How To Streamline Your Research

I saw a comment in a Linkedin discussion about what in PR wastes time.  Jennel McDonald noted "Though researching is very important, I think we can go overboard in reading and gathering."

As many of you know, I am a communications research and strategy consultant.  So, in large part, research is my business.  But I agree with Jennel.  We do frequently go overboard.

THE KEY TO FOCUSING YOUR RESEARCH

I would argue the biggest research time waster is doing research without a specific purpose. That is,  before you begin any PR research ask yourself what it is you need to know to create a successful communications program. Turn what you need to know into questions and then ignore information that does not answer the questions.

The questions I use to guide research begin with "what action do we want the target audience to take as a result of our communication and other activities?" The answer to this generally comes from management and might be "buy a product or service," "continue to work for our company," "join our company," "contribute funds to our charity," "purchase our stock," "support us as we build a factory in the community," etc.

The questions to guide your research might be:

• Who is the target audience? What are they interested in? What do they think of my organization? What is likely to provoke them to the action my organization seeks?
• What media reach this target audience, and which are most appropriate for this message?
• What external issues are important to our target audience and the best media for reaching them?
• How can my organization take advantage of those issues to communicate with the target?
• How will we know whether we have succeeded?
• What method can we use to demonstrate we have succeeded?

My mentor, Roger Sennott, who was my boss when I worked in the research group at Burson-Marsteller, called this querying the data. He called the approach that takes way too much time "swimming in the data," by which he meant diving in with no specific information goal in mind.

So, don't gather or read material that does not answer your questions, and once you've got the questions answered to your satisfaction, stop. Where this satisfaction level should be will depend on the importance of the program, because the more you can corroborate your information, the surer you can be it is correct.  More information means less risk.

SOMETIMES THE INFORMATION ISN'T OUT THERE

There is another research situation that can be very frustrating.  Sometimes you know what you need to know, but you just can't find it.  You keep looking and burning up hours not finding it.  Those of us who have worked in secondary research have all been through this.  And when you've gone through it enough times, you begin to get a gut feel for the kinds of projects that might take an inordinate amount of time and yield few, if any, results.

The need for very specific competitive information frequently is one example.  If the information you or your client want is the perfect description of your target audience or your competitor's customers, you can bet that if anyone has it, it is your competitor, that he or she got it through primary research and that he or she will not be sharing it with you.  Sometimes you can find good industry reports for a price.  And even when these prices run into the thousands of dollars, purchasing the report may be a good value, when you consider the time you or your staff will have to spend to gather the secondary information, if it is available, or the cost of commissioning primary research, if it is not.  

THE VALUE OF THE INFORMATION

This leads us to the value of the information.  And that depends on the value of the decisions you need to make. If you are looking at decisions that can make or break a company, then the value of the information might be as high as the value of the company.  However, usually this is not the case.

There are ways to calculate the value of information, but these can be rather complex, so I won't go into them here.  But if you are ever in a situation where you think knowing the value of the information would be useful to determine whether to do research or not, give me a call.

Helping Your Organization Survive the Recession, While You Do the Same

A couple of weeks ago I attended a presentation by Professor Lakshman Krishnamurthi, who is the A. Montgomery Ward Professor of Marketing and chair of the Marketing Department of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. His presentation was on competing in a down economy. He made a number of provocative points, which I'll go into presently.

Professor Krishnamurthi spoke about managing large organizations, but it struck me that his suggestions work as well for individuals as for corporations. So, as you review what I share below, step back occasionally to think of yourself as the corporation and your bosses, clients and coworkers as your customers and collaborators. Hopefully, you will not only find ideas that will help you add value at work, but also to help you manage your career through the recession and beyond.

Professor Krishnamurthi's Presentation
Dr. Krishnamurthi listed three things an organization can manage to gain advantage during a recession:

• Costs
• Deep customer, collaborator and competitive insight
• Ways to change the rules of the game

I'm not going to review managing costs. We all are aware of what our organizations are doing to manage costs, and we may or may not play a role in that management. However, as communicators and managers, we all can and should be involved in gaining insight.

Comprehensive SWOT
The first kind of research Dr. Krishnamurthi suggested doing is a comprehenive SWOT analysis of your:

• Current product or service lines -- revenue, expenses, projected growth or decline
  
• Your key customers -- their P&Ls and their contribution to yours, your share of their business, forecast growth or decline, forecast effect on your business
• Your top three competitors -- market shares, their share of your customers' sales, financial position, expected behavior during the recession, expected R&D and marketing spending
  

Deep Customer Insight
He then went into developing deep customer insight. This was a central concept in his presentation. He argued the companies that tend to come out of recessions in strong positions are those that stay close to their customers. He suggests you find the answers to:

• How do customers use our products?
• How would they like to use our products?
• How do they learn about our products?
• How would they like to learn about our products?
• How do customers acquire our products?
• How would they like to acquire our products?

