Our Publics
This afternoon I had the privilege of working with a volunteer group that conducts a variety of HR seminars in New Yorks Hudson Valley. The JSEC (www.ulsterjsec.org) team wanted the same result that clients from major corporations and fast-track entrepreneurs want: more customers. In their case, it’s more participants.
The groups challenge is a microcosm of a fundamental requirement for any organizations effort to continue success and drive growth. Like our friends in major corporations and small business, the JSEC team needs to take a good close look at their publics.
In this area nestled at the foothills of the Catskill Mountains in a green belt that stretches along a graceful Hudson River, most business is small. Attracting 60 to 70 participants at recent events was ground-breaking. Now, with two seasons of experience, the median attendance is 40.
Audience Development
How can we attract more businesses? What we have to offer is valuable. We need to get the word out. We need more newspaper coverage. . . JSECs business case is essentially no different than what general managers in Fortune 500 firms or savvy managers in the private growth companies face.
We discussed the media. We talked about finding partners. Then discussion turned to events and promotions. In the meeting we discussed multiple tactics which triggered similar discussions in more than one office campus meeting room.
But the most significant topic we tackled was research: talking with the people.
Dialog
We discussed making the first step of their communications initiative an in-depth probe into some number of that faithful 40 attendees. The purpose was to learn why they attend. What are the benefits? What do they enjoy? How have these HR seminars helped their businesses?
What developed was an agreement that JSEC needed to dialog with its core and develop an understanding of them. The approach will be systematic. At my firm weve branded the approach Soundings Research.
Three-Step Soundings Research
The process has three fundamental elements:
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We select a small number of people who are qualified as being highly knowledgeable, and as objective or balanced as can be expected
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Draft a discussion guide, unique to the situation. It will navigate the interviewees from benefits and quantitative elements to impressions, experiences and suggestions
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Finally, a composite report sets forth the learnings and the hypotheses that flow from them
The result is:
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knowledge that is much better than assumptions held by various people in organization
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costs which are dramatically lower than traditional research approaches
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opportunity for immediate decision-making or defining further fact finding
The results are not scientific; they are not a statistical sample; they are not projectable. But this process does produce information from customers, and this approach has proven extremely successful repeatedly. In some cases, this approach leads to additional Soundings, focus groups, opinion surveys and Delphi-like futures research. In other cases the process simply leads to better decisions.
But fundamental and underlying is the person-to-person connection with customers, publics and constituents. In todays hurried and haphazard lifestyle, it is difficult for owners, directors and other leaders in the real world to pay attention to customers and get everything else accomplished. Soundings can help fill the gap.
Resources
Soundings Research is a step-by-step approach developed in partnership with Renee Kristol, (reneekristol@yahoo.com) who serves as director of research for JMC and has her own practice, specializing in executive business-to-business marketing research. You can also contact me, John Mallen, or anyone at JMC Marketing Communications & PR (www.mallen.com).
