Advertising Equivalency
Q: What is your opinion on advertising equivalents?
A: We are skeptical about their usefulness and believe they can mislead. It is hard to justify the view that paid and unpaid media coverage has the same value per column-centimetre or column-inch. Ultimately, what matters is how you are moving those hearts and minds that you need to reach and how you compare against others.
Consumer Research
Q: We need to keep track of consumer trends over long periods of time. Can Echo do that?
A: Yes. With Echo Research's Large-Scale Tracking Surveys, we can track trends in the general population over time and also monitor the attitudes of specific stakeholders. We will work with you to identify exactly which audiences you need to track and which issues you should watch.
Crisis, Threats Research
Q: We need advance warning about potential crises and issues. Can Echo do that for us?
A: Together with you, Echo Research will set up its program known as Echo Sonar to research and monitor the organizations most likely to be sources of issues and future concerns for your company, among them the media, government agencies and regulators, other companies, competitors and your own employees.
Q: How can we anticipate threats ahead for our industry and our company?
A: Echo Sonar is an Echo Research program specifically designed to get advance leads on issues that lie ahead for our clients, to capture signals at an early stage. With Echo Sonar, we can study a multiplicity of sources, including the media, non-government organizations, employees, government agencies, regulators, other companies in our clients' industries, unions and think tanks. We can identify those who will significantly affect our clients' issues and we monitor threats to our clients' reputations and brands.
Echo, Communications Research
Q: What is special about your approach to communications research?
A: We are integrators. We conduct individual strands of research, then integrate them, from strategy through media evaluation and stakeholder research to measurement of outcomes in terms of sales, share price, recruitment and retention levels. We not only provide the information, we also guide our clients on what it means for them, and work with them to develop action plans.
Q: When might I want to use your services?
A: When you need to know more about your stakeholders, their issues and information needs, and your reputation. When you need information about what type of communication will be most cost-effective. When you need to know how effective your current communications are. Or for regular evaluation of performance, for example quarterly media evaluation or brand tracking; or for monitoring stakeholder perceptions of a company, or emerging issues; to track customer loyalty or employee alignment; from ad hoc projects to support planning and strategy, through to hour-by-hour feedback and support in a crisis.
Q: Do you have sector specializations?
A: We have specialist teams in a wide range of sectors:
- Consumer
- Health
- I.T., Telecom & Media
- Financial services
- Professional services
- Energy & Utilities
- Environment
- Government
- Not-for-Profit
Q: What makes you different from other communications research firms?
A: There are research firms working in either the media analysis field or market research, and normally in one particular sector or market. Our strength is that we use all the available sources of information and research methodologies, to provide a comprehensive, cost-effective input into your strategic decisions, in multiple markets across a range of sectors.
Q: Why should I choose you rather than a competitor?
A.
- Because we come at research with an understanding of communication and reputation. We aim to make a difference to you and your organization and we don't provide numbers for numbers' sake.
- Because we have the most comprehensive research skills and experience in the market
- Because we have sector-specialized practices.
- Because we have both the global and national expertise that you need
Q: What abilities and qualifications do your people have?
A: We have a multidisciplinary, international team of qualified analysts. Our teams combine expertise in media analysis and market research techniques with deep knowledge of the business world, the media and PR. Many of our people have gained their experience in business and the media. Their experience enriches greatly the work they do for Echo clients.
Q: What quality assurance and control systems do you have to give me confidence in the research?
A: There are three elements of quality assurance:
- Recruitment
- Training and briefing
- Quality control.
Our recruitment process and training are thorough. University qualification, language ability, industry expertise and a challenging mind are essential criteria. All new analysts and writers go through a training program, followed by close supervision and retraining until the quality of their work meets Echo's standards. We hold regular workshops to improve their skills and share experience. We introduce them to you, the client, whenever possible.
Echo is certified to ISO 9001. A set of procedures is in place to ensure project work is conducted in a consistent manner. Queries and problems are internally reported, analyzed and acted upon. Quality control, on a project-by-project basis, is carried out on a sample of material from each project.
Q: How is communications research going to help me?
A: Research is the basis of communication planning and the means by which performance is measured. Echo's research will keep you in touch with your stakeholders and the media, and make your communications more fully accountable.
You can use it for a general health-check, regular monitoring, before and/or after launching a service, a product or a corporate communication campaign. It allows you to monitor changes in stakeholders' perceptions and expectations, and the reputation of your organization among them, as well as the effectiveness of your communications.
Q: What deliverables will I get from you?
