Mark Cahalane, Managing Director, Edelman Dublin, and Seamus Mulconry, Director of Public Affairs, Edelman Dublin, presenting the results of the Edelman Trust Barometer.
Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, giving his reaction to the survey results.
Enda Kenny, leader of Fine Gael, pictured with Mark Cahalane, Managing Director, Edelman Dublin.
For the second year, Edelman’s Global Trust Barometer has included Ireland. The annual survey of opinion formers in 18 countries reveals that trust in religious institutions and non governmental organisations in Ireland has risen while trust in business is holding its own and trust in government is declining. Media fares well as a trusted source of information.
Photos from the launch this morning will be uploaded later this afternoon.
Key highlights of the Edelman Trust Barometer include:
NGOS
NGOs are the most trusted organisations in Ireland with 59% of respondents trusting them to do the right thing, an increase from 48% last year.
Religion
Trust in religious institutions In Ireland has risen from 29% to 37%.
Government
Trust in Government has dropped from 37% to 35%.
Media
Trust in media in Ireland stands at 43% compared to 37% last year.
Amongst the most valued sources of information in Ireland is radio news trusted by 59% of those surveyed and TV news at 57%. Ireland has a higher usage of newspaper articles and radio than any other country surveyed.
Advertising is trusted by 16% of those surveyed, while social networking sites are trusted by 6% compared to a European average of 14%.
As sources of information, television, print media and business publications are the most trusted with 70% trusting conversations with friends and peers.
CNN, BBC and Google are referenced as being trusted in every European country.
Business
The technology sector remains the most trusted industry with 65% approval in Ireland.
While business is the second most trusted institution, trust has declined from 50% to 47% and trust in CEOs as a credible spokesperson about a company is relatively low at 29%.
90% of respondents who do not trust a company will not buy its products, while 87% of respondents will share negative opinions about the company with others.
US companies are less trusted than European companies, effectively creating a trust deficit.
Companies headquartered in Ireland are the eight most trusted internationally.
The most trusted spokespersons on relevant business topics are financial or industry analysts at 62%, followed by doctors and healthcare professional at 57%. Regulators have a 40% trust rating while a “person like yourself” has a 53% level of trust.
Commenting on the Edelman Trust Barometer findings, Mark Cahalane, Managing Director, Edelman Ireland said: “Clearly, in terms of trust, Non Governmental Organisations, Business and Religious Organisations do very well. NGOs obviously benefit through their relevance and engagement with both domestic and international issues of concern such as, climate change, human rights and the environment. The bounce back in confidence in religious institutions has been dramatic perhaps attributed to a year of change in the main church and a rising emigrant population. While government held its own overall it remains at a relatively low 35% confidence rating. In terms of the most trusted sources of information, broadcast news is one of the strongest forces at 59% while print media runs at 55% confidence.”
The main themes emerging in relation to Ireland are that over the past year trust in NGOs and religious institutions has risen significantly. In the last survey, NGOs trust level in Ireland stood at 48% that has now reached 59%. This compares to a global rating of 53%. Again, NGOs are viewed as addressing issues of importance and are trusted to do the right thing. NGOs have a clear trust advantage in Europe. There has been a significant jump in trust in religious institutions in Ireland rising from 29% to 37%. This is potentially attributed to the passage of time from clerical abuse scandals and the constructive engagement being undertaken by the main church in Ireland. Interestingly, trust in religious institutions remains high across the developing world, rating highly in Mexico 57%, Brazil 48%, India 29% and China 51%. Across Europe, trust in religion stands at 28% in the UK, 36% in Spain, 27% in Germany and 40% in the Netherlands. Government remains least trusted in Ireland at 35%, compared to a global average of 43%.
Amongst the most trusted sources of information in Ireland is news coverage on radio at 59%. Newspaper articles on individual companies had a raking of 55%, while a company’s own communications was only trusted by 27% while blogs or weblogs stood at 14%. When we consider who we trust the most as a spokesperson in Ireland, the most trusted sources of information include, financial or industry analysts at 62%, followed by a doctor or healthcare specialist at 57%, an NGO representative at 57% and academics at 53%. Bloggers are the least trusted at 7%. A regular employee of a company stands at 39% while a “person like yourself” stands at 53%. Overall media fares very well in Ireland.
In Ireland, trust in business stands at 47%. As a trusted spokesperson, a CEO stands at a 29% trust level compared to a 62% rating for an industry analyst as a trusted information source. Government regulators are only trusted to do the right thing by 40% in Ireland. Looking at specific sectors, the technology sector associated with innovation, development and employment remains the most trusted globally and also in Ireland at 65%. Again in Ireland, biotech and life science companies fare well at 50% and pharmaceutical companies at 49%. Companies headquartered in Ireland are the eight most trusted globally with a trust level of 60%. Those headquartered in Sweden are the most trusted, followed by Germany, Canada and the UK. When forming opinions on a business overseas those surveyed were most influenced by perceptions of business practice at 82%, human rights track record at 74%, while those who had experience of the company or brand stood at 54%.
