The Conversation Manager

The theme of this year’s marketing foundation conference is ‘return on relevance’. A great topic, if you ask me. This morning, I had the opportunity to discuss the theme on Radio 1 (Peeters & Pichal).

Listen to the show:
http://internetradio.vrt.be/popups/radio1/radioplayer.html?qsbrand=11&qsODfile=/media/audio/r1pepi081110deel2

 
 Why is this topic so relevant? 

1. There is over-choice for consumers: every product has like 15 varieties, which makes it hard for consumers to make a good buying decision. Where is the time when there were only salt & paprika potato chips? Don’t you miss those days? I guess everyone still remembers the next taste variant that came to market in this market after the original two. Exactly: pickles chips. Today, we have probably more than 20 varieties in the store: impossible to deal with for a consumer.
2. There is over-information for consumers: every consumer is exposed to about 3000 commercial messages per day: woaw! As a consequence, we don’t see them anymore and impact of traditional advertising is decreasing day after day.
   

 Now, how can you deal with this? Increase the relevance for your consumer. There are a few ‘simple’ things you can do:  

1. Start listening: if you know what people talk about, you know the relevant topics to them. Gather insights from listening and translate them into relevant messages and products for your clients
2. Create a community of brands ambassadors: bring people together who are positive about your brand. Involve them in almost every decision you have to make: advertising, product launches, promotions … Their involvement increases the relevance for them. Furthermore, they will talk about this with their peers, which increases the impact for your brand
3. Join the conversation with consumers: talk to them, interact and help them with their issues. If a consumer is asking a question, the answer to that question is extremely relevant for him. Increase relevance by answering their questions, sounds easy, doesn’t it. Strange then that companies still don’t get it.
   

 Maybe you have more ideas to increase the relevance for consumers. Let us know and see how we can take this forward... 

We recently asked 500 European marketers a bunch of questions with regard to their Conversation Readiness. It's clear that we found a lot of interesting stuff (soon more news about that).

I have to say I was really shocked by one figure: 11% states that their company NEVER replies to questions consumers ask through customer service channels. If your company shows this behavior, I can only say:

1. SHAME ON YOU if you don't try to change this
2. Find yourself a new employer if your company does not want to change this.

In these social & transparent times, you won't get away with it much longer. I hope that everyone who reads this will be as shocked as I am. I would say: let's find these companies and let them feel that we don't accept this attitude towards consumers.

It is clear that social media has its impact on every aspect of a company. In my experience, many market researchers (both in market research agencies as at client side) are still underestimating the impact on this revolution for their job and department.

Marketing and market research are the two departments with the highest impact in the short run. Marketers are starting to see the picture, many market researchers are still holding on to their traditional way of thinking.

Here are 4 steps that can help them to understand their future position :

1. New methods become the new standard

There is a major opportunity for market research. For years they have been shouting: “Let us in the board room, we have interesting stuff to share”. And now, guess what? The board room is hearing things like "companies need to listen to consumers' 'listening studies become hot', ...  Well, this is your change. Embrace new methods like nethnography. Use your research skills to get more out of the observation of social media. Not claiming this territory means that other departments will. In a few years, people will start to question where your added value will be at that point. And by the way: this is coming fast and hard!

2. Become part of conversation management unit

Try to position the market research department as the ideal partner to leverage consumer relations. You should be the best person to talk to when it comes to understanding what drives positive word-of-mouth. Get involved in the conversation management program your company is thinking about. If there is no conversation management program, why not take the lead in it!

3. Need for storyteller capabilities

Researchers that can make graphs and show 100 figures on one slide aren't the most popular people in the world. So: stop doing it. Become a story teller instead. Look at your research, understand the facts and figures. Your job: translate this into an appealing story that support decision making. Your job is not longer to present facts and figures.

4. Manage conversations with participants

A new capability is managing the conversations with participants. It's my strong belief that every company should build its own client or fan community. This community is the ideal platform for the research department to get insights from. Learn how to co-create, learn how to develop insights from your fans in a community. Being the liaison between your company and your fan base, is a pretty nice position to hold in the company of the future.