What We Do
Our job is to help our clients win. Our job is also to recognize that the definition of winning isn’t always the same. For a political campaign or government relations clients, “success” often has a zero-sum definition: winning an election or passing a piece of legislation. For others, “success” is less cut and dry. It could mean helping a group expand membership, determining the best way to navigate out of a crisis, or to building a stronger corporate brand or image.
Strategic public opinion research is the tool we use to help clients find the path to success. But our expertise extends beyond research methodology and statistics. We also understand communications, messaging, targeting, and politics and how to turn research findings into actionable intelligence that helps our clients meet their definition of victory.
Political and non-political organizations alike often have public policy goals. A business group who wants to advocate for new transportation policies. A developer who needs a zoning change to create a new mixed-use neighborhood. A utility seeking a franchise agreement. Whether an organization needs a legislative victory to attain their public policy goals, or if they are just trying to rally public support on an important topic, public opinion research can provide message guidance and targeting data to create a strategic plan for success. Our experience conducting strategic research and fighting political battles on behalf of hundreds of candidates and campaigns is invaluable when business and public policy objectives intersect.
Many organizations – even large ones – have not conducted research on how the general public, or even its own customers or supporters, perceive them. What do people like, what do they hate, and what can the company do to strengthen or change people’s attitudes? Before you can move your organization forward, you need to know where you start.
Public opinion research can help a company connect to their core audience by uncovering shared values and find ways to reinforce those values through the company’s external communication. Our research has been used to strengthen and refine corporate identities through qualitative and quantitative testing of logos, advertising, and other external communication. We’ve also used public opinion research to help companies engaging in charitable activities to target resources into areas of shared interest between themselves and the community they serve.
Whether it’s a candidate trying to win a single election, or an independent expenditure committee using the electoral process to advance an issue, our expertise in political polling, ad testing, and electoral targeting helps campaigns engage their base and win persuadable voters. In the case of IEs operating in multiple races, having data to help determine the viability of each race to know where to invest resources and where to cut losses can be the difference between overall success or spreading resources too thin to be effective.
How an organization navigates a public relations problem can often mean the difference between that organization’s success and failure. When finding a path out of a crisis, having some quantifiable facts are helpful – how aware are people of the crisis, how concerned are they by it, and what actions can the organization take to win back public support?
Membership groups and non-profits rely on supporters and donors to survive, but and we also volunteer who these people are, why they support the cause, and what they like and dislike about the organization. A data-driven understanding of current members and donors is a critical first step to implementing a plan that increases membership and expands a donor base.