We were pleased to help Pedigree launch their Dog Adoption Drive on Sunday. Caroline Morahan, Pamela Flood, Aidan Power and Lorraine Keane were at hand to raise awareness of the plight of homeless and abandoned dogs by encouraging people in Ireland to adopt a dog from their local shelter or welfare organisation. Recent statistics have shown Ireland puts to sleep twice as many dogs as rehomed.
The launch received coverage in the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Metro, Herald AM, Irish Daily Star, Irish Sun, Irish Mirror and Irish Daily Mail.
To find out more on dog adoption, from how the adoption process works to training and everyday care and nutrition, visit the website.
Edelman announced yesterday that we have acquired 100% of Imageland Russia and 50% of Imageland Ukraine, two of the largest PR firms in their respective markets and long-time Edelman affiliates. Read the social media release to find out more about the acquisition. With 51 offices worldwide, it further strengthens our ability to reach a global audience.
This year’s Irish Blog Awards will take place on March 1st in the Alexander Hotel. This year, we will be sponsoring the Best New Blog category. Last year’s winners were Beaut.ie so this year’s eventual winners will have some high standards to live up to.
Richard Edelman was in our London office yesterday morning to launch this year’s Edelman Trust Barometer. Here is the presentation of the results. The Irish results are due to be announced next week.
Over 95,000 people are estimated to have taken part in Science Week Ireland 2007. Edelman Dublin worked with Discover Science and Engineering, the organisers of Science Week, to help promote the nationwide initiative and here’s some of the fruits of our labour.
Science Week Ireland 2007 was officially launched by Mary Hanafin TD, Minister for Education, in City Hall. The theme for this year’s Science Week was ‘Surrounded By Science’ and the aim was to illustrate how science plays an important role in our everyday lives. The stars of the launch event were The Physical Jerks, a UK B-Boy crew, who illustrated the science behind breakdancing with the aid of Dr. Dominic Zerulla. a physics professor from UCD. The event led to national coverage in all the broadsheets and on RTE News and set the standard for the week to come.
The Physical Jerks illustrate the science behind breakdancing
RTE at the launch of Science Week Ireland 2007
Science Week Ireland 2007 consisted of 400 events which took place across the country thanks to the efforts of regional partners and volunteers eager to promote science. The programme of events set out to illustrate that behind the everyday objects in our lives is a great inventor, scientist or engineer. Together with Discover Science and Engineering and WITS, we helped organise the Science Week Lecture Series.
The Lecture Series featured Craig Johnston, inventor of the Adidas Predator; Joe Edwards Jr, a former NASA astronaut; a panel discussion on the Science behind the Cosmetics Industry; and Dr Sheila Willis, Director of the Forensics Science Laboratory. The lectures, which were free to the public, were a tremendous success with all of them being booked out prior to Science Week and garnering a lot of media interest. For those who were unable to attend, all of the lectures are available to view online.
Craig Johnston illustrates the physics behind the Soccer ball
Leo Enright interviews Joe Edwards Jr
In addition to our standard media relations and event management efforts, we also helped the Science Week organisers engage with Irish bloggers to talk about specific topics during the week. A blog competition was held and here are the winning entries for each of the topics:
• What was your favourite invention from your childhood? - Kevin Breathnach
• What invention would you most like to see in the future - Brian from atrier.com
• What is the next gadget you plan to buy? - Pedro Monscooch
• What was the best invention of 2007? - Poetbloggs
• What invention helps you most with your working life - Johnny Keyes
We were fortunate enough to have Sylvia Rowe join us at our Dublin office recently to give a presentation at a Marketing Institute of Ireland event. She is a Strategic Consultant for Edelman and former CEO of International Food Information Council.
Sylvia has worked with both U.S.-based and international leaders in industry, government and health organizations, giving her a truly global perspective. She serves regularly as a speaker and panelist at nutrition and food safety conferences and meetings in the U.S. and around the world. In addition to her role at Edelman, Rowe is president of SR Strategy, a consulting firm in Washington D.C., and serves as adjunct professor at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
RTE reported on the huge product recall by Mattel in Ireland last week following concerns over loose magnets and excessive amounts of lead paint in 116,000 toys in the country. It comes as part of a global move which has seen over 18 million products recalled.
There is wider discussion on the recall’s effect on ‘Brand China’. The BBC delved into the discussion and pointed out that “there are over 10,000 toy factories in China, almost all working for export, producing some 80% of the world’s toys…Mattel is believed to source its products from about 3,000 factories across China.And toys are only one industry. China is also facing criticism for safety scares in everything from food and drug production to the manufacturing of tyres and toothpaste.”
