433 Social Media Final

8/3/2019 433 Social Media Final

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Using Social Media in Brand ResearchHow Brand Managers Can Evaluate Brand Performanceduring an Economic RecessionPer EAsberg, Head of Production and Panels, Nepa, Swedenper.asbergcsgmail .com

Executive SummaryT he g lo ba l e co no m ic c ris is ha s fo rc ed se ve ra l b ra nds to th eir kne es . M a ny c om p a nie sde em inve sting in b ra nd b uilding a ctivitie s a s "une co no m ic al" a nd a ll resources arei ns te ad fo c us e d on inc re asing sa le s. H ow eve r, m e asuring a dve rtise me nt im p ac t a ndunde rsta nding a b ra nd's p ositio n a re ke y p ara m ete rs for s uc ce ed ing in diffe re ntia ting ab ra nd o ffe r from the c om p etitio n a nd the re by inc re asing sa le s. U nfo rtuna te ly m a rke tresea rch is so metim es co nsidered a s o ne of tho se b usiness a rea s tha t ca n be cut during arecess ion.Soc ia l m edia ha s presented a new wa y of co nducting b ra nd resea rch a mo ng b oth yo unga nd o ld consumers a t a low co st. This pa per presents ways of using b lo gs a nd o the rs oc ia l m e di a p la tfo rm s to c o st-e ffi cie ntly u nd er sta nd th e consumer a nd tra ck b ra ndbuzz. A b ra nd 's s ur viv al d ep e nd s on the m ana gem ent tea m's kno wledg e of th econsumers' ne eds a nd of the m arke t a s a who le .

Marketing and Measuring Cost EfficientlyThe ongoing global recession has hit many companies hard on all continents. Cutbacks are inevitable, and marketing is often a part of the organization thatexperiences some of the most prominent changes in the light of any financialdownturn. Brand managers can be forced to either shift focus from general brandbuilding to pure sales generating activities, and/or to simply cut back on all marketingrelated costs. Instead the focus on short term profits becomes central to thecompany's survival.

During these times, market research activities are easily labeled as "non-essential"and as candidates for cut backs, since little revenue can be connected directly tothese expenditures. This is unfortunate since experience tells us that brand managerswho regularly use market research to follow up marketing activities achieves a better


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output from these and in the end generate more sales compared to their lessenlightened competitors.

We also know that the "buzz" a brand generates offline as well as online willcontribute greatly to future sales of a product. Therefore, the "buzz factor" of abrand or product can be an attractive parameter to measure in order to predictfuture product sales and general brand health. There are already several products onthe market today which are used to track how people speak about brands. Many ofthem are focused on the online buzz of a brand, which is natural in times where anincreasing part of a consumer's networking activities are carried out online. Aproblem with these kinds of surveys, and in market research in general, is to connectwith the increasing part of the population who do not have stationary telephonesand whose e-mail address is not to be found in any registry. These, often young,consumers are to a greater extent trendsetters and influence the success or failure ofa product/brand to a higher degree than other target groups. Social media hasproven to be a useful channel for conducting market research in order to reach thisgroup (often called "early adopters", "brand ambassadors" or "trend setters").

Market research in general, and brand buzz measurement in particular, is asimportant during the economic recession as ever. The challenge lies in finding costefficient ways of mapping consumer's behavior. In this article we focus on methodsof collecting consumer behavior data and brand buzz data at a low cost using socialmedia as a platform to get in touch with consumers.

The Role of Social Media in Our Contemporary SocietyIn the early days of the Internet, surfing the web was about gathering informationand passively digesting material published by the owner of a homepage. Web 2.0changed this a few years ago by allowing users to interact with the content of ahomepage and with other users. Suddenly, the consumer became the creator. Socialmedia has long been the core of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, with brands such asFacebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flikr and Twitter leading the development.

A report on social media published by Universal McCann illustrates the explosion ofthis phenomenon - 57%of the partakers in their survey answered that they aremembers of a social network, and close to three out of four Internet users read blogs(Universal McCann, 2008). Watching video clips online proved to be the mostpopular social media activity (see Figure 1 below).


