“The themes and appeals you will use…with your publics depend in great part on your research. The researcher will discover which aspects of your venture appeal to what publics. Your themes will appeal to basic motivations — a desire to be a leader or a follower, a desire for immortality or for parental love, and a host of others.”

—Edward Bernays^[1]

“Once in a while, you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

—Robert Hunter^[2]

First, a Story…

Their goal was to “stop the internet.”^[3]

Their problem was that people scroll through social media at a rapid pace. There tends to be a lot of “sameness” in our feeds, as athletes compete with musicians, comedians, chefs, and artists for attention. Advertising for products, for events, for politicians also adds to the competition. How, as a marketing team, do you make someone stop scrolling?

Their solution: A bright orange tile.

They coordinated with hundreds of high-follower accounts on Instagram to post the bright orange tile at the same time. When someone clicked on the tile, it linked to a video. The tactic worked and the video went viral.

That video promised an immersive music festival — think Coachella meets Burning Man — held in the Bahamas. Tickets were limited, wildly expensive, and quickly sold out. Fyre Festival was slated for Spring 2017, and perhaps you’re familiar with the rest of the story. It was a disaster, or perhaps more appropriately, a dumpster fire.

The festival site was undeveloped and the logistics were a nightmare. The luxury accommodations were little more than disaster relief tents with dirt floors. The gourmet meals turned out to be, in some cases, cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam containers. There was no lighting. No one roped off the hazardous parts of the island. There was no cell or internet service. No one had running water. And there was no easy way out; the nearby resorts were fully booked, because it was their peak season.

The experience led to class-action lawsuits and a six-year prison sentence for the organizer of the festival, Billy McFarland.

The Takeaway

From a social-media marketing perspective, the festival promotion was memorable. It was based on sound principles and worked. People clicked on the image and the festival sold out.

The festival itself was an epic failure, and demonstrates what happens when you operate on a theory — an idea about how something works — without doing the research to figure out if the idea is any good.

Introduction to Theory & Research

Theories come in all shapes and sizes, and they aren’t just in this chapter. You’ll find them peppered throughout the text. Theories suggest ways to interpret a situation. Research allows you to better understand that situation and apply relevant theories. Relying on research alone — knowing a client’s situation inside and out — will only get you so far if you don’t have theories about what to do. Relying on theory alone — what tends to work — may overlook key factors that make the situation different than expected.

Theory and research matter in Public Relations because they enhance the quality of recommendations you’ll make to a client and help predict what kind of success you may have. How do you design an effective communication campaign without first knowing everything possible about your client and audience? You can’t. You can guess or get lucky, but you can also get it wrong and have your luck disappear.

The key is to cover your bases so your supervisor and client understand the rationale for your ideas. You’ll need to understand the client, the industry, and the audience.

Those aren’t just hoops to jump through, either. The most common mistake is to jump to tactics before doing the proper research. Don’t reverse-engineer the research to justify your decision. Inspiration is wonderful when it strikes, but keep those ideas on the back-burner. Proceed with an open mind and follow the best information and data you are able to collect. Maybe your first good idea winds up being the best. Great. But doing that extra bit of research will “stress test” the theory, and might lead to even better ideas that resonate with the audience.

It’s easy to get lost in a fog of theories and research, however. And it’s easy to wonder how to apply them to your clients’ real-life concerns.  We’ll keep the organization straightforward. We’ll first get into theories and how to apply them, then finish with research, and how to apply it. By the end, if you properly apply theories and research to any given situation, you’ll have a better approach and solution to help your clients.

Theories: Definition & Types

There are countless theories regarding various situations in life. Some are popular and some are relatively unknown. Some theories deal with major issues, while others focus on minutiae. Theories are “tools that help us see and understand the surrounding ‘reality,’ and different kinds of theories guide what we focus on, perceive, and understand…” so they may be thought of as “lenses through which we consider ‘reality.’”^[4]

PR and Strategic Communication practitioners operate on theories that explain why certain communication efforts may succeed or fail. When a client or higher-up asks why your approach will work, a theory is the explanation that follows the word “because” in your answer. Hopefully your response is more than “because I think it will work” and includes research and data to support your approach.

Theories can be categorized in a range of ways, one of which is the notion of micro-level theories, meso-level theories, and macro-level theories. Most PR and Strategic Communication involves micro-level theories that examine communication efforts between an entity and its stakeholders and include ideas related to crisis communication, branding, and social media. Meso-level theories examine communication practices at the organizational level and include things like employee communication, organizational culture, and strategic planning efforts such as a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. Macro-level theories review communication efforts in the public sphere, often through a philosophical lens, and include bigger picture efforts including how publics are conceptualized.^[5]

The last couple chapters spent more time on the macro- and meso-levels, while the next several chapters focus more on the micro-level theories. Situations “more often than not” involve more than one level of analysis.^[6] For example, you could rely on broad, macro-level theories embedded in a mission statement to guide your general approach, and then apply meso- or micro-level theories that are more “situational” and specific, such as how to phrase a message.

In the end, we’re just playing with ideas: You’ll have to roll with the theories that make the most sense and work for you. Theories may not provide an exact answer of what to do, but they’ll tell you what might work.

Applying Theories

Technology changes far faster than human nature. It’s therefore useful to have a basic working knowledge of consumer tendencies to understand why certain approaches may connect better than others. To that end, this section offers a quick overview of six theories useful for PR and Strategic Communication practitioners, and how they may be applied.

Up first is AIDA, one of the more famous marketing acronyms that’s been around for more than a century. It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. It describes an approach to create content to gain the attention of the audience, establish their interest in a product or service, instill a desire, and finally act upon that desire by doing business with that entity. If you’ve heard of a “sales funnel,” it’s the same linear process that describes how consumers tend to behave. By breaking the process down into different parts, you should be able to ascertain where the consumer is getting “stuck” and work to move them to the next step.

If you’ve taken a Communications Theory course, you may recall the Uses and Gratifications Theory, as it’s one of the most popular theories in the discipline. In the 1920s, there was a moral panic surrounding bad behavior in movies, and a demand to understand the implications for moviegoers and society at large. A couple decades later, people pushed back against the premise, because they believed that people weren’t helpless, but had agency and made choices. From those ideas sprung the Uses and Gratifications Theory.^[10] The basic idea is that rather than being passive consumers of media, audiences are active, goal-oriented, and make conscious choices related to those goals.^[11] Put another way, this theory studies what people do with media rather than what media do to people.^[12] By interacting with the media, people hope to achieve a sense of gratification that ranges from entertainment or education to social engagement or escapism.

So, what can we do with that?

Uses and Gratifications theory can inform decision-making about how to reach out to an audience. A quick example: We’re helping a company that sells outdoor sheds for homeowners to use in their backyard. A potential customer may not care to read an email blast about outdoor sheds, but they may care a great deal about being able to refer to instructional YouTube videos for assembly and troubleshooting.

Communication is an interactive process, and people make choices about how they interact with media. For that reason, it’s helpful to put yourself in the audience’s position, and ask “What’s in it for me?”  Think about what someone may hope to achieve by interacting with media content and meet them there.

Up next is Cognitive Dissonance, which describes a human need for psychological balance and supporting previous choices.^[13] Simply put, when someone is wrong or misguided, they generally don’t enjoy being told they’re wrong or misguided. There’s a natural tendency to prefer supporting existing opinions and choices rather than rethinking them.

A quick metaphor for cognitive dissonance is to think like a surfer riding a wave. A professional surfer can see a wave coming from a distance, and rather than oppose it directly, they leverage its inertia and move with its strength. Understanding cognitive dissonance demonstrates an appreciation for genuinely held objections, and finds creative ways to work around those arguments, rather than taking them head-on.

