The Harris Poll still relevant after all these years

The roots of prominence for The Harris Poll stretch back to John F. Kennedy, who commissioned Louis Harris to measure public opinion during his presidential campaign and then again while in office.

Ronald Reagan did the same.

More than 60 years later, The Harris Poll remains relevant, transitioning along the way to maintain its position as a trusted means to collect and analyze data behind what is driving opinions on companies, products and political issues.

Corporate America and politicians still need insight and The Harris Poll continues to provide it.

“We love the process of going into the field and getting that data, answering those questions,” CEO Will Johnson said. “The way we get data and do things has changed. But the essence of people needing to understand what’s going on and the analysis of statistics, that’s not changing.”

The firm continues to do much of that opinion-gathering from Rochester, where it has had operations since 1975. Around 50 employees here conduct a variety of tasks, including programming the surveys, fielding the research and processing the results.

The Rochester area workforce, with operations off Panorama Trail in Penfield, has continued to operate through various sales — Nielsen bought the company in 2013, then sold it to current owner The Stagwell Group in 2017.

“Rochester’s legacy is very important for us, and it’s very important to me and to us to keep it that way,” Johnson said. “You’ve got such a great pipeline of people that understand this business. Some are third-generation employees.”

Their predecessors were part of an industry that gleaned insight by knocking on doors and dialing phone numbers. Then in the 1990s Harris became the first firm to do online research.

“That move catalyzed the firm for another 25 years,” Johnson said.

Today Harris gains an understanding of feelings via mobile devices. The key is ensuring engagement, Johnson said, so the firm creates questions that make the person as comfortable providing answers as they would be to interacting with any app on their phone.

Harris takes multiple data streams and creative means of acquiring that data to determine what blue chip and Fortune 500 and companies need to know.

“Some are long-time clients and they’re using Harris in the same way, to understand and optimize their productivity and measure their reputation, measure their brand,” Johnson said.

It’s perhaps more important than ever in an age where social media is bombarded by influencers from each end of the spectrum and everywhere in between. Harris attempts to sort through it all.

“Is this noise real? That’s what our clients and big brands want to know,” Johnson said, “and they also want to know what the real drivers are.

“We pride ourselves on calling balls and strikes — on being an arbiter for what is the truth. We don’t do a lot of horse-race political polling, we do more of, ‘What is the driver of what people are feeling?’ The more chaotic things get, the more our history and our reputation pays off for us. It’s really a trusted brand.”

Amid the viral misinformation, however, there is some normalcy, Johnson said.

“People seem to be a lot closer to the truth and a lot more nuanced than you’d think,” he said.

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