Unobtrusive Research

For the past few classes, we've been talking about unobtrusive observation.  I was interested to see how other students felt about this topic and how they were interpreting what we were learning.  To do this, I decided to read through some classmate's blogs and was quite surprised to see what they had to say.

Sasha, not only a class mate, but member of both projects for my class, applied unobtrusive relationship to something I recently talked about, non-profit PR.  She discussed how by using unobtrusive research, one could figure out who was donating money to the organization.  Using this method, one would be able to get the information they need without effecting the outcome or future outcome. 

Another classmate who applied unobtrusive research in their blog was Brittney. In her post, Brittney discussed how the online program, Pandora, created play lists for listeners based on music they liked.  This websites technology allows users to rate if they like a song or not and allows program directors and musicians to see what music is popular without interfearing with listener's opinions.  I found this to be extremely interesting because as I was reading this, I, myself, was listening to a play list on Pandora.

After reading these posts, I was surprised by how often unobtrusive observation is used in everyday life, most of the time without our knowledge.  It's with this knowledge that I hope to recognize when I use unobtrusive research myself in daily activities. 

For the past 6 summers, I've spent my days working at a non-profit camp.  While the pay wasn't great, the cause the camp was supporting was one I was passionate about.  This passion is what made me come back year after year and something I hope to find in my full time job to insure I don't dread going to work each day.  One way to achieve this feeling in the PR field is to work for a non-profit organization. 

When doing PR with a non-profit company, one is primarily trying to deliver a message to the local community.  Good PR will hopefully garner a significant amount of support from the public as well as much needed donations.  In order to obtain these donations and publicity, there are many steps that must be taken.  Unlike doing PR for a for profit company, non-profit PR companies are much different. According to Stryker Wiener and Yokota, the budget is one of the most important things to consider when doing the campaign for a non-profit.  This makes things a little more difficult because you need to be efficient in your evaluation of what form of communication would be the most efficient and budget friendly.  Luckily, because non-profits have such a human interest aspect to it, news articles are more inclined to cover them and this would be at not cost to you.  As a non-profit PR practitioner, one must remember the more publicity the company gets, the more funds it can raise, making the company more efficient.

With numerous non-profit companies, the different causes you can work for are wide and vast.  People interested in this field though need to understand that because it is a non-profit company, sometimes it doesn't offer the best pay.  This doesn't go for all companies though, so with good research, one could find a good paying job supporting something they're passionate about.

In my eyes, working for a non-profit company is a great way to incorporate a great job working on something I care about.  This love would make me excited to go to work each day and further the development of this company in hopes of fixing an issue.  On the downside though, this would mean I would most likely focus solely on this one topic which could lead to boredom.  Overall though, I feel as though this would be a great way to balance doing something close to my heart and having a job.

What's going on in the PR332 blogging world...

So while I normally discuss the different types of PR, I thought it would be beneficial to take a look at fellow student's blogs, allowing me to not only see what other people are talking about, but also get another perspective into the very complex field. 

The first blog I chose is actually of the student I sit behind and have numerous classes with.  She is exposed to the same things I am during our PR classes, so i thought it would interesting to see how she was interpreting not only what we've been learning, but the PR world.  When I started to read Paige's blog post, I was immediately intrigued by her topic, FASHION!  I, like just about every other 21 year old girl in America, am immediately attracted to anything having to do with fashion and dropping the designer, Tory Burch's, name is a great way to keep me around.  After finishing the blog entry though, I will admit I was quite impressed by what she had written.  While I'm aware research is used in all different manners, the way she applied it to her example of rain boots really made it stick.  I appreciated the way she broke down what research would needed to be done and why it should be done.

For the second blog, I chose another fellow student who was also writing about the fashion aspect of PR in order to make further comparisons.  In Kayla's blog, she focused specifically on the store Lovely Bridal Shop.  My sister is currently engaged and being the maid of honor, this link and topic was something which applied directly to my life.  I enjoyed how she applied research to the different aspects of the store.  From advertising, to how the store should function, to what specific demographic is desired, Kayla did a good job explaining why research would be needed and how to conduct the actual research.

Overall, I'm glad I took my professor's advice to look at other student's blogs.  It allowed me to compare my thoughts to theirs and see things from a different perspective, widening my knowledge and solidifying the ideas.