Chapter 7

Create Messages That Resonate

Communications in recent years have been transitioning, from rational features and benefits that marketers promoted to include more context, emotional content, and imagery that customers and prospects desire. This evolution is an important reason why social media listening has begun playing a larger role in message creation: to generate insights for communications that resonate with, and within, customers and prospects at a deep level. Harvesting and analyzing conversations around product categories, specific products and services, and issues of all sorts can unmask the motives, drivers, emotions, and images that move people today. Resonant messages help marketers and advertisers move away from old-school “tell and sell” toward connecting, engaging, and building their businesses—as we'll see shortly.

Winning Plays That Create Resonant Messages

Four winning plays emerged from our analysis of cases:

• Listen to the people you are interested in, and locate the conversation hubs where they talk about your product, service, or category. These are the places you'll get the strongest and clearest signals. Be specific about whom you listen to, and organize comments, topics, or themes according to groups that are most pertinent to your business (see Chapters 1 and 3 for discussion of these listening research principles). For Harrah's Casino, this meant people considering trips to Las Vegas—particularly their hotel, entertainment, and restaurant properties—as you'll read in the “Search Social Media for Resonant Topics” section.

  The company settled on TripAdvisor.com, a popular travel Web site that focuses on consumer discussion and reviews. For one specific consumer packaged goods (CPG) company, it was millennial moms dealing with storage issues in families with young children (see the section “Discover and Use Customer Language in Messaging”). A home storage manufacturer zoomed-in on “mommy blogger” sites and specialized areas on forums and Web sites like iVillage.com. Gillette's Fusion razor focused on lapsed users from sites where men discussed shaving. Resist the temptation to be broad, unless you have solid marketing or research-based reasons.

• Resonant messages often combine ideas, so look for those that “hang together,” and create messages grounded in the combination. People generally hold impressions of products or services that are shaped by evaluating performance, price, emotional benefits, and their experiences. Address these factors in an integrated way to construct resonant communications. For example, by studying lapsed users, Gillette Fusion found that men quit the brand not because of performance or price as separate issues, but because the price was too high for the level of performance the razor delivered. To that end, the company created messages to win back lapsed users that treated performance and price together, thereby addressing perception head-on. (For additional background on marketing to lapsed users, Rishad Tobaccowala, head of strategy and insights for VivaKi, explains the merits in his Chapter 21 viewpoint.)

  Similarly, Harrah's learned that potential guests were interested in both views and amenities, which prompted the company to blend and communicate these two components together (see below). As the Gillette and Harrah's examples show, the ability to combine several elements is a different approach from old-school advertising, which likely would have treated each point separately in different ads.

• Consider message length and benefits. Depending on the goal and consumer, short, simple messages can work just as well as longer, more complex ones. Gatorade discovered this to be quite effective when it tweeted or posted news about the sudden availability of a music track that became available for download, thereby creating resonant messages in near-real time. Test message length and benefits when feasible and develop guidelines for different situations and applications.
• Monitor buzz following advertising exposure to discover and fix communications problems or amplify wins so that ads resonate. Television advertising often has an afterlife online, as people turn to social networks, blogs, Web sites, and forums to discuss them. Listening to those conversations will allow you to discover how customers are receiving, understanding, and acting upon your advertising. Then use those analyses to pick up on early signals that pinpoint problems and successes. This will let you adjust messaging in near-real time to get advertising back on track or exploit opportunity. For example, one international mobile phone company realized that its customers and prospects misunderstood some points of its service, which was turning them off to the company entirely. Correcting the problem shortly after discovery enabled the company to make its advertising much more effective. On the other side, following a new campaign launch, Gatorade picked up on a groundswell of positive buzz and used it to take near-real time actions, such as messaging and engaging with followers and fans, and even adjusting their brand experience.

Let's turn now to the tactics and cases that led us to diagram the plays. There are four:

• Search social media for resonant topics.
• Discover and use customer language in messaging.
• Combine ideas to address consumer perception.
• Monitor buzz after ad exposure to adjust messaging.

Search Social Media for Resonant Topics

Renowned spa and hotel chain Harrah's sought to increase bookings by sharpening its messaging to increase its relevance and resonance with potential guests. Working with ad agency Ogilvy, Harrah's undertook a social media listening effort to identify the most important conversation topics and themes. It wanted to answer questions like: “What do people look forward to?” “What will make their stay special?”

