Communications and Brand Strategy is responsible for gathering, analyzing, and interpreting results for university-level communications and providing insights to make communications more effective.
Research and marketing analytics staff gather information through market research that is designed to obtain specific information direct from a target audience, through a variety of analytics systems and tools that track results of communications tactics (e.g., social media communications, web communications), and from various university sources that provide general audience insights.
The main areas of focus include:
- Assisting with the identification of key performance indicators for communications tactics
- Implementing the appropriate tools and systems to gather and track results
- Interpreting results and providing actionable insight
- Identifying relationships between results across multiple communications
- Identifying relationships between communications results and other business results
The primary purposes of Communications and Brand Strategy's marketing research and analytics efforts are to evaluate the extent to which the communications activities undertaken by Communications and Brand Strategy are effectively delivering information to target audiences and advancing the Michigan State University brand.
Marketing research
Communications and Brand Strategy conducts or oversees qualitative and quantitative research to help inform communications initiatives. Examples include MSUToday print magazine readership research, pre-/postbrand advertising research, and msu.edu concept testing.
Analytics
Communications and Brand Strategy evaluates the effectiveness of its primary communications initiatives on an ongoing basis through:
- Traditional media exposure analysis
- Social media performance analysis
- Website performance analysis
- Brand campaign analysis
Media monitoring and reporting
Communications and Brand Strategy utilizes a professional media monitoring system to track, analyze, and report on media exposure for mentions of Michigan State University. The system scans thousands of traditional media outlets, both print and online, and pulls the articles into the system. Social media outlets (e.g., blogs, tweets) currently are not tracked in this system. The system can be set up to monitor and report on news for a particular college, department, or program.
Consulting
Although Communications and Brand Strategy does not provide marketing research and analytics services to other campus units, it does provide consultation on marketing research projects, including assistance with defining research needs, preparing and reviewing request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) documents, and reviewing and selecting vendors.
Contact
For more information, e-mail contact@cabs.msu.edu or call (517) 884-2920.