Cognitive dissonance is something companies can create in the mind of a potential consumer as well, and then offer their product or service as a way to return to a more balanced mental state. Advertisements from pharmaceutical companies may make someone question a mild ache or pain. A walk-in bathtub company may emphasize the danger of slipping and falling with a traditional tub. An animal advocacy group may rely on graphic footage of abused pets to drive donations from pet lovers.

The Association Principle connects good feelings with a service or product. The idea describes the way in which consumers associate positive (or negative) feelings about products that match their approved cultural values or images.

There are plenty of positive examples of the association principle at work. When a company decides to sponsor a local 5k, food bank, or sports team — it may be due to a genuine desire to do good in the community, and it may also stem from a desire to be associated with something the local community already holds in high esteem. It can be a win-win. The association principle also explains why brands will pay top-dollar for product placement in a popular show or movie. Product placements  — also known as an integrated promotion,^[15] virtual product placement^[16] or digital insertion^[17] — allow advertisers to blend into programs rather than being a “skippable” ad. Finally, the Aesthetic Association Principle explains why, when we know little else about a product, we tend to gravitate toward labels that are visually pleasing. We transfer our good feelings regarding that label to the product itself.^[18]

The association principle also explains why brands partner with influencers.^[20]

Fit describes the ideological and stylistic match between a brand and an influencer.^[21] Fit is generally viewed as the primary factor in the success of an endorsement. It’s recommended that brands “exercise extreme caution” in these partnerships because both positive and negative information about the celebrity or influencer transfer to the brand, with negative information exerting the largest impact on the effectiveness of the endorsement.^[22] Positive traits tend to transfer only under conditions of high fit, while negative traits transfer to the brand under conditions of low fit as well.^[23]

The concept of fit is more involved than it may appear at first. People tend to adopt behaviors and form opinions from other people and groups that align with their own definition of self and preferred aspirational images.^[24] Similarly, when someone perceives a congruence between a brand’s image and their preferred self-image, that not only enhances their image of the brand — it increases their motivation to support that brand.^[25] For some people, purchasing and being seen using Apple products is both a personal preference and personal statement. The more you consider fit, the more likely you’ll catch a whiff of the association principle and cognitive dissonance at work.^[26]

Our final theory is Repetition. Our final theory is Repetition. Our final theory is Repetition.

Sorry.

The persuasiveness of repetition is nothing new. In fact, thousands of years ago, Aristotle stressed that repeating words and phrases allows ideas to stick in the minds of listeners.^[27] Flash forward to the modern era. For nearly a century, many advertisers and marketers have chosen to abide by the Rule of Seven, which contends that consumers need to be exposed to an advertisement seven times before they’ll take action.

Of course, the consumer and advertising landscape is substantially different today — so is the rule still valid? Recent studies suggest that consumer recall increases linearly for about eight exposures before it begins to level off, and maximum attitude change is achieved at about 10 exposures.^[28] So that time-tested rule isn’t far off.

As you might imagine, when given the choice, people generally choose to minimize their exposure to advertisements whenever possible. Everyone pushes the “skip” button.^[29] But repetition works. Repetitive advertisements are perceived as annoying while people experience it, but weeks later, those same people are shown to prefer that brand.^[30]

There are quite a few caveats to these observations. The ideal amount of repetition is dependent on multiple factors, ranging from the ad type, the product or service, when and where the ad is experienced, and how the audience received the ad.

A few key points should be mentioned. First, early research suggests that short, 6-second ads — often in the form of “pre-roll” or “over the top” at the beginning of a YouTube video, for example — can be effective.  In terms of recall, they are almost as effective as a 15-second ad, and are 60% as effective as traditional 30-second ads.^[31] Repetition may disproportionately favor larger companies, as those companies typically enjoy a robust social media presence already. For small- and medium-sized organizations “with limited budgets,” interacting with others and message repetition are among “the most direct and efficient tools” to increase brand awareness on Facebook.^[32]

Last but not least: The quality of content matters more than the quantity of content. Advertising format and overall creativity are better predictors of achieving recall than repetition because people remember unique ads.^[33] Furthermore, when people experience several ads back-to-back, the mere presence of creative ads reduces the recall of straightforward ads.^[34] All the repetition in the world won’t save a poorly crafted message.

