Our services

Insight, Research & Evaluation

Research at SEC Newgate

SEC Newgate provide expert issues, opinion, messaging and reputation research amongst senior stakeholders, influencers, the community, customers and employees.

BUILDING AND RECOVERING

Building and recovering organisational reputation and social licence

MEASURING

Understanding and measuring public sentiment regarding an issue or topic

EFFECTIVE MESSAGING

Effective messaging for an issue, initiative, cause or investment

BUILDING EVIDENCE

Building evidence of support for major projects and investments

EXPLORING

Exploring behavioural drivers and effecting behavioural change

MAPPING

Mapping employee sentiment and building organisational alignment

OPTIMISING

Optimising stakeholder engagement and the customer experience

SHAPING PERCEPTIONS

Shaping perceptions of organisational ESG performance

SEC Newgate Research provides expert corporate affairs, financial communications, employee and customer research.

We design robust market and social research approaches to assess the needs, attitudes, expectations, and preferences of clients’ stakeholders and the communities in which they operate. We provide data-driven insights to build an objective case for action and identify the most effective ways in which to engage and influence.

Proposition areas:

Reputation and Stakeholder Relationships
Opinion and Behavioural Research
Communications and Engagement
Employee Research

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WHAT WE DO

RESEARCH

Our reputation research helps you to understand what you can do to improve your organisation’s reputation and build stronger relationships with stakeholders.

Clients undertake this research in a range of circumstances, including during a period of change, in response to a major issue, or to track sentiment as a part of the ordinary course of business.

Our services in this field range from quick perceptions audits through to our proprietary Reputation Evaluation Program, NewREP and we’re increasingly being asked to help develop appropriate organisational KPIs.

Our sophisticated offering, NewREP, measures the health of an organisation’s reputation and what is driving opinion, helping clients to prioritise actions to improve their reputation over time. It uses proven qualitative and quantitative techniques, with our validated framework built on best practice data science and academic thinking in the field.

Much of what SEC Newgate Research does involves exploring and measuring knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, and identifying the most effective ways to engage and influence. Some of our work in this area involves research among the community as a whole, while other projects are conducted with very targeted groups such as:

Customers
Senior stakeholders
People living or working in a certain location
Employees

Our experts in behavioural science, psychology and advanced analytics provide an important lens to the development of our research materials and recommendations to ensure they are grounded in reality and will be effective in a real-world context.

Research to guide communications and engagement strategies is one of the firm’s core strengths. We provide clients with realistic, specific recommendations based on a combination of:

Our team’s deep understanding of how individuals process information and make decisions
Research designed to test the likely effectiveness of messaging and other actions in leading to shifts in perceptions and behaviour
SEC Newgate’s heritage in this space which means we have an excellent understanding of the realities of the external environment and communications and engagement processes. We test narratives, messages, campaign concepts and materials using a range of proven techniques. We also conduct robust benchmarking and monitoring research to evaluate the effectiveness of programs, specific campaign elements and engagement initiatives.

Our tools include SEC Newgate MessageLab , our proprietary approach to identifying:

The messages that will be most effective in shifting opinion among different audiences
The delivery methods that will work with each audience; and how best to frame your overall campaign.

SEC Newgate Research works with clients to identify the most effective ways to communicate with staff. This can involve identifying gaps in understanding of purpose, values or strategy, sources of information, as well as information needs and channel preferences. We do rapid employee research in times of crisis to inform the internal communications response – critical in terms of maintaining employee engagement and confidence. Our proprietary Employee Sentiment Program (ESP) provides an objective measure of: