Institute for Public Relations

Anecdotes and war stories account for much of our learning in public relations. Nothing wrong with that. Yet, a wealth of research-based knowledge exists to validate (or not) tales of “how I won the war” (or didn’t). Take crisis management and communications. Dr. Tim Coombs of Eastern Illinois University has produced a major baseline paper that synthesizes this knowledge, richly linked to the original sources. He reviews best practices from pre-crisis to post-crisis. “While crises begin as a negative/threat, effective crisis management can minimize the damage and in some case allow an organization to emerge stronger than before the crisis,” writes Coombs. The ...

The 2007 Jack Felton Golden Ruler Award winner is now available as a research case study on the Institute website. “Research Based Business Transformation: Benchmarking and Tracking the Customer Experience,” was submitted by Padilla Speer Beardsley and GfK for Rockwell Automation. The case is a great example of research, measurement and evaluation integrated not only into PR practice, but also business strategy. What began as a brand differentiation study ultimately resulted in a new focus on drivers of customer loyalty and advocacy. Padilla and GfK conducted quantitative research to establish benchmark measures for satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. These results were embedded into ...