Industry and Academic research for the Oklahoma City Zoo

UnSplash

Our client for our campaign class this semester is the Oklahoma City Zoo. We just had our client briefing so now we are working on our secondary research. According to Strategic Planning for Public Relations, secondary research is “re-analyzing existing information obtained by previous researchers for a new and specific purpose”. This helps understand people's attitudes and behaviors because this information is what the public has seen or heard thus far. There are three primary groups that our team will be searching through for the OKC zoo. Company and industry information, news databases, and scholarly research databases will be our focus.

Company and industry information is useful for analyzing from the company’s perspective. It provides intel on the operations and internal attitudes towards itself. MarketLine is a great example of industry information. Upon searching zoos, a list of leisure activities and documents detailing companies such as Walt Disney, Merlin Entertainments, and Six Flags Entertainments. This information helps us understand the industry we are working with and reflect on successful companies.

Picture from UnSplash

News databases are the next necessary source to understand the talk about either the Oklahoma City zoo or anything in a category relating to what were interested in. Through the University of Oklahoma, we have access to The Oklahoman. This newspaper covers everything relevant in Oklahoma. If our zoo has been talked about, it would be in there. This is valuable to understand how big this company is and what people have found important about it in the past, good or bad.

The last source is scholarly research databases. These will help explain the logistics and sciences behind the workings of the world. Topics from psychology to aspects of business provide an academic base for anything that is not common knowledge. The Communication Source is everything in media studies. This provides essential information to back knowledge that could have been taught to us previously in our public relations degree but is verified to back our information. Having sources to back our opinion is important to participate in the c-suite and be recognized, by the people above us, as knowledgeable and factual. Besides supporting our own opinion it provides sources of previous work and studies so that we can gain new ideas and knowledge.

With all of these resources available, we can provide a thorough background and knowledgeable opinion on options for the Oklahoma City Zoo. By completing this research, our primary research will have the right focus and will highlight the important pieces to include from public opinion. Overall this helps to utilize resources properly, not to waste time or money of the public relations department or the Oklahoma City Zoo.