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Figure 1:Active Internet Users' Consumption of Social Media90%80%70%

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R e ac l 1 )lo gs lw e l) lo gs S ta rt m y own I) l og iWe l J l og Leave a com men t on a n ew s s ite'.' W ate ll v ldso c lip s onll n s'.' D ow nlo ac l a p od ca st (p re -re co rc le cl ra clio ';

a ud io S l lOW) C rea te a p r of il e e m a s oc ia l n etw o rk S u bscn be to an RSS feed

Wa v e I Sep 06 W ave 2 Jun 07 Wa v e ,3 M ar 0 8Source: Universal McCann, 2008

The large social media networks are still growing, despite the fact that some of themhave existed for several years. A large part of the members of Facebook are youngbut more than two-thirds have left college (Face book's own statistics, 2009). Eachuser has an average of 120friends in their network (Ibid, 2009) and accomplishes alarge part of their networking online. This means that social media is an attractivevehicle for locating otherwise hard-to-reach groups and for accessing informationabout these individuals. Since the social media sector is still growing, especially in theso called developing countries, it will likely remain a good option for conductingmarket research and for communicating with consumers of all ages in the future.

Second Life - Host Focus Groups with Creative IndividualsDeveloping a superior product, which best matches the user's needs and wants,could be one strategy to gain market shares. The problem can be to identify whatconsumers really want, as opposed to what they say they want in the average survey.The virtual world of Second Life is one way to interact with particularly creative usersof a product, with the aim of exploring new sides and opportunities for productextensions beyond the creative scope of the average user.

Users in Second Life mingle with each other through avatars , miniature figurescreated by the users themselves. The users walk around different islands interactingwith each other and the environment. A good way to get in touch with creativeindividuals is by observing what they have done with their avatar - a creativecostume could be a sign of a creative mind.


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Figure 2: Avatars Looking at Products in a Virtual Shoe Store

Source: Second Life, 2009

When you have identified a group of individuals you wish to research, the graphics ofSecond Life make it possible to show products and brands to them. By holding anonline focus group with these individuals, valuable ideas for extensions andimprovement can be found. The price for research in Second Life is often low sincethere is no costs associated with using the service itself and since a minor economiccompensation to the focus group members is all that is required. This makes SecondLife an attractive option for conducting market research with a small budget.

Blogs - Find Out What the Buzz isAboutBlogging is a part of the social media sphere and is increasing in popularity. Three outof four Internet users read blogs (Universal McCann, 2008). It is on blogs that a largepart of the brand buzz takes place - 34%post opinions about product and brands ontheir blog (Ibid, 2008).

Tracking of brand buzz in blogs and other forums online has grown in popularity overthe last couple of years. Word-of-Mouth is credited as being one of the factors that toa high degree drive a consumer's purchase. The reason is that the source of theinformation is often a "trusted source", such as a friend, colleague or family member.A positive word-of-mouth factor, as a compliment to traditional marketing, can boostproduct sales by attracting additional customers that otherwise would not havebought the product, or by accelerating the purchase process (Keller & Libai, 2009).


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The data for this type of analysis is often collected using data mining tools that lookfor certain key words on web sites. One parameter to measure could be how manytimes a brand is mentioned on blog sites and thereby draw conclusions of how "hot"a brand is. Another way could be to analyze in what context the brand is mentionedand what other words that are usually mentioned in close proximity of the brand, forexample "great", "failure" or "guarantee". Since the data is collected by computerprograms with data from free sources (blogs), this type of tracking can be done costefficiently. An alternate way to measure Word-of-Mouth is to ask respondents towrite diaries about their conversations during the day and to what extent brandswere discussed.