Research: Definition & Types

Research involves a lot more than a quick search on Google or TikTok, and calling it good. That’s for amateurs — not people who command a paycheck in exchange for expertise. Research can be described as the search for data combined with interpretation.

An initial distinction commonly made in research is whether it’s quantitative or qualitative in nature. In other words, are the findings presented in numbers and hard data, or opinions and insights from observation? Sometimes it’s a blend of the two — maybe you had respondents fill out a survey with predefined answers, and then also included a few essays — in which case, that’s referred to as a mixed method. But this admittedly academic distinction only gets us so far in practice.

It can be helpful to characterize research in terms of what you’re looking for and how you’re looking for it.

As far as what to look for, there are three basic types of research we’ll be interested in: client research, industry research, and audience research. Simply put, to offer sound advice, you’ll first need to know about the product or service, its competition, and its target audience(s), as well as what is said by and about that entity. More on that in a moment.

In terms of how to look for that information, think of it in phases. Casual research collects information that’s already known, and — as the name suggests —it can be quite informal, where you pick people’s brains, and yes, maybe you do a quick online search.

It’s the type of work you might do with a handful of minutes left at the end of class. Secondary research requires seeking out and gathering published data, but doing so in a systematic and purposeful fashion. This is where you’ll dig in to help confirm or dismiss initial knee-jerk reactions from casual research. Finally, primary research involves conducting your own research and generating original data.^[35] Its purpose is to resolve key questions that haven’t been answered at all or to update old data. Whether formal or informal, research can be understood as the process of finding information and interpreting it through a given theory or lens.

Applied Research: The Situation Analysis

A situation analysis is the foundation of your overall proposal to a client. There is no single, universally used template, but it typically begins with a bird’s-eye view of the company, conveys key facts regarding the client’s position, and discusses the implications of those key facts. Depending on how succinct the writing is, a typical length is between 700-1,500 words.^[38] At first, you may wonder how you’ll fill up that space, but after reviewing a client’s situation, you’ll have the opposite problem: finding ways to limit your report to the most vital information.

One way to organize the situation analysis is what we’ll refer to as the C.I.A. approach: client research, industry research, and audience research.^[39] Each situation is different, so the lists below are best viewed as common starting points.

Client research opens with a broad introductory paragraph. It’s the organization at a glance — the kind of information you’d expect to find at the beginning of a Wikipedia entry. A key component of client research is a communication audit, in which you’ll review and analyze what’s being said by and about the client. The idea is to better understand the client’s relative strengths and weaknesses, and determine what publics like and don’t like. Client research typically includes:

• Founding date
• Founder(s)
• Service or product offered
• Sense of entity’s size: revenue, locations, employees
• Mission statement/vision statement
• Communication audit: internal & external communication
• Media coverage
• Website analysis
• Social media review: follower counts, engagement rates, sentiment analysis
• Overall perception of service/products offered by the client

The term “industry” refers to a group of similar organizations, often in competition with one another.^[40] Industry research reviews this landscape and lends a sense of how the client fits in. This research can yield insights regarding competitive advantages, and what makes the client different. Industry research typically includes:

• Size and health of market
• Market share
• Identification of leaders and competitors
• Characterization of product/service of leaders and competitors
• How those products/services are typically marketed
• Industry-wide trends and challenges

Finally, audience research advances what’s known about the client and industry, and looks for ways to connect with particular publics. Knowing the audience and what they care about can suggest what to say and how to say it. The audience is the “who” that determines the what, when, where, why, and how of messages that resonate.

