The NHL is gearing up for the war of public relations, and they’ve hired a top Republican Party strategist to help get the public on the owners’ side.
According to a report from Deadspin, the NHL organized an emergency focus group on Friday to test pro-ownership messages on a group of 30 hockey fans. The focus group was led by Frank Luntz, the CEO of multinational market research firm Luntz Global.
The aim of the focus group was to gauge the public’s response on a variety of topics related to the ongoing labour dispute.
Among the type of questions the participants were asked to answer in a packet distributed to the group included the following:
– “Which of the following statements about the owners and their position in the labor dispute makes you feel most negative about the owners?”
– “Which of the following images make you miss hockey the most?”
– “Which following statements about revenue sharing do you agree with the most?”
– “Select which of the following paragraphs are the strongest and most persuasive at describing the goals of the NHL labor negotiations.”
– “Select which of the following paragraphs are the strongest and most persuasive at describing the importance of reaching a labor agreement.”
According to a participant mentioned in the report, the NHL plans to push the idea that the players aren’t buying into the message of NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, while promoting the owners’ slogan of “shared sacrifice.”
The focus group also participated in “dial testing,” which allows the participants to use a dial in front of them to give a positive or negative response to a certain message or image. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman scored low among fans while deputy commissioner Bill Daly came across as “blue collar.”
My focus group research was made public today in attempt to discredit NHL efforts to reach agreement w/ players on new CBA.
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 15, 2012
Research is no difft from what ppl in my field have done for sports teams/leagues/unions – trying to understand exactly what fans think/want
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) October 15, 2012
What does @deadspin story on emergency focus group paid for by NHL owners tell you? NHL is very concerned by fan reaction against lockout.
— Allan Walsh (@walsha) October 15, 2012
Don’t need a focus group to tell you that the easiest way for the NHL to win over fans is to end the stupid lockout.
— Jesse Spector (@jessespector) October 15, 2012
Lame focus group (see Deadspin), regrettable Sept. 16 statement. NHL loses PR battle by trying too hard to win it.
— Chris Botta (@ChrisBottaNHL) October 15, 2012
This may not be a popular thing to say, but I would be concerned about any big business that didn’t do focus groups. #factoflife
— John Shannon (@JSportsnet) October 15, 2012
Here’s a focus group question Luntz missed: What words would you use to describe NHL using a focus group to find words to win fan favor?
— Tom Gulitti (@TGfireandice) October 15, 2012
I don’t have a horse in this race b/there’s some goofy pro-player reax to the focus group leak. I do agree w/this, less on that, more neg.
— Daren Millard (@darenmillard) October 15, 2012
Who’s getting fired for not confiscating phones from the NHL focus group participants? Fascinating, delicious, ludicrous stuff.
— Shannon Proudfoot (@sproudfoot) October 15, 2012