What we do
A. Social Research
B. Community Engagement
C. Program Evaluation
D. Social Marketing
E. Canberra and Region Social and Market Survey
A. Social Research
Research is our main game: we offer a wide range of social and marketing research capabilities and expertise, and state-of-the-art research techniques.
Social research is about measuring, describing, explaining and predicting social, cultural, environmental and economic phenomena. It often guides the development, implementation and delivery of policies and programs, and assists in the estimation and evaluation of their impacts and outcomes, and plays a crucial role in evidence-based policy-making.
Social research explores:
- social and economic structures;
- social attitudes;
- values and behaviours; and
- the factors which motivate and constrain individuals and groups in society.
WSRS principals have conducted well over 1,000 research projects since 1971. Many of these projects in areas related to sustainability are outlined later.
We undertake both qualitative and quantitative research assignments, including social surveys, focus groups, small group sessions, in-depth interviews, case studies and many other techniques. We have conducted some of the largest and some of the smallest surveys undertaken in this country.
Ask for our brochure outlining our research capabilities and experience in more detail.
B. Community Engagement
The nature of government, public sector, community and not-for-profit organisations at all levels is changing rapidly, including the need to become more accountable in the way they work and the development strategies, public policy and services they provide in areas such as transport, health, law and government. For many organisations this process includes a growing desire to connect more effectively with the communities they serve. There are a great many ways to seek people’s views, including many public consultations approaches and many social and market research techniques, and WSRS has extensive skills and experience in these areas.
However, all too often, even with the best intentions, traditional community consultation ends up mainly listening to the ‘squeaky wheels’ and the people immediately involved in or affected by the issues. While the views of these people are clearly extremely valuable, it is also essential to ensure that the views of the broader community are taken into account.
To do this, we are firm believers in the role of research-based community consultation, in which as well as inviting ‘the usual suspects’ painstaking attempts are made using rigorous research-derived recruitment processes to screen and recruit from the general population (or target audience) to ensure inclusion of a broad (and hopefully close to representative) cross-section, including many people who would not normally become involved in consultations.
Ask for our brochure outlining our community consultation capabilities and experience in more detail.
C. Program Evaluation
There is clear evidence that the need for independent program evaluations is growing rapidly in Australia and the world, largely in response to calls for greater accountability in the spending of public money, subsidies and grants including government grants and other community grants.
For an evaluation to be seen to be credible, objective and professionally detached, it is important to commission an independent evaluation team with sound research and evaluation methodologies and experience.
D. Social Marketing
Social marketing is the art of behaviour change, whether it be a specific target segment (eg, encouraging young people not to take up smoking) or a whole community (getting people to use water more efficiently), using concepts drawn from commercial marketing, and it has both strategic and tactical elements. In most cases, social marketing requires more finesse than traditional marketing campaigns.
Effective social marketing starts with sound research. To understand the target audience for any social marketing campaign, a review of previous research can often help us to get a feel for the beliefs and behaviour of the target segment. Then further research needs to be undertaken to get to really know and understand the community, develop and pre-test ideas and concepts, provide accurate baseline measurements against which the campaign can later be monitored, and then regular monitoring, review and adjustment of the campaign.
As can be seen in the extensive list of projects in the "What we have done" section of this website, the principals of WSRS have been actively involved in many social marketing campaigns over more than three decades.
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For clients in the Canberra region who are looking for prompt answers on the opinions, knowledge, understanding and behaviour of people in Canberra and the surrounding communities, our CRSMS provides a ready-made solution.
The CRSMS is a regular social and market survey tailored cost-effectively to meet the needs of a range of government, academic, not-for-profit and business clients. The survey covers the ACT and region – ie, it covers all of Canberra, plus when needed, we include an additional sub-sample in the surrounding centres of Queanbeyan, Jerrabomberra, Yass, Bungendore, Braidwood and Captains Flat and many rural-residential communities and villages in between.
Each wave involves telephone interviews with a fresh, reliable core sample of 1,000 people, representative of the 18+ years Canberra community in terms of gender, age and location. Questions are analysed by relevant socio-demographics and by region and compiled into a succinct tabular report.
For any enquiries, and to book your questions into the next survey, please call Les Winton now on 02 6232 6264 or 0414 504 832.