A: Ways of reporting vary according to your needs. Results are delivered in executive reports, which may be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or semi-annually. Annual benchmarks are also popular. All this is agreed at the beginning of the project, so you know exactly where you stand. Our senior consultants regularly present the results and discuss their implications to ensure that our clients make the most use of the research findings.
In addition to written reports, presentations and workshops, Echo Interactive allows you to access your data online.
Q: What will my research costs be with Echo?
A: Costs vary according to the scope of the task, from some $5,000 for an ad-hoc project to hundreds of thousands for
global competitive benchmarking and reputation scorecards. The recognized industry norm is to invest between 10% and 12% of
the communications budget on research and measurement.
Q: How does Echo ensure high standards of research?
A: Quality and integrity are essential components of what we do. Over 12 years ago, Echo adopted ISO 901 standards for our research processes. We observe these standards of integrity, guaranteed by external scrutiny and audit. Our standards also include embracing membership and codes of conduct in the market research society and related industry bodies. Together, these initiatives lay down criteria for data processing, quality control, confidentiality of results and much else. Our independence as a privately owned company is a point of distinction. It differentiates us from some organizations that conduct opinion research and evaluate their own efforts.
Q: We have to be sure a research firm has experience with an industry such as ours and knows how to ask the right questions. How can we be sure?
A: Since it was established in 1989, Echo Research has had the opportunity to work in every profit and non-for-profit sector. We cluster them in these practices: Consumer; Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals; Professional and Financial Services; Public Sector, Government and Not-for-Profit; Technology, Telecoms & Media; and Utilities & Environment. We know the stakeholders in these sectors. We know how to work with our clients to identify the particular audiences whose views matter in building reputation and protecting brands.
Financial Communications Research
Q: We're a relatively new company. Do we need more than focus group research to find out what the financial community thinks about us?
A: With Reputation Scorecards, Echo Research will help you determine how Wall Street, the City of London or Paris Bourse - indeed, any global stock exchange -- values you and what its expectations are of your performance. Key people will be asked for their views. The results will be analyzed so that you can align them with your plans to make sure your reputation is solid and stays strong with this critical audience.
Q: My company is a financial services company and we are concerned about confidentiality. How can we work with Echo and how do you handle this issue?
A: Echo takes the question of client confidentiality very seriously. Measures are applied to ensure the security of individual clients' data. Echo does this through refined IT protection systems with full future-proofing and back-up properties, and through the creation of Chinese walls in team composition and data running.
We have worked with many financial services clients over the years. We would not be so successful if we did not live by confidentiality. We frequently sign Non Disclosure Agreements.
Government Sector Research
Q: How does Echo do research in the government sector, given limited access to information?
A: There are sometimes limitations on the access research companies can have to certain government officials, and these limits apply to other research companies no less than to Echo. In practice, we obtain valuable proxy views from those who influence, lobby or observe government without actually being part of the "no-interview" group of officials. We also draw on the content analysis of legislative procedures, debates and proceedings, which are in the public domain already, to enrich the process.
Media Research
Q: Can I get press clippings from you?
A: We believe that monitoring and gathering press clippings is a different business from analysis, requiring different people. Echo's focus is on 'what it means.'
But for some clients, we do turn to our many online sources to download material. For others, who are already sourcing media coverage, we ask to be added to their distribution lists so as not to incur a separate cost.
In the marketplace there are several press monitoring companies, and we collaborate with them. Our expertise is to extract intelligence from this raw material, to bring to life the large volumes of information and make them relevant to the needs of management. Most of our clients have an ongoing press monitoring service and provide us with the clippings, tapes or videos. In some instances, we manage these services on behalf of our clients for an additional fee.
Q: How do you judge the favorability of media coverage?
A: Echo looks at the content of an article, such as coverage of issues and messages, and the form, such as page prominence, and takes into account how people take in information, on a 0-100 scale or index. We will happily go over the details of this process when we meet with you.
Q: How can I tell if media coverage is reaching my target audience?
A: If the reading habits of your target audience are measured in a syndicated survey, this will enable us to make estimates of reach for you. Or you can add readership questions to your own quantitative surveys, for example your brand tracking or customer satisfaction surveys, and this will give you precisely targeted information at a reasonable cost. Ask us to look at the possibilities for you.
Q: How do you persuade busy opinion formers and managers to give you interviews?
A: Sometimes cash payment helps, or a donation to the interviewee's favorite charity. We can offer survey feedback, as a short summary of some of the findings. The tone of our approach to interviewees makes a difference.
Q: How can we find out if we are reaching journalists effectively?
