Digital communications is today's leading marketing force, owing to the fact that consumers have candid conversations about brands online. Yet, it is more challenging to derive insights in a category where there are excessive brands, or where the category overpowers the brands, making it virtually 'brandless'. Illustrated by a butter/margarine case study and stepping back to cover some fundamentals of social media research, Sourabh will reveal how to revitalize your digital communications with greater effectiveness in such a scenario.
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Webinar: Using social media in a 'brandless' category
1. Share your thoughts online:
#SKIMwebinar
Using social media in a “brandless” category
Sourabh Sharma Abigail Joffre
Communication & Today’s Webinar Host
Social Media Research Expert
Improving digital communications through effective and actionable social media research
2. Blog Photo / Video
• sssourabh.com • Tumblr
• Facebook Page • Flickr
• Instagr.am
Professional • Vine
• LinkedIn • Pinterest
• Carbonmade Portfolio • Gentlemint
• Dudepins
Social
• Facebook Ideas
• Twitter • Formspring
• Google+ • Stumbleupon
• Lookbook
2 SKIM Webinar “Using social media in a “brandless” category”
3. 90%of people trust online peer recommendations
14% trust advertisements
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4. 2 of 3 social media users believe twitter influences purchases
50% of people follow brands on social media
46% of social media users post brand related content
5 SKIM Webinar “Using social media in a “brandless” category”
5. 6 SKIM Webinar “Using social media in a “brandless” category”
6. what if I am
brandless
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7. SKIM conducted “fieldwork” (web scraping) across the social media universe on
the spreads category, focusing on butter and margarine for a period of 1 year
Discover what you can learn about the overall
category
Understand how to impact digital communications
Develop actionable recommendations for
margarine producers
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9. Social Social
Classic Media Media
Research Monitoring Research
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10. sssourabh
sssourabh
tried to make my favorite
American cheesecake in
New York a bit more
healthy by using
margarine in the frosting.
#bitter #cake
25 minutes ago
Getting ready for our
#webinar!
1 hour ago
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12. “Using real butter
to make my 25th
birthday cake for
my party in
Miami!”
IP tracking Allusion to demographics
Publicly available
geographic data in verbatims
demographic data
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13. 2. Fieldwork 3. Customized analysis and
1. Design Study
Internet Scraping and Coding output
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14. 1. Design Study
sssourabh
• Author
sssourabh
• Date
tried to make my favorite
American cheesecake in • Location
New York a bit more
healthy by using • Hashtags
margarine in the frosting.
#bitter #cake • Context
25 minutes ago
Getting ready for our
#webinar! • Emotions
1 hour ago
• Personality
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15. 2. Fieldwork
Internet Scraping and
Coding
• Very Positive
Consumer • Words
• Positive • Emoticons
• Location
• Neutral • Associations
• Demographics
• Negative
• Psycographics
• Very Negative
• Usage context
• Decision making
Sentiment Emotions
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16. 3. Customized analysis and
output Campaign
effectiveness
Innovation and Competitive
ideation comparisons
Social Media
Research
Netnography
Find product
and
flaws quickly
psychographics
Supplement
traditional
research
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18. 2%of butter conversations mention brands
9% of margarine conversations mention brands
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19. brandless
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20. usage
General Cooking
Baking
“I use it for everything except baking. Butter is
Frying the only thing that will do when baking.”
Grilling Community Post, July 2012
Roasting
Recipes “I really think butter vs. margarine in baking is
more texture than taste. Butter seems to give a
better chew to cookies than margarine does.”
Butter Margarine Forum Comment, July 2012
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21. location context
Kitchen
Personal Use
“Fresh butter on fresh bread in my Fastfood Restaurants
kitchen – the best way to eat it.”
Discount Stores
Blog, March 2012
Hotels
“Ruth Chris Steakhouse has the best Casual Dining
steaks - maybe because they are
sizzling in butter” Butter Margarine
Blog, June 2012
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22. dig
deeper
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24. Sentiment:
Continuum of negative to positive
perceptions/sentiment
Increasing Passion Hate Love Passion:
Conversations that are extreme
Dislike Like
Increasing Positivity of Sentiment
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25. Sentiment:
Continuum of negative to positive
Increasing Passion Butter
perceptions/sentiment
Passion:
Conversations that are extreme
Size of Bubble:
Volume of conversations
Margarine
Increasing Positivity of Sentiment
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27. Taste:
Continuum of negative to positive
perceptions of taste
Yummy! Best for me! Health:
Continuum of negative to positive
Tasty, not Healthy Healthy and Tasty perceptions of health
Taste
Why bother? Good for me!
Neither Healthy nor Tasty Healthy, not Tasty
Health
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28. Taste:
Continuum of negative to positive
perceptions of taste
Butter Health:
Continuum of negative to positive
perceptions of health
Taste
Size of Bubble:
Volume of conversations
Margarine
Health
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30. taste
Butter Margarine
importance by buzz
Increasing order of
Tasty Strength
“You could use margarine if
Moderate Strength
Salty you like, but personally I think
Fresh taste Neutral butter is the best option (in
Moderate Weakness terms of taste) ”
Sweet
Weakness
Youtube Recipe, June 2012
Spicy
“Ohh the disappointment when
Increasing Volume of Buzz
you realize the butter you
bought isn't salted. :'(
#RuinedCrumpets.”
Twitter User, May 2012
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32. functional
Butter Margarine
Small sized
“I love that my margarine
Color
importance by buzz
Increasing order of
Strength stays soft in the fridge!”
