United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division Principles of Dissemination and Marketing of Statistical Information Petteri Baer, Regional Adviser, UNECE 12 May 2008

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide It happens pretty often  …that producers of statistical information are too content with their products  …believe that there is an “automatic” interest in them  …and thus do not perceive proactive dissemination as being important

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide How do we perceive ourselves? How do they perceive our services?  Do we know enough about our potential users, our potential customers?  Do we have enough information even on our present users?  Information accessibility on the internet is only part of the solution!

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide And too often…we do not know  Who our users are  How intensively they use our services  If they are satisfied or unsatisfied

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide More and more statistical publication takes place on the internet…  This is a very positive development  Availability and accessibility of official statistics has grown substantially  In the beginning of the year Million internet hosts in the world!

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Searching on Google…  “Inflation” 12 Million answers Ergebnisse von ungefähr 11'900'000 für Inflation. (0.05 Sekunden)  “Business Cycle” 229 Million answers Ergebnisse von ungef ä hr 229'000'000 f ü r Business Cycle. (0.29 Sekunden) For USA “ only ” 47 Million For UK “ only ” 57 Million For Switzerland “ only ” 12 Million

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Too often…  …our information gets lost in the information overflow

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Terminological issues  Disseminating is throwing seeds into the field, with the hope that something will start to grow  Marketing is a result-oriented effort to bring your service or product to be used/purchased/notified etc.

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Statisticians are usually fond of the term “dissemination”  By disseminating statistical information you are doing SOMETHING for promoting the use of your information, but nobody controls the results and often you are not strongly supposed to do your dissemination work very efficiently...  Marketing sounds very result-oriented and very commercial, not scientific at all

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide But in reality…  Marketing statistical information is NOT about making somebody to obtain or to purchase something against his/her will by efficient psychological means  On the contrary – marketing statistical information is about learning how to satisfy existing information needs with the information material that already is provided by official statistics

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide But in reality…  Marketing statistical information is mainly about Building relationships with users Inviting users to become standing customers Helping users to find the statistical information they are in need of Deepening the understanding of the role of statistical information in decision making

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide This is why… more work has to be done on…  identification of user and customer groups  developing difference service concepts for different user groups  developing good services reflecting these service concepts  using modern possibilities of visualisation, GIS and customizing the numeric information  developing accessibility in an easy, understandable and user friendly way for all identified categories of users  providing proactive information to existing and potential users about the existence of your services & how to get them - efficiently and systematically

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide To develop efficient service concepts may not be all that easy in the jungle of information

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide And with the huge amount of statistical information a NSO is in possession of…  neither the development of well working service products…  …nor providing basic aggregated data to users…  can be well done without making use of user friendly statistical databases

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Databases will be needed  …both by users that wish to make their own selections and definitions of parameters  …as well as for users that wish to have more specific or tailor made services

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Why segment customers?  Different customer segments have different need structures of statistical information.  Everybody benefits from developing the services and increased service ability according to institutional need structures! Media Government bodies Local administration bodies Corporations and enterprises Research institutions Educational institutions NGOs Others

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide Conclusion  “A demanding customer is like a grain of sand within the mussel. It doesn’t feel good but the result may be a beautiful pearl!” Courtesy to Jarmo Lehtinen, Finnish CRM specialist

Petteri Baer - UNECE Statistical Division Slide And remember!  Only used statistical information is useful statistical information!  Thank you for your attention! 