A: You can find that out with Journalist Surveys that Echo Research will custom-develop for you. Echo will interview the individual editors and correspondents who cover your industry to find out whether they have received your press materials, why they do or don't use them, what their needs and expectations are, how you can deal more effectively with them in the future, how your competitors fare with journalists. The findings of these audits will guide you in framing more effective media relations strategies and will help assure that your stories and messages appear in the media the way you want them to.
Q: I don't have time to look at dozens of Internet sites every day. Can Echo keep track of what my competitors write about my company and what bloggers say?
A: Yes, Echo will work with you to identify exactly which sites should most interest you, which bloggers and which chat rooms. Echo will set up its Internet Monitoring Program that will keep track of what's being said about your organization and how that changes over time, and we will do content analysis. The findings will help you understand how your reputation is affected by the Internet and how you can initiate action to protect that reputation.
Q: Can Echo keep track of how we're doing in the media compared with our competition?
A: Yes, with Competitive Benchmarking, Echo Research looks at how your organization is perceived in the media compared with your competitors and defines the lessons you can learn to improve your position and stay ahead of the pack.
Q: Our PR agency collects clips of stories about us but doesn't analyze the contents. Does Echo do media analysis?
A: Media Content Analysis is Echo's signature research capability, contracted by most of our clients globally. We will tell you how the media communicate your brands and reputation messages to your external audiences, and how that communication compares with media coverage of your competitors. We'll be able to analyze your PR activities and spokespersons' effectiveness to tell you what's working and what's not, in terms of media coverage. We'll identify upcoming issues, commentators and reporters in the news media who impact your reputation and require your attention. We'll report to you the results of your PR efforts so that you can take them to your management as evidence of your success and to protect your budget.
Q: We get coverage in media all over the world. Can Echo handle global media research?
A: Echo Research is a global research firm, with offices in England, the United States and France, and research offices in India and China. We have 145 staff members and capabilities in 33 languages. We have had clients in every corner of the globe. Recently, when we conducted an international study of how the media cover the subject of childhood obesity, we monitored 900 newspapers in France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia Pacific, in addition to conducting 300 personal interviews.
Message Testing
Q: What techniques do you use for message testing?
A: Usually focus groups, or individual face-to-face interviews if focus groups are not practical, for example, if the stakeholder group is widely dispersed throughout the country. Telephone interviews are used, as well as email and Internet questionnaires. New technology allows us to hold "virtual focus groups" - a cost-effective development.
Q: How can we tell if the messages we put out are being played the way we want, over time?
A: We can answer that question with our Key Performance Indicator studies, which will measure the progress of your messages and give you favorable-to-unfavorable ratios over time.
Q: We're in a business sector that often suffers from a bad reputation. Can you come up with research that can help us understand how to change our messages and make them more effective, and protect our reputation?
A: Echo Research can work with you to adapt a number of Echo research activities to meet this challenge. With Key Performance Indicator studies, we can track the progress of your messages over time and measure the ratio of favorable to unfavorable message communication. You'll understand what works, what doesn't and why. With Competitive Benchmarking, Echo can help you analyze what your competition is doing. With Media Content Analysis, you can track how a particular PR campaign fares in the media, how your messages and spokespersons are communicated, allowing you to change the course of your PR program to increase effectiveness, and protect your reputation.
Not-for-Profits Research
Q: Does Echo Research do any work in the not-for-profit sector?
A: Yes, one of our leading clients in this area is WWF, a key crusading organization for an environmentally and ethically better world, not least for the most vulnerable animal species. They understand that a strong and positive profile is vital for effectiveness in an increasingly competitive NGO market. For that reason, they commission research right across our capabilities, from compact scorecards on media performance through to journalist audits, focus groups and stakeholder one-on-ones.
We try to ensure that our fees match the special budgetary circumstances of the voluntary, not-for-profit and charitable sectors. A number of intergovernmental bodies have a humanitarian role - UNESCO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, for example - and we have a long history of supporting them.
Pharmaceuticals Research
Q: Why should a pharmaceutical company hire Echo Research?
A: Despite the traditionally strong bias for research in therapeutic areas and specific products, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly concerned with protecting their reputation and how they are perceived by important constituents in the marketplace. Echo designs global research to meet such needs, reaching out to the stakeholders whose views shape corporate reputation and affect brand support. Competitive Benchmarking provides a critical measure, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, where competition is keen and a company needs to know how it stands and how to stay ahead of the pack. It's important to keep an eye on corporate reputation as expressed in competitors' websites, blogs and newsgroups, and that's where Echo Internet Evaluation Research comes in. Large-scale Tracking Surveys track reputation and trends over time, another critical measure for pharmaceuticals. Issues lying ahead have to be spotted, and Echo Sonar delivers that intelligence.