Use at hot temperatures Moderate Strength Blog, December 2011
Texture Neutral
Ease of use Moderate Weakness
Large sized
Weakness “My butter was rancid after
Greasiness just a couple of days and
this wasn't even the
Use at cold temperatures
summer time when the
ambient temperature
Increasing Volume of Buzz would turn it into goo!”
Community, March 2012
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33. But who is “talking”?
The frequent chatters and followers
34. Gender Age
Butter 43% 57% Butter 4% 50% 39% 7%
Margarin Margarin
45% 55% 52% 41% 5%
e e
Male Female < 18 18-34 35-65 >65
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35. 40%
Butter
20%
Margarine
0%
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36. butter
It evokes emotions of
happiness
It is used in cooking
and frying (especially
to fry snacks)
Young and middle
They talk mostly on
aged consumers talk
forums and blogs It is consumed in the
about butter
household by
men, alongside the
entire family
They talk about taste It is used during breakfast
elements or as toppings at other
mealtimes (e.g. on
meats, burgers)
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37. margarine
Concerns include
the debate of
They focus natural ingredients
on areas of
both taste
and health It is used in
Young and middle They talk mostly cooking, especially
aged consumers on forums, blogs baking
talk about and online
margarine communities Health issues
include healthy
meals, menu It is consumed by
individuals, or by
offerings, and
members of a
weight loss household
They often talk
about it as a
substitute to It is used most
butter, and often for
compare to other breakfast, mainly
oils too on toast
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39. A healthy option with Develop perceptions
low fat and low of
calories, which is saltiness, tastiness
non-greasy and easy and freshness, with
to use. Substitute to a creamy texture.
butter/oils depending Target by usage
on messaging types.
medium.
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40. Extreme preference
behavior
Comparative behavior
Product overpowers
brand
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41. Join our online
A creamy texture for community for
cookies that taste tasty recipes
perfect - every time you and healthy
bake! tips!
Keep your cake tasty A healthy way to start the day
without the calories for you and your family
The best thing to put on toast for a healthy breakfast.
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43. Branded or brandless
You can learn from your
consumers.
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44. Quantitative study
Stand alone
validation /
Netnography social media
Concept and complementary Campaign / research study
claims study launch
generation effectiveness
Big brand or small brand,
social media will tell you a story.
Listen.
46 SKIM Webinar “Using social media in a “brandless” category”
45. Share your thoughts online:
#SKIMwebinar
Using social media in a “brandless” category
Sourabh Sharma Abigail Joffre
Communication & Today’s Webinar Host
Social Media Research Expert
a.joffre@skimgroup.com
s.sharma@skimgroup.com @InAbbyLand
@sssourabh
Sign up for more of our spring webinars! http://www.skimgroup.com/webinars
47
Editor's Notes
We have the big fish big pond scenario. And the little fishes out there too.What should you do if your brand is small or if you are in a category that is brandless
What do we mean by brandless?It is perhaps more intuitive to do social media studies with brands: Coke to Toyota, these are very clearly soft drinks and cars. We define brandless as being in a category where the product is more prevalent to its brands.
What c
E.g. sourabh tweets about a baking experience, without mentioning a brand name. A simple twitter search of margarine shows that it is indeed ‘brandless’ – one does not know which brands are being used. As such, what are margarine manufacturers to do?
Online privacyBetrayal of age via conversationsLocation statistics
1. Specification of products, brands, key words and themes2. Internet scanning, variable and key word coding, and sentiment calibration on a 5 point Likert scale3. Choices entail brand maps, quantified associations, trigger identification, personas, etc.
What do we mean by brandless?It is perhaps more intuitive to do social media studies with brands: Coke to Toyota, these are very clearly soft drinks and cars. We define brandless as being in a category where the product is more prevalent to its brands.
Local brands in Brazil are more passionately spoken ofAcross countries, Hershey’s and Twix are polarized in perceptions, while KitKat is neutralAcross countries, social media data in the US is more negative, while in Brazil it is more positive for this categoryThe less Positive / Less Passionate quadrant is not ideal. Snickers is advised to drive up the positive conversations before incentivizing more passionate mentions.
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Continue to emphasize key health benefits (low fat, low calories), but strengthen taste perceptionsFocus on bringing in salty, tasty and fresh attributes to product and messagingPosition margarine to align with consumers’ usage and perceptionsMake breakfasts and/or baking central to consumer targeted messagingEmphasize personal and individual use, seconded by whole family consumptionEmphasize ease of use due to lack of greasiness and supreme texture compared to other spreads
This study enlightens on consumer behavior in the category - Butter is generally talked about with positivity and passion, owing to its taste benefits, usage and association with happiness. Margarine is disliked due to poor taste and a debate over natural ingredients and true health benefitsConsumers often compare the different products in the category; primarily butter to margarine, but also other oils and spreadsConsumers focus on product attributes, primarily taste and health They are thus relatively less brand loyal than other product categories, and identify no clear category leader
The key elements from the brand identity that your brand owns are your “triggers”– in the sense that it has more mentions than expected and also that it does not share this elements as strengths with other brands.You can use these to create claims for your study like we have here (in blue)You can use it to add validation stamps (non greasy) or ads to your online platforms (communities)Position margarine to align with consumers’ usage and perceptionsMake breakfasts and/or baking central to consumer targeted messagingEmphasize personal and individual use, seconded by whole family consumptionEmphasize ease of use due to lack of greasiness and supreme texture compared to other spreads