He recommended completely rethinking the contract your organization has with customers and asking:

• If we are to start from scratch with these products [to create the most value for our clients and the most profitable business model for our organization], what will we do?
• If we are to start from scratch with our customer relationships, how will they be different [what do our customers need and want from us, and how can we better provide it]?

As you ask these questions keep in mind that the business environment is such that your customers, partners and collaborators are hurting. So also ask how can you help them survive and thrive.

Marketing Spend
Another key point Dr. Krishnamurthi made is that while it is easy to cut marketing spending, because it is discretionary, this generally is not a good idea. He cites research from McGraw Hill that indicates B2B firms that maintained or increased their advertising spending during the 1981-1982 recession averaged higher growth during the recession and for the following three years compared to those that eliminated or decreased their advertising. He notes that maintaining your marketing signals to your customers you are a strong player and will outlast the recession. He also argues it is easier and cheaper to attain a given share of voice in a recession, because prices tend to be lower and competitors are cutting back.

Changing the Rules of the Game
Moving to changing the rules of the game, Dr. Krishnamurthi suggested thinking about:

• Will there be a permanent change in the price-value equation for your products and services?
• Will consumption habits change?
• Do you need to rethink your business model to be able to compete?

And I suggest asking:

• What technological, regulatory, social and environmental trends could affect your business model and how?
  

Based on the earlier question about how, if you were to start your business completely anew, would you set it up to provide in three to five years the most value to your customers and the most profit to your organization ...

• What is keeping you from making these changes?
  
• Will the issues inhibiting you inhibit your competitors?
  
• Are your competitors making these changes?
• Are there organizations that might enter your business with a new model if and when they figure it out?
• What are you going to do about all of this?

And Now To Cheer You Up
Dr. Krishnamurthi closed with a list of powerhouse companies that began during tough times. These include:

• P&G founded during the panic of 1837
• GE during the next panic of 1873
• IBM during the depression of 1873-1896 (formed from three companies that merged in 1911)
• Motorola in 1928 (as Galvin Manufacturing Company renamed in 1930)
• Geophysical Services in 1930 (later renamed Texas Instruments)
  
• United Technologies during the great depression
• DuPont and HP during the 1930s
• FedEx during the oil crisis of 1973
  
• And more

Something for Your Organizations ... and You
I apologize that this article is a bit "listy," but I hope you find the information from the presentation as useful as I did. The ideas regarding how we can help our organizations succeed in this challenging environment provide opportunities for us to be of more value to these organizations and in doing so be more secure ourselves. Moreover, thinking of ourselves as our own individual corporations and our network of colleagues as our customers and collaborators provides strategies we can apply to our own personal corporations to ensure we, too, survive the recession and come out stronger than ever.

# # #

Thanks very much for reading. If you have questions you'd like me to address, or other topics you'd like me to write about, please let me know. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please pass this e-Zine along.

# # #

If you'd like updates on developing messages, strengthening relationships and other communications topics once a month, please subscribe to this e-Zine. You can do so here:

http://www.forrestwanderson.com/free.htm

# # #

If you would like to make any comments regarding this e-Zine, please visit my blog at http://forrestwanderson.blogspot.com/ and comment there. I'd love to hear from you.

# # #

I work with organizations going through a change in strategic direction (merger, acquisition, building program, new product launch, change program, etc.) and that are concerned about what will happen with their relationships with key stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) if they send out the wrong, or confusing, messages. After working with me, my clients have a clear understanding of what their messages should be. I also provide them recommendations on other actions they can take to enhance their relationships with stakeholders.

I also work as a PR and communications research director for hire for agencies and other organizations.

# # #

*The Institute for Public Relations, (IPR) is dedicated to the "science beneath the art" of PR. It focuses on PR research and education. If you are interested in the topics I write about, you will almost certainly be interested in IPR. You can find it at http://www.instituteforpr.org/. While you're there, check out the Essential Knowledge Project at http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_knowledge/.

Best wishes,

Forrest

Forrest W. Anderson
Founding Member
Institute for Public Relations
Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation

Building Influence through Opposition (and Other) Research

Running Business Like a Political Campaign
Since my last entry, I've been collecting information from colleagues to determine whether they ever have used "Opposition Research" or heard of its use in their work. Some of these folks think my topic really is competitive research. I agree, except I would say "opposition research" is a refined kind of competitive research. As Rick Murray, president, Edelman Digital wrote:

Bottom line, if you run your brand, business or initiative like a political campaign, it’s a lot easier to identify and activate your allies, and identify and develop counter-strategies for your detractors [if you use an "Opposition Research" approach].

