Category Archives: Research Commentary
How to Spend Money on Surveys that Don’t Get Results Part 1
No, that’s not a typo. Although many organizations have the best intentions when it comes to conducting influence campaign research, I’ve seen some rival the “burn rate” of a circa 2000 internet start-up company without persuading their audiences. That results in wasted resources and a credibility hit for the government relations professionals at the scene of the crime.
On a somewhat related note, it reminds me of a comment (and I’m not making this up) at a recent conference where someone who was the victim of an “influence in a box” product pushed at them by an outside vendor, exclaimed: “We spent $400,000.00 (again, unfortunately not a typo) on a grassroots influence campaign and all we got was a lousy web…
Banish These Words
Czar
Teachable moment
“This phrase is used to describe everything from potty-training to politics….
Why have a PAC?
This is why…
Innovate to Motivate faculty member Brett Kappel weighs in on new research from Vanderbilt University:
The research finds that corporations gain clear financial benefits when individual employees make political donations.
What they describe in a new research paper is strong evidence that individuals who make political donations – whether at the behest of companies or not – directly benefit businesses in their communities.
“The reason we looked at individual contributions is because it accounts for about two-thirds of all the money given directly to politicians,” said Ovtchinnikov, noting that only about 10 percent of firms are actively involved in campaign finance. “Individuals are the big players in this game.”
The 2010 U.S. congressional elections saw an unprecedented boom in campaign…
Mixing Business and Politics
You may have seen the recent research from the University of Tennessee, in which Russell Crook, David Woehr and Sean Lux have found that yes, indeed, mixing business and politics makes good financial sense. If you would like a copy of the full academic report -…
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How to Spend Money on Surveys that Don’t Get Results Part 2
Here’s how to really determine if ads are effective: advertise some products, and don’t advertise others. Then see which sells. All those “advertisements that don’t work” will sell the product. Those that are unadvertised will sit on the shelf. When you ask people why they bought the advertised product, they will mention positive product attributes, but seldom advertising.
No matter if you are selling a message, a request for action, or a PAC contribution, the lesson for government relations professionals is this: unsophisticated “merely asking” type of research won’t give you the insight needed to create compelling lines of persuasion.
So, that’s a long explanation of the number-one way to spend money on research that doesn’t get results: incorrect methodology. Here are…