Leger has decided to create opportunities for our clients to see the world around us through our research eyes. So for my very FIRST blog post, I thought I would talk about some research that my team conducted in the spring of this year.
We completed an online survey with Canadian patients to ask what they think of and how they engage with the associations that work in the area of their own medical condition.
We found some very positive results that have implications for patients, associations, and corporate partners:
• Larger patient associations such as the Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation all had high reputation scores.
• Those who didn’t score as highly did not have a problem with patients having a bad opinion of their association, their lower reputation scores were tied entirely to their lack of awareness.
• Engagement with the association also varied such that the larger, more well-known, associations have patients engaging them through donations whereas the smaller, more niche associations draw patients in through website visitation.
• Trust, communication, and delivering against their mandate are the key to a good reputation. Patients aren’t looking for an association to be dynamic or innovative. They are also not concerned with the corporate partnerships that the associations have to fund many of their programs.
Return to our website for more blog posts about our research and please click below for the full report with all the detailed results.
As a Vice President at Leger, Lisa Covens manages the Communications and Public Affairs practice and is a senior member of the Toronto office. In her eleven years with Leger, Lisa has worked on a variety of client accounts including nearly all major Communications firms in Canada. She regularly consults with the other Leger offices on best practices of PR research. Lisa is an active member of CPRS, participating both as a Mentor and an Ace Awards Judge.
