Finding Out What’s Out There: A Few Tips on Conducting Market Research

BEST

By Nathalia Tavares

It’s happened before: you come up with a crazy idea for a product or campaign that has got you all pumped up. You cannot wait to share it with your friends and your boss. But then you hear, “That sounds just like what [insert name of a company] did a couple of years ago”. And the inspirational music you were playing in your hand abruptly stops and your heart sinks.

When coming up with new pitches and ideas, it is always important to know what has been done in the area before so that you don’t make the same projects – and, potentially, mistakes – that others have made. Thus, market research is pivotal for brainstorming effective new ideas.

Over the summer, I interned as a market researcher at Pontomobi, a Brazilian mobile marketing company. For three months, I researched m-health solutions in the market and what needs they were attending.

Based on my experience and a bit of research, here are a few tips for running your own market research:

Skim at first

It is hard to make an effective research plan if you don’t even know what the possibilities are to begin with. So start your research by Googling key terms and seeing what shows up – nothing too thorough, just casual exploring. For example, if you would like to know if a music nonprofit organization exists, just look up “music nonprofit” or something along those lines. Once you have an idea of what is out there, you can dive deeper into research.

Expand on a problem you want to solve

Now that you have skimmed the Internet, it is time to get more specific. When you are trying to come up with a new idea, it is often because you want to solve a specific problem or facilitate a procedure. What is the step-by-step process to solving the problem you want to solve? What are the different parts of the procedure? For grocery shopping, for example, the step-by-step procedure would be something along these lines:

– feeling the desire/need for a certain food,

– finding out that food does not exist in your house,

– making a list of things you need/want,

– travelling to the supermarket,

– finding items in your grocery list,

– paying for the products,

– returning to the house,

– placing products in the right places,

– and consuming those products – and the cycle repeats.

By figuring out the step-by-step process in solving a problem you would like to solve, you will get a better understanding of what kinds of services or incentives people want.

Define clear concepts – quantitatively

I cannot stress this enough. Going about research without defining concepts and their quantities is like playing a game without knowing the rules: you will just feel completely lost and get nothing out of it. Make sure to find out what kind of concepts you need to look for in your sources, and to quantify them so they can be compared to each other. In other words, define your variables and add specific score scales to each of them.

Reread your results as often as possible

While working on my research, there was this one time where I thought my quantified averages were weirdly low. I then realized I had used the wrong scoring – for three days. As a result, I had to work for hours re-scoring my variables. Moral of the story: reread your results first thing in the morning. Every. Single. Day.

Analyze, finalize, and realize

Your research work means nothing without analysis and the next steps. After you feel like you have gathered enough data, make sure to analyze your results to find common themes. Then, figure out the common “so what?”. What do your results mean? What problem do your need to solve? After all this, you are finally allowed to ideate and develop a solution.

I hope these suggestions are helpful to you! If you would like to find out more specifics about market research, I would recommend the book Market Research Toolbox by McQuarrie.

Research On!

Summer Adventures Abroad: Interning in London

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Through the Annenberg International Programs department, I had the opportunity to study and intern in one of my favorite cities in the world – London. This opportunity was something I had wanted to do for years, as I’ve been dreaming of living in London since I was 16, so of course I couldn’t pass it up.

Over the summer, I interned at McCluskey International, a PR and marketing firm specializing in travel and tourism. The firm had a number of clients, ranging from tourism boards, to hotels, and consumer goods. During my time there, I learned that PR in London is still operating on the traditional side, partly because of the popularity of newspapers. In North America, reading paper newspapers is rare, as many tend to consume their news digitally. However in England, commuters enjoy picking up the Metro newspaper on their way to work or the Evening Standard on their way back home. Thus our way of communicating and pitching to journalists was also very much traditional.

Throughout my internship I learned how to write better blog posts and press releases for clients, craft better social media updates and sit in strategy meetings that increased my knowledge of the travel and tourism PR industry.

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I also attended and assisted the team at an event for the Luxembourg’s tourism board at the Luxembourg embassy. At this event we brought together leisure and MICE journalists to learn more about Luxembourg and meet partners that they can potentially work with. The goal of the event was to increase the awareness of Luxembourg to journalists in the U.K. so that they could write about the country and encourage readers to visit over a holiday weekend or vacation.

Of course being in London also gave me the opportunity to explore the amazing city and nearby countries with friends and classmates. When I wasn’t interning, I found myself exploring Bath, Oxford, Stonehedge, Brighton, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, and Prague.

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I can’t help but already begin to reminisce about my summer experience. It provided me with endless opportunities to learn and explore. If I can recommend one thing to students, is to take a leap to study or work abroad for the summer – you won’t ever regret it!

Melissa

Welcome Back Message from the Co-Presidents

Welcome Back TriSighters!

