Why Is Listening Important?

Kristin BushP&G Consumer & Market Knowledge Global Communication & Digital Research LeaderMay 2009

The Human Element• The Company’s DNA has been

shaped by its relationships with consumers virtually from P&G’s founding

• “Consumer is Boss” has been the key factor behind the Company’s growth

• Relationships with consumers built trust in our brands

Corporate History Video

CONSUMER IS

BOSS

EVALUATIONEVALUATION

LISTEN/LEARN/LISTEN/LEARN/CO-CREATECO-CREATE

LISTEN, LISTEN, SENSE & SENSE & RESPONDRESPOND

STRENGHTEN INITIATIVES FOR

DEPLOYMENT

RES

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R

EQ

UIR

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RES

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CONSUMER INTERACTIONSCONSUMER INTERACTIONS

The Present Focus of Research

We’re Missing the Big Opportunity

• Why have we moved away from the basic concept of listening?We lost focus on the key stakeholderWall Street’s expectations took over

• Bring back the human element:Focus more on Co-creation and Sense and respondListen on their time on their ‘turf’ and in ways that they want

to communicateRe-establish trust and confidence with consumers

What is Listening?From the American Heritage

Dictionary:

“To make an effort to hear something”

“To pay attention; heed”

Listening n Observing and interpreting naturally-occurring behaviors to understand consumer attitudes, lifestyles, and needs

What is “Listening”?

Why Is Listening Important

• Underutilized source of ‘real’ consumer behavior and attitudes.

• Consumers in reality often do things differently than what they say they do.

• Competitive advantage to drive outstanding tacit consumer insights, monitoring brand buzz and truly become a ‘listening’ company.

Unleash the power of digitalDigital will transform the way….1) We listen to our consumers and uncover insights2) Conduct market research and measure data3) We do business through new ways consumers will

shop and buy our products online

Social Media is a key source of insight and engagement with our consumers

So, what is Social Media, exactly?

Definition of Social Media

Social Media facilitates interaction between people.

It describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself.

These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, ratings, reviews, pictures, videos, etc.

(adapted from Brian Solis - PR 2.0 )

A working definition

Support & connectionCaring Bridge

Beautiful LengthsPantene

OK, so where’s the manual?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98469445@N00/299313394/

Umm – there isn’t one …

A Useful FRAMEWORK

Objectives for using Social Media

• ListeningLearn from online conversations

• TalkingParticipate in online conversations

• EnergizingCreate Brand ambassadors

• SupportingHelp consumers support each other

• EmbracingInvolve consumers in Innovation

(Forrester Research)

Why do we care?“When consumers are talking we need to be listening”

‣ What are our consumers doing with social media today?

• What are they saying?

• What insights can we glean from

the conversation?

‣ How can we interact and help facilitate the conversation with consumers?

• What is the right way to engage?

• What will consumers be receptive

to?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntikhaki/200757272/

Challenges & Opportunities

How does Social Media and digital impact our world?

We still do research in much the same way we did 60 years ago!

Evolution of Consumer Research

Door-to-Door

Phone Surveys

Intercepts

Online

Digital translates, enables, and extends the historic P&G consumer fundamentals

Competency Translation to Digital New Questions

Listening (Consumer Understanding)

The Unprompted Voice What new insights can be uncovered?

Shelf Presence

(1st Moment of Truth)

New Shelf Model, Importance of Search

What influences/shapes search results? What influences “wisdom of crowds”

Sight, Sound & Motion

(TV copy principles)

How to leverage ‘SSM” for New platforms and screens

Can TV copy development be reapplied in online video demos, long-form TV copy, retailer video-content?

Making It Simple: Think Digitally Enabled Fundamentals (DEF)

6

Digital: Extends Our Core Fundamentals

Unstructured

(Semi) Structured

Indirect Direct

Emails, Fax,Voice/phone,Snail-mail

Page ViewsSite MetricsOnline sales,Offline sales

Focus groups,Surveys, Polls,Comment Cards

YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, Boards, Forums, Ratings & Review Sites

Digital: Unveils the Ultimate “Consumer Listener”

Making It Simple: The Unprompted Voice is the New Kid on the Block!

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Are we really listening?

How is P&G Listening today?• What we are doing well….

– Communities (Home Made Simple, PetSide, Pampers Village, etc.)

– Olay for you- Custom Beauty Consultations– Social Media Lab– Community Manager Pilots (Iams, Pampers)– PR brand monitoring (PR agency lead)– Product ratings and reviews– Etc……

• What we need to do better….– More systematic approach to listening– Integrate Consumer Relations more proactively– Listen without boundaries– Integrate into our DNA and business systems

Potential Listening StrategiesObjective Biz Action

Consumer Insight Generation Create outstanding communication ideas and plans

Product Development Faster idea creation and prioritization

Sense & Respond/Initiative Tracking Improve launch and forecast accuracy

Brand Monitoring Improve initiatives faster and understand brand PR, good and bad to leverage or manage

Relationship Marketing/ Community Building

Grow brand loyalty and advocacy

Potential Role of Market Research

• Developing listening and observational protocols to help brands extract value from unprompted conversation

• Developing frameworks for concept development and new idea generation based on the analysis, especially around line extensions

• Developing protocols for deeper dive analysis around surface or high level insights – e.g. more qualitative review of commentary

The Ideal Future FocusEVALUATION

STRENGTHENINITIATIVES FOR

DEPLOYMENT

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CONSUMER INTERACTIONS

FUTUREFUTURE

INNOVATE/CO-CREATE

SENSE & RESPOND

EVALUATION

An Example-Fabric Care

People are talking about Fabric Care everywhere

The consumer

Currently key topics are not surprising

Eco & Ingredient ConcernsSkin Sensitivities

Value & CostStain & Smell Solutions

So what did we do?

• Used Listening to ask better questions Social Media, blogs to inform content and language Talk to consumer relations … transcripts of calls, e-mails

• Used Listening to provide richer answers Overlay Listening to dimensionalize findings from other research

• Organized a consumer “tour” for the category team Online twitter feeds of category-relevant consumer conversation Create a shared consumer experience

• Joined the conversation!- Fabric Care Consumer Council, Get Satisfaction

A community that is a “living and breathing” source of inspiration for the category, by providing a capability

for gathering consumer insights, in addition to providing fast & inexpensive research opportunities.

Capabilities:• Discussion Board

• Surveys/Polls• Blogging

• Live Chat Sessions

CONSUMER-COUNCILFabric Care’s On-Line Consumer Community

What should you do?

• Carefully review your ‘IN TOUCH’ approaches– Do you offer a balance of ‘listening’ and ‘asking’

techniques?– Do you offer easy ways for brands to stay in touch

and listen to consumers daily? – What can you offer us to leverage online

communities? – What do you offer in the consumers ‘turf’?

So what?

“Without transforming our capabilities into approaches that are more IN TOUCH with the lifestyles of the consumers we seek to understand, the consumer-research industry as we know it today will be on life support by 2012”

Kim Dedeker, Former VP-Global CMK, Procter & Gamble

So Why Is Listening Important?

Consumers reward brands that value their opinion and engage

in active listening