I’d add a fourth category to your list of three uses of research. Measurement and analysis. If you’ve done the formative research part properly then the evaluation is easier to do and a must do. Correlating trends in media coverage to shifts in awareness and opinion is a simple example.

Firm believer in the formative before evaluative research and the idea that PR can be a hard management science rooted in research and not strictly a words-based soft art.

I heard someone say once that research is how an organization listens. Well if organizations are increasingly interested in engaging stakeholders in discussions and not simply driving messages out then we’re talking about a dialogue not a monologue. Communicating ‘with’ not only ‘to’. Here we’re really talking about relationships–the quality of which can be measured (innitially and over time) using survey research.

Good job guys.