Audience research typically includes^[41]:

• Relevant social and lifestyle trends
• Typical consumer behavior in the industry: loyal, deal- or variety-seeking
• Demographics, psychographics of current and prospective consumers
• What those current/prospective consumers like and dislike about brands
• Evaluation of reaching out to current vs. prospective consumers
• Motivating factors in purchasing decision
• Media consumption and communication behaviors

It’s easy to get numbed by numbers and data and forget that you’re getting into deeply personal details of people’s lives. Some data may be derived from stereotypes that are inaccurate and harmful to both the audience, and the organization’s bottom line. Use this information thoughtfully, maintain an outward mindset and connect with the human rather than the data set.

The situation analysis should conclude with a paragraph or two that describes the key takeaways from these findings. Throughout the report, it can be tempting to suggest that specific actions should be taken. Hold that thought. The situation analysis simply describes the way that things are right now — prior to any recommended actions. Not until the concluding paragraph(s) is it appropriate to use these observations as a basis to pivot slightly and set the stage for a particular course of action.

The Next Level: Primary Research

Secondary research is valuable, but there’s no substitute for primary research, which involves conducting original research regarding a client’s situation. To be fair, the communication audit from the situation analysis involves primary research in the form of a website analysis and social media review.

Primary research is necessary when secondary research is not available — perhaps the client is a small, locally owned business or a startup. Primary research helps fill in knowledge gaps. It also demonstrates to the client that you care enough about their situation to put in the effort required to make the best possible recommendations.

Entire courses and books are dedicated to exploring best practices, so we’ll just briefly mention three of the more common approaches to gaining insight on consumers: interviews, focus groups, and surveys.

Interviews are one-on-one conversations to elicit information, and may be conducted in person, or via video conference, phone, or email — in that order of preference. They might be more improvised and open-ended if the goal is to explore general ideas, or the interviewer may stick to a scripted list of questions if the goal is to find answers to specific questions or maintain consistency across all interviews. Interviews are expensive and tend not to produce generalizable information, but they can yield deep insights that may be followed by more precise and large-scale studies.

A focus group is a small-group discussion of a particular topic facilitated by a moderator. A focus group may stand alone, follow a series of in-depth interviews, or be paired with a survey. It should consist of a representative target audience — usually between eight and 12 people, and as few as five — to help test concepts, logo designs, names, and campaign ideas. A focus group is valuable in addressing “Why?” “How?” and “What if?”^[43] As with an interview, a focus group is most productive with a trained facilitator, and may also be relatively expensive.

Surveys help quantify attitudes by converting perceptions, preferences and reported behaviors into generalizable data. You must be meticulous to gain the right information. Imprecisely phrased questions or incorrect data entry can result in costly errors. Use an expert to get usable information from surveys, otherwise there may be a meaningful difference between survey respondents and the general population. Anyone can come up with a list of questions — a skilled practitioner can ensure survey data is accurate and meaningful.

Experts Talk Back:

Three questions with Eric Morgenstern, CEO and co-founder of Morningstar Communications.

Morgenstern’s career spans several decades, and his work has been recognized with multiple Lifetime Achievement awards, including PR Professional of the Year and Fellow distinctions from PRSA, and Entrepreneur of the Year and the Arthur Lowell Lifetime Achievement award from KC/IABC. He also maintains an industry-related blog at Morningstar Communications.

What I do, actually, when I do presentation coaching for leaders—which I do a lot of—I’m not writing their remarks. I’m not designing their slides. What I do is I help smart people figure out what they’re trying to say, and then help them say it in a way that the audience will best receive it—to do what the person wants them to do, or to think what we want them to think.

So, Clarify, Connect, Change is my positioning line. And there’s nothing unique about what I do compared to other yahoos in our industry. But what I do is help clients clarify their message, connect with the people who matter most, and then change attitudes and behavior. Clarify, Connect, Change.

Now—getting back to your question—there are several things I would put in play. One of those is Think, Feel, Do.

So, we’re talking to a new person. They don’t know anything about ABC, and we’re trying to grow our business. And I know key words and phrases that people who have already bought what we sell, because I picked it up by talking to them: Two ears, one mouth—use them in proportion—and all that. I start with a process called Think, Feel, Do.

