Business function in a complicated landscape. As well as customers; government, regulators and public opinion colour that landscape which in turn frames the message, the voice and the communication channels for the business.
Public Impact works with organisations who want to understand what their audience thinks and why they think as they do. We work with our clients to frame the base research that enables businesses to develop better products, charities and NGOs to understand the needs of client groups or the perceptions of the public and government better to meet social and community needs.
Big Picture Research
We work with clients to frame quantitative market research that provides the high level view of the audience. For any opinion research to be effective and seen to be effective the objectives need to be clearly defined, the costs and benefits fully understood, the budget appropriate for the job, timescales are adequate and, importantly, that the answers are not already in the public domain.
Public Impact works with you to challenge and clarify objectives and in doing so streamlines and focuses the research requirement. At that point we are able to recommend the right combination of desktop study, opinion polling, on-line and telephone research to inform your decision making or identify areas for in depth qualitative study.
Detailed Qualitative Research
Focus groups are a qualitative research technique that enable our clients to understand the motivation of audience. It’s all very well knowing that people like your brand – but doing even better involves understand what they like most, what they would like even more and how it makes them feel. Conversation and interaction help the real issues emerge. It’s a productive path for organisations to understand the right direction for the messages that communicate ideas and brands, products and services. Focus groups give you a rounded view of perceptions and attitudes derived from a relatively informal, confidential setting.
Public Impact sources the focus group audience, provides professionally qualified facilitators, deals with necessary releases and documents the outcome. We work with the client to define the demographic and other criteria of the group – political, social, product or service user, former user or potential user, the locations and so on. We will recommend a programme to our clients, normally of at least three groups and would always caution against relying on the conclusions of a single group from a single location.
Focus groups look to examine relatively narrow subject areas based on small groups of between eight and twelve people with broadly similar attitudes and circumstances. In this respect focus groups represent highly targeted research and are best used to ‘drill down’ into specific demographics that are key to the progress of the organisation. The sessions last between one and two hours depending on the questions to be addressed with the sessions either observable by clients or recorded for observation and analysis.
Documenting conclusions and recommending actions
Public Impact prepares a structured analysis of research findings and sessions with recommendations on how messages can be framed to take advantage of perceptions and to address issues that arise. This ensures that strategic and tactical communications derive from evidence and outcomes are measurable.