THE
CUSTOMER-FIRST
IMPERATIVE
FIVE STEPS FOR APPLYING SOCIAL
MEDIA TO GENERATE TRANSFORMATIVE
CONSUMER INSIGHT
WHITE PAPER

THE CUSTOMER-FIRST IMPERATIVE
FIVE STEPS FOR APPLYING SOCIAL MEDIA TO
GENERATE TRANSFORMATIVE CONSUMER INSIGHT
Once upon a time, consumers trusted companies, brands and Consumer trust in large corporate and government institutions
advertising. Companies maintained tight control over branding has been eroding for decades. The annual Gallup Survey of
and messaging through a narrow range of media outlets, Trust in Institutions points to a steady and significant erosion
progressing consumers across a linear purchase funnel from in consumer confidence in “Big Business” since the survey
awareness to loyalty. This simpler world began to unravel well was first conducted in 1973. The 2012 Nielsen Global Trust in
before the advent of the Internet and social media. Advertising Survey finds that less than half of consumers trust
paid ads in traditional media outlets (Figure 1).
FIGURE 1: TO WHAT EXTENT DO YOU TRUST THE FOLLOWING
FORMS OF ADVERTISING?
TRUST COMPLETELY/SOMEWHAT DON’T TRUST MUCH/AT ALL GLOBAL AVERAGE
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PEOPLE I KNOW
CONSUMER OPINIONS POSTED ONLINE
EDITORIAL CONTENT SUCH AS NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
EMAILS I SIGNED UP FOR
ADS ON TV
ADS IN MAGAZINES
BILLBOARDS AND OTHER OUTDOOR ADVERTISING
ADS ON RADIO
ADS SERVED IN SEARCH ENGINE RESULTS
ONLINE VIDEO ADS
ADS ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
DISPLAY ADS ON MOBILE DEVICES
TEXT ADS ON MOBILE PHONES
SOURCE: NIELSEN GLOBAL TRUST IN ADVERTISING SURVEY, Q3 2011
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Enter social media. REDISCOVERING THE CUSTOMER WITH
While word-of-mouth SOCIAL MEDIA INSIGHTS
has always been
important, its scope Marketing success in this new world hinges on developing deeper,
was limited to the more provocative real-time consumer insights. According to
people you knew and McKinsey & Company,
interacted with on a
daily basis. Social media
has enabled consumers
71% of CMOs
to generate and tap
into the opinions, tastes and preferences of an exponentially
view data-driven
larger, global pool of friends, peers and influencers. Corporate
marketing messages are increasingly eclipsed in both share and
insights as critical
authenticity by consumer expressions and advocacy. Writing
in the Harvard Business Review blog, Joe Tripodi (CMO, Coca-
for their company’s
Cola) estimated that over 80% of online views of content that
relate to Coca-Cola are tied to content generated by consumers competitiveness.
themselves. Instead of competing with their own consumers,
marketers should focus on delivering more engaging content that Social media represents a goldmine for marketers as consumers
inspires brand ambassadors to create and share their own stories express themselves more often, with greater depth and across
and experiences. A brand’s essence, mission and voice must be a broader range of topics. Indeed, market research leaders like
authentic, creative, and credible to spark intense, loyal consumer P&G’s Joan Lewis (Global Consumer & Market Knowledge
engagement. Officer) have already articulated a compelling vision for social
media in marketing research, recognizing its potential to build
In this new social world, marketers measure how each consumer
relevant and differentiated brands and strong emotional bonds
interaction contributes to the growth and engagement of the
with customers.
brand’s online community, and how the increase in ‘social equity’
contributes to sales outcomes. These interactions range from
Why is there so much excitement about applying social
traditional advertising to product packaging (e.g., the importance
media to market research?
Steve Jobs placed on the feeling of opening an Apple product),
customer service (e.g., how American Express emphasizes The Infinite Panel: Social media provides a lens into the beliefs,
customer service as a key brand differentiator) and creative, needs, desires and behaviors of millions of people across all
experiential social marketing programs (e.g., Vanguard’s ‘At-Cost consumer segments. Unlike panels, forums or surveys, there is
Café Truck’ selling coffee for 28 cents to illustrate experientially no limitation on size. The amount of data generated will continue
its differentiated approach to costs versus other mutual fund to rise with higher usage levels (e.g., Pew Research Center
firms). reported that only 13% of online adults used Twitter in 2011) and
higher posting frequency across a wider variety of topics.