While many critics of outsourcing manufacturing to Asian and Eastern Bloc economies have long argued that companies that do so sacrifice quality to price, the reality is that the Chinese have realised while foreigners may make their first purchase based on price, but their repeated business is based on quality. This recall and similar concerns about products like knock-off toothpaste aren’t doing China’s reputation any good and unless there is a serious emphasis put on quality assurance in the short term, consumers will be a lot quicker to check where goods are manufactured in the future.
The high profile advertising campaign around a property development in Dublin that was dubbed as ‘property porn’ in the media has been taken down following complaints to the Advertising Authority. The Irish Independent reports on the story.
RTE reports that “Dublin has the highest proportion of non-Irish nationals at 13% of its population, or 150,000 people.”
If Machiavelli were alive today, I have no doubt that he cite the Prince of Drumcondra and Duke of Ballybough, Bertie Ahern as the role model for a successful political leader. The formation of the new government is quite simply a work of art. Bertie Ahern has created a situation where neither the Greens, nor the Progressive Democrats nor indeed the independents can bring down the Government on their own. When the Progressive Democrats had four T.D.?Ts and the ability to bring down the government they had real power. In the last administration they had eight T.Ds but lacking the ability to bring down the Government on their own had far less power.
In addition by co-opting most of the independents Bertie had destroyed the technical group and thus the ability of Sinn Fein to ask Leaders questions. Having already put a stop to Sinn Fein?Ts electoral gallop ( the first time in 15 years that Sinn Fein has suffered an electoral set back) it must have been a source of some satisfaction to Bertie Ahern see the expression on the Sinn Fein T.Ds faces as they realised that they were now to be denied the significant platform of Leaders questions.
In putting Mary Harney back in Health Bertie Ahern once more demonstrated his political acumen. Had he replaced Harney with a Fianna Fail Minister he would have sent a signal to the vested interests in Health that they had won. Having won one political scalp they would doubtless have sought another, and done all in their power to frustrate the radical reform necessary in the Health Service. Contrary to the popular and media view Mary Harney has delivered significant reforms to the system. Services in accident and emergency are slowly but surely improving. Now she is in a far more powerful position than she was when she first took the position of Minister for Health. There were many in the Health Service who believed that all they had to do was wait for the election and the reforms and Mary Harney would disappear. Well neither have. The positive noises emanating from the Consultants are a rueful recognition of this reality.
In bringing the Greens into Government has once more demonstrated his shrewd understanding of the people?Ts will. It is true that the environment did not feature as an issue in the election. However that had less to do with the level of people?Ts interest in the environment and more to do with the fact that the relentless focus Ahern?Ts finances by the media squeezed all of the real issues bar the economy out of the debate. The truth is that environment is now a real issue for people and they do want to see government action to curb carbon emissions. Whatever the makeup of the new government, its agenda was bound to be green. The programme for Government contains nothing that should keep a Fianna Fail Co Councillor or Jackie Healy-Rae awake at night. However by giving the Greens Energy and Environment he has given them the means the make a real difference. If they are successful Fianna Fail will claim the credit and bask in the glory. If they fail, well it just shows you that for the tough jobs you need Fianna Fail. For make no mistake it will be a tough job. Writing the policies for a greener Ireland is the easy part, implementing these policies is the tough part. We have set ourselves very aggressive targets for the reduction of carbon emissions and for the adoption of renewable energy. Reaching these targets will require a lot of tough decisions. Everybody wants wind power but few people want a wind turbine in the field beside them. The new Green Ministers face massive challenges in implementing their agenda. However if they can skilfully use the synergies between the Departments of Energy and Environment they have the potential to do so. Trevor Sargeant?Ts move into Food is also a good move from the Green point of view. The archetypical green voter (32 year old female with two kids) is deeply concerned both about the environment and about the food her children eats.
Where does this leave the opposition? When Fine Gael stop celebrating their recent success and look at the result in the cold light of day, they will realise they face a formidable challenge in the next election. They ran an excellent campaign and Enda Kenny fulfilled his pledge to electrify the party. However they did not make significant gains in the crucial commuter belt constituencies. Nor did their frontbench cause any real problems for the big guns of Fianna Fail. In short the Fine Gael Front bench did not give the sense it had the heft to form the core of an alternative Government. Labour face an even more difficult prospect, they probably ran the best campaign they had in years but failed to bring in new blood to the party. Labour has some of the best T.Ds in the Dail but it is an aging party and urgently needs renewal. For Labour the local elections are a make or break decision point.
For now Bertie Ahern is the master of all he surveys but as his predecessor rightly noted it is not the big hurdles that trip you up but the small ones.
