Who to talk to and what to say
Background
A consortium of companies engaged in research into and production of a new technology surrounding crop production had experienced success in the US market.
They wanted to sell their product in Europe and entered the market making assumptions about the similarity of both markets.
Almost instantly, this assumption led to an upsurge in interest about the subject and the intervention of NGOs across Europe who opposed the companies’ activity. Mass negative media coverage resulted and subsequent political espousal of the views expressed very clearly and successfully by NGOs threatened the future of these companies’ activities in the European market.
A new approach was required to reverse the negativity and change the political landscape. This would involve challenging the assumption that benefits perceived by US consumers would automatically apply in Europe, by researching and comparing the views of European consumers.
Objectives
Establish the base of the campaign in terms of what should be said, to whom and how through use of market research to pre-validate communications strategy.
Strategy and plan
The strategy was founded on identifying key benefit messages that resonated with European consumers.
Execution and implementation
Once the league tables of credible benefit messages and communications intermediaries were established, this data became a vital tool in shaping the eventual approach to communications and the creation of a strategy from the market research findings.
Nothing was included in the communications strategy that could not be proven or justified from the research findings.
Results and evaluation
Using messages that were known to resonate with communications intermediaries and the public at large truncated the overall campaign and ensured that results were both positive and could be achieved on a much shorter timescale. Evaluation was achieved through subsequent yearly market research which continued to measure the ongoing effectiveness of the messages, as well as the campaign that delivered them.
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