Marketers recognize the need to re-imagine brand success.
According to Forrester Research, 92% of marketers believe ‘Hidden’ Insights: Surveys have an inherent limitation. You have
that social media has fundamentally changed how consumers to know what to ask. Social media surmounts this limitation and
engage with brands and 93% believe that marketers need to gives marketers a window into hidden consumer preferences,
reinvent brand building strategies to effectively engage with unmet needs and unintended use-cases. Identifying unmet
their consumers in today’s social world. needs enables marketers to focus on product enhancements.
Unintended use-cases can reveal new business opportunities
(e.g., athletes drinking Pedialyte, a drink developed for toddlers).
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The Infinite Survey: Social media surmounts the inherent fit and finish, interior materials, comfortable seats and a quiet
constraints of traditional survey research, making it possible cabin. Understanding this broader, consumer-centric definition
for marketers to know just about everything on the minds of of the concept is critical for better competitive differentiation.
their consumer segments. There is no limitation imposed by a
M
ore for Less: Learning about consumers through traditional
fixed number of survey questions. The breadth of topics, ideas
marketing research is an expensive business. With the right
and emotions is unbounded.
tools and approach to social media, marketers can derive
Real time: In contrast to the lengthy cycle of creating and deep, real-time insights across numerous consumer segments,
conducting traditional market surveys, social media enables geographies and topics at a fraction of the cost of traditional
marketers to identify, understand, track and act on emerging approaches.
consumer trends in real time. Additionally, social media
enables marketers to test and iterate rapidly on new ideas and FIVE STEPS FOR APPLYING SOCIAL
campaigns.
MEDIA TO GENERATE TRANSFORMATIVE
In Their Own Words: Social media enables marketers to CONSUMER INSIGHT
hear consumers express themselves in their own words.
By harnessing the power of ‘Big Data’ – epitomized by the
Customer satisfaction and product quality can be articulated
hundreds of millions of daily posts on global and regional social
and measured through social media research in the language
networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Ameblo, Weibo) as well as
of the customer. For example, a car company might define
blogs, forums, ratings and review sites – marketers can surface
and measure quality from an engineering standpoint (e.g.,
meaningful, fresh, segment-specific consumer insights in the
defects/1000). Consumers might speak of quality in terms of
context of their industry. How should marketers apply these
insights to activate their online communities and boost sales?
FIGURE 2: FACEBOOK FANS FOR LARGE U.S. BANKS ARE
CLOSELY CORRELATED TO BANK SIZE
1,000
FACEBOOK FANS (000)
100
10
1
10 100 1,000 10,000
ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT ($ BILLIONS)
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NM INCITE WHITE PAPER | THE CUSTOMER-FIRST IMPERATIVE
1. Measure your social performance relative to ‘expected’
e
ssentially self-selecting into segments based on needs and
outcomes: affinities. You can derive insights from specialized sites (e.g.,
Since all marketing interactions represent opportunities what do ‘sophisticated’ urban moms think on urbanbaby.com)
to grow and engage your online advocacy community, it is or aggregate insights across numerous sites with comparable
important to define, measure and track the right performance demographics or interests (e.g., sites broadly catering to new
metrics. These will vary by industry context (e.g., is there moms).
a direct-to-consumer commercial relationship?), but all
S
ocial media enables marketers to understand key business
companies should track the size, reach and engagement of
questions for each segment:
their communities. Instead of focusing on absolute metrics
(e.g., number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers), marketers •
How do they feel about my brand or product?
should consider whether they are above or below ‘expected’ • What are their unmet needs?
performance. For example, how many engaged Facebook • What are their purchase criteria?
• What are the key roadblocks in their consumer decision
fans should you expect to have given your business size,
journey?
industry sector, advertising spend, social media campaigns
• Are my marketing messages resonating?
and customer satisfaction scores? Just business size alone
• What are their media preferences?
– as measured by Assets Under Management – explains over
• ow and where should I engage them through social media?
