Research is vital for PR. Research for anything is important. One cannot expect to be an expert in anything without research, training, etc. For example, a person (most of the time, there are prodigies in the world) will not be an expert on the piano without training and practice. A person cannot be an expert in engineering without training and experience. a person cannot be an expert in history without research. Whatever field a person is in or pursuing, they cannot expect to be an expert without necessary training, research, or practice. The same is true with PR. PR is extremely vital in today's age. PR is relatively new, unlike marketing and economics, therefore, it requires even more research because there is less information and common knowledge with PR.
One example where I should have studied more was a recent event my church hosted. We hosted a Family Life Conference and since we had extra money, we decided to use social media to boost our event. We had a couple thousand people see our ad, but we only had a couple people who signed up for our conference through Facebook. The only reason why we decided to do the paid ad was that we had the extra money. We should have studied more. We should have done our research instead of nonchalantly wasting money. We should have increased our PR and build a better relationship with our church and spread our "brand." If we did that better, we would had a better turn out.
Thoughts?