Katie Warners Blog: Comments on Classmates Blogs

Katie Warners Blog: Comments on Classmates Blogs: "Research is essential in any business’s success, whether you are marketing a product, putting out a newsletter or dealing with crisis manage..."

Comments on Classmates Blogs

Research is essential in any business’s success, whether you are marketing a product, putting out a newsletter or dealing with crisis management, research is always important.  One of my fellow classmates Lisa Perez discussed the importance of research in her blog through marketing a product.  She used the proactive campaigns as a perfect example of how important research is when trying to get people to buy your product.  Proactive uses celebrities to endorse their product, but proactive also uses a variety of marketing strategies to gain interest.  The strategies used include a number of visuals, facts and examples of real people struggling with acne.  Lisa then related these marketing strategies back to the research side behind the campaign.  In order for proactive to be successful with their campaign they needed to research their target audience, and discover what attracts that particular demographic.  Without researching any of this before their campaign they might not have been as successful with the selling of their product.  Lisa’s blog showed me the importance of research, and how even though you may not notice it, research is a valuable aspect in marketing all products.  I enjoyed reading Lisa’s blog, she used a real campaign to show the importance of research which gave me a better insight into the marketing world, and allowed me to see research in a different way.

The next blog that I read was Kaitlyn Lovett’s.  Kaitlyn talked about the importance of research when pertaining to crisis management.  She used a school shooting as an example of crisis management where research plays an important role.  She touched on a side of research that I had never thought about prior to reading her blog, she mentions how in the case of a school shooting you must find out information about the shooter, were there behavioral issues, how can it be prevented in the future and so on.  It had never occurred to me that a school shooting would require research, but now I see the importance of finding out as much as you can so the situation would never be repeated.  If you are going into the public relations field it is important to know how to handle a crisis, and a considerable amount of research needs to be done before and after a crisis in order to prepare yourself in case of a crisis, and to prevent a crisis from happening again. 

Research is a crucial part of public relations.  Even though we may not notice the impact of research in situations such as marketing a product or dealing with a crisis, research has a very strong impact on both situations.  Reading both of these blogs gave me a better understanding of the strong impact of research; they were well written blogs and I enjoyed reading and learning from both.

Katie Warners Blog: The Importance of Research in Non-Profit

Katie Warners Blog: The Importance of Research in Non-Profit: "To perform successful research it is important to have a research plan. A research plan begins with having an objective or a goal and then ..."

Katie Warners Blog: The Importance of Research in Non-Profit

Katie Warners Blog: The Importance of Research in Non-Profit: "To perform successful research it is important to have a research plan. A research plan begins with having an objective or a goal and then ..."

The Importance of Research in Non-Profit

To perform successful research it is important to have a research plan.  A research plan begins with having an objective or a goal and then seeking a strategy to best meet that objective.  After you seek a successful strategy, you need to execute the research with a specific research method.  There are a number of methods to choose from; quantitative, empirical, experimental, qualitative and historical are all research methods that you can use to conduct research.  After you have chosen a research method and executed the research, you have to look at the results.  The results of your research will give you a greater insight into the topic you are studying, and give you the knowledge you need to complete your research.

For any business to be successful it is essential that they perform various amounts of research.  In the case of non-profits it is extremely important to conduct research, because they are constantly trying to bring in more money and in order to do this they must know what demographics to reach.  A recent study was done to identify the donors in non-profit corporations by age and demographics.  The findings of the report “Heart of the Donor, Insights into Donor Motivation and Behavior for the 2st century,” concluded that boomers and older donors  are the most valuable givers and more likely to respond to mail solicitation.  This study used the quantitative research method, where they used a survey to figure out what demographic was the most popular.  The researchers came to the conclusion that boomers and older donors were more likely to donate by analyzing the research that they had conducted. 

“The survey reveals that people who typically don’t give to charities will respond to calls for help following a disaster, such as the recent Hatiatian earthquake.  Of those who gave aid to victims, 30 percent said they hadn’t given any money to a nonprofit in the previous year, including 16 percent of respondents that survey described as “determined non-givers.”- Bruce Trachtenberg.  These findings showed another side of donors, they are more likely to respond after a disaster.  These findings can be extremely useful to a non-profit employee, you learn more about the audience and when they are more likely to donate. Overall this article showed a different side of donors that non-profit corporations may not have known before.  It is important for non-profits to understand the importance of research, and understand what demographics they need to reach in order to run a successful business.

In my opinion non-profit organizations should focus a good portion of their time on research.  Large corporate companies do not rely on donations to keep their business running, but non-profit's rely solely on their donors.  In order to be successful they must learn more about their audience and figure out what it is that draws their attention.  To keep a successful non-profit business running they need to spend a good portion of their time and money on research, in the end they will be saving money and reaching a more direct demographic.