Seamus Mulconry is director of Public Affairs in Edelman Dublin
Ireland is in the midst of a cocooning trend that is being fuelled by a property boom which has made trading up inaccessible to many. Mortgages are cutting the disposable income available to adults, with a large knock-on effect on their social lives. As a result, people in this age category are putting more of an emphasis on home improvement and entertainment. The phrase ‘a man’s home is his castle’ rings true for many households.
If you look at the Central Statistics Office’s report on Household Composition, Family Units and Fertility from the 2006 Census, it is evident that this trend is likely to continue over the coming years. The report highlighted the increase in one-person households which have increased 18.7 per cent since 2002.
There are two interesting perspectives to this trend from a marketing point of view - watching how companies are responding to this lifestyle shift and its effects on purchasing patterns.
One sector that spotted this trend early on was the drinks industry. In recent years the industry has stepped up its campaign to target the take-home market in Ireland. The most notable example of this is Guinness’ latest advertising campaign which is specifically targeted at this market segment. In addition they have also tapped into a popular social trend with their Poker Nights initiative. Both activities resonate with the target audience because they feed a number of attributes of the audience profile, specifically:
• Engages in social activity that requires participation of two or more people
• Places importance on ritual events
• Broad interests rather than a narrow focus of hobbies
• Eager to self-improve
In addition to this, despite mortgages limiting disposable income the purchase of a home represents a major opportunity to marketers because such a purchase generates sales of five to eight major appliances. More companies are beginning to target property developers to offer kitted out homes. As more people entertain at home it wouldn’t surprise us to see appliance manufacturers such as high end coffee machine makers take a leaf out of Starbucks’ book and begin educating consumers about the superiority of their products.
One wonders whether that will ultimately reverse the cocooning trend and drive people out of their home…who could sit through a lecture about the product specifications of a Plasma Screen
Claire Keane, Account Director in our Corporate Division, clocked a respectful time of 59 minutes and 59 seconds at the recent Women’s Mini-Marathon held in Dublin.
Claire put in two months training for the 10-kilometre race, which is the biggest all-women’s event of its kind in the world, with more than 40,000 competitors taking part this year.
She raised more than €800 for the Jack & Jill foundation, an Irish charity set up to care for families with terminally ill babies suffering from irreparable brain damage. The Mini Marathon has helped raise in excess of €100 million since it was first held in 1983.
“Never again!,” said Claire. “Joking apart, it was a great experience and I’m delighted to have finished it. It’s a good stepping stone to my next challenge – The Dublin City Marathon in October.”
The CSO has released the first in a series of annual reports on Small Business in Ireland. It paints a picture of the contribution of small business in Ireland, offering data on the contribution of small businesses in industry, services and construction, as well as statistics on labour costs, the knowledge economy and the labour force. It also includes international comparisons. The report is available as a pdf. The report underlines the importance of SMEs to the Irish economy by pointing out that small workplaces accounted for over 60% of the workforce.
One point of concern however is that SMEs generally make less use of more advanced Information and Communication Technology than larger enterprises. The report’s March 2006 figures show that 59% of small businesses (between 10 and 49 persons), had a website or homepage. This compares with 80% of businesses with 50 or more employees. However the point of real concern is that small businesses are less likely to adopt e-business, with only 41% indicating that they had dedicated ICT systems for managing purchases or orders, compared with 59% of larger businesses.
There is an obvious opportunity for IT companies to profit from this, but there is still a marked gap in how they communicate this deficit and illustrate the benefits of their offering. By looking through some of the other stats highlighted by the press release accompanying the report, it goes to show that one-stop solutions are far more appealing to SMEs. Instead of engaging with a number of vendors, due to time pressures and a lack of technical expertise small enterprises are looking for quick and efficient solutions.
The shopping habits of the Irish consumer have changed drastically over the last twenty years. The last five years alone has seen our new levels of prosperity reach farcical levels as the children who grew up during the boom of the Celtic Tiger splash their cash. This has been highlighted by the changes made to the typical Irish shopping basket by the Central Statistics Office. As the National Consumer Agency point out it ‘reflects our changing spending habits in modern Ireland’:
Among the everyday items dropped or modified, girls’ trousers have replaced girls’ dresses, the sweeping brush usurps the sweeping brush handle, and tinned sweetcorn has given way to tinned tomatoes. Streaky rashers, shoe polish brushes and wallpaper borders are now off the list. But shellfish, fake tan and coffee makers have all been included for the first time. Technology has also had an impact on the index, with the addition to the basket of plasma screen TVs, home cinema systems, digital printing costs and MP3 players.
For those that are interested here are some stats and trends which reflect the changes in Irish society.
