Graeme Crossley on fixing Brand Pain

Graeme Crossley

 It is increasingly apparent that brands that have created relationships with influential bloggers have developed powerful and effective advocates, who have helped extend the influence of the brand's marketing activity, often way beyond that possible with more 'traditional' marketing activities.

This approach (sometimes referred to as 'Crowdsourcing') has been used to cut the development time and cost of bringing new products to market and, for those who consumers are involved, helps create even more brand loyalty.

Out there in blogs, forums and in all sorts of places consumers are expressing real frustrations and, hopefully, joys and ideas about brands.
Listening to these consumers online enables brands to tap into what they are saying about the brand: spontaneously and not mediated through a research process. They will hear exactly what they think and, if they use the right approach and technologies, be able to assess how many people are expressing this sentiment and how influential they are.

It is widely accepted that consumers will continue to use social media to actively take control away from brands; a trend that will only increase.
Listening to consumer sentiment about their and their competitors' brands allows companies to track discussions, understand sentiment, identify influencers and use the resulting insights to improve the effectiveness of marketing and customer service.

Ongoing listening to sentiment does not have to be an expensive exercise.
It compares favourably on cost with research methods, such as tracking studies, that brands may know well because they've worked with them for years, but these were never created for an age in which sentiment can change in a day, and you might know nothing about it.