry can turn on you in a second, making you think one thing but going a completely opposite direction just to get the ratings. Slapin’s blog talks about how the industry will do anything for ratings, even if it is bad for society. It’s not all that shocking to me that this industry will do anything for ratings, but it is wrong. It’s a very cutthroat industry that will deceive their publics, and even lead them down the wrong paths, but for some reason we all love it. 

False Advertising of Pharmaceutical Research?

Throughout the fall semester I am taking very similar courses, PR Writing, PR Research, and Intro to Marketing. I find it very interesting how similar all three courses are, for instance over the past two weeks each class has discussed research, and the ethical way to conduct your research.

This past week I was doing some research about how advertisers use their research, and everything I came across had to do with ethical advertising and using your research properly. In this article about evidence-based advertising they discuss how pharmaceutical advertising could be very misleading. In short these advertisements are used to bring information to physicians about the drug’s information. 

Most advertisements are to bring awareness to the public, but there are some that want to persuade the physician or user through their research findings. This lead researches to question the quality of these findings, and whether these advertisements led to improper prescriptions.

After the research in pharmaceutical advertisements, they found that most were brief, incomplete, and they inconsistently provided the basic design and statistical information needed to judge the results reported. If there had been more details in the advertisements it would have been more helpful to the reader. (J AmBoard Fam Pract 2001;14:197–200.)

All of these articles surprised me very much. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) seems to have a tight hold on drug companies, but obviously do not have a tight hold on the types of advertisements they are running. After doing a little more research into drug advertising, I found and the Food and Drug Administration website that says the FDA does not have to review all drug advertisements. It also states that the FDA in most cases sees these advertisements at the same time as the general public sees it.

This type of advertising is very misleading to any consumer. If pharmaceutical advertisers are leaving out crucial information that could harm a user, they are not doing their jobs correctly. These scenarios given in these articles are prime examples that we could be taking the wrong medication, or even being improperly prescribed medication just because the advertiser is not giving full research results.

This goes right along with ethics, and deception. We are taught as PR professionals to try and be as ethical as possible and we are also told not to deceive our consumers or participants. Leaving out information that can be harmful to users in the pharmaceutical world is deceiving your costumer. After reading these article I am beginning to see why it is so important disclose all of your research information, no matter what you are researching; because let’s face it, no one wants to be mislead, and no one wants to be tricked.

Are Advertiser’s Sending the Wrong Message?

In today’s world everyone wants his or her own unique product or idea to be noticed.  We’re all looking for that perfect “get rich quick” scheme, and quite frankly it seems to be clouding consumer’s heads when trying to buy a product or service. Being ethical while conducting research and advertising a product, person or service, may prove to be a tough challenge, but it should be something every professional strives for.

I recently read an article that talked about the poor ethics that some company’s had while advertising their products. I related so much to this article because there have been instances where I have fallen into the trap of unethical or false advertising. It briefly discusses disclaimers on medicine saying “When a medication is helpful, does that mean one per cent of the time or ninety percent of the time?” This part falls directly into the ethics of research. The company should know how helpful this medication is, and it is unethical not to say exactly what their data told them. As we read in chapter 33 in our “Advertising and Public Relations Research” textbook, you must disclose all your information even if it puts a negative spin on the product you are trying to sell.

Another prime example I came across was one with skin care products. This article says that most skin care products are filled with false claims. If this skin care company was ethical they would make sure all of their research results were accurate, and then they would accurately get that information to the public. However this is never the case, and many companies will do whatever it takes to sell their product.