Holidays
The Central Statistics Office reported that Irish people spent nearly €1.5 billion on international trips in the last three months of 2006 - a figure 25 per cent higher than the amount spent during the same period the previous year. However to get a true picture of consumer spending you have to look back to the CSO’s previous figures on holidays abroad by Irish people which showed that we took 5.3 million trips between January and September last year, that’s a rise of almost 40% from 2003 when Irish people made 3.8 million for the same period.
The interesting thing about these stats is that the majority of these trips are increasingly being made by people aged between 60 and 69, which reflects the importance of this age group due to the end of the cocooning trend. To highlight a paragraph of Pamela N. Danziger’s book ‘Let Them Eat Cake‘ which is quite relevant in this instance:
One of the most significant changes on the horizon for luxury goods marketers, especially those that sell home goods, is the end of the cocooning trend that has dominated our consumer culture over the past 20 years. The cocooning, or nesting, trend (as it is variously called) was identified in the mid 1980s by trend tracker Faith Popcorn to describe how people how people were turning their focus inward to hearth and home. The trend was largely driven by demographics, because during that period the baby boomers were in the cocooning phase of life, the period when they were raising young children, and practical necessity kept them grounded at home.
Car purchases
2006 was a landmark year for the Irish car industry. Not because it was a bumper sales year. Instead more supercars (Porsches, Ferraris, Aston Martins, etc) were sold in the first three months of the year than in all of 2005. In the past eighteen months you don’t have to drive around Dublin for long to pass a Bentley, and since the reopening of the Shelbourne Hotel an exotic vehicle in some shape or form seems to be permanently parked outside.
The worrying thing about the buoyancy of the car industry isn’t the level of sales of supercars, but as any BMW dealer will tell you that people are coming into dealerships asking how much it will cost them per week. When you go to a repossessed car auction it isn’t luxury brands you see up for sale, but cars like Peugeot 207s or Golf GTis.
Eating habits
A Food Futures study (pdf) carried out by Amarach Research for Campbell Catering in 2005 is quite insightful despite being two years old at this stage. The report points out:
As Ireland has become more affluent, our eating habits have changed to reflect cultural influences arising from increased travel abroad, changing work patterns and increased discretionary spend. For the first time in our history, we spend more on food to eat outside the home than in the home, which illustrates the transformation that has happened in Ireland in the past decade. If eating out was once the preserve of the ‘well to do’ in Ireland, it is certainly no longer the case.
Forget flash cars and more holidays abroad, if there’s anything that shows how spending habits have changed it’s our eating habits. The potatoe which was once the core of our diets, is now second place to pasta and rice. This reflects one of the four emotional drivers set out in Michael J. Silverstein’s ‘Treasure Hunt - Inside The Mind Of The New Consumer‘:
Questing is about buying goods and experiences that enable people to challenge themselves and try new things. Examples include a car, travel, exotic foods, exercise equipment, entertainment, and collectibles. As the world has opened and Americans are better educated and more widely traveled, they are eager to push their limits and constantly move from one thing to the next.
Levels of Debt and the Housing Boom
Ireland has one of the highest levels of consumer debt in Europe. On top of that the majority of consumers are unaware of the interest rates they are being charged on the amount of money that they owe. Due to a few hiccups in the economy there is a voice that is beginning to grow louder and is raising concerns about debt levels - mortgages in particular. Sunday Business Post journalist, Richard Curran, has a programme on RTE at the moment that is getting a lot of talk at the moment. Futureshock aims to examine whether Ireland’s property bubble is about to burst. In the programme Richard Curran assesses the chances of a significant readjustment to Irish property prices, and asks who will feel the most pain if the market does crash?
A couple of very interesting statistics we came across recently though is that 62% of housing in the country currently has no mortgage associated with it. Furthermore 25% of houses purchased since 1996 have no mortgage associated with them. Brings new meaning to the popular Irish phrase, ‘Do you take cash?’ Hopefully these figures may allay some concerns about the property market.
*Thanks to Davy Stockbrokers, SIMI, National Consumer Agency, and the CSO for the information. If anyone has any other interesting stats please point us in the right direction in the comments section.
Medialive has a summary of the topline results of the 2006 Census Of Population Principal Demographic Results. One of the most interesting aspects of it is that it seems that the number of foreign nationals seems to have been exaggerated in the runup to its publication as Alex Gibson highlights the fact that only 63,276 Poles were recorded in the census, shorter than the figures of 100,000 - 200,000 that are often bandied about. However, it has also been pointed out that some minorities are under reported for a variety of reasons.
The important thing to take from the census is the underlying societal shift in Ireland as it represents an opportunity for the country’s marketers. Prior to the publication of the census Mintel published lifestyle research which backed up a lot of what the census reported. In an article discussing the research, the Sunday Business Post points out “that means young adults have more money to spend and more time in which to spend it - and they like to spend their cash on holidays, cars and health clubs.”
