Sample Monthly Report

Conclusion

December has been a successful month for B&Co. Positive impact has risen to levels not seen for several months and the amount of coverage has also grown. Importantly, this increase in coverage has not been at the expense of quality. Message penetration remains high, with almost 70% of message hits stemming from either the vision or key message categories. During the last three months of the year, the share of non-generic messages has grown by almost 20%. The drive to promote the products in the build up to Christmas has largely been very successful, although criticism of the pricing of digital cameras means that a new approach to promoting that range may be required. On the whole, negativity has been low and remarkably, the business press provided entirely supportive coverage.

Recommendations

1. Exploit the already positive, but inaccurate coverage Kate Ilott is providing, through increased communication and better information. Ilott writes for the Daily Mail. 2. The detrimental coverage relating to digital cameras offering poor value-for-money could be minimised by promoting the products’ other strengths. Whilst all of the key messages fit each product range well, this aspect of the selling proposition is proving damaging the camera range. 3. Increase the impact of proactive campaigns through targeting national titles as well as the regional press. This would provide UK wide coverage, whilst enabling a regional focus where applicable. 4. In order to increase the coverage of the vision and key messages, press releases should be tailored to fit media audiences. For example, the national press are far more likely to convey vision messages, whilst trade titles often carry key messages. 5. C&Co’s success both this month and throughout the year, offers the chance to share best practice. Their two pronged approach of communicating the products in tandem with the company’s community work put in place in February has set the company ahead of the industry. 6. Whilst a part of C&Co’s success stems from promoting the appearance or ‘desirability’ of their products (a strategy which has served to differentiate their products extremely effectively), on average B&Co’s products score more highly on appearance in product reviews. Exploiting this strength of the products will firstly prevent C&Co from benefiting further from communicating this angle and may provide a hook for more consumer or lifestyle coverage.

Executive Highlights

. 138 articles . 170 positive impact score . 28 negative impact score . 2.4 million audience reach . 143 message hits . 20% share of voice

Trends

December’s coverage has proven valuable Volume vs. Impact in continuing the positive trend established 2 5 0 2 0 0 1 8 0 in October, following the damaging 2 0 0 1 6 0 coverage surrounding the announcement 1 5 0 1 4 0 of potential job losses in the autumn. The A 1 2 0 r t

1 0 0 t c i c a

1 0 0 l p impact of December’s coverage is e

5 0 s m

I 8 0 comparable with April and May’s 0 6 0 performance where proactive work on the 4 0 -5 0 environmental project was at its peak. 2 0 -1 0 0 0 Looking at the year as a whole, we can J a n - 0 2 F e b - 0 2 M a r - 0 2 A p r - 0 2 M a y - 0 2 J u n - 0 2 J u l - 0 2 A u g - 0 2 S e p - 0 2 O c t - 0 2 N o v - 0 2 D e c - 0 2 see that positive coverage outweighed Positive Impact Negative Impact Articles negative by a considerable margin. With the exception of August when negative coverage dominated and September when reactive work had improved this balance to virtually neutral, the same can be said of each month individually. Interestingly, when proactive work is proportionately high, as was the case between April and June, the average positive impact per article actually falls. This is illustrated by the greater increase (or smaller decrease) in article volume, compared to impact. The cause of this has been the regional focus of the campaigns initiated. Whilst the number of articles has risen and the overall tone of the coverage has improved as would be expected, the impact of the regional press is considerably lower than the national and trade press that provide the bulk of the coverage in most months.

Message Accuracy

The chart opposite presents all positive Message Accuracy message mentions and demonstrates their 1 6 0 distribution between the three tiers of 1 4 0 messaging. December’s coverage in 1 2 0 1 0 0 particular demonstrates a strong balance s t

i 8 0 between the generic positive messages H 6 0 such as ‘financially successful’ and ‘well 4 0 led and managed’ and the more specific 2 0 key messages, which communicate factors 0 such as product quality and value-for- J a n - 0 2 F e b - 0 2 M a r - 0 2 A p r - 0 2 M a y - 0 2 J u n - 0 2 J u l - 0 2 A u g - 0 2 S e p - 0 2 O c t - 0 2 N o v - 0 2 D e c - 0 2 money. The objective to achieve an 80% Vision Messages Key Messages Generic Messages share of message hits within the key and vision messages, however, has not been achieved across the year as a whole or in the majority of months individually. Whilst the communication of key message hits has reached the level necessary for this to be the case, the coverage of the vision messages remains comparatively low.