Katie Warners Blog: Ethics in Nonprofit Corporations

Katie Warners Blog: Ethics in Nonprofit Corporations: "In any company or organization ethical behavior is crucial in order to be successful. Ethics can be defined as a guideline as to what is wr..."

Ethics in Nonprofit Corporations

In any company or organization ethical behavior is crucial in order to be successful.  Ethics can be defined as a guideline as to what is wrong or right when faced with moral dilemmas; they govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group in a company or organization.  Throughout the past week in my Public Relations Research class we have discussed the topic of Ethics in terms of research.  Although some would not think of ethics as an important part of public relations research, it in fact is a strong basis for what research is all about.  Along with ethics playing a large role in research, they also have a strong impact in nonprofit organizations.

After learning about ethical behavior, I became compelled as to how important ethics are in nonprofit corporations.  An article titled Nonprofit Communication Must Be Ethical located in the Philanthropy Journal, talked about the importance of ethical behavior from corporations in order for nonprofits to remain trust worthy in the community.  For nonprofits to remain successful they must receive funding from single or multiple sources, which means they rely on their positive reputation to keep the donations coming in.  Nonprofits use various marketing strategies to draw the public’s attention, but according to Nonprofit Communication Must Be Ethical there is an ethical pitfall in the way some corporations communicate that may be misleading or deceptive. 

Nonprofits market to a more vulnerable target audience where it is important to build the public’s trust even more so than in a large corporate company.  In order for nonprofits to gain positive attitudes towards their corporation there needs to be a stronger emphasis on ethics.  Instead of creating a reputation based upon image, nonprofits should be developing recognition through ethically-informed practices.  In the world of nonprofits it is even more important for your company to represent honesty and trust. The article Nonprofit Communication Must Be Ethical mentions the mission statement of the company being a good place to start when attempting to send a more ethics based message to the public.  Any corporation should make sure that they are putting themselves out to the public in a way that represents the mission behind the company. Nonprofits especially need to double check to ensure that they are promoting themselves in an ethical way, in order to keep their donations and reputation alive. 

Ethics in the nonprofit industry can be related back to the ethics we are learning about in Public Relations Research, in both cases there needs to be the trust factor in order to be successful.  The public needs to rely on both researchers and nonprofits to be honest and upfront about what their purpose is.  In my opinion it is essential for nonprofits to base their company upon ethics, especially because of the typical vulnerable target audience they are directed towards.  The audience of a nonprofit needs to have faith that they are receiving the best possible service, and for this to happen nonprofits need to be based on honesty.  I believe that all nonprofits should be less concerned with their image and more concerned with the message they are sending out to their public.

Katie Warners Blog: Blog Focus: Non-Profit Public Relations

Katie Warners Blog: Blog Focus: Non-Profit Public Relations: "Up until recently it has been my goal to work in corporate Public Relations, but as much as I loved the idea of working for a large company ..."

Blog Focus: Non-Profit Public Relations

Up until recently it has been my goal to work in corporate Public Relations, but as much as I loved the idea of working for a large company in a big city somewhere, there was something missing.  It wasn’t until working as an aide for a mentally challenged child through a non-profit corporation this summer that I realized that my real interest was in non-profit Public Relations.  I had previously worked for a non-profit corporation, Girls Incorporated where I was involved in running after school programs for elementary school girls.  I loved working in both of these non-profit environments; there was something special about being a part of an organization that dedicated it’s time to helping the community and others.  Throughout this semester I will focus my blog on the nonprofit side of public relations.

Non-profit corporations are organized for advancing public interest rather than for financial gain; any earnings that are made go towards furthering the corporation’s purpose.  Public charities are popular forms of non-profit corporations, where their support usually comes from the public, government or organizations formed to raise money. Private foundations are another version of non-profit corporations that have a major source of funding, and one of their main activities is making out grants to other charities.

One of the major non-profit corporations that exist today is Direct Relief International.  This non-profit corporation provides “medical assistance to improve the quality of life for people affected by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest at home and throughout the world.” (directrelief.org)  Non-profit corporations such as this one are put into place to better communities all around the world.  Direct Relief International takes pride in their employees; they describe them as being a “hard working” staff.  In 2009 they were rated 99 percent efficient for their fund-raising and in my opinion a major reason for their success is based off of how engaged the employees are in the corporation.  An employee for a non-profit corporation needs to be willing to contribute their time, talent and energy every day in order to keep the corporation running smoothly.  To work in a non-profit you must be passionate about your job and engaged in its mission, only then will your corporation reach its purpose.