Research takes the guess work out of communication

Over the years we have seen the terminology “Research & Development” taking a new meaning with every new decade. Earlier it was just confined to Pure Sciences and Medicine, then moved to Management and now it’s everywhere right from Consumer Behaviour to Software to Communications; which is actually great because good research & proper implementation of those findings reduces the risk factor & significantly improves the chances of the core business intentions being fulfilled.

But why research out a communication programme; isn’t it simply “conveying” what we want to? Probably not that straight! Because like logos, communication programmes should also never be generalised, they need to be highly specific as it’s an investment, and like most investments you would want maximum return from this as well! While designing a programme for an organization, we consider the following aspects like; their Objectives- what makes them do it in the first place, what they want to accomplish so that we focus on those areas, and above all- Their target audience. And then of course we have the ‘Medium of Communication’ that counts. On one hand while youngsters can be more easily targeted by digital media, middle aged & elder population would still prefer the conventional print & paper method. We need to understand that every small factor counts right from age group to location and even professional background. Some are also concerned about the ways of measuring progress; to which we recommend setting up a metric (qualitative or quantitative) depending on the objective.

Research has also taken a technological edge these days especially with the rise of Social Media as now you can directly engage with the audience and ask what they would prefer. Besides tracking the ‘Analytics’ to find out who, when and where engages with what you have shared & who bothers to share it further. An ideal communications programme is like a dish, perfect blend of all the above ingredients & you are ready to enjoy!