Protecting PR Budget
Q: How do I get my CEO to accept your research as testimony to the work of the PR department? Can you help me safeguard my PR budget?
A: Our clients tell us that CEOs are interested in documentation that addresses the bottom line: "Show the CEO how program expenditures lead to results that affect profits." When the heads of PR operations can demonstrate that their programs have communicated desired messages to targeted audiences, that reputations and brands have been protected and that business bottom line has benefited, the CEO listens. Echo Research provides clients with that kind of information.
Reputation Management
Q: How can you help me with reputation management?
A: By combining stakeholder research, media evaluation and clear strategic thinking.
- We conduct stakeholder research using face-to-face, telephone and online interviews and focus groups.
- We are the market leaders in media content analysis of both online and traditional media.
- Many of our senior consultants have come to Echo from careers in reputation management, with either PR agencies or
clients, so they understand the practice as well as the theory.
Stakeholder Research
Q: How can we know what our stakeholders expect of us?
A: Echo Stakeholder Research will help you understand how your internal and external stakeholders affect your reputation and communications strategy. We will look at current and emerging stakeholders' attitudes and motivation, and identify their issues. We'll provide an action plan showing you the stakeholder issues that need special attention. Echo's objective is to help you communicate better and improve your reputation and relationship with your stakeholders.
Q: How do I get a 360-degree view of my whole stakeholder set?
A: To meet your need, Echo provides the R2V2 service -- research into Reputation (R) and Relationships (R), delivering Value Squared (V2). R2V2 entails drawing maps of stakeholders by their power to influence, vociferousness, favorability toward your organization and other criteria, and then providing a dashboard with indicators or "dials" for each stakeholder group.
An attractive aspect of R2V2 is that it includes drawing on existing client research, to conserve resources and avoid reinventing wheels. Most organizations are data-rich and insight-poor. R2V2 helps address just that by making what you have work harder for you and filling in the gaps where necessary.
R2V2 also benefits clients with its use of a pyramidal reporting structure that gives quick overviews of sentiment by stakeholder to senior management (apex of pyramid) and ample granularity to others in the client organization (body of pyramid).
Study Universe
Q: If we ask Echo to do stakeholder research for us, will you use the same survey universe you've used for all your other clients in the same industry?
A: No, because we conduct dedicated, tailor-made research for clients and are very careful to employ methods that avoid bias or distortion. This means, for stakeholder research, that a new universe of interviewees is individually selected for each client. On some projects, we use a continuing panel, but this is only to track sentiment for a particular client over time, or on a cross-industry issue for several clients as it unfolds.
Technology & Telecoms Research
Q: What is Echo's knowledge of technology and telecoms? We can't sell our management on research unless it's expert.
A: Our first clients were IBM and HP in the early 90s. Since then, our expertise and understanding of the fiercely competitive, complex, converging and innovative sector has grown. We have industry norms and trend analysis, which add further insight and value to our client projects. We use only trained and qualified analysts who truly understand the sector, often having been technology correspondents and technology marketing professionals before joining Echo.
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Q: How do you prevent a rating from being subjective? Is the calculation automated?
A: The procedures for evaluating articles are systematized, with room for judgement on the part of our researchers. That is why we pay so much attention to recruitment, training, project briefing and quality of our analyst team. Because the Echo rating combines content and form, the process cannot be automated. It is not an absolute value but a relative one, to be used for benchmarking internally, over time, and externally versus competitors or comparable organizations.
Any possible researcher bias is dealt with in the same way as in consumer research. We use several researchers, average their ratings in the analysis, and control for between-researcher differences. The priority is to obtain consistency of measurement, to give valid comparisons between organizations, brands and stakeholder groups over time. Our main emphasis is on managing and controlling the quality of our researchers' judgement rather than attempting the impossible task of eliminating subjectivity altogether. We achieve this through regular training and quality control on all our client projects.
Topics Covered
Advertisement equivalencies
Blogs
CEO confidence
Competition media coverage
Confidentiality
Consumer research
Cost
Custom research
Echo quality assurance
Echo staff qualifications
Employee attitudes
Favorability ratings
Focus groups
Global media research
Government research
How does Echo differ
How communications research helps
Industry knowledge
Internet research
Interviews
Long-term trends
Manipulating results
Media content analysis
Media relations
Message testing
Message tracking
Not-for-profits
Pharmaceuticals
PR testimonial
PR budget
Press clippings
Reports
Reputation management
Research expertise
Sectors
Stakeholder expectations
Starting a project
Subjectivity
Technology & telecoms
Threats and issues
What's special about Echo
When to use Echo