
Environmental Protection Agency
Positioning • Branding • Advertising
This U.S government agency commissioned offline focus groups with the managers of major HVAC companies’ branches and with consumers in the market to purchase HVAC. The EPA also authorized online focus groups with consumers across the country to determine how their research-gathering and buying patterns differed from their offline peers and from managers’ expectations.
The HVAC manufacturers with whom the EPA was working on this Energy Star project retooled their websites and restructured their sales strategies to account for the influx of data gathered on the internet. There was a severe disconnect between the managers’ programs and expectations of those of the consumers they were targeting.
When the EPA wanted to introduce a new program called Child Health Champion throughout the country, it wanted to learn how to best market and promote the program to the target applicants who would be applying for this designation.
The EPA also wanted to secure a logo evaluation. Saurage Research conducted focus groups with the heads of school systems, non-profits, and municipalities to determine how to best effect the campaign rollout of this new program.
Results
Not only was the request for application completely reworked, but the cost of introducing the program to thousands of organizations was significantly reduced by the clever application of learnings in terms grass roots strategies, message appeal, and positioning gained from the focus groups.


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