Burson-Marsteller's reputation as a trail blazer in public relations research builds on Harold Burson's legacy of listening carefully and solving problems with facts, not fancy. Primary research is our tool for listening and gathering facts. Burson-Marsteller's proprietary knowledge, based on our award-winning primary research, encompasses research studies on brands, corporate and CEO reputation and the e-fluentials®. Our research has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, The Financial Times, PRWeek, and The Holmes Report, among dozens of other publications around the world. Our on-going studies cultivate a steady stream of innovation in our public relations/communications thinking and continuously builds the intellectual capital on which we base our client work.
In addition to Burson-Marsteller proprietary research, we conduct individual primary research studies for clients to help scope their public relations programs. Answers to questions such as "Where can I best reach my target audience?," "What message is most compelling to my key customers?" and "How are my current communications resonating with my employees and customers?" help define and optimize the impact of our clients' communications programs. Through our research partners we are able to access hard-to-reach niche segments and far-flung global audiences based on client need. Coupling our intellectual capital with client-specific insights helps Burson-Marsteller give our clients an informed perspective which is unrivaled in the world of public relations.
Our research team also employs a range of measurement techniques – based on our Burson-Marsteller Measurement Dashboard - to provide a comprehensive view of the campaign's effectiveness. That is, we measure each individual tactic of the campaign, as well as the impact of the campaign on the whole, to provide a 360º perspective on which components of the program drove the strongest outcomes. Understanding that every public relations campaign is unique, we focus on measuring the campaign impact against specific pre-determined goals including shifts in awareness, attitudes and behaviors.
Specialized research products and services that Burson-Marsteller offers our clients include: issues monitoring and analysis, Web audits, employee research, crisis monitoring, business and environment analyses, creative ideation and client intranet development. Our commitment to the financial success of our clients means a commitment to these cutting-edge capabilities and more.
Digital Check-up: B-M’s proprietary Digital Check-up tool is used to measure a company’s online health and reputation across search, blogs, social media and corporate website presence.
Search Engine Analysis (SEA): Search Engine Analysis provides a quantitative review of a company’s search engine positioning against competitors so that changes can be made to increase visibility
Cision: Burson-Marsteller partners with Cision, the leading global provider of media relations software services and solutions, to conduct media research and monitoring, including YouTube, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn. B-M’s strategy team uses Cision data to develop targeted PR programs and assess the impact the programs have on media coverage and peer-to-peer dialogues.
Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates (PSB): PSB is Burson-Marsteller’s research partner, offering clients a range of qualitative and quantitative research tools for brand and corporate image strategy, advertising and PR campaign strategy development, execution testing and messaging.
- Audience Insight Aggregation
- Influencer Mapping
- Messaging
- Corporate Reputation Management
- Crisis Management
TruCast (Visible Technologies): Burson-Marsteller partners with Visible Technologies to helps clients interact, manage and grow their brands in the blogosphere and social media communities. With TruCast, Burson-Marsteller clients gain the following benefits:
- Social Media and Blog Monitoring to track viral conversations about the client’s brand and products and to react quickly to online dialogues affecting the brand
- Social Media Learning and Measurement to brand Influencers and activists, assess the conversation volume about your products and brand
- Social Media Marketing and Customer Engagement to drive influential peer-to-peer, word-of-mouth promotion and measure marketing programs and media campaign success