December 2002

During December there has been a sharp increase in the D i s t r i b u t i o n b y T o p i c amount of product coverage, when compared to discussion of corporate and industry issues. This demonstrates the success of the drive to maximise the profile of the products in line with T o p i c the increased demand for Christmas, with product stories accounting for over half of all articles. This has been 0 % 2 0 % 4 0 % 6 0 % 8 0 % 1 0 0 % exacerbated by the unusually low level of industry discussion in % A r t i c l e s the media – especially in the trade press. Corporate coverage I n d s u t r y I s s u e s C o r p o r a t e C o v e r a g e P r o d u c t C o v e r a g e centred on the appointment of Camille Brooker as Chief Operating Officer. Her impressive track record reflected positively on the company and commentators were upbeat about her future with the company. The talks with Evans Technology regarding a possible acquisition or merger deal appeared in the media coverage from around the 20th of the month and are likely to make a significant impact in January’s coverage. The tone at this early stage of discussions has been little more than neutral.

Product Coverage

The bubble chart opposite demonstrates the complete Product Group Profile profile of each product area’s coverage. Given that the 7 0 size of the bubble represents the number of times each 6 0 product was discussed in the media, the ideal position 5 0 would be a large bubble in the top right-hand corner of 4 0 the chart, which would represent Frequent, high-impact 3 0 coverage with an extremely positive tone. 2 0 1 0

There has been much high-impact coverage of the 0 0 % 2 0 % 4 0 % 6 0 % 8 0 % 1 0 0 % digital camera range, in the build up to Christmas. F a v o u r a b i l i t y

Unfortunately the tone or favourability of this coverage D i g i t a l C a m e r a C o n s u m a b l e s P r i n t e r L a p t o p P C has been weak when compared to other product ranges. The main area of weakness was perceived to be the cost of the cameras, which was conveyed as unduly high, given that one could buy a similar specification camera from several competitors at a significantly lower price. Stories relating to printers, however, saw a much more favourable tone thanks to their excellent print quality. Whilst the volume and impact of printer coverage remain low compared to the other product ranges, December’s coverage nonetheless represents a significant increase on the preceding month and on December of last year. Consumables

- 3 - coverage has been hit by the industry and general discussion on the practice of designing products to prevent the use of another manufacturers consumables, leaving the favourability at less than 40%.

Message Content Analysis

In all, around half of all messages hit their target audience. Message Group by Audience Relevance The key messages were delivered the most successfully, G e n e r i c M e s s a g e s with around three quarters of hits being on target. A significant number of articles in lifestyle magazines meant K e y M e s s a g e s that the target consumer audience was reached on several V i s i o n M e s s a g e s occasions. The vision messages were also communicated effectively, although less frequently than the key 0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 H i t s messages. O n t a r g e t h i t s O t h e r h i t s

Vision Message Profile The set of charts opposite presents the relative performance + I m p a c t 1 0 0 % of each individual message within the respective groups. The S o l u t i o n s p r o v i d e r 8 0 % most successful message in each category (impact, reach and I n n o v a t i v e 6 0 % 4 0 % hits) defines the maximum score available. E t h i c a l 2 0 % 0 % T h o u g h t l e a d e r s Within the vision messages, ‘ethical’ as conveyed the most thoroughly this month thanks to the partnership with the S o c i a l l y H i t s R e a c h r e s p o n s i b l e industry standards board and coverage reporting the company’s views on the consumables issue. These messages appear more frequently in the national press than Key Message Profile + I m p a c t any other media sector and are extremely rarely H i g h q u a l i t y 1 0 0 % p r o d u c t s 8 0 % communicated via the trade press. V a l u e - f o r - m o n e y 6 0 % 4 0 % G o o d c u s t o m e r 2 0 % The quality of the products stood head and shoulders above s u p p o r t 0 % the rest of the key messages after numerous reinforcements in E a s y t o u s e relation to printers, PCs and laptops. With the exception of L e a d i n g H i t s R e a c h t e c h n o l o g y consumables, all products were also seen as being easy to use, although the impact of this coverage was lower. Whilst value-for-money saw a fair number of appearances and Generic Message Profile reached an impressive audience, the tone of the coverage was + I m p a c t F i n a n c i a l l y 1 0 0 % poor due largely to the criticism of the pricing of digital s u c c e s s f u l 8 0 % W e l l l e d & 6 0 % cameras. m a n a g e d 4 0 % I n d u s t r y 2 0 % a u t h o r i t y 0 % E f f i c i e n t

G o o d e m p l o y e r H i t s R e a c h - 4 -

The aforementioned appointment of Camille Brooker has dominated the corporate coverage and as such ‘well led and managed’ outperformed all other messages by a sizeable margin. In total the message reached 495 thousand people throughout the month.