Those who are familiar with Ogilvy know that the firm employs exceptionally sophisticated techniques and technologies of social media listening (Doublethink 2009). Yet despite the fact that it could have used state-of-the-art text analytics, Ogilvy instead took a straightforward, practical and manual approach by:

Harrah's learned that travelers frequently discussed the “iconic views” from, and the hotel amenities at, its Paris Las Vegas hotel. It acted on these insights by changing its home page to show the view and nearby attractions, and started communicating details about the stay experience and features such as room sizes, menus, and spa services.

Harrah's marketing VP Monica Sullivan allowed that Web ad changes “boosted online bookings by a double-digit percentage” (quoted in Steel 2009). Additionally, the hotel chain leveraged the social media listening findings into a broader media strategy, eventually introducing a series of TV, print, radio, and Web ads. There's power and profit in small changes.

This case reinforces an important point about social media listening research: Any size company, from startups to globe-circling behemoths, can do basic work quickly and affordably. Simple and straightforward methods—that require little more than a Web browser, search box, cut-and-paste skills and following listening research principles (see Part I)—can yield productive insights. Although this example focused on travel, studies like these can tackle any topic. Keep in mind, however, that they are best suited to small, easily managed projects with a narrow scope.

Discover and Use Customer Language in Messaging

A large CPG manufacturer of home storage solutions had transformed its business from a franchise model to one that sold its products through a large home center chain. Almost immediately, it had to completely revamp its marketing. The company's messaging, which had been mass-media-oriented but now included direct mail and promotions, such as e-mails, catalogs, and coupons, was no longer working. The issue was resonance. Though the target audience—millennial, time-stressed mothers—understood the company's offerings functionally, they did not see how the products fit into their families’ lives: the CPG manufacturer had to overcome a mind-set mismatch. (See Chapter 4 for details and cases on mind-sets.)

Language influences what we think about and how we behave (Wikipedia 2010). Closing this gap meant that the CPG company would have to identify the language and themes that millennial moms used and which with they identified. The company would later have to draw upon these results for its messaging. So the manufacturer turned to social media listening to discover and analyze conversations that would provide these very insights.

The company's marketers knew that moms congregate, discuss, and share their experiences online. Many flock to sections of popular Web sites, post in forums, or follow “mommy bloggers” for advice, to get questions answered, even to commiserate. Because of this, the manufacturer's social media listening research:

• Identified the most relevant mom communities that overindexed on millennial moms. The company used custom studies with third-party audience data to discover them.
• Narrowed down the communities to those that had high levels of discussion regarding family issues and household organization.
• Harvested and analyzed discussion threads that uncovered the language, issues, and concerns, and sentiment around them, that reflected the daily lives of millennial moms.
• Provided a lexicon of terms to use in messaging. For example, “soccer mom” was viewed negatively, whereas SAHM (“stay at home mom”) was used positively.
• Created personas around this language that helped visualize consumers and guide messaging to look and sound like them—a move that significantly increased resonance.

Their research approach should seem familiar; they follow those outlined in Part I. Operationally, new messaging created based on the social media findings brought about a variety of results, both among consumers and for the bottom line (Neely 2010):

• The manufacturer reduced creative development costs. Tapping into relevant consumer language enabled the company to test just one or two versions, instead of iterating and testing multiple alternatives with unknown language.
• Brand metrics registered gains across the board, from awareness to purchase intent. Initially, the company was concerned that these would drop as its business model and messaging changed, but they did not.
• Profitability exceeded goals by a “significant” amount.

  Listening Level and Type Intermediate (Social research)

Combine Ideas to Address Consumer Perception

Procter & Gamble's (P&G) Gillette division faced the following situation after the introduction of the Fusion, a five-blade razor promising an exceptionally close shave: “brisk” year-one sales, followed by a softening of refill cartridges sales the following year. In an attempt to diagnose the problem, Gillette conducted both a survey and a social media listening project among lapsed users. This was particularly wise, since, as Rishad Tobaccowala notes in his piece in Chapter 21, it is equally valuable to learn why people have stopped buying as to concentrate on understanding heavy users. Recapturing and winning back lapsed users can be a powerful driver of brand growth.