Twitter - Observe How Consumers Really Spend Their DayBeing actively engaged in a community takes a lot of time and not all people areprepared to spend hours a day updating their profiles and replying to comments. Thishas created a need for social interaction on a micro scale (sometimes referred to as"micro-blogging") and Twitter has targeted this market with its services. Twittermembers have 140 characters at their disposal to tell the world what they are up to,something that is often updated many times a day. The core of Twitter's product isthe ability to "follow" your friends and receive constant updates of their status.

Figure 3: Screenshot of Chilean Twitter User Profile

@Psvclandita yo cada vez veo menos Dr *" "'14 PM Mar 1:?(h lrom Twi tter Opera widget in reply to psyclaudi ta

Na lva rezNe lso n A lva re z S

Source: Oyarzun & B es pr os va n / T witte r, 2 00 9

l s i


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Twitter is interesting from a brand research point of view since it gives us a chance tovirtually follow someone around their day and see what they are up to at any givenmoment. By following, for example, a group of teenagers around for a week onTwitter, brand managers and market researchers can better understand the everydaylife and opinions of this group, beyond what the answers to our survey questions cantell us. Twitter can also be used as a recruitment channel for online surveys, at littlecost.

A recent study conducted by OMG Research in Chile proved Twitter's usability asboth a recruitment channel for surveys and as a type of journal over what ishappening at any given time in a person's life. "Tweeting" happens mostly onweekdays and is mostly done via PCs (Oyarzun & Besprosvan, 2009). The Twittercomments are made in the member's own language and with a personal style, whichcould be analyzed further to detect psycho graphical sub groups.

The Future of Brand ResearchIn this article we have looked at cost efficient ways of using social media to betterunderstand the consumer. Platforms such as Facebook, Second Life and Twitter canhelp to measure brand buzz, to create new ideas for products/services and even tofollow people around in their everyday life. Brand Research is already well on the wayto migrate to "new" platforms, such as the web and mobile phones. The aim is tofollow wherever the consumer goes to better understand how they reason and whatthey do. Research must always be carried out on the respondent's/subject's terms,which is why more surveys will be conducted "on the go" in the coming years, forexample on the subway or while waiting for the plane to board. The forum for thesesurveys will be the types of web services discussed in this article.

Those brand managers who understand the consumers and their needs best willalways have an upper hand on the competition. The key to understanding your targetgroup is to ask them questions and to observe them through brand research.Coincidentally, market research has become more and more affordable during thelast years, mostly due to improvements in technology. This makes it possible toevaluate brands online even in an economic downturn, with the aim of improvingproducts or services and creating a superior offer.


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ReferencesFacebook Statistics (2009). http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statisticsKeller, E.& Libai, B. (2009). A Holistic Approach to the Measurement of WoM. Paperpresented at the ESOMARWM3 Conference, pp. 169 - 180Oyarzun, D.& Besprosvan, K.(2009). Presentation on Researching Twitter Users, heldat the ESOMARWM3 Conference, Stockholm, May 2009Second Life Homepage (2009). http://secondlife.com/whatis/marketplace.phpUniversal McCann (2008). Power to the People - Social Media Tracker - Wave 3.http://www.universalmccann.com/Assets/UM%20Wave%203%20final 20080808141650.pdf

About the AuthorPer Asberg is Head of Production and Panels at the Swedish market researchcompany Nepa. He has a marketing Masters degree focusing on co-branding andregularly lectures on these theories and their application for both companies and inmarketing courses at the Royal Institute of Technology. Extracts of his co-brandingtheories have been published in the book Brand Portfolio Metaphors (uggla H. Ed.,2006) and a scientific article, of which Per is head author, on a new co-brandingmodel is to be published in the June edition of the Indian Journal of Marketing. Peralso recently presented a paper on how to best measure a brand's position at theESOMAR WM3 International Conference in May 2009.

If you have any questions or feedback for the author, please contact him [email protected] or connect on http://www.linkedin.com/in/asberg
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statisticshttp://secondlife.com/whatis/marketplace.phpmailto:[email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/asberghttp://www.linkedin.com/in/asbergmailto:[email protected]://secondlife.com/whatis/marketplace.phphttp://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

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433 Social Media Final