In past posts of this blog we have talked about various Market Research techniques and tools. However, one of them is not addressed often enough given its nature. We are talking about the monitoring of the media regarding a specific topic. It may seem a bit far from the core of activities that most identify with our activity, but the truth is that it is not an unknown task for market analysts.
Media review is a task that demands a very careful review of the available information. In the first place, the themes and keywords that will be collected from the different media must be very clear. It is also desirable to define which sources will be admitted and which will not, based on parameters such as the seriousness of the source or the editorial line that they follow. After the search for news and opinion articles, the preparation of a report is left that allows the user to obtain at a glance a summary of the news from a certain period of time.
Here are four reasons why you should consider media tracking.
- Time optimization. Decision makers have multiple responsibilities in their charge. One of them is to be informed in a truthful and timely manner. However, adding this function to the rest of your day’s activities is incompatible given the time involved. That is why this task can be outsourced through an external analyst who is in charge of constantly reviewing the news and delivering as a result an extract with the main findings.
- Hierarchy of results. Although in many media the news is already presented in a thematic way, their priority does not correspond to the interests of their end users; especially when it comes to high officials. In these cases, the experience and criteria of an analyst allow the news in a report to be sorted by its degree of importance and not by other parameters such as its publication date.
- Objectivity in the selection. Having an external opinion can be very useful when it comes to being informed. Media research, like other types of techniques, involves great discipline that forces the researcher to be as impartial as possible when reporting their results. It is common that, due to monotony or custom, end users of the media discriminate a subject or a medium based on their experience. This circumstance is inhibited to a certain extent with the support of an external analyst.
- Creation of dissemination campaign. In some cases it is possible to share news reports with a work team. For these situations, a bulletin will be fed periodically that can be dispersed among potential readers through different mechanisms such as email, an intranet or a printed document; this to cite just a few examples.
In a world saturated with news, the participation of Market Research is valuable as an intermediary that, thanks to its experience, knows how to analyze and synthesize the enormous set of notes and articles that circulate every day. At Acertiva we can help you with this and other knowledge needs of Latin American consumers. Write us today so you can tell us about your needs and we will tell you how we can be your regional allies in LATAM.
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