Everyone wants an index

How it works: There are roughly three ways to build a research moat.

• Own the data: If your business produces data that no one else has, then you've got a real advantage.
• OpenTable turns reservation activity across its network of restaurants into a running measure of dining demand.
• Own the methodology: If the underlying data is available to everyone, then your edge has to come from how you interpret it.
• Invariant's Inflection Index applies a framework to determine when political chatter is becoming business risk.
• Own the theme: If you consistently study one big idea over time, you can start to become synonymous with the subject itself.
• Edelman has spent 26 years building the Trust Barometer around the theme of trust and has expanded to cover trust in brands, health care and other areas.

Zoom in: Ally is trying to build similar authority around the intersection of money, joy and everyday life with its new Joy Index.

• "I would like to see it get to the point where you turn on the news at night and a reporter says, 'According to Ally's Joy Index,'" said chief marketing and PR officer Andrea Brimmer.
• Brimmer said partnering with YouGov was critical to giving the Joy Index outside credibility, arguing the research would not carry the same weight if Ally had simply conducted it on its own.
• Brimmer said turning the Joy Index into a lasting franchise will require sustained promotion, executive visibility, broad distribution and dedicated time and resources beyond simply publishing the research.

Yes, but: A research product also has to be useful inside the building.

• Morgan Baker, Invariant's director of insights and intelligence, said its data has persuaded clients to not react when a charged political narrative remained outside the mainstream.
• "If [the index] gets attention but never changes a decision, it is just content for content's sake," Baker said. "If it helps someone prepare for something they otherwise would have missed, it is intelligence."
• Edelman gives staff access to an internal AI tool that lets them query years of Trust Barometer data for specific markets and audiences, making the research more directly usable in client work.
• Brimmer said the research is already informing Ally's brand campaigns, money wellness programming, product development and GEO strategies.

Between the lines: A splashy launch is only the beginning.

• CEO Richard Edelman estimates it took almost a decade before the Trust Barometer began routinely showing up in corporate events and media coverage.
• "Longitudinal data is incredibly special," says Justin Blake, executive director of the Edelman Trust Institute. That they've stuck to the same topic for so long is part of their "secret sauce."

Reality check: Reporters' inboxes are already full of branded indexes, surveys and reports.

• It's often safer (and faster) to ignore an unknown statistic than spend an afternoon kicking the tires on the methodology.
• The rise of synthetic audience research has also made it harder for reporters to know what's reliable and what's not.
• Blake says synthetic research has a legitimate role, but "cannot replace" speaking to people to "truly get a sense of what's happening in the world."

The expenses can add up. Credible research takes expertise and fieldwork; building a franchise adds executive time and distribution dollars.

• Edelman says being a family-owned private company gave the firm more freedom to sustain the Trust Barometer than it might have had inside a large holding company: "To me, it's the proudest thing I've done as CEO of Edelman."

The bottom line: A successful research franchise is like growing a fruit tree: Pick the right ground, nurture it and give it time to bear fruit.