Chapter 16

Listening-Based Targeting

Social media listening provides new tools to help companies locate people who talk about their categories, products, or services. Interest in listening-based targeting strategies is growing because of increased social media adoption, and, as we discussed in Chapter 4, markets are becoming more precisely defined these days in terms of mind-sets, shared concerns, activities, and lifestyles reflected in conversations, and less so by straight conventional descriptors like demographics, geographies and dayparts. Recall the “sandwich situation” case in Chapter 4; it focused not on a generation, but on multigenerations of caregivers from Gen Y to baby boomers. As conversations broaden to become more “multi,” it will become more important to use listening techniques to deeply understand and leverage them for targeting purposes.

Our review of case studies and research methods uncovered four emerging approaches to develop targeting strategies that link listening to:

• Behavior
• Gender; multicultural; and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) conversations
• Offline word of mouth
• The different contexts in which conversations take place, to pick up the signals

We'll break each of these down, in turn, in the following sections.

Behavioral Listening

This method uncovers clues about customers and prospects by listening to their behavior, as noticed in patterns, statistics, and trends. We discussed two cases that used this approach in Chapter 5, one for Hennessy Cognac, the other for Suzuki's Hayabusa motorcycle. In both instances, the companies discovered completely “hidden” markets by listening to the behavior of drinkers and riders. Hennessy exposed a passionate cognac-loving market by recognizing linking patterns in its Web server logs from a third-party Web site to its own. This kind of linking indicates interest, affinity, and connection. Suzuki looked at purchase behavior that was buried in sales reports. Both companies conducted additional research to learn about these prospective customers and evaluate their business potential, and each completely revamped its marketing strategy to focus on these new markets. Importantly, these were not merely tactical changes, but rather long-term commitments. The strategies have been in play for several years, and evolve as each brand's market does.

These are only two examples of behavioral listening that lead to targeting strategies. Virtually every business can look into its own customer records and interactions to detect changing patterns about customers, their needs, and interests; they then can listen to and utilize that information to target insights.

Gender, Multicultural, and LGBT Listening

Research conducted by Johnson and Lai (2010) revealed five factors that influence listening to multicultural consumers, and which apply to any diverse group:

• Generation: First, second, and following generations exhibit differences as they experience American culture. Different age groups interpret historical events—such as the Cuban revolution, the Stonewall riots, or the emergence of feminism—from their own generational perspectives. Those perceptions color their worldviews and produce variety in values, interests, and behavior.
• Culture: Groups have values, tastes, and preferences they share among themselves and, at times, with the broader culture. The meanings they hold, though, may be somewhat or quite different, depending on the person holding them.
• Language: Words do not mean the same thing when their cultural context changes, as many groups have their own terms and vernacular.
• Lifestyle: How we live our lives varies from culture to culture and person to person.
• Digital usage: Differences between “digital natives” and “digital immigrants” shape options for work and leisure.

The important point is to always be aware of and appreciate diversity. There are countless forms of meaning and expression within and across cultural groups. It's often a challenge to recognize and evaluate these various meanings, and listen to these signals authentically, without bias or agendas, as Dagny Scott points out in her essay in Chapter 19. Yet doing so is vital for bringing all relevant voices into businesses and brands. The result is that companies bring products and services to market that reflect the people they serve. They're also able to remain on a business growth path that keeps up with, and even stays a little ahead of, the people they're serving. Let's take a quick look at three examples.

• Gender listening: We discussed a case in Chapter 5 in which one electronic game maker noticed a trend: more female-authored posts and comments on forums. That early warning alerted the publisher to emerging market opportunities, which gave the company lead time to develop a successful line of games for females—and to do so before its competition did. P&G's BeingGirl.com case provides another excellent example (Chapter 8).
• Multicultural listening: As just mentioned, attending to multicultural voices revealed new markets for Hennessy and Suzuki to target; likewise, in Chapter 5, a direct marketer of health and beauty products.
• LGBT listening: Companies like Southwest Airlines and Subaru, brands like Absolut vodka, Barefoot Wines, and Pottery Barn furniture, and travel Web site Travelocity.com listen to the LGBT “market” to develop strategies, programs, and services explicitly for them. The word “market” appears in quotes to indicate the remarkable diversity of the LGBT community; the only feature that all members share is a sexual orientation other than heterosexual. Tom Roth, founder of Community Marketing, Inc., a leading gay and lesbian research firm, told a meeting of ARF's People Council (2005) that people identifying themselves as LGBT are included in every racial and ethnic group, religious affiliation, political party, age group, geographic region, income level, and occupation, and buy products in nearly every category.

