Client: Crain's Cleveland Business

Industry: Publishing

Products/Services Provided:

• Web Site Development
• Market Research
• Personalized E-mail Marketing

The Challenge
Crain's Cleveland Business is a weekly business newspaper. The publication focuses on business, political and social issues that influence the Northeast Ohio business community. Crain's Cleveland Business is owned by Crain Communications Inc. which publishes similar business newspapers in Detroit, New York and Chicago, as well as many trade publications. Crain's knew it needed to be highly relevant to the business community in order to continue to drive subscriptions. Crain's wanted to publish articles that were a direct result of the actual opinions and vision of the local business community in Northeast Ohio.

The Solution
Precision Dialogue developed an online community called The Cleveland Business Voice whereby local business executives participate in a forum dedicated to the issues facing Northeast Ohio. Surveys are conducted bi-monthly on topics such as: Technology Agenda; Affects of the Recession; Talent Retention; Patents & Commercialization; Civic Priorities; and, Business- Friendly Public Policy.

Precision Dialogue analyzes the results of the surveys and compiles a full report along with related research. The panel members receive an e-mail detailing the results in advance to the Crain's publication. Panel members also have access to a private sitelet where they can compare their answers to the aggregated results of the voice as a whole.

The Result
The introduction of The Cleveland Business Voice drew 250 business executives to join the panel. Precision Dialogue launched the first survey in February 2002 on the Technology Agenda - What should Mayor Campbell's technology agenda be? The Voice saw a 60% response rate which exceeded expectations. The results of the survey brought new insights for Northeast Ohio:

• Technology is one of many industry priorities: Only 22% say that technology should be the number one priority for City Hall.
• Biotech leads the charge: The Voice believes Northeast Ohio should focus business- building efforts within the Biotech sector. Chemical Manufacturing, Software & Programming, Scientific & Technical Instruments, Aerospace & Defense are next on the list of priorities.
• The Voice draws a clear line of responsibility: While the Voice draws the line saying City Hall should not invest public money in local venture funds, other leading cities such as New York have seen success doing just that.

With the launch of the second survey on the Affects of the Recession, Precision Dialogue developed a promotional e-mail campaign targeting leaders within local organizations. This resulted in a more representative sampling of the small business and manufacturing community. Survey results can now be analyzed across demographics such as company size, industry, department and functional roles.