Game Theory
A number of colleagues also noted the link between opposition research and game theory. One area of business practice that employs a great deal of gamesmanship is mergers and acquisitions. Kirk Brewer, CEO, Core Communications Partners, has worked extensively in this area. According to Kirk:

Opposition research is done all the time in hostile (and even some friendly) merger and acquisition situations, as well as proxy fights and other challenges to board authority. It's been a part of those "control campaigns" for 40 years or more.

The purposes, Kirk noted, include trying to get the share price up (for the acquisition candidate) or down (for the acquirer).

In another case Kirk cited, potential acquirer "A" was competing with potential acquirer "B" for the same target. "A" used opposition research to find information about "B" demonstrating "B" was not as appealing as an acquisition partner. "A" shared with target shareholders information, in the form of full-page newspaper advertisements, about missteps "B" had made. Meanwhile the target took advantage of the rivalry between "A" and "B" to push the target share price up.

Assumptions and Secondary Research
One preconception I brought to the "Opposition Research" discussion was that it was, for the most part, secondary research -- looking at web sites, analyst reports, news reports, executive speeches, online discussions, etc. These definitely are the first places to look for information. As Matt Heinz, principal & chief marketer at Heinz Marketing, said:

Don't assume that something sitting on a competitor's Web site has already been read, consumed and/or analyzed by your client or business. More often than not, your discovery and unique analysis of what you've found (as well as the opportunity for your business) will be fresh and welcome.

My own experience has shown this time and time again. Some of the most obvious and simple research projects can yield tremendous benefits in the eyes of your client.

Primary Research
However, secondary research should not necessarily be the whole story. David Geddes, SVP and Partner at Fleishman Hillard, and a member of IPR's Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation* noted that he sees primary research as important, too. He says F-H does "target audience awareness, attitude, and perception research. We use surveys in this case."

The Bottom Line: Insight
To me the real bottom line is still the insight that we can pull from the data. This requires not only finding information about competitors, but making sense of it. Taking that information and projecting what the competing company is likely to do as a result. Going further and putting that in the context of your client's business goals and objectives.

Mark Heisten, senior business leader, head of commercial product marketing at Visa Inc. recalled working at a company with a dedicated competitive intelligence function:

[The competitive intelligence] team did a fantastic job not only researching, but acting like internal experts [on] the competitive offerings. As a result, they knew their relative strengths and weaknesses. Sales benefited from it; ... they were able to counter the competitive sales pitches. Product benefited from it; ... they better understood how the competitive products worked. Marketing and communications benefited; ... they understood how to message our solutions appropriately.

Knowledge as the Key to Influence
Mark's example demonstrates well done research going well beyond communications to support and drive better business decisions for the entire organization. One of the nice things about research is that frequently it is commissioned by communications people. But, when designed and used correctly, it can give these communications folks organizational knowledge and influence that reaches to the C-suite.

# # #

Thanks very much for reading. If you have questions you'd like me to address, or other topics you'd like me to write about, please let me know. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please pass this e-Letter along.

# # #

If you'd like updates on developing messages, strengthening relationships and other communications topics once a month, please subscribe to this e-Zine. You can do so here:

http://www.forrestwanderson.com/free.htm

# # #

If you would like to make any comments regarding this e-Letter, please visit my blog at http://forrestwanderson.blogspot.com/ and comment there. I'd love to hear from you.

# # #

I work with organizations going through a change in strategic direction (merger, acquisition, building program, new product launch, change program, etc.) and that are concerned about what will happen with their relationships with key stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) if they send out the wrong, or confusing, messages. After working with me, my clients have a clear understanding of what their messages should be. I also provide them recommendations on other actions they can take to enhance their relationships with stakeholders.

# # #

*The Institute for Public Relations, (IPR) is dedicated to the "science beneath the art" of PR. It focuses on PR research and education. If you are interested in the topics I write about, you will almost certainly be interested in IPR. You can find it at http://www.instituteforpr.org/. While you're there, check out the Essential Knowledge Project at http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_knowledge/.