Offline Conversation Listening

Viewers, listeners, or readers talk about brands, shows, characters, and advertising both online and offline. Word-of-mouth researcher Ed Keller explains that offline word of mouth accounts for roughly 90 percent of all conversations, with online covering only 10 percent (Keller 2008). Significant differences exist between the two. People perceive the face-to-face nature of offline conversations to be more credible, more positive, and more likely to inspire purchase. This is not to say that offline listening is hands-down superior to online, only that it is worth factoring when planning listening initiatives, as the following example shows.

Like many media companies, CNN studies its audience to learn about special qualities that help make its viewers especially attractive to particular advertisers. To deviate from the typically demographic-heavy audience surveys about product ownership and plans to buy, CNN decided to enrich its understanding by studying the audience's conversations, specifically in regard to the categories and products they discuss most. For instance, CNN found that its audience had more daily conversations about the Lexus brand than audiences on rival cable networks. To locate the highly engaged individuals who were doing most of this talking, CNN explored the media behavior of talkers across its cable and online properties. It eventually noticed that those who watched CNN programs and logged onto its Web sites chatted about Lexus automobiles four times as often as the total population. Quite unexpectedly, and to its benefit, CNN discovered it attracted a remarkably concentrated crowd of Lexus-talkers, which became recognized as fertile advertising ground for targeting owners and prospective buyers. Trade reports confirmed the Lexus commitment to targeting CNN's audiences across its online, mobile, and apps platforms. For example, Lexus, along with Chevron, bought the entire ad inventory on CNN's iPhone app when it launched (Butcher 2009).

People do not always talk about categories, products, or services equally online and offline. Keller's research cites examples of a new video game that was widely discussed online, and a national retailer that wasn't. For the retailer, and for companies whose categories, products, or services seldom appear in online conversations, offline listening provides a valuable source of customer insights and targeting strategies. Companies that enjoy healthy levels of online conversations can also benefit from offline listening, which can be used to validate insights and targeting strategies, and contribute to completeness in analysis by revealing aspects of conversations that were not part of the online discussions.

Although the cases described employed a variety of sophisticated techniques, any size organization can take advantage of offline listening through techniques as simple as suggestion boxes, comment cards, low-cost Web surveys, or honest discussions with customers and prospects. Don't just gloss over this feedback; take the time to read them and extract the topics, improvements, or innovations mentioned. Put these ideas into a spreadsheet. Once they're laid out in one place, themes are likely to emerge that will suggest targeting ideas (and probably others, as well).

Listen for Language in Context

Words have different meanings depending on their context. “Chair,” for example, can mean a seat, a professorship, a corporate officer, an orchestra position (e.g., second violin), and even the electric chair. A case in Chapter 11 highlighted the different contexts in which people used a particular term that one consumer packaged goods (CPG) company considered for repositioning its business. Disguising the actual term as “awesomeness,” for proprietary reasons, we saw that people used it in various ways to describe personal relationships, food, and health. The term “broadband,” which is used generically to mean high-speed communications, is another one of these multiple-meaning words, as evidenced in the following example.

One broadband services marketer sought to understand the assorted ways people used the term so that the company could sharpen its targeting, communications, and engagement practices. The marketer retained full-service listening vendor Converseon and worked with researchers there to analyze conversations. They found that the term “broadband” was used frequently in four distinct contexts: the client brand, mobile broadband, fixed broadband, and high-definition television (HDTV) (Key 2009). Even though everyone was talking about the topic, there were four different discussions occurring. This required the company to target its efforts against four related but discrete groups. Listening provided an efficient and straightforward path to defining segments for targeting.

