Monitoring the Online World - Mark Rogers Synopsis
In the last three years the online world has been transformed by three different phenomena:
a) the live web - the characteristic of websites which allows them to reflect changes as they happen through syndication. This allows applications as varied as Twitter (linking breakfasters in San Francisco with clubbers in Guangzhou) and YouTube to syndicate their content globally.
b) the human web (aka web 2.0). This allows people who have no coding skills to create applications on the fly, mixing and matching elements of different software solutions from google maps to last FM.
c) the social web. The development of user-friendly interfaces has allowed the web to fulfil its potential as a place where real life happens - relationships develop. burgeon, bifurcate. The astounding growth of Facebook over the last few years is merely the most recent symptom of a trend which has encompassed Newsgroups, Instant Messaging, Skype, Friends Reunited, blogging ...
So: where does this leave brands? When Market Sentinel came into existence three years ago, brands were concerned at their inability to monitor the conversations of their customers - conversations which could often be hostile to the brands' carefully (and expensively) nurtured brand values. Now, brands are increasingly seeing these social networks, and the conversations they represent as a resource to be mined for useful information:
a) what do my customers think about me? About my competitors?
b) who has authority over my brand? Over the key competitive arena in which I operate?
c) how can I use my understanding of the first two elements to get a conversation started on my terms?
The world of social networks certainly presents a challenge to traditional ways of doing things. The previous methodology of marketing which favoured a kind witch-doctor divination of "key target demographics", and used those demographics to drive an advertising campaign which was delivered through channels owned by monopolistic media is under threat. Taking its place is a world in which the channels have fragmented, where a marketing campaign might begin with establishing a website to canvas the direct participation of a targeted group of consumers. Where market research, instead of being driven by approximations based on the assumption of shared affinities amongst demographics driven by age, class, profession and geography, is driven by the direct analysis of the passionate opinions of individual consumers.
Some case studies which represent the new reality:
Avis UK began by monitoring what customers liked about their service, and what they disliked. They fixed their product and then began a dialogue with those customers, establising an award-winning blog wetryharder.co.uk and growing their market share by double digits in a flat marketplace.
Cadbury established that there was a huge demand for the chocolate bar "Wispa" - withdrawn some years previously. They responded by reintroducing the product, communicating directly with the hungry community of Wispa-lovers via Facebook.
The thinking soon began to make itself felt in their conventional advertising. They realised that social networks respond best to oblique messages, and came up with the idea of associating the brand with moments of pleasure, presented by a notional production company: glassandahalffullproductions. The production company's debut feature, a gorilla with a liking for Phil Collins has had the biggest online debut ever - even surpassing Sony Bravia's famous balls, with several hundred postings on YouTube, one of which has received more than a million views.
The long and the short of it is that the internet is no longer a place where brands need to run and hide from an online kicking. It is a place where brands can relax, be playful, be themselves ... adding value to the consumer's life in the best way they can.
Mark Rogers
CEO
Market Sentinel
155 Kennington Park Road
London SE11 4JJ
UK
www.marketsentinel.com