Hello everyone and welcome, or welcome back, to another semester at USC! We, your TriSight Communications Co-Presidents, are excited to begin another semester with all of our wonderful members. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be welcoming a wave of new TriSighters and kicking off our account work. We’re also planning some great members-only events and other exclusive opportunities.

We thought that a good way to reactivate our blog would be to introduce our client roster for the semester. We’re beginning the term with five accounts, all of which are varied in kind and in what they require from our wonderful teams. Let’s get to know our clients!

Annenberg Media Center: Now a year old, the Annenberg Media Center is a state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind focal point for ASCJ. Inside it’s doors, students of all Annenberg areas of study are able to work collaboratively to produce professional-caliber work. This account provides TriSighters with opportunities to work in branding. Since it has only been open a year, there will be many chances for members to work on awareness campaigns, events and social media strategy.

USC School of Cinematic Arts (SCA): SCA is one the nation’s leading film schools. A great many spectacular cinematic talents have graduated from this school, and it is renowned for the quality of work it produces. Students who work on this account help to promote films made in the graduate studies program to prospective students, alums, festival programmers and trade media. Over the course the semester, TriSight members create press materials, pitch media, and reach out to the community on behalf of these spectacular student films.

Kid’s Ocean Day: This is an established, renowned non-profit. Its proprietor has worked for twenty years to educate primary school students about the importance of preserving and protecting the oceans. Affiliated with the Malibu Foundation for Environmental Education, Kid’s Ocean Day culminates in an eponymous event where hundreds of children are brought to the beach for a day of cleaning up the shore. TriSighters who work on this account get the opportunity to explore social media strategy and non-profit public relations.

Annenberg Digital Lounge: One of TriSight’s newest clients, the Annenberg Digital Lounge is a burgeoning space of creativity and technology on the third floor of the new Annenberg building. TriSight is excited to announce a new partnership with the Digital Lounge, where account members will have the opportunity to advance Annenberg’s digital literacy initiative by creating social media and marketing campaigns to grow awareness of the tools and technology assistance found in the Digital Lounge.

Viterbi School of Engineering: TriSight continues its strong relationship with USC’s Viterbi School of Engineering this fall. Members on this account will support the school’s marketing team to highlight the exciting research its students produce through written profiles and social media content. This type of work is frequently asked of entry-level PR professionals and thus provides TriSight members great portfolio material. 

The reason TriSight runs effectively is because our members work hard to ensure tasks are completed, deadlines are met and clients remain happy. So we’d like to thank you in advance for providing that same effort throughout the fall semester and into the future.

Now that you have a better idea of the organizations we’ll be servicing this semester, it’s time to get (or stay) involved! Find us on Facebook, LinkedIn and email (trisight.communications@gmail.com) to stay up-to-date with all things TriSight.

 

Three Basic Things To Include In Your Portfolio

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With summer approaching, it can only mean one thing for students – countless of interviews are on the horizon! Many of you will be spending the next couple of weeks job hunting for the summer, which means you’ll need to be on your ‘A game’ when the interview process comes around.

A good way to stand out from the other candidates is to have a portfolio on hand. Whether your portfolio is printed or published online is up to you, just make sure to bring something to the table so you can fully impress your potential employer.

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Going greek: six tips on carrying out successful pr and marketing for a sorority

By Nathalia Tavares

NOTALL WHO WANDERARE LOST

Promoting one’s organization is pivotal regardless of what the group does. An organization may be comprised of good-hearted, hard-working members; however, if the members do not know how to sell themselves, the organization will slowly fall apart.

Having PR strategies down is especially important in Greek life. With so many sororities and fraternities available, Greeks must be adept at selling their organizations.

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Controlling Time By Controlling Your Attitude

It's an Easter Celebration!

Written by Whitney Westbrook

Time management is something we are constantly striving for. How much can we get done in a week, a day, an hour to reward us with the feeling of accomplishment? The constant strive is admirable because it shows we are ambitious. But what if for just a few minutes we could stop, slow down, and take some time to just…be? If we could change our attitude about time by taking some of it for ourselves we could be more efficient with the time we have left in the day.

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Member of The Month: Meet Christina Lo!

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TriSight Communication’s third Member of the Month is Kids Ocean Day team member Christina Lo. Christina is a full-time student majoring in Communications at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, Christina’s uniqueness comes from her purple hair! Her peers and classmates instantly recognize and remember her, which always serves as a plus. Get to know Christina with our short interview below and help us congratulate her for being TriSight’s Member of the Month! Congratulations Christina!

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Why Every PR Student Should Blog

Blogging

 

Written by Melissa Ariganello

Public relations now extends itself beyond the traditional means of communicating. Now you have to consider social media and blogging. Many companies today either have a blog on their website or have writers publish content related to their company on well-known blogs. Either way, as a PR student and young professional, you should get into the habit of blogging.

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