Social Media: A Compass for Competitive Intelligence

by Nishchay Mathur

16 Competitive Intelligence Volume 21 • Number 1 • Winter 2018 www.scip.org 17 Social Media: A Compass for Competitive Intelligence Social Media: A Compass for Competitive Intelligence

Over 50 years ago, E. Jerome McCarthy proposed Identifying the right influencers to invest in is crucial to To identify the right influencers for your business, you target audience may not engage deeply on regular 4Ps of the marketing mix—Product, Price, Place and the success of this form of marketing. According to one need to determine your target audience, the most channels such as , YouTube, etc., and be more Promotion. Over the years with the arrival of the survey, 38% of marketers were unable to tell whether engaging platforms for this audience, and the most active on a niche/local channel depending on domain internet and mobile devices, social media has become the influencer activity they had invested in had actually prominent influencers on these platforms. Influencers can or market. The most relevant example of Channel an integral part of our daily life, creating a colossal driven any sales.3 be broadly categorized into two major categories on the Specific Influencers can be found in the gaming world. shift in the marketing paradigm. A 5th P — People — basis of target audience – Domain Specific Influencers Ardent gamers are more likely to trust and engage with was added to the 4Ps, and is now taking center stage Influencer marketing has often been perceived as brands and Channel Specific Influencers. influencers on gaming forums rather than common social in decisions related to marketing. More Ps such as making pricy deals with mega-influencers who have a media networks. Even after selecting a fitting Domain Process and Physical Evidence have since been added, high number of followers to reach the widest possible • Domain Specific Influencers Specific Influencers, you may miss out on a profitable but there’s less consensus on what the 6th and 7th Ps audience. But a large social media following doesn’t Domain Specific Influencers have a high number of chunk of your target audience simply because their trust represent. necessarily equal higher engagement rate. Also, not followers due to their expertise in a specific domain. lies in different channels. every brand can afford premium influencers. The secret These influencers have a niche following and high- The 5th P of the Marketing Mix, with its focus on People, to success then is to target the right micro influencers who impact engagement due to their knowledge and respect Other than a target audience, factors such as brand represents the emotions, beliefs, and mindset of a have higher quality than quantity of engagement. among the target audience. They generally command image, budget, business requirement, and most customer during and post purchase decision. Much has prominence across all channels of communication importantly, the geodemographic of the target audience, been discussed about how online user engagements can To get ahead of competition in the present scenario, it including social media platforms like Facebook, , also matter significantly while narrowing down suitable be monetized and leveraged through various forms of is important for you as a brand to not only determine Instagram as well as magazines, talk shows, radio, so on. influencers. social media marketing, but marketers invariably still domain specific and channel specific influencers to struggle to derive customer experience value and a maximize ROI, but also keep an eye on competitors’ • Channel Specific Influencers clear return on investment (ROI) from them. influencers to plan your next move. Channel Specific Influencers have a stronghold ona Sentiment Analysis particular channel of communication. Sometimes the So is there a code to crack the People factor in the digital age? The answer lies somewhere in a mix of The process of determining whether a piece of writing Social Media and Digital Analytics capabilities and the is positive, negative, or neutral is Sentiment Analysis. It ability of marketers to use them smartly. Here are four is typically used in conjunction with other methods of prominent ways to use Social Media data for competitive analysis to get a holistic view of brand perception. business advantage. Traditionally, the use of sentiment analysis has been Influencer Marketing limited to determining the tone of customer opinion about the brand. This is a valuable, but limited, metric for understanding customer perception. A huge opportunity In a 2015 report by Augure, it was found that nearly often missed by businesses is tracking and sentiment 84% of the brands surveyed had allocated part of their analysis of consumer conversations on competitors’ marketing budget to influencer marketing and 69% of products and services. those questioned stated that their influencer engagement was effective or got results.1 A 2016 study by You can use sentiment analysis to monitor and measure Nielsen Catalina Solutions with TapInfluence revealed your competitors’ perception on social media through: that influencer marketing generates 11 times the ROI of traditional digital marketing. Another study by • Positive Mentions TapInfluence determined that nearly 75% of active Positive mentions of your competitors can help determine influencers feel that influencer marketing works best what works well for your target segment. You can use among the many ways of collaborating with brands.2 this information to enhance your offerings.

Influencer Marketing is a form of marketing where • Negative Mentions marketers focus on influential people within the target Negative mentions of competitors can help you market rather than the entire audience. Marketing determine causes of discontent among consumers and activities are planned around these people who can prepare an “avoid-list”. Additionally, negative mentions then influence potential buyers. of your competitors give you an opportunity to convert their detractors into your customers.

