Periodic Reports
Periodic Monitoring Reports are shorter, focused reports delivered at regular intervals, e.g. every month.
Monitoring reports typically focused on the following elements:
Highlighting important stories for the period
By providing an overview of the stories published by the most influential stakeholders, the client can quickly and effectively keep abreast of the viewpoints of the leading opinion formers.
Understanding relevant changes in the influence of stakeholders
By benchmarking the client’s influence against that of key competitors it is possible to gain insight into the effectiveness of current campaigns and media coverage.
Understanding the composition of the debate and changes to it
By understanding the important issues in the debate and how it is changing we can effectively gain insight into which issues that
matter to the stakeholders of the issue as well as what makes them happy or angry.
Figure 2 shows how the debate on a topic (here ‘contact lenses’) can be split into major components to understand their relative importance in the debate.
Figure 2 - Share-of-Influence of Sub-Issues
Figure 3 shows how the stratification of an overall issue into sub-topics can be combined with a further stratification into brands.
Note how the issue of ‘allergic’ (reaction) comprises an uncommonly large part of the debate on one brand (Soflens) for this period.
It is clear that this method is highly effective in identifying both positive and negative issues associated with a specific brand.
Figure 3 - Brand/Issue Analysis
Predicting Business Outcome (sales, market share, etc.)
There is a lot of good research to show that the more influence a brand accumulates, the larger share of the market it will gain.
This is intuitive as well: If a greater proportion of the talk is about a particular brand, this brand is going to be at the front of mind of more people. And if those who talk about the brand are voices of influence it is intuitive that their impact will be greater than if said voices had low influence.
In fact, research more than suggests that, over time, relative market share will equate to relative share-of-influence.
Figure 4 (below) shows the percentage change in monthly influence and percentage change in monthly sales for Nissan Pathfinder for the period of February to July 2007.
We can see that the two graphs follow a similar path and they appear to be strongly correlated. In fact, the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (a metric often used in PR and Advertising research to tie explaining observations to outcome) shows a correlation of 0.99 (the scale is -1 to +1); a very, very strong correlation.
Figure 4 - Monthly Influence and Sales for Nissan Pathfinder
For Pathfinder we can see that the typical lag between earned influence and sales seems to be shorter than one month. This is not always the case but in my experience it is typical for cars that have been on the market for some time and thereby well known to potential consumers.
Figure 5 (below) shows the similar data for Nissan Qashqai. The period here is from March to July (introduced in February).
At first glance the two variables seem to be less correlated, but in fact the correlation (0.98) is almost as strong as for Pathfinder.
There is however, a lag between the earned influence and the sales.
Notice how the change in influence increases sharply from April to May while the change in sales increase slows.
Change in influence then falls from May to June, only for the change in sales to follow with a one month lag.
Figure 5 - Monthly Influence and Sales for Nissan Qashqai
The lag may be caused by the fact that this is a new model. If this is the case then it is likely that the lag will become shorter as more people become familiar with the model.
The lag may also be explained by delivery shortages, but regardless of cause the point is to illustrate that measuring influence is a highly effective way of understanding where the sales are heading.
Comparing the accumulated relative influence of each brand can be done in several ways.
Figure 6 shows the conversations about a topic (contact lenses) split into brands. The level of the debate is adjusted for the topical influence of the ‘voice’ speaking.
The figure clearly shows that the relative share-of-influence of the main brand is declining. If this continues it is bound to lead to loss of market share.
Figure 6 - Share-of-Influence Trend
Information about the trends in a brand’s share-of-influence is not only a powerful predictor of future market share. It is also clear evidence of the effectiveness of a brand’s advertising, PR and market communication as a whole.
A brand’s share-of-influence will normally decline when the brand’s market communication is ineffective and/or the market communication spend of competing brands have increased.
Monitoring share-of-influence (and total influence) can therefore also be used to pick up changes in competitor’s market communication spend.