Survey results found two potential reasons for this: 80 percent of Fusion users concluded that other razors were just as good, and 54 percent that the Fusion was pricey. However, the social media listening analysis revealed a more nuanced take on the problem: the value/price relationship. Former users felt that although the shave they got was a bit better than alternatives, the price they had to pay for a little extra quality wasn't worth it (Figure 7.1).

Figure 7.1 Comparison of survey and social media listening results show that social media listening links the issues of price and performance in a way that a survey could not.

Source: Wiesenfeld et al. (2009). Used with permission.

The survey told Gillette which attributes were most important, and ranked them one by one. The listening analysis showed that lapsed users weighed and balanced their experience, price, and value into a brand perception, which led them to stop buying in this case.

Had Gillette acted only on the survey findings, it might have just lowered the price and conveyed that change to customers without addressing the parity perception. However, based on listening, it set a different course for its product messaging: to remind consumers that Fusion provides a superior shave, and align its pricing with that level of superiority (Wiesenfeld et al. 2009). Or, as stated more directly by P&G CFO Jon Mueller: “We want to make sure consumers know that Gillette Fusion can provide the best shave available for as little as a buck a week.” He went on to add that, “[M]essages like these, and messages that drive trial and new innovations, will continue to be a prime focus in our communications with consumers” (quoted in WARC 2009).

Monitor Buzz after Ad Exposure to Adjust Messaging

This vital postlaunch or postcampaign step provides fast feedback on effectiveness and suggests ways to either repair the damage or exploit sensational reaction. In the following examples, we see how two organizations, a global cellular phone outfit and beverage giant Gatorade, benefit from acting quickly on the results from their social media listening.

Listen to Correct Problems

Television advertising plays a key role in driving search queries, directing traffic online to company Web sites, and provoking visits to social networks, blogs, and other forms of social media. Once there, people discuss ads, their reactions to them, or other matters related to specific products and services or their categories. Monitoring and analyzing conversations spawned by television ads can provide companies with insight on how well their advertising is working.

Such was the case for one international mobile phone brand, which launched a four-month advertising campaign with heavy primetime television advertising in the United Kingdom. Rather than wait weeks for sales data, the company measured social media buzz at launch time to assess how things were going. After just one week, it realized it had a problem: The ad caused confusion among customers and prospects. Once the company learned the specifics from social media listening, it made a small tweak to the ad to fix the troublesome points—an adjustment that paid off considerably: “The remainder of the campaign was a great success, but had they not intervened so rapidly (a matter of hours after evidence of the confusion first appeared), this would most likely not have been the case” (Onalytica 2009).

Listen to Exploit Communications Opportunity

Sports drink Gatorade monitors social media activity from its Mission Control Center, a dedicated command post for listening, engaging with customers, and adjusting the brand experience to consumer interest in real time. The center occupies a prominent location: It's not in a back room or surplus space, but smack in the middle of the company's Chicago headquarters’ marketing department. Five analysts track brand mentions and sentiment examination around key topics, while chattering about the industry, sports nutrition, and Gatorade's sports spokespersons across a wide range of social media.

After launching its “Gatorade has evolved” campaign, which featured an ad with a song written and produced by renowned rapper David Banner, the Mission Control Center observed a high level of approval about the track across its social media universe. Gatorade took action by releasing a full-length version of the song and engaging with Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Their posts and tweets drove traffic to the Gatorade Web site for a free download, enabling the brand to quickly capitalize on buzz early, when consumer interest was at its initial peak.

Seeking to become the “largest participatory brand in the world,” Gatorade is placing a premium on engagement, connecting consumers to sports nutritionists, company scientists, and even athletes through Facebook and video services. If this approach succeeds with consumers, Gatorade's parent company PepsiCo is likely to apply the Mission Control method to other brands within the business (Ostrow 2010).

Gatorade's case points us in the direction of social media listening's future: companywide, 24 × 7 × 365 monitoring and engaging in order to create lasting enterprise value.

Summary

Social media listening helps companies create or adjust messaging that resonates with customers and prospects. While some resonant messages often combine multiple ideas that address consumer perceptions, others may be simple and short, depending on communications goals. Continuous listening that creates meaningful messages in near-real time points to a future of always-on listening that strengthens the relationships between companies and their customers.