INTRODUCTION

In the wake of recently issued new standards for this associations’ field, the organization was interested in re-working their communications materials in order to more effectively communicate information about the new standards to their primary audiences: parents and administrators. The overall goal was to find the most motivating and appealing language to describe the benefits of the new standards, and determine whether the same or different messages were needed for their two primary audiences.

THE RESEARCH

A two-celled sequential design study was designed in which a total of 12 new messages were tested. Each respondent was asked to evaluate a total of six messages.Messages were evaluated on appeal, believability, relevance, positivity, understanding, differentiation, likelihood to take action and a final ranking.A total of 1800 respondents were surveyed -- 200 parents of children in the public school system and 1600 educators/administrators, using a combination of Lab42 proprietary sample and a client supplied list of educators and administrators.

THE RESULTS

Survey was launched and completed in 16 days. Study results showed that messages that described the new standards in an optimistic way and theme and included data and numerical facts performed better than the messages that described the transition as long but necessary.Based on these findings the client was able to select the messages that resonated most positively with the primary audiences and would be the most motivating.