Best wishes,

Forrest

Forrest W. Anderson
Founding Member
Institute for Public Relations
Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation

Making Major Contributions to Your Organization's Success through Competitive Research

Opposition Research
Wiki defines opposition research as follows:

The term used to classify and describe efforts of supporters or paid consultants of a political candidate to legally investigate the biographical, legal or criminal, medical, educational, financial, public and private administrative and or voting records of the opposing candidate, as well as prior media coverage. The research is usually conducted in the time period between announcement of intent to run and the actual election.... (Stephanie Mencimer, "Dirty Politics," Center for Public Integrity, May 30, 2008.) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opposition_research#cite_note-0)

Opposition Research and Competitive Research
When I was at Applied Communications, one of my colleagues, who had been in political opposition research, applied this approach to work for Applied's high-tech business-to-business clients. Each client would select some number of competitors whose activities they wanted monitored. Using the Internet almost exclusively, my colleague would review news and analyst reports pertaining to the competitors the client wanted to monitor. Then he would make judgments regarding what activity he believed the competitors were pursuing and when they were likely to make some kind of competitive move based on that action. He would assign "certainty" ratings based on how good the information was: if he heard about something for the first time, it might receive a "1" (hearsay) rating. If a competitor had finally scheduled a press conference to announce a product my colleague had been monitoring for some time, he might give it a "9" or "10" for near certainty.

An Example
To give you an example, let's say our client W wanted my colleague to monitor and report on X, Y and Z's activities. Every day, he would review internet news, company websites, analyst reports, and other public and subscription sources for bits of information pertaining to X, Y and Z. If the information suggested strategic or communications initiatives in the long- or short-term, he’d list these in his weekly report as potentially being on the horizon. Then, if he saw another reference to an event or activity mentioned in an executive speech, he’d note that as well and increase the "certainty" rating of this coming to pass. Then he might see a scheduled product announcement from the division that would be responsible for such an initiative. Putting two and two together he’d then note that the product announcement probably would have to do with this initiative. W, if it had its own communications functioning correctly, could get this information to its product people at the first announcement and keep it coming so the product folks could either start their own initiative or tweak something they were working on. Then W might have something to announce at the same time and be able to ride X, Y or Z’s coat-tails. If the product folks didn’t do anything, W could at least develop messaging and have a spokesperson ready to comment on X, Y or Z’s announcement, etc.

Is It Illegal?
Opposition research has a reputation for being something akin to illegal industrial espionage. However, my colleague collected his information almost exclusively from the Internet. He was able to find plenty of material without resorting to anything illegal.

What's Important About All This
My colleague did do one thing that set his work apart from that of most competitive researchers. He took the all-important plunge from information to insight. Instead of simply reporting what he saw in the news and analyst reports, he stopped to think about and integrate the information. He kept himself informed about the business goals and objectives of his clients and their competitors. So, when he saw information pointing toward some action that was consistent with a competitor's goals, he was able to project with extraordinary accuracy what that competitor was actually planning to do and when the competitor would announce it. Assuming the client was nimble enough to act on this information, it was extraordinarily valuable for both product strategy and communications strategy.

More on Opposition Research
I've been gathering more information about opposition research from some of my Linked-In and other acquainances, and I will write more about it in the future.

New Blog/e-Zine Plans
As many of you know, I write a blog and an e-Zine. They are one and the same. I created the blog so you, my friends and colleagues who read the e-Zine, could make comments and discuss the ideas and issues I raise in the e-Zine. I'm going to try a different approach for a while. I will still send the e-Zine out about once a month, but I will start publishing blog entries more often. The e-Zine probably will summarize some of the blog material, but not all.

Thanks very much for reading. If you have questions you'd like me to address, or other topics you'd like me to write about, please let me know. And if you know anyone who might be interested, please pass this e-Letter along.

# # #

If you'd like updates on developing messages, strengthening relationships and other communications topics once a month, please subscribe to this e-Zine. You can do so here:

http://www.forrestwanderson.com/free.htm

# # #

If you would like to make any comments regarding this e-Letter, please visit my blog at http://forrestwanderson.blogspot.com/ and comment there. I'd love to hear from you.

# # #

I work with organizations going through a change in strategic direction (merger, acquisition, building program, new product launch, change program, etc.) and that are concerned about what will happen with their relationships with key stakeholders (customers, employees, investors) if they send out the wrong, or confusing, messages. After working with me, my clients have a clear understanding of what their messages should be. I also provide them recommendations on other actions they can take to enhance their relationships with stakeholders.

# # #

The Institute for Public Relations, (IPR) is dedicated to the "science beneath the art" of PR. It focuses on PR research and education. If you are interested in the topics I write about, you will almost certainly be interested in IPR. You can find it at http://www.instituteforpr.org/. While you're there, check out the Essential Knowledge Project at http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_knowledge/.

Best wishes,

Forrest

Forrest W. Anderson
Founding Member
Institute for Public Relations
Commission on PR Measurement and Evaluation