John Davies is CEO of Davies Public Affairs, a firm that assists energy companies to earn support for key issues.
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Polls make great news: “Overwhelming majority disapproves of job Congress is doing.” “Survey says 85% of Americans concerned about inflation.” “38% of 18-to-29-year-olds favor total student loan debt cancellation.”
Public opinion studies like these come out every day. They make for great clickbait. But for a communications professional tasked with actually influencing public opinion, a fundamental question quickly arises: Why?
That’s the difference between quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research gives you the numbers, while qualitative research gives you the why. And it’s the “why” that speaks to how people perceive the world, with all their messy hopes, dreams and fears.
Qualitative research means asking the right questions in the right setting and listening carefully. If you want to learn about an unfamiliar community, a great start would be to strike up a friendly conversation with a local, maybe at a diner or a hair salon, and hear about what really matters to the people in that area.
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When you get into a conversation like this, you can hear how the community has changed in recent years, and how people hope it will change in the future. You will hear what’s been going well, along with the challenges that are making daily lives more difficult. By listening first, you can get a much better idea of how your story may fit in their everyday lives.
Focus groups were an early means of scaling up the qualitative approach. Rather than a single conversation with one person at a diner counter, you can have a guided dialogue with a hand-selected group of people in a conference room. Better yet, you can have two guided dialogues with selected groups and each participant receives a gift card for two hours of their time.
However, there is a serious limitation to this approach. Not everyone can speak at once, and the discussions become dominated by the most vocal individuals. It’s also costly and time-consuming. The solution we have crafted at Davies Public Affairs is to conduct these in-depth discussions, one-on-one with individuals, over the phone. We call it “focused interviews.” It’s faster, less expensive and yields far more data.
With focused interviews, each individual is given space and anonymity to share their unfiltered opinions and perspectives. There’s zero judgment from others in the room (because there’s nobody in the room.) It’s just an open-ended conversation with a friendly person asking good questions, avoiding the pressure and influence of a group setting.
We are asked a lot about how we can possibly get stakeholders to participate in an unpaid phone survey, which can last up to 60 minutes, with an unfamiliar firm. What we have found is that with experienced callers, the right questionnaire and engaging questions, people will take the time to share their views because they have opinions they want to express, and we provide a safe forum to express them. The research works because people have an innate interest in sharing their opinions with someone who is really listening.
With the verbatim results of an average of 30 45-to-60-minute interviews in hand, our senior team reads every single word. We discuss and debate the seven to nine central findings from the interviews that we agree will best inform a message and communications strategy.
For our clients, this rigorous method uncovers what Dan Sullivan of the Strategic Coach has branded as the DOS: the dangers they need to overcome, the opportunities they need to leverage and the strengths they must protect and build upon. It is not based on luck, cookie-cutter approaches or gut feelings. We are led by the data and our decades of firm experience, which helps us translate these interviews into tailored, actionable and compelling messages.
Key findings from this qualitative research technique are applicable to a wide range of industries and issues. We have completed these in every type of project including developments like wind farms, LNG export terminals, solar farms and real estate. But the technique has also been successfully leveraged to craft communications for pharma marketing, food engineering and resort or college marketing. Pretty much any time you need to create a thoughtful, simple and powerful message, focused interviews can lead the way.
When your team has collectively analyzed tens of thousands of interviews in myriad contexts, you can help clients discover their powerful “why” and be able to tell a persuasive story that transcends the simplicity of “xx% of respondents think such and such.”
For example, most polls regarding solar farms will show that the economic interests of a project should be used to craft the most compelling message. It may show that 79% of respondents are most concerned with the jobs and revenue the project brings to the community. While most respondents agree on that point, it is not an answer that can inform a value-based or persuasive message. Not until you explain the project details and prove that you will avoid impacts to neighbors and embrace benefits, will anyone have an interest in the jobs or revenue the project creates. So that 79% means nothing, until residents accept the premise of the project and are educated on the benefits it will bring to them, as well as the community as a whole.
When you find the “why,” you can tap into people’s hopes, dreams and fears to influence and persuade. That is the power of qualitative research. That’s the power of focused interviews. To tell your best, most effective story, you must start with listening.
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Author: John Davies, Forbes Councils Member
