Special Expertise

Phoenix professionals have conducted many studies to support policy reviews and policy development for the Canadian and Ontario governments. Such research has been undertaken on diverse topics, including arts and heritage, use of social media and other Internet applications, remembrance, Employment Insurance, organized crime, international trade, and nutrigenomics, to name a few.

Research findings have been included in presentations and publications for the House of Commons, annual reports, and DPRs (Departmental Performance Reviews).

One of Phoenix SPI’s core strengths is our experience with subgroups of the public and specialized audiences. This includes many that are hard to reach.

Well over half of the research Phoenix SPI conducts involves subgroups of the population, such as…

• Seniors, youth, students, Aboriginal Canadians, new Canadians, linguistic minorities, persons with disabilities (physical and cognitive), rural residents, parents and children, smokers, patient groups (e.g. AIDS, asthma, cardiac), and job seekers/unemployed

or other specialized audiences, such as

• Business executives, health care providers (physicians, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists), journalists, lawyers, academics, educators, Parliamentarians, public servants, veterans, NGO executives, environmental consultants, exporters, labour representatives, advocacy groups, housing associations, and many others.

This research is conducted for government departments and agencies, national associations, private corporations, and not-for-profit groups.

Phoenix SPI has extensive experience conducting customer experience and service quality research with diverse audiences. Studies use quantitative and qualitative methods (separately or in combination). We have conducted many studies that incorporated popular industry tools (Net Promoter, the Common Measurements Tool, Customer Effort Score).

• Canadian film producers
• Users of skills development/employment programs
• Canada Pension Plan/Old Age Security beneficiaries
• Charities and other not-for-profit organizations
• Disabled persons
• Students
• Veterans
• Aboriginal business owners

Phoenix has a strong understanding of service delivery within the public service context, including issues related to many types of client groups, such as entitlement clients, fee-for-service clients, information consumers, program beneficiaries, regulatory clients, and indirect clients (served through 3rd parties).

Organizations need to know how they are doing. This involves performance measurement in a wide range of areas to evaluate programs, services and initiatives. These studies are both fulsome program evaluations, as well as less comprehensive impact assessments that provide input to fuller evaluations, both formative and summative.

Methodologies used include literature and document reviews, review and analysis of administrative files and databases, review of demographics and relevant societal trends, case studies, focus groups, key informant interviews, and surveys.

Phoenix professionals have strong expertise conducting communications research that enables clients to effectively identify and reach their target audience(s). Studies include obtaining feedback from the public and/or stakeholder groups to support the:

• Design of communications and social marketing strategies, messages, and branding initiatives
• Testing of communications products, and tools, including websites, and
• Segmenting the population to identify target audiences to maximize the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of communications and social marketing.

Research to support advertising includes testing creative concepts (taglines, logos, branding), pre-testing ads (radio, television, internet, print), and conducting post-campaign evaluations to assess their impact. Phoenix was contracted to undertake a comprehensive review of the ACET, the post-campaign evaluation tool used across the Government of Canada to assess the impact of major campaigns.