Strategic Planning and Research Services

The Vendor is required to provide enterprise marketing and communications (EMC), seeks to establish one or more term contracts with consultants to provide strategic planning support services including strategic messaging development and communications planning, and research services in support of enterpriselevel and unitlevel brand initiatives.
- Strategic messaging and communications planning services
• Review and analysis of strategic documents, brand assets, and communications materials
• Identification of communications objectives aligned with business and brand goals
• Industry and peer landscape assessments to inform strategic direction.
• Internal and external stakeholder engagement, including interviews and focus groups.
• Survey design, programming, fielding, and data collection as needed to inform strategy.
• Facilitation of immersion or storydevelopment workshops with leadership and stakeholders.
• Development of a discovery report summarizing insights and implications.
• Creation of a strategic and inspiring creative brief to guide downstream work.
• Story and messaging development, including core message pillars, value propositions, and audiencespecific messaging frameworks.
• Development of a recommended mix of communications strategies and tactics aligned with objectives.
• Presentation of findings and recommendations to executive leadership, senior leaders, and EMC teams.
- Research services
1. Research design
• Develop research plans aligned with university business, brand, and communications objectives.
• Recommend appropriate methodologies (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed‑method).
• Define sampling strategies and recruitment plans.
2. Qualitative research
• Conduct interviews, focus groups and listening sessions.
• Provide transcripts, themes, and insight summaries.
3. Quantitative research
• Design statistically valid survey instruments.
• Manage distribution, sampling, and data collection.
• Conduct analysis, including segmentation, cross‑tabulation, and trend identification.
4. Insight synthesis and reporting
• Deliver clear, actionable insights tied to university strategic goals.
• Provide recommendations for messaging, creative development, brand positioning, and audience engagement.
• Present findings and deliver report(s) tailored to meet the needs of EMC leadership and cross‑functional partners.
5. Optional services
• Ongoing tracking studies
• Message or creative testing
• Competitive or landscape analysis
• Personae development.