Media Profile

Volume vs. Impact Consumer magazines provided the most coverage 6 0 4 0 during December and as was the case for all media 5 0 3 5 4 0 3 0 sectors, generated a positive tone overall. A

3 0 2 5 r t

t Remarkably, the business press carried entirely i c c

a 2 0 2 0 l e p s

m positive coverage this quarter. For eight months of

I 1 0 1 5 0 1 0 2002, the business press has produced the majority -1 0 5 -2 0 0 of the negative, and this sharp turn-around should be N a t i o n a l C o n s u m e r T r a d e P r e s s B u s i n e s s R e g i o n a l viewed as an extremely positive development. This P r e s s M a g a z i n e s P r e s s P r e s s

P o s i t i v e I m p a c t N e g a t i v e Im p a c t H i t s month’s coverage works towards achieving the objective to reach a consumer audience, with the national, regional and consumer sectors collectively accounting for over half of all articles and 64% of all impact.

Publications

Positive Negative Articles The table shows the top publication in each Impact Impact The Guardian 6 17.4 3.1 media sector in terms of positive impact. FHM 1 7.6 0.8 The Guardian’s six articles, centred largely Computing 3 8.9 4.1 on corporate or industry issues, whilst the Sales & Marketing Professional 2 4.2 - Wales Daily Post 3 1.8 - three pieces in Computing were almost entirely product focussed as would be expected. Whilst one of the two pieces in Sales & Marketing Professional was negligible in terms of content and impact, the other discussed B&Co’s sales strategy and commended its success.

Journalists

The five journalists to write most frequently about Journalist Profile B&CO are included in the chart opposite. We can see that Kate Ilott, is providing significant positive J a m e s C o o t e coverage, although her angle does not always A n d r e w C a r t e r accurately reflect the company’s position or views. R a c h e l F r a n c i s James Coote’s articles took a similarly supportive S t e v e n J o n e s tone, although whilst Ilott’s stories were K a t e I l o t t predonminantly corporate in focus, Coot’s articles 0 5 1 0 1 5 2 0 Im pact P o s i t i v e N e u t r a l N e g a t i v e

- 5 - took the form of product reviews and analyses. Andrew Carter’s coverage proved extremely damaging. Cater has written pieces for a number of titles including Computing World, and the IT section of the Sunday Telegraph.

Competitive Overview

The chart opposite shows that C&Co have Competitive Profile 2 5 0 further developed their lead over the rest of the industry, in terms of all three measures 2 0 0 presented. Much of this success has

t 1 5 0

c stemmed from a two-pronged proactive a p

m campaign focussing on the appearance or I 1 0 0 ‘desirability’ of the products and the 5 0 company’s investment in the communities 0 local to their production sites and HQ. In - 5 0 0 1 ,0 0 0 1 ,5 0 0 2 ,0 0 0 2 ,5 0 0 3 ,0 0 0 3 ,5 0 0 terms of the product messages, C&Co’s angle Audience Reach ('000) promoting the style of their products, rather F&Co E&Co D&Co C&Co B&Co than focussing on the promotion of their features as the other competitors in the industry do, provides a perceived USP and has delivered significant benefits in PR terms. B&Co is positioned alongside two similarly successful companies, but is slightly ahead in terms of reach although F&Co has the advantage in impact terms. D&Co’s media profile has slipped further behind the rest of the industry. The combined effect of the poor financial results announced earlier in the year and the more recent trade media barrage on the lack of support provided to customers has proven extremely damaging to the company’s long-term position.

The industry as a whole has seen a slight increase in the volume of articles compared to previous months. However, whilst the increase in product related coverage experienced by B&Co has been mirrored across the industry, the levelQuotables of discussion of ongoing issues such as the consumables problem and the dialogue surrounding the speed of technological advances rendering products out of date too quickly, has fallen this month. ‘B&Co’s objective to increase market share in the key PC and laptop market has proven a success’

Kate Ilott, The Daily Mail, 15 December

‘C&Co’s contribution to Farnborough’s ‘Support Learning’ campaign has been invaluable, enabling us to offer a vast array of learning support to disadvantaged groups in the area’

Mayor Daniel Curtis, speaking to the Farnborough Courier, 11 December

‘[B&Co] has demonstrated that an innovative approach to sales strategy can lead to lucrative results’

Sales & Marketing Professional, December - 6 -