Market Focus: Research - Leading the brand [Mei Li Quoted]

PR Week USA (print)
7/18/05

Solid PR research can take a brand to a whole new level. EricaIacono reports.

Behind any good PR campaign is solid planning. And that planning is veryoften the result of extensive and thorough research. With the increasingimportance of ROI and accountability, research has emerged with moresignificance than ever before.

David Rockland, partner and global director of research at Ketchum, saysthe agency's research division has grown more than threefold in the pastfive years. "We have seen a desire by clients to know their targetbetter," he says. "PR has become more a rifle-shot business, as opposedto shotgun. The relationship between research and PR has becomestronger."

Often that increased use of research, whether by agencies or corporatedepartments, can help to make the PR component of a campaign, or ongoingdevelopment of a brand, especially effective.

Last year, Ketchum worked with the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. todevelop a corporate social responsibility program. When it was startedin 1873, the company gave 10% of its profits to widows and children offirefighters.

So when it came time to develop its CSR program, Rockland says, theinitial thought was to continue in that original tradition. Ketchumconducted focus groups and surveys of employees, customers, prospectiveemployees and customers, and personalized and commercial agents.Rockland says research indicated that there was not strong support forfirefighters, but rather for helping the firefighting community be moreeffective.

As a result, the focus of the program was revamped. When it rolled outin San Diego, the Fireman's Fund Heritage program raised money to awardgrants for fire-prevention education, organizations like the San DiegoBurn Institute, equipment, and outreach to communities. Rockland saysthe resulting CSR program has had a positive impact on Fireman'sFund.

"There is an immense measurement system for this program," he says."They have seen improvements in employee, customer, and agentloyalty."

Research can also play an important role in the highly competitive andever-changing technology world, especially when it comes time to launcha new product. Mei Li, VP of corporate communications for NetSuite, saysthat one of the most important things is to keep track of thecompetition in the customer relationship management (CRM) space. "Wealways want to know what other people in the industry are doing," shesays. "It's a very crowded space, and everyone is trying to do as muchas they can to drive awareness." Before the launch of NetSuite 10, theteam used Biz 360's Market 360 product to analyze different mediamessages about what the competition was doing. Li says the team noticedthat several competitors mentioned they would be getting into theenterprise resource planning (ERP) space. The team had previouslyplanned to stress the product's CRM component, but Li says that theresearch pointed out that the upcoming launch would have to position theproduct differently: as an all-in-one solution, given its CRM, ERP, ande-commerce capabilities. "If I had never read those (reports), I don'tthink I would've been able to come up with a comprehensive PR plan tolaunch a new product," she says. "I think that this really helped us tomake our message more compelling and complete."

Line extensions

Not only can research help launch a product, but it can also help toposition a new product that is an extension of a well-known brand. LisaEggerton, SVP and head of consumer practice at Euro RSCG Magnet, saysresearch played an integral part in the agency's recent work with K-Y, aJohnson & Johnson brand. Even before this year's launch of Touch, K-Y'snew line of massage oils, the company had already been working toreposition the brand as one of intimacy between longtime partners,rather than a solution for a problem. But the launch of Touch presentednew challenges.

"This was really their first line extension that was not a lubricant,"Eggerton says. "It was really important for us to realize how to go tomarket with that." Working with Consumer Insights, Magnet's researchgroup, the team sought to gather general consumer attitudes aboutmassage in very specific situations. "We certainly were well aware thatmassage has become a mainstream concept," she says. "Where we weren'tclear was how people perceive massage within a relationship."

Consumer Insights provided research on general attitudes about massage,including media analysis, industry briefings, and interviews with theTouch Institute in Florida. Using this information, Eggerton says, theteam was able to develop a consumer survey that directly asked aboutmassage as it related to intimacy. Results showed that people generallygot the notion of massage as an intimate gesture. "What it helped us todo is frame all of our PR programming so that it's not just aroundlaunching a new product," she says. "It's given a context in which totalk about the product." So when pitching magazine or newspaper editors,the focus was not on health or beauty editors, but on those in charge ofstories about relationships. Although the product was just launched inMay, this tactic has already shown signs of success. "All of thecoverage so far has been about intimacy," Eggerton says, adding thatsome coverage even quoted results of the survey. "It hasn't beenrelegated to just a new product."

Corporate launches

Research can even help PR when launching a corporate brand. When BostonScientific decided to launch a master brand a few years ago, it turnedto KRC, a research partner of Weber Shandwick, to help determine how tobest craft a message that would appeal to both employees andclinicians.

Pam Brickley, director of corporate brands, says that surveys and focusgroups showed that clinicians valued the message of helping people andinnovation, while employees conveyed one of making a difference. Fromthe research, the company was able to craft a positioning statement:"Helping clinicians improve life through innovation." That message wasconsistent throughout the company's communications.

The PR department was especially effective in using the research tocommunicate with the company's 17,000 employees globally. "(Theresearch) has come in handy in a number of ways in which we communicatewith our external audience," Brickley says.

Recent surveys of employees and clinicians have shown that the brand'smessage is beginning to stick, something PR certainly had a hand in.

"Externally, it certainly has helped us to stay on message (and) todevelop and bring awareness around Boston Scientific," Brickleyexplains. "Everything that we're doing through PR is really to helpenhance the image and reputation of the company. So it's really been acore for us - sort of the foundation."

SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

While there is no doubt that research has been on the rise, there isstill the question of whether it is being used enough in PR. And, ifnot, what are the reasons?

Jackie Yeaney, CMO at HomeBanc, says the structure of some corporatemarketing departments can sometimes impact the PR department's abilityto get a hold of research. For example, some corporate structures haveresearch as part of the marketing group, with PR under the corporatecommunications umbrella.

"If PR and research aren't both sitting inside marketing, it probably ishard to get that connection to happen," she says. "Marketing owns thevoice of the brand. One of the ways to communicate the voice of thebrand is PR. To not include PR as a major channel ... seems ridiculousto me."

At HomeBanc, PR is included in the marketing department. But in Yeaney'sprevious experience at Delta Air Lines, where she was managing directorof consumer marketing, PR was in the corporate communications group,which resulted in a disconnect as far as the amount of research that wasavailable to the PR department, she says.

Sometimes the question isn't whether enough research is available to PRdepartments. Hiroshi Wald, managing director at Zeno Group's CompetitiveInsights division, says that, although there is a lot of research beingdone by PR departments, most of it is not the right type.

"A lot of times, there's a disconnect between the research that getsdone and the client's business goals," he says. "When you have thatdisconnect, you have research that you can't act on." Information thatresults in a clip book, a total number of article counts, or a generalshare-of-voice percentage is not something that will ultimatelycontribute to the client's end goals, he says.

Doug Kostel, senior director at Text 100 subsidiary Context Analytics,agrees that for the most part PR is not using research to its fullpotential.

"I think it's underused because a lot of research focuses on a mediareport card," he says. "The more sophisticated consumers of researchunderstand that research is not just coverage management. Researchshould do more than measure results; it should also help informstrategy."