Nathan, you’re a prospect. You’re someone in the community that I think could be an influencer, and I’m meeting you for the first time. You’re someone where before we connect, I say to myself, “When I’m done with this interaction—whatever the interaction is—when that moment comes, when it’s time for me to leave you to stand there. At that moment, what do I want you to Think, Feel and Do? Think: left brain—linear, logical, mathematical, sequential. Feel: right brain—our values, emotions. And Do: What is it I’m specifically wanting you to do? What’s the action?

Tons. Let me start with the very specific one: Delivering bad news, which is kind of what you were getting at.

Four steps. Number one, say exactly what happened. Because frequently, not everyone in the room knows exactly what happened. Let’s say we had a data breach; we had fiscal impropriety; we had some shrinkage—I guarantee you, no one in the room knows everything.

So, you start by saying, “Hey, let’s just level-set here. I just want everyone to know we had a data breach, the numbers show a 10% dip,” whatever. Fill in the blank.

Second point, what we’re doing about it. We’re saying this happened. Our approach right now to stop the bleeding is “blah, blah, blah.”

Three, here’s what we are going to do moving forward, so this doesn’t happen again. Because we learn every day, and “blah, blah, blah.” And even if you don’t have an answer, it could be “We need to put together an assessment team and do a post mortem on it.”

And number four is, “I am sorry that we’re all going through this.” And you put yourself in the circle. You’re not the one who caused it. Saying things like “Don’t shoot me, I’m just the messenger,” is cheesy.

But when you are reporting anything bad to power: What happened? What are we doing right now? What are we going to do so it doesn’t happen again — and even if we don’t have that answer — “Well, Billy Bob is going to lead in a process to assess,“ you have something. And “we’re all sorry we’re going through this, but we’ll get through it.” You use plural pronouns, and don’t take ownership of something you didn’t cause. If you caused it, it’s a different conversation, but I don’t think that’s where you’re coming from.

Read great writing.

That is everything. What we now call “long-form content,” or books. Periodicals. If you read The Athletic, that is excellent journalism writing, and it’s all about sports. So, you can find great writing—Joe Posnanski is brilliant—he writes about sports, and it’s also about life.

Read great writing, and you will do two things at the same time: You’ll learn something new every day, and you’ll see how the best people do it. Because I am absolutely convinced — no matter what happens with AI, no matter what happens with technology — the ability to take thoughts and put them into words will never go away.

We’ve been doing that as a species since — and I have this whole schtick — but the courier would roll it up and run, and then they’d put it on a horse, and then we had the printing press, and then we had Marconi and then we had TV, and then the internet…Somebody still has to pull the thought out of the brain, and get ink on paper. That’s an old-fashioned term, but you know what I’m saying: Get the words down so that I can convey it.

What sticks?

You will get the ability to communicate better by reading great writing. There is a connection to it. I’ll channel my inner Daniel Pink. I’ll channel my inner Malcolm Gladwell—whatever. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is you have to be so curious.

They say that at age 5, we ask the question “why” the most in our lives. When you were 5, you’d say, “Why is the sky blue?” “Why can’t we have dessert first?” and it just goes down from there.

And most people go through their life, thinking, “Okay, well, there must be a reason. Hmm, okay.” Ask “Why!”

I cannot tell you how important it is to ask “Why?”

By asking “why,” you get quickly to the root of that rationale that you were talking about — the emotional aspect. Ask “why” — Don’t guess at motivations. Just ask. And then ask a second “why,” or tell me “so what?” Why should I care? That’s another way to get to that deeper causal factor.

So, read great writing. Be super curious. Be constantly learning and getting to the root of why.

Last, I’ll say: Have a bias for action.

I have a client who says, “I’m never in a bad meeting,” which is his way of saying, “When I’m talking with people, it sounds good, but we’re still having the same conversation.” You know what I mean?

