Message Development & Communications

Quantitative polls and pinprick surveys often generate a wealth of useful and interesting statistics and results can vary widely depending on the wording of the statement concerned.

However, diagnostic data is far more useful in the long term than just interesting data. To really change public opinion research projects often require a long-term strategy. Whilst data can be exciting and unexpected it rarely provides a platform from which to advance your aims. At best, it achieves a flurry of media attention with stakeholders asking themselves what they should do next.

Message development and communications provides you with a real opportunity to re-invigorate and champion the argument surrounding your issue. But, without a clear understanding of what your target audience thinks, and even more importantly the associated emotional drivers that can make that audience change its opinion and behaviour, any campaign will lack direction, focus and bite, and consequently fall short of its objectives.

Sophisticated strategies cannot be based on guesswork. Only in-depth qualitative research (most usually in the form of focus groups to allow free-ranging and open-ended discussions) can reveal not just what an audience thinks about a certain issue, but why they think it and how they feel about it. Focus groups can also throw up fresh ideas and ways of tackling subjects that have not occurred to those closely involved in running a campaign. To make substantive progress in raising public awareness of and support for your cause, policies and practices, one needs to be equipped with a thorough knowledge of how the views you are seeking to promote are perceived by those whose hearts and minds you are seeking to win over.

By identifying the messages that resonate with your target audience ORB and their messaging team help you formulate a communications strategy which taps into the way your audience are thinking and feeling.

By conducting a segmentation analysis we can identify (both attitudinally and behaviourally) your key groups and reveal which messages and which media resonate with each segment. Only then can we tailor a communications campaign and use qualitative and tracking quantitative research to monitor its' effectiveness.

Political Opinion Research

Running a successful political campaign is not easy. Local campaign resources are limited. All your campaign workers have their pet theories as to the issues and what you need to do to win.

Without a clear understanding of what a target audience thinks, and ever more importantly the associated emotional drivers that can make the audience change its opinion and behaviour, any campaign will lack direction, focus and bite and consequently fall short of its objectives.

Sophisticated strategies cannot be based on guesswork. Only exploratory qualitative research (most usually in the form of focus groups to allow free-ranging and open-ended discussion) can reveal not just what an audience thinks about a certain issue, but why they think it and how they feel about it. Quantitative research (most usually in the form of opinion polls) can then measure the impact of your campaign and help you identify which issues resonate with which voters and what impact your strategy is having in persuading voters to come out and vote for your cause.

In terms of polling and campaigning we will help you to:-

• Research the electorate to identify who and where the key voters are and to identify their issues, their impressions of you and your opponents
• Create and then research key messages about yourselves and your opponents to identify those that resonate
• Measure the effectiveness of your campaign amongst key target voters as the campaign proceeds.

Globally not only have we researched the opinions of people in over 80 countries around the world, but members of our team have personally worked for nine Presidents/Prime Ministers across the globe including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin, F.W. De Klerk, John Howard, the Bahamian Government and Jamaican Government.

Investor Insight Services

While investment decisions have traditionally been informed by the work of sector analysts, drawing upon secondary research sources, there has recently been a growing movement towards primary research; speaking directly to consumers and others in the supply chain about their behaviour. This research is, most often, proprietary information gathered to a client specific brief and used to provide detailed insight into the current standing and likely performance of quoted companies. Such research can offer a perspective on broader consumer trends or an assessment of sales prior to trading updates. It may cover retail consumers or business to business markets.

ORBs team has provided ad-hoc and tracking research to institutional investors for over five years; our information providing fund managers with an additional layer of information via which to support existing information or to suggest potential positions. Having fully consulted with our clients to understand their objectives we design and undertake bespoke surveys of relevant stakeholders. We have completed such studies across a wide range of sectors, geographic markets and among a diverse group of respondents.

Sectors:	Markets:	Stakeholders:
Alcohol Broadcasting Cosmetics Gambling Fast-Food High-Street Fashion Hi-Tech Goods / digital technology Groceries / Supermarkets Advertising	UK France Germany Italy Spain Russia China Additionally we have completed market research studies in over 75 countries	Retail consumers Branch managers Distributors Sector-specific media Academics

Business-to-Business (B2B) Research

The hallmarks of quality Business-to-Business research are the same as for any other study; well-constructed questions asked of a precisely defined and relevant audience. It is though a distinct area of research and one where ORB has demonstrable expertise. Led by Allan Hyde our B2B research draws from two decades of experience in which innovation has been at the forefront - starting with the establishment of the authoritative Merrill Lynch survey of investor sentiment to the present online survey of employment issues

Our starting principle is that any B2B study must be allied to clearly defined objectives. Whether these are performance outcomes, identifying stakeholder priorities, meeting marketing goals or the completion of a successful PR or thought leadership campaign. Wherever possible we link opinions and behaviour with actual performance. Over time we have established a clear association between reported growth and organisational ‘mind set.’ Meanwhile with business decision-makers increasingly time-poor we work to ensure that every question asked of them is aligned to clear survey objectives; hence capturing informed opinion from a fully engaged audience. We consider the wasting of respondents’ time one of the cardinal sins of B2B research.

We have completed B2B surveys across the widest possible spectrum of audiences and subjects with examples including: stakeholder audits for FTSE 100 companies and industry bodies; our quarterly tracker of small business for HBOS, a survey of FTSE companies, analysts and investors for Eversheds measuring the impact of post-Enron regulation on entrepreneurial behaviour; outlet performance measurement among retail managers; and surveys in over 15 countries as part of Grant Thornton’s global benchmark of ‘middle market’ enterprises, The International Business Report (IBR).

As with every ORB survey clients of our B2B services benefit from a high level of director involvement and, where methodologically appropriate, the use of our cost-effective in-house telephone research unit.