Communicator

GlobeScan's Communicator is a powerful tool for deeply understanding target audiences and facilitating focused, high leverage communications strategies.

Communicator draws on GlobeScan's long experience in advanced attitudinal and behavioral segmentation, to:

• Map populations, highlighting and profiling groups who can be effectively targeted.
• Identify whom to reach, how, and with what messages to achieve communications breakthroughs.
• Track key segments to measure the effectiveness of campaigns in shifting attitudes.

How it Works

Communicator is tailored to the needs of individual clients. The starting point is a survey of the broad target audience (e.g., consumers, customers, Opinion Leaders, etc.) incorporating sets of questions around personal beliefs and behavior, as well as attitudes towards the client organization and its particular issues. We also probe for respondents' trusted communication channels.

Advanced analysis of the results draws out groups among the target audience that tend to have similar beliefs. These groups are characterized by their position within a three-dimensional space defined by key attitudinal variables, such as interest in learning more and/or agreement with selected positions on issues or propensity to act in a certain way (see illustration).

The axes characterize segments by personal qualities and beliefs about a key issue. Group size is illustrated, and the shading of the segments indicates a third major differentiator.

Applying the Research

GlobeScan's experience in interpreting these segments helps clients focus on key groups where communications will achieve maximum return on investment. We show which groups are open to dialogue on issues and those which may be holding clients back from widespread acceptance. To aid in targeting and building relationships with these segments, we can profile them by:

• Demographic and geographic variables: age, education, income, region, etc.
• Attitudes and behavior toward the client's issues.
• Preferred sources of information and respected opinion formers.

Clients are equipped with clear targets and themes around which to build their communications strategy.

Tracking

Like all GlobeScan's research, Communicator is designed to be tracked over time. The same questionnaire can be used as a basis for future waves such that the target groups can be re-identified and the impact of messaging campaigns measured. Further questions can be added to find out how particular segments are responding to current developments.

This produces a dynamic map of the public's attitudinal landscape, showing movements in perceptions over time and indicating the changing significance of different groups' views on client issues (see the illustration, figure 2).

This analysis can be used to gauge the impact of campaigns on various key groups and reveal emerging issues that will have to be factored into communications campaigns to ensure continued success.

And finally, target segments can be recruited to focus groups based on responses to a short selection of questions from Communicator. This is especially useful for refining campaign specifics, developing creative material, and gaining insight into primary attitudinal motivators.