Every communication strategy begins with a belief. A belief about how the public sees the institution, what issues they actually care about, and what kind of message will land well. That belief usually comes from the organization’s internal experience, from a way of thinking that has been held onto for a long time, and from conclusions that are treated as already settled. The problem is that one important thing often gets overlooked: belief is not data. Something can feel true to the people inside an organization without being what the public outside actually feels. And the distance between what we assume and what the public genuinely experiences is often far wider than we think.

The Data Exists, But Not Everyone Knows How to Use It

The Cision & PRWeek Global Comms Report 2024 offers a telling picture here. According to the report, 42% of communications leaders now rely heavily on data and analytics when building their strategies, up from 30% the year before. That’s encouraging, since it means awareness of data’s importance has genuinely grown.

But the same report also surfaces something less comfortable: 50% admit they struggle to measure communication impact effectively, and only 25% feel they actually have the right tools to do so.

In short, almost everyone now agrees that data matters. Half of them just haven’t figured out how to read it properly yet.

A Gap That Only Becomes Visible When It’s Too Late

Out of this situation, three patterns tend to repeat themselves without anyone quite noticing:

• Strategy gets built from inside the room, not from the field. 

Many communication programs are born out of internal discussions and assumptions, rather than real evidence of what the public is actually thinking.

• The public sees things through its own lens.

How media and citizens perceive an issue doesn’t always align with what an organization expects. A message that feels perfectly clear internally can land with an entirely different meaning outside.

• The gap only becomes obvious once it’s already a problem.

This is the costliest pattern of all. Without regular measurement, the distance between assumption and reality usually only surfaces once a communication crisis has already broken out, and by that point it’s loud, messy, and hard to control.

At that point, communication stops functioning as strategy and turns into firefighting.

Start With a Different Question

Many organizations open their planning with the question, “What strategy should we build?” But there’s a question that deserves to come first: “What is actually happening out there in society?”

Answering it honestly takes two stages of research working hand in hand: quantitative research, through surveys of journalists and editors across national and regional media, and qualitative research, through in-depth interviews that dig into the context behind those numbers.

These two stages aren’t meant to stand apart. Findings from the survey become the guide for what needs to be explored further in the interviews. This combined, sequential approach is known as Sequential Explanatory Design, and it typically unfolds in four stages:

1. Stage One : Collecting and analyzing quantitative data.
2. Stage Two : Collecting and analyzing qualitative data, shaped by the findings from Stage One.
3. Stage Three : Triangulating the data, cross-referencing quantitative and qualitative findings for a fuller picture.
4. Stage Four : Producing the public perception research report.

With this structure, research doesn’t stop at a tidy chart. It actually explains the meaning behind it.

Three Outcomes You Can Put to Work Immediately

This kind of research process delivers three concrete benefits an organization can act on right away:

• Understanding the current situation. 

Public perception of communications work becomes genuinely clear, rather than a guess dressed up in technical language.

• Mapping the gap. 

Specific, previously unnoticed communication opportunities and problems come into view, including ones that had been sitting under the radar entirely.

• Shaping strategy. 

Communication programs can be designed more consistently, with more reliable quality, and with results that are easier to account for.

A Good Strategy Starts With Honest Data

Public perception research is sometimes treated purely as a validation exercise, a way to justify a decision that had already been made. That mindset wastes what research is actually good for.

Its real function is to serve as a starting point, a way to understand what’s genuinely happening on the ground before the next communication move is made. Sometimes the findings are uncomfortable, or don’t match what was hoped for. That’s exactly where the value lies. Data that only nods along to our assumptions never teaches us anything new.

At Kindi, we help translate data into a fuller, clearer understanding, so that every communication decision stands on stronger ground. Let’s turn assumptions into evidence, and evidence into direction.