Ireland is a completely different country to what it was twenty years ago. Fueled by the Celtic Tiger, the Mintel’s research shows that “Irish people were marrying later, waiting longer to have children and living with their parents longer.” However with an uncertain economy many people are speculating how we will cope with a recession as the cubs that have emerged from the Celtic Tiger have never experienced a recession before. With a general election coming up many commentators are pointing out that the recent financial worries may play into the hands of the current government as the public will rather than rocking the boat in an uncertain period.
For more detailed information on the census, please view the preliminary report from the CSO or their commentary (both documents are pdfs).
Talk to any politician in Dail Eireann and you will hear the same refrain “I wish to God it was over and we had a result”. Speculation as to the make-up of the next Government has been in the media for over two years, and whatever about the general public, most politicians are heartily sick of it. It has been the longest campaign in Irish Electoral history. Finally however the phoney war is about to end, manifesto’s are being signed off, the look and feel of campaigns are being presented to party leaders, and messages are receiving their final stress test. In the immortal words of PJ Mara “It’s Showtime”.
As we enter the real campaign there are as yet few certainties. What does seem certain is that the Green Party will benefit from a surge in interest and concern amongst voters (particularly amongst female voters) on issues such as climate change, and the environment. As every Director of Elections knows the fair wind of a surge can save candidates under threat, or push over the line some long shot hopefuls.
There is no doubt that the Green Party are now a serious political party and could, and probably will be strong threat to the established parties in a significant number of constituencies. The Green Party website is no longer a ready source of material for opposition research specialists, while the party is fielding young articulate and attractive candidates.
Already the big guns of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have begun to train the attacks on the Greens. Fianna Fail’s strategy has been simple, become greener than the greens, adopt the green agenda and deny voters a reason to switch to the greens. The Progressive Democrats have also adopted this strategy and in addition have raised the issue of the threat to business of the Green’s taxation policy.
Some commentators have suggested that the rise of the Greens may derail the Sinn Fein bandwagon as the Greens receive a protest vote, and a youth vote. I’m not so sure, for a start the Sinn Fein bandwagon has shown signs of running out of steam for some time. Sinn Fein no longer occupies the same amount of public mind space as they did two years ago. The may have received a bounce from their successes in the North but given the general lack of interest in Northern matters amongst the southern electorate that bounce may not be too big. Secondly Sinn Fein’s great strength is it’s ability to mobilise support amongst working class males who traditionally do not vote. There is very little crossover between Green and Sinn Fein supporters.
The youth vote is one of the great myths of Irish politics, every party claims it wants to attract it but in practice most strongly discount its existence. The problem is that the majority of young people don’t vote. Voting is something that people begin to engage with as they get their first real pay check, get a foot on, or these days try to get a foot on the property ladder or begin a family. That’s when most people begin to realise that what the jokers in Leinster House do has a real impact on their lives and begin to vote accordingly.
Paradoxically the Greens may pose the greatest threat to the Progressive Democrats and to Labour. It is no accident that both the Greens and the Progressive Democrats have representation in almost all of the same constituencies, primarily metropolitan five seaters. The supporters of both parties tend to have above average incomes, to have above average educational qualifications and to be more focused on national rather than local political issues. As one political wit put “They are members of the self actualisation class of Irish Politics” As noted above the Progressive Democrats have already begun to square up to the Greens. The challenge for Labour is much more subtle.
As well has its traditional working class base in Urban and Rural Ireland the Labour Party draws a sizable section of its support from urban professionals such as lawyers, University lecturers etc who tend to socially liberal and for whom the green message is very attractive. As Labour and Fine Gael may well need Green support to form administration direct attacks on the Green party are to say the least inadvisable.
In recent times Labour has been sandwiched between the rise of Sinn Fein, which has hovered up the working class protest vote and the rise of the Greens which has had the same impact on the middle-class protest and fashionable Green vote. Nevertheless they have played their cards well; Pat Rabbitte’s conversion to tax cuts surprised the Government and the Pol Corrs and effectively put the Government on the back foot. The Labour Add campaign “Are you happy” does latch onto sometime which is the Zeitgeist, namely that many young people with families are increasingly frazzled as they try to balance work and family commitments. Were it not for the emergence of the other two parties Labour might well be looking at a very good election, as it is they are certainly looking at the prospect of power. The lessons for business are clear, whether or not the Greens are in power after the next election the Green agenda is now centre stage with both consumers and voters. Themes such as energy conservation, sustainable development and community are now important to how voters cast their ballots and consumers spend their cash.
Seamus Mulconry, Director of Public Affairs
This article also appeared in Business and Finance.
In January, we unveiled the Irish results of the Edelman Trust Barometer. The slideshow from our presentation is below. It threw up a lot of interesting data, especially from a communications perspective. The research which was extended to Ireland for the first time this year, set out to uncover the level of trust placed in companies, institutions and various sources of information ranging from the media to bloggers.