H
80% of the variance in fans for large U.S. banks with actively-
managed Facebook fan pages (Figure 2). To illustrate the power of social media segmentation, consider
the example of a financial services company selling prepaid
2. Link your segmentation approach to online discussions:
cards. Social media insights revealed the need to highlight
There are major benefits in using social media to enhance
convenience to travelers, safety to parents, and identify theft
your existing segmentation approach and uncover new
prevention for online gamers (Figure 3).
target segments. Consumers are connecting and expressing
themselves across a veritable ‘long tail’ of interests and topics,
FIGURE 3: SOCIAL MEDIA SEGMENTATION FOR PREPAID CREDIT CARDS
SEGMENT TRAVELERS PARENTS ONLINE GAMERS
PRIMARY NEED CONVENIENCE SAFETY SECURITY
EXAMPLE “ ake some local
T “ nstead of emptying your
I “ ust get a prepaid credit
J
MESSAGE currency to get you pockets each time your card, that’s what my
started…You can then teen needs money, put a friend did. That is also
look at prepaid travel lump sum on a Prepaid what I did. I find that it
debit cards (which have Card…. This will help is the safest option, if
pretty much superceded your teens learn how to you are scared that your
travelers cheques) for budget manage their credit card info getting
the rest.” SCOOBYNET.COM money in a safe and stolen, get one of those.”
controlled environment.” GTAFORUMS.COM
PHILLYBLURBS.COM/BLOGS
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3. Overinvest in data hygiene: Don’t put your marketing plan The marketing imperative is to cast the social media net
and credibility at risk by assuming that your data is clean wide, beyond simple brand monitoring, to uncover deep,
enough. Data hygiene matters. According to PG CEO Bob unexpected consumer insights about unmet or emerging
MacDonald, “It’s the data sources that help create the brand needs. That could mean understanding the needs of un-
and keep it dynamic. So those data sources are incredibly served or under-served consumer segments (e.g., financial
important.” Executives recognize the importance and services for the unbanked) or the changing habits, behaviors
challenge of obtaining clean, trusted data. and attitudes of your core target audience.
5. Maintain analytic and measurement consistency across
According to brands and markets: As a global marketer, you need to
establish consistency in how social media data is sourced,
McKinsey, 46% of analyzed and measured. One global Consumer Packaged
Goods company evaluated 17 social media platforms
C-level respondents used across its global footprint. Not surprisingly, the data
quality and measurement rigor varied in both approach and
indicate that ‘Lack accuracy. The key issue is to ensure that you understand
how your social media platform provider determines
of Quality Data’ is specifically how the data corpus is sourced (i.e., which
blogs? which tweets?), how it is cleansed (i.e., how does
the most significant ‘spam’ vary as a percentage of the corpus from market to
market), and how it is analyzed (i.e., what considerations and
challenge faced thresholds does a Natural Language Processing tool apply).
in meeting digital Winning in a social world requires a far more intimate
understanding of the customer. Innovative Fortune 1000
business priorities. marketers are increasingly applying social media to obtain
deeper, real-time consumer insights, activate online
The uncomfortable reality is that raw social media data communities and build strong, differentiated brands. The
is far from pristine. For example, automated ‘bots’ now approach is proven, the measurement metrics are defined
account for double-digit share of all social media data. and the benefits are quantified.
Duplicated messages and spam are putting your credibility
at risk. Invest the time and resources to ensure that your
social media data is sourced, harvested and cleansed in a
consistently rigorous manner across your brands, segments
and geographic markets.
4. Cast a wide net: If you are just listening to what consumers
are saying about brands, you are missing out. Frank
Cotignola (CIM, Global Analytics and Digital Insights at Kraft
Foods) warns, “The mistake people make is just listening for
brands. You first have to listen to what customers are saying,
and then see how brands can fit into the conversation.”
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About NM Incite
Global Fortune 1000 marketers rely on NM Incite solutions to discover emerging, industry-specific consumer insights and build
relevant, differentiated and emotionally engaging brands. NM Incite customers are innovative, global marketing executives in brand
management, consumer insights and market research at leading Consumer Packaged Goods, Financial Services, Healthcare and
Technology companies. They understand that winning in today’s social world hinges on developing deeper and more provocative
consumer and market insights to create superior marketing strategies, boost brand strength, develop new products, innovate in
customer care and maximize the impact of marketing campaigns.
NM Incite is a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey Company, bringing to bear deep expertise in measurement science
and management consulting. As one of the largest global leaders in applying social media to solve marketing problems, NM Incite
operates in over 30 markets, including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India, Japan and Australia.
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