I had a great time earlier this month in Chicago at the IIR/TMRE Technology Driven Market Research Event. I particularly enjoyed hearing Frank Cotignola’s views on how companies should approach social media-listening and analysis. (My Trade Talk column in the June issue of Quirk’s will look at some of the other interesting insights from the various conference presentations.)
In a co-presentation on social media analytics with Jonathan Spier of NetBase Solutions, Cotignola, a category insights manager at Kraft, stressed the value of expanding the analysis of social media data beyond merely what is being said about your brand or product. Many companies, he said, fixate on analyzing the positive and negative comments scattered by consumers over the vast landscape of blog posts, online product reviews and social media outlets. That’s all well and good but by keeping a brand- or product-centric focus, you potentially miss out on all of the growth opportunities that a broader analysis might uncover.
Because for as much as companies would love them to, consumers don’t always talk about brands, so you have to listen to what they are talking about, Cotignola advised, and then figure how and where out brands can fit in. One example he cited from Kraft’s world was looking at what people are saying about the use of shopping lists. Kraft found strong positive emotions around the use of shopping lists, with terms like “helpful” and “important” being used frequently. So one question becomes, as the maker of products found in grocery stores, how might you create a halo effect by taking the feelings that shoppers have toward shopping lists and associating yourself with them?
No matter what business you’re in, he said, take the time to look at consumer discussions that don’t single out products by name. Are people repeatedly using the same terms to describe their experiences (good or bad) with the category? What are their pain points, their need states? Can you create a new product – or perhaps better yet, change the marketing of an existing one – to cure an annoyance or alter the parameters of how the category is currently perceived?
Answer some of those types of questions and you may be faced with another, more welcome one: What’s the potential value of being able to catch your competition flat-footed by introducing an exciting new wrinkle to the market while also appearing to be uncannily in tune with the market’s needs?