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Businesses can also monitor the impact of competitor • Seller Analytics campaigns and craft your own. A lot can be learned References: about your target audience behavior by understanding marketing campaigns, announcements, and events on It is important to continually track and manage your their reaction to existing competitor campaigns. Use their overall reputation and take cues from it. This not brand’s retailers. Identifying your best vendor and 1. Arnaud, “The State Of Influencer Engagement In this information to serve up all the right ingredients in only enables you to stay ahead of competition but also understanding how they are promoting and selling your 2015.” Launch Metrics. Jun 18, 2015. https://www. your next campaign, and avoid wasteful or counter- gives a heads-up on possible crises already faced by brand helps you offer the right level of support to that launchmetrics.com/resources/blog/state-influencer- productive spending. your competitors. vendor and share best practices with other vendors. engagement Further, gaining insight into your sellers’ relationship with • Discover the right entry points competing brands can help you rework your strategy 2. Cole, Joseph. “4 Stats that Prove Influencer Marketing Usually brands suffer asymmetrical popularity across Rating and Review Analysis in a way that you get more of the vendor’s attention. is Worth the Investment.” Business 2 Community. social media channels. A brand may have a huge Understanding your sellers’ relationship with competing June 3, 2017. https://www.business2community. following on Facebook, but may be lagging behind on brands can also aid seller selection on the basis of their com/marketing/4-stats-prove-influencer-marketing- twitter, even after mirroring campaigns across social Rating and Review Analysis is typically used to determine performance with competitors. worth-investment-01853058#vifvBdVzAl7gOxCX.97 whether a company’s own product or service is perceived media channels. Doing a careful analysis of the social as good or bad. The promising new development in • Insights Generation media presence of your competitors can help you 3. Rogers, Charlotte. “What’s the ROI of influencer discover the weakest point in their fortress and leverage this approach is to use it in conjunction with competitive Customer reviews about a product can provide crucial marketing?” Marketing Week. Aug 30, 2017. https:// this information to introduce new campaigns on platforms intelligence. Three major aspects of competitive Rating data about gaps in your business offering. Negative www.marketingweek.com/2017/08/30/roi-look-like- where your competitors’ presence is weak. and Review Analysis are: reviews highlight the aspects your customers would world-influencer-marketing/ like improved, helping you enhance and modify your The exabytes of conversation on public forums and social • Cross Channel Analytics product to suit their requirements. Positive reviews can 4. Kemp, Simon. “DIGITAL IN 2017: GLOBAL networks are a window to your competitive landscape, Analyzing reviews across multiple platforms can help help identify your strengths, which you can then highlight OVERVIEW.” We Are Social. January 24, 2017. providing visibility into everything from perception understand which channel is performing well and through marketing campaigns. Conveying the strengths https://wearesocial.com/special-reports/digital-in- about your competitors’ products to emerging consumer which isn’t. It is often observed that the same product is popular among existing customers can help you attract 2017-global-overview trends relevant to your industry. rated very differently across different sales channels. new customers more easily. Performing Rating and Review Analysis to determine the ABOUT THE AUTHOR The People aspect of the marketing mix can create reason for this difference across channels not only helps Reviews and ratings can in general be leveraged Nishchay Mathur, Product strong competitive efficiencies for business and has yet understand what puts your customers off, but also helps to understand your SWOT and improve product head, Minerva - Blueocean to be explored to its true potential. With 2.56 billion divert your inventory from a loss-making to a profitable gaps. Similar analysis done on competitor data helps . global mobile social media users in 2017, equaling seller. generate additional insights about assortment gaps and Nishchay is a Certified Pricing 34% penetration, understanding and leveraging the opportunities to introduce new products. Professional (CPP) and has 15 By running channel analytics on competitor data, you can power of people has become more important than ever years of experience. His key 4 learn from their mistakes instead of making your own. before. strengths include competitive Discover what categories of products are popular on Social Media Analytics pricing & analytics, strategy consulting & transformation, These billions of users can be segmented into multiple different sales channels and make your sales decisions client engagement & account , profitability demographics on the basis of age, gender, and by benchmarking product offerings to competitor brands management, delivery & transitions management. Apart geodemographic. But the key factor in understanding across channels. Social media analytics has been used to analyze social from this, he is Six Sigma Green belt certified, Lean the People dimension of competitive intelligence media platforms in order to understand the performance Practitioner. is Geodemographic, as it greatly influences of deployed campaigns and curate a better marketing He manages Minerva, Digital competitive intelligence consumer behavior. Consumption behavior and user strategy. Every company running social media campaigns platform at Blueocean. This includes psychographics differ from market to market, culture analyzes the data flowing through it. This social media to tactical activities around product development & to culture, and sometimes vary within the same market data can be used for a lot more than simply keeping delivery, GTM & Sales, Product P&L. due to multi-ethnicity. Language and tradition play a track of your Facebook or Twitter followers. You can also Prior to joining Blueocean, Nishchay worked as a huge role in shaping user perceptions, and therefore, track your competitor’s publically available social data. Program Manager with Dell where he managed Geodemographic must be accounted for while making eCommerce operations (Pricing, Content management, business decisions related to People. Running competitive analysis on your competitor’s social Website Quality, Reporting & Analytics) for delivery & media data can help you: across teams based in India, China, Romania The fusion of Competitive Intelligence and People & Slovakia. • Launch more successful campaigns Analytics in the right cultural context can help businesses gain a true picture of market dynamics across the By analyzing competitors’ social media campaign data, competitive landscape and use emerging insights across you can figure out what your target audience responds business functions. positively to. Draw inspiration from your competitors’

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