Deck 2: Starting to Apply Statistics, and Quantitative Analysis

Question 1

Explain why it is important to define the audience before starting to create communications materials. How can you start to define the audience or audiences?

Answer 1

Students should recognize that the audiences for communications are critical to the success of any program or project, from social media postings to integrated marketing campaigns. If you don't target an audience or communicate blindly at different audiences, you may be wasting client time and money. Targeting an audience and using research to understand audience wants, needs and desires can make a communications program much more effective and efficient.Audience definition often starts with defining who the product, service or message is aimed at and for what reason. For example, targeting a sports car at married couples with children is probably not the best idea. But targeting a safety-oriented SUV may make perfect sense. Other elements to consider include household income, geographic location, gender and marital status.

Question 2

Why is it valuable to use statistics when you have collected answers to hundreds of questionnaires from a group of people who fit your target audience profile?
What is the first step after you have collected all the data?

Answer 2

One of the fundamental attributes of statistical applications is the ability to use math to render a great number of data points or observations into management groups that can be compared and can provide insight into the overall view of the collected data and the groups or items represented. In the case of having information from members of a target audience, statistical procedures can help highlight trends, interests, desires and even preferred communications channels.A valuable first step after collecting data and putting it into categories is to review for trends, for surprises best to survey the landscape before starting to work on specific issues or communications projects.

Question 3

Go to the Census Bureau website (www.census.gov) and search for a topic or topics that interest you or you think are important social issues. Write a paper on what you find or what you think should be there but is not. The Census Bureau can be a powerful learning tool if students approach it with specific questions. It

Answer 3

provides several tools that can be put to use in finding information about a wide variety of topics. In this exercise, students should develop questions that they want to answer rather than going to the website and just looking around.

Question 4

Why are the Central Limits Theorem and its corollary, Normal distributions, important in statistical inquiries?

Question 5

Which is more likely to follow a Normal distribution curve: the test results of a class in introductory biology or the test results of all freshmen taking introduc?
tory biology at a large university?
Why?

Question 6

What is another way to explain MOE (when describing a survey)?

Question 7

Social media can look like a PR person's ideal tool. It's simple to spread the word on the various social media sites. In fact, many of these link to each other so that a message appearing on one appears on the others. What's difficult is measuring the impact of using social media. For example, Facebook users often object to advertising and PR messages that appear on their personal pages. PR messages may be dismissed and ignored. As a small-business owner, you face the challenge of crafting your PR messages in ways that social media users will welcome. In addition, a small-business owner must survey customers to see if they found out about the business through social media or by other means. Create an outline of activities that you would suggest to the client.

Question 8

The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer measures attitudes about the state of trust in business, government, non-government organizations (NGO) and media across 25 countries. The 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust is in crisis around the world. The general population's trust in four key institutions; business, non-government organizations (NGO), government, and media has declined broadly. With the fall of trust, the majority of respondents now lack full belief that the overall system is working for them. If you were working on a PR team for a government agency, how would you create a research program to see if your client's reputation needs work and reflects the Edelman Study?

Question 9

A well- known and respected celebrity on a current prime time television hit series was reported to have been involved with sexual misconduct by several aspiring actors seeking mentorship. In exchange for career advancement, the celebrity is accused of "unwanted sexual advances," "lewd phone calls" and "groping" by the mentees. The celebrity's reputation and brand are severely damaged. What is the decision problem and associated research problem?
Students may have variations, and this is offered as one potential solution:

Question 10

Make an appointment and hold a meeting with a business owner located on or near the university/college campus. Hold discussions with the decision maker. Conduct secondary research to identify the environmental context of issues facing the decision maker. Can you identify a decision problem and research problem that could be effectively addressed for the business?

Question 11

What are the fundamental characteristics of a well-defined decision problem?

Question 12

Given the following decision problems, identify a broad research problem/question and at least one hypothesis for the research question.

Question 13

Explain why research should be among the vital elements of a PR campaign or program. What kinds of information can come from a formal research program and how might they be used?

Question 14

What elements of a target audience can be used for a PR program supporting a new brand of clothing?
How about a new car, in particular, a new car brand?

Question 15

What are some ways to gather information about target audiences?
Which are most robust and timely?
Which are least expensive and take the least amount of time?

Question 16

Briefly explain what pivot tables can be used for and how they can be employed in PR.

Question 17

What actions are key when preparing a spreadsheet for use as the data source for a pivot table report?