Business organisations come out as the most trusted institution in Ireland. This comes as no surprise given our recent economic boom. NGOs rank second. The media and government in general are joint third. Religious institutions rank bottom. Technology is the most trusted industry. Again this can be put down to the numerous benefits it has brought to our society.
There’s a lot of interesting data from a communications perspective. Although the public’s trust in the media is falling, the research shows that traditional media still has an important role to play. It also highlighted the emergence of peer-to-peer communications, with respected figures in the community such as doctors and a ‘person like me’ considered to be some of the most trusted spokespeople about an organisation. In the process, the research also revealed that this medium doesn’t simply consist of blogging and that the world of peer-to-peer communications is just as fragmented as traditional media.
The new model of communications that has been identified is about the influence of multiple stakeholders using a variety of channels. What does that mean exactly and how can it be achieved? Richard Edelman describes an organisation that has adopted the model as a smart company that uses its CEO to inform investors, the media and other key stakeholders, while at the same time arming its employees and customers with information to discuss issues with their peers. For me, it goes even further. It’s about building relationships.
Instead of looking to build sales, companies need to build long-lasting, valuable relationships with their customers. Why? A company is more profitable when it has the repeat custom of the people who purchase their goods or services. Instead of taking a short term view and looking to turn a quick buck, companies should try to develop bonds with their customers. There are numerous commercial benefits from taking such an approach. For example, in their paper, “The Long-Term Effects of Joining and Participating in Customer Communities“, Rene Algesheimer and Utpal M. Dholakia showed that eBay surpassed their competitors by developing customer communities:
Customer communities accomplish many marketing objectives effectively and economically, such as providing credible, low-cost, customized “high-touch” service and support (from expert to novice customers), rapidly disseminating new information, providing high- quality feedback from customers, signaling early warnings from the marketplace, and giving the firm access to its loyal and engaged customers.
Consumers buy from people they trust. Unfortunately the kind of relationship that is required to build trust has been discouraged of late, but this is beginning to change. In his book, ‘The Perfect Store - Inside eBay‘, Adam Cohen discusses the first business plan Jeff Skoll wrote for eBay:
Before the industrial revolution, the craftsman and the customer had a personal relationship. The quality and service were excellent, but the personal attention meant that goods were expensive, beyond the reach of most people. The industrial revolution ushered in a new era of mass production, in which goods were cheaper. But these efficiencies came at a cost: with large factories and elaborate distribution channels , buyers and sellers no longer formed personal relationships. The computer, Skoll argued would make it possible to reclaim the old-style relationship.
The Internet has changed the way we do business. Although it might not always be visible, every single industry has been affected. Importantly, it has shifted a lot of power into the hands of consumers. The following passage from ‘Freakonomics‘ captures this brilliantly:
Information is the currency of the Internet. As a medium, the Internet is brilliantly efficient at shifting information from the hands of those who have it into the hands of those who do not. Often, as in the case of term life insurance prices, the information existed in a woefully scattered way. (In such instances, the Internet acts like a gigantic horseshoe magnet waved over an endless sea of haystacks, plucking the needle out of each one.)…it has vastly shrunk the gap between the experts and the public. The Internet has proven particularly fruitful for situations in which a face-to-face encounter with an expert might actually exacerbate the problem of asymmetrical information - situations in which an expert uses his informational advantage to make us feel stupid or rushed or cheap or ignoble. Consider a scenario in which your loved one has just died and now the funeral director - who knows that you know next to nothing about his business and are under emotional duress to boot - steers you to the $7000 mahogany casket. Or consider the automobile dealership: the salesman does his best to obscure the car’s base price under a mountain of add-ons and incentives. Later, however, in the cool-headed calm of your home, you can use the Internet to find out exactly how much the dealer paid the manufacturer for that car.
We now live in the era of the educated consumer. Nancy Turett, global president of health in Edelman, adds, “Sophisticated and socially engaged, they form their trust by listening, conversing, gathering opinions, and thoughtfully forming their own.” Now more than ever, we rely on the opinions of others when deciding what to buy. Today’s companies are charged with shaping the conversation, something that sounds like an impossible task. So how does a company go about building relationships with its customers? By starting from the inside out.
An organisation’s employees are on the frontline of shaping the public’s opinion about it. They have titles like CEO, account manager or sales assistant, but we forget that they have other titles after they clock off like mother, father, son, daughter, partner or friend. If they have nothing positive to say about the company, the general public will fare little better in their opinion. As Gary Grates, global managing director of Edelman Change and Employee Engagement, points out, “Instead of treating employees as a captive audience, it is essential that leaders and communicators recognize them as a public constituency capable of opinion-shaping, decision-making and organizational success. When a company ignores this truth, it suffers. Employees now have the technology as well as a choice of public forums for airing their concerns.” A fantastic example of seeing this in action is the email Michael Dell sent to Dell employees spelling out the steps the company is taking to turn its fortunes around.