Let's take the example further to show how targeting insights can inform social media planning. Converseon's listening uncovered the social media sites where the different conversations took place, categorized them, and then graded them for quality and conversational fit. Thanks to this research, they learned where to communicate and engage, and found that forums are best suited for technical discussion around the brand, as well as mobile and fixed broadband. Consumer discussions around HDTV through broadband are suited for search-friendly blogs where enthusiasts congregate (see Figure 16.1). Using these results, Converseon's CEO Rob Key told us that because broadband availability varies by provider and geography, top conversation venues tend to be specific to providers or locations.

Figure 16.1 Knowing where topical conversations take place, and grading the locations, enables social media targeting.

Source: Rob Key, Converseon (2010). Used with permission.

Emerging Plays for Listening-Based Targeting Strategies

The four approaches to developing listening-based targeting reveal the following emerging plays:

• Listen inclusively to capture and analyze a variety of voices, contexts, and their conversations to develop targeting insights. People use language differently in various circumstances and contexts. Although we might assume that we can, we can never truly be sure of who is, or may be, interested in what we're offering. For example, about 25 years ago, New York City replaced the curbs in one neighborhood with an innovative new style using miniramps called “curb cuts.” The motivation was to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to make sidewalks more accessible. The City discovered not long afterward—unexpectedly, and to its delight—that these curb cuts appealed to a broader array of New Yorkers, such as cyclists, mothers with strollers and young children, the elderly, and shoppers wheeling groceries from store to apartment. What started out as a limited idea focused on one “market” turned out to be a universal solution that was attractive to individuals they hadn't previously considered. Listening to conversations and observing behavior allowed the City to expand its targeting by promoting the benefits of curb cuts to all New Yorkers, which led to greater utilization and pleasure for many more people than originally intended.
• Combine listening-based techniques with conventional targeting to support marketing and advertising strategy. Listening-based targeting appears to contribute most effectively when it is selected to support clear objectives, as was the case with CNN and the broadband marketer. Furthermore, this method is most successful when it's used as one component of a strategy that combines multiple targeting approaches. Incorporate listening-derived targeting with conventional targeting methods. For example, a quick-service restaurant might learn from listening to target people wanting a midafternoon pick-me-up, and then blend that with daypart and geographic targeting to reach people at the right time from coast to coast.
• Listen openly, without bias or judgment. Conversational listening often lets marketers and advertisers travel into new communities and hear different and unfamiliar voices. French-made Hennessy and Japan's Suzuki listened to African-American and urban cultures, respectively, in ways that later benefited them. Research results in Hennessy's case prompted one marketing executive to declare that the “brand vision was not necessarily ours, but this does not make it any less valid. The brand belongs as much to its consumers as to its managers…. We must listen without prejudice” (Florès and Whiting 2005). Listening with that kind of openness allows companies to develop targeting strategies that are culturally relevant and respectful. Acting on them requires boldness and a commitment to making decisions that move business forward, instead of maintaining the status quo.
• Develop segmentations based on conversations and context. Look into the words or phrases people use, where they use them, and the meanings they give them. Take business, cultural, and media contexts into account when creating conversation-based targets—something we saw in the broadband, Hennessy, and CNN examples. Determine whether conversations separate into two or more groups that require their own targeting ideas, as the broadband example showed. Evaluate the relative strength of conversation-based targeting compared to targeting currently used for a product or service, and go with the strongest one. Hennessy and Suzuki did this, and greatly enhanced their businesses.

Summary

Listening-based targeting provides a new and complementary approach to more conventional targeting methods. Analyzing conversations and the contexts in which they occur leads to insights for targeting and segmentation strategies that mirror customer and prospect interests. Remember to be inclusive when developing targeting strategies, and capture the diversity of voices interested in categories, companies, products, or services. Consider integrating listening-based targeting with conventional targeting approaches to achieve business objectives.