wpa energy slide deck
DESCRIPTION
WPA has experience with the types of research necessary for utility companies, including: Rate Case Research WPA’s communication research ensures that all efforts will reach the right people in the right places with the most effective messages to drive opinions and change behaviors to improve your company’s image during the rate case campaign. New Product and Program Development New program and product launches are delicate public relations efforts that require the right touch and outreach with the right people. WPA’s proprietary communication techniques enable you to make sure your program is introduced so as to give it the best chance of success possible. Not In My Backyard Messaging With an approval process that is long and complicated, it is important to make sure that any new generation or transmission line siting efforts are supported by an effective communications campaign explaining to the public the benefits of new generation. WPA can assist in every phase of this process, from identifying publically acceptable locations to exploring and defining the critical messaging that will limit opposition to new generation or transmission line siting. Industrial and Commercial Client Research Ensuring the satisfaction and usage of key industrial and commercial consumers is critical to maximizing profit. WPA has extensive experience researching the needs and perceptions of key regional stakeholders to help determine the best ways to engage these types of large companies. Demand Management Research Balancing demand requires a detailed and nuanced understanding of consumer behavior. WPA’s techniques help identify the critical price and usage turning points that can cause dramatic shifts in consumer behavior, helping to ensure that your utility is operating as efficiently as possible. Crisis Communications With a background in political image management, WPA is very aware of the shifting needs and quick timelines that public relations crises require. Being able to rapidly turn around research that will provide a PR team with a complete understanding of how the public is perceiving an issue allows a company to get ahead of an issue, identifying winning strategies weather any storm.TRANSCRIPT
WPA’s experience with utility companies is
unparalleled. WPA has worked for utilities
companies throughout the United States to improve customer
relations and achieve specific objectives and has helped to develop
and evaluate communications and
marketing campaigns to improve the image of
the industry as a whole!
WPA Energy Work
Kansas City Power and Light (KCP&L)For the past five years, WPA has been the principal provider of customer opinion and communications research to KCP&L. In this time, WPA has conducted more than 2,000 survey research interviews and a number of focus group sessions each year for KCP&L. WPA’s research efforts for KCP&L have included: Quarterly customer satisfaction surveillance surveys, rate case positioning and messaging research, merger and acquisition messaging research, advertising development and effectiveness research, and employee research.
Case Study
Message Mapping™ is the optimal tool to determine
exactly what to say in communications.
Message Mapping™
Effectiveness
• Using a scientific “treatment effects” design we can determine exactly how effective each message is at changing consumers’ minds.
• This effectiveness measurement is shown on the “x” or horizontal axis.
• The more effective a message, the further to the right it appears.
Stickiness
• Our message “stickiness” analysis tells us which messages will be the most memorable to consumers.
• The “stickier” a message is the more likely it is to break through the clutter and reach consumers.
• The “stickiness“ measure is shown on the “y” or vertical axis. The “stickier” a message is the higher it appears on the graph.
Believability
• The final measurement on our message maps is how believable a message is to an audience.
• Messages that fail the belief test won’t work regardless of how well they score on other measures and they could even backfire on a organization.
• Believability is shown by bubble size. The more believable a message, the larger its bubble.
How Two Of WPA’s Key Tools
Can Benefit Utilities
Companies
Messages are represented on bubble charts, providing an easy to use “map” for further action. Bubbles located farthest from the point of origin (the area shaded green) are the best messages in
terms of effectiveness and stickiness.
Message Maps Broken Down
In the Message Map to the right, Messages 8, 3, 6 and 4 are the best messages, balancing effectiveness and stickiness. Message 7 is very memorable, but not effective. Message 2 is neither memorable nor effective. WPA doesn’t just give you the best messages, we also detail which messages work best with each type of voter to makes sure that media dollars have the largest possible impact
Customer Satisfaction SatMap™
The SatMap™ analysis tool shows how well a company is performing on various attributes in relation to their importance to the customer.
WPA uses explicit measures of performance, but implicit measures of importance by correlating performance with a customers overall satisfaction with a product or service.
When an attribute is above the green line, the performance outweighs importance in that attribute. When an attribute is below the green line, the organization is underperforming in that attribute in comparison to its importance.
Companies use this information to transfer resources dedicated to those attributes above the green line in order to improve the attributes below the green line.