Another point worth addressing from the research is the hype around social media, blogs in particular. Blogging has been heralded of late as leading the peer-to-peer communications revolution. However, the research shows that the medium of peer-to-peer communications is just as fragmented as that of traditional media. Simply put, not everyone behaves the same and the research went some way to recognising this. Four distinct groups were identified based on common behavioural characteristics:
Public activists - Engage in outspoken public actions
Social networkers - Share, seek and value public opinions
Solo actors - Take more passive or personal actions
Uninvolved - Opinions of brands not driven by trust reputation
An overview of these four groups can be found on slides 36 and 37.
Instead of repeating the mistakes of the past and focussing all your efforts on a narrow range of mediums, companies would be better off by inverting the communications funnel - build out to influence multiple stakeholders using a variety of channels.
Ask any US political consultant advising an Irish political party what the most surprising thing about Irish politics and they will all say the same thing. What really surprises the US hired guns is the fact that the economy does not feature as an issue. Why is that and what does it mean for the next election.
There is no group in society, who believe as strongly as politicians do, that demographics are destiny. Long before David McWilliams discovered the “Pope’s Children” Irish political parties ( and their market researchers) had discovered Ratoath Women. Early 30’s with one or two young children, husband works in IT while she is a teacher, living in the commuter belt. Economically liberal but socially conservative, frustrated by poor planning and substandard public services she is the voter who will decide the next election. Ratoath women is part of a huge demographic bulge of children who were born around the time of the Pope’s visit, and who are now buying houses and beginning families. If you want to see them in their natural habitat, go to B&Q on a Saturday morning where you will find the father, pushing a buggy or trying to control some tearaway toddler. They are probably buying something for the Garden or shelving for the kid’s room.
Simply because of the sheer numbers in this demographic bulge they have the power to decide the next election. Childcare, primary education, commuting, the environment everything that concerns her concerns Ireland’s politicians. The first political party to target them was Fine Gael, in the European elections and that happened almost by accident. In Mairead McGuinness they had a candidate who might have been genetically designed to get Ratoath women’s vote. In the initial stages of the campaign Fine Gael believed that Mairead’s appeal lay in the fact she was an agricultural correspondent. They hoped she would win the farming vote. However a few days on the campaign trail enough to convince them that Leinster was no longer a rural constituency and Mairead’s real appeal was to the denizens of the commuter belt. Articulate, attractive, a professional with a young family, and tough, Fine Gael had found a dream candidate for the commuter belt. Every other party watched and learnt the lessons of the campaign.
In the last year Ratoath women has become interested in the environment and concerned about global warming and so has every political party. However she has not been concerned about the economy. Why? Remember this is a person who has never experienced an economic downturn. She grew up during the longest boom in Irish history. To Ratoath and her peer group, economic growth and full employment is the norm. The tech downturn which devastated the electronics and high tech sector in the US and mainland Europe was barely felt here, reinforcing their feeling that downturns were for other people.
Focusing on public services rather than on the economy also suited the opposition. Who wants to debate a Government that has presided over the most successful economy in Europe on the economy? No one.
The focus of the opposition attacks has been on Health and Justice rather than the economy. The subtext of their attacks has been change versus more of the same.
That may all be about to change. During the last election Fine Gael’s focus group research told them that quality of life issues were of most concern to people and they fought a campaign based around these issues. Focus Group research can date very quickly however and in the weeks leading up to election campaign the public became concerned more about the threat to their jobs of the global tech downturn. Fianna Fail spotted the trend quickly and began to fight the election on the need for political stability in tough times. In the days leading up to the election FF knew they had it won and were praying no one would notice how close they were to an overall majority. We may well be facing a reprise of this scenario.
The recent spate of manufacturing job losses is beginning to worry Ratoath women, and may well bring the economy back as the big issue, the hot button that decides how people vote. Paradoxically this may in fact suit the Government. The economy is the chosen battleground for the Government; it has not only a strong record but can wave the threat of potential rainbow’s policy incoherence. Economic jitters will give the Government the opportunity to push the line, there may be trouble ahead now is no time to experiment. In such a scenario the opposition will attempt to blame the Government for allowing rising costs, particularly public sector costs to erode national competitiveness.
An election fought on the economy is good for business. It will allow the business community to push business concerns to the top of the political agenda and will give an incoming Government (of whatever complexion) a mandate to take some of the tough decisions needed to tackle rising costs.
Seamus Mulconry, Director of Public Affairs
This article also appeared in Business and Finance.
RTE at the launch of Science Week Ireland 2007
Craig Johnston illustrates the physics behind the Soccer ball
