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Case Study
Leapfrogging
the Competition
Journalist Bias using PRIME’s
Deep Dive Analysis.
Dispelling Bias and Attacking the Heart of the Matter.
Leapfrogging the Competition | Case Study
Situation
One of the world’s most recognizable brands ceded
PR leadership to their primary duopoly-market
competitor: so long had the client ranked second, that
even the CEO of this Fortune 100 company assumed
that the company was a victim of “media bias” and
that only a direct confrontation with journalists and
editors would overcome their favoritism.
A new SVP of Corporate Communications who hired
PRIME for on-going corporate reputation tracking
refused to accept this commonly held belief and used
a “deep dive” analysis to determine a) whether
evidence of bias even existed and b) what could be
done to leapfrog the competition whether bias was
present or not.
requirements. What was more, PRIME’s analysis of
news coverage uncovered unique positioning
opportunities which would clearly extend the client’s
inherent advantages while addressing a core
weakness. These key elements were:

Emphasize the CEO as a key asset. Within the
organization, the CEO was seen as “over-exposed.”
The survey showed that the CEO was very popular
among journalists and the media analysis assigned
the CEO with the highest marks among ALL
Fortune 100 CEOs (not just the competitor’s) yet
other CEOs were more visible

Underscore the company’s cross-category
diversity. Unlike the competitor, the client had a
more diverse product portfolio through which it
could deliver more compelling corporate
messages. Unfortunately, the brands operated
autonomously and had not been required to
support the corporate reputation through brand
messaging.

Push CSR messages: The client’s business made
them the subject of potential negativity related to
environmental and health claims. All companies
were weak in these areas but the client had an
opportunity to leverage compelling, credible story
ideas to elevate their reputation and to distance
themselves from the competition.
Objectives and Approach
The SVP approached PRIME Research to quantify the
quality and quantity of news coverage for the current
and previous years to determine any evidence of
systematic, intentional favoritism in news reporting.
At the same time, PRIME fielded a survey among a
core-set of journalists to assess the category’s public
relations, to determine the extent to which any bias
could be explained through root causes such as newproduct introductions, general newsworthiness and
other content-oriented drivers but also the degree to
which the composition, skills and interactions of the
two PR departments could be the cause of one-sided
reporting.
The competitive media analysis and the journalist
surveys were completed within six-weeks of initiation.
Results

Through the “deep dive” analysis, the CEO
relented on the plan to tackle bias directly: a
planned series of “confrontational” editorial board
meetings were scrapped in favor of a more
conciliatory approach to advance the CEO,
promote the company’s product and brand
diversity and to emphasize all the company was
doing to promote the environment and good
health.

In terms of what drove the competitor’s coverage
for many years, journalists reported that the
competitor’s inclusion in the Dow Jones Industrial
Average meant that they were included in more
Learnings
As a result of the assessment, the client agreed with
PRIME’s findings that there was no systematic or
intentional bias; in fact, the journalists preferred the
“number two” company in many ways including the
quality of their public relations personnel who were
found to be responsive, accessible and whom
generally served the journalists'’ most important
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Leapfrogging the Competition | Case Study
general economy stories. The media analysis
confirmed over time that while the client
generated more thorough, “high quality” feature
stories and exclusives, the competitor tended to
appear more often in round-up stories which are,
by nature, less focused, shorter and of lesser
impact. The client was advised to continue with
this strategy.

Through the on-going study, the results showed
that the three-pronged approach worked. One
quarter following the CEO outreach, the three
attributes dominated the client’s overall coverage
which lead to an increase in overall reputation, so
much so that they superseded the competition.

The journalist survey provided the PR team with
the guidance they needed to clearly differentiate
themselves from the competition while instilling
confidence and recognition throughout the
company that they are “best in class.”
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