The person who has a bias for action gets ahead. Cheryl Sandberg says “Lean in.” I’m not saying I’m Cheryl Sandberg, and I’m not using the phrase “Lean in.” It’s not a new concept. He or she who says, “I’ll get the donuts,” — well, you get into the meeting. “I’ll make the copies.” You do what’s needed: You have a bias for action.

And too many young people wait for things to happen instead of going and making them happen. Here’s a story on that: I’m speaking at Mizzou. I’m running the agency. And we’re always looking for great interns, so I say “all the info is on our site: come and knock on our door.” Young woman came up to me afterwards. “Hi, I’m Katie. My advisor told me not to do this. My parents told me not to do this. My roommate told me not to do this. But I’m doing it. Mr. Morgenstern: Here’s my resume. I really want to work at Morningstar Communications.”

And she had done her homework. That wasn’t a gratuitous “I need a job.” I was totally impressed. I said “Katie, I don’t hire our interns.” That’s not a line — I empower my team to do that. The process is online. Please follow the process: I respect my team and don’t want to circumvent that.”

She said, “I understand. I just wanted to take the opportunity to meet you, and shake your hand.”

I went back to the office, and I took her resume down to the person who’s hiring for interns, and here’s the moment: Some people like me might have been offended that she’s trying to do an end-run or whatever. Not me! I say, “I like that gumption. I admire someone who has a bias for action. That’s the kind of person I want on my team. I’m not telling you to hire her: I’m telling you to take a good look at her.”

Two days later, I got a note from her: “Mr. Morgenstern, I enjoyed meeting you. Thanks for coming to Columbia. I did everything you said: I went online and submitted my application. I’m following up with you again simply to say I appreciate it, and thank you.”

I took that note in, and said “This is the exact right way to follow up on it.” I told her what to do, and she looped back, and said “I did it, and I really want to work there.” She came to work for us. Intern. Then coordinator. Account exec. Today, she is running the Comms team at Evergy. It’s a big gig. Take action.

Katie’s that kind of person—clearly. I am that kind of person. But what if I wasn’t? Katie would have never been happy working for us.

“To thine own self be true” is the other half of that. Students: If you’re a duck, be a duck. If you have graphics skills, make sure I know. If you know how to use a real camera? Those are real assets. Just be you, and take action.

So if you’re reading good writing, if you’re curious, and if you take action, you’re going to learn something new every day.

GAI Tools

One final, brief note about the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence: The advantages of such tools seem immediate and obvious. The disadvantages may not be as clear, but they are present.

Even though GAI is improving substantially, those tools generate inaccurate information that has the illusion of accuracy: It sounds good, but it’s wrong. It’s tempting to accept output as definitive, rather than as a starting point, and the danger is that it “does not encourage you to think. It encourages you to accept.”^[44] Experts won’t be fooled by slop, so perform due diligence and double-check that each and every assertion is correct.^[45]

Technological tools may make the job easier, but you still have a job to do, and that requires going beyond what any person with a functioning keyboard can do. Why would they pay you for something they can do on their own? Demonstrate your value.

Summary: Putting it All Together

Plato argued that someone must know the absolute truth of a situation before attempting to persuade others to that truth.^[46] Understanding an organization’s situation requires client research, industry research, and audience research. Theories may be thought of as ideas about the way things work and lenses to interpret reality. Effective research can point to theories that suggest ways of moving forward and successfully persuade others about the absolute truth of a situation.

As the world becomes more data-driven, “intuition is no longer enough.”^[47] Seasoned practitioners relying on a gut feeling and experience might not secure the business of a client who has their public image, finances and future on the line. It’s just not good enough to waltz in with a hunch about a fuzzy idea. You must demonstrate an understanding of the situation and show you’ve done the work — so bring receipts.

A final pair of arguments in favor of a detailed situation analysis — in case Plato’s observation and best practices weren’t enough — is that the situation analysis is the foundation of a PR proposal. And if the organization, research and writing are top-notch, it’ll not only impress a potential client, it may impress future clients.

So take your time and do it well. No one will remember how quickly you did it; they’ll remember how well you did it.