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Why Is Listening Important?. Kristin Bush P&G Consumer & Market Knowledge Global Communication & Digital Research Leader May 2009. The Human Element. The Company’s DNA has been shaped by its relationships with consumers virtually from P&G’s founding
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Why Is Listening Important? Kristin Bush P&G Consumer & Market Knowledge Global Communication & Digital Research Leader May 2009
The Human Element • The Company’s DNA has been shaped by its relationships with consumers virtually from P&G’s founding • “Consumer is Boss” has been the key factor behind the Company’s growth • Relationships with consumers built trust in our brands
CONSUMER IS BOSS
The Present Focus of Research EVALUATION STRENGHTEN INITIATIVES FOR DEPLOYMENT RESOURCES REQUIRED LISTEN/LEARN/ CO-CREATE LISTEN, SENSE & RESPOND CONSUMER INTERACTIONS
We’re Missing the Big Opportunity • Why have we moved away from the basic concept of listening? • We lost focus on the key stakeholder • Wall Street’s expectations took over • Bring back the human element: • Focus more on Co-creation and Sense and respond • Listen on their time on their ‘turf’ and in ways that they want to communicate • Re-establish trust and confidence with consumers
What is Listening? From the American Heritage Dictionary: “To make an effort to hear something” “To pay attention; heed”
What is “Listening”? Listening n Observing and interpreting naturally-occurring behaviors to understand consumer attitudes, lifestyles, and needs
Why Is Listening Important • Underutilized source of ‘real’ consumer behavior and attitudes. • Consumers in reality often do things differently than what they say they do. • Competitive advantage to drive outstanding tacit consumer insights, monitoring brand buzz and truly become a ‘listening’ company.
Unleash the power of digital Digital will transform the way…. • We listen to our consumers and uncover insights • Conduct market research and measure data • We do business through new ways consumers will shop and buy our products online Social Media is a key source of insight and engagement with our consumers
Definition of Social Media A working definition Social Media facilitates interaction between people. It describes the online tools that people use to share content, profiles, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself. These tools include blogs, message boards, podcasts, micro blogs, lifestreams, bookmarks, networks, communities, wikis, ratings, reviews, pictures, videos, etc. (adapted from Brian Solis -PR 2.0 )
Caring Bridge Support & connection
Pantene Beautiful Lengths
OK, so where’s the manual? Umm – there isn’t one … http://www.flickr.com/photos/98469445@N00/299313394/
A Useful FRAMEWORK • Objectives for using Social Media • Listening • Learn from online conversations • Talking • Participate in online conversations • Energizing • Create Brand ambassadors • Supporting • Help consumers support each other • Embracing • Involve consumers in Innovation • (Forrester Research)
Why do we care? “When consumers are talking we need to be listening” • What are our consumers doing with social media today? • What are they saying? • What insights can we glean from the conversation? • How can we interact and help facilitate the conversation with consumers? • What is the right way to engage? • What will consumers be receptive to?
Challenges & Opportunities How does Social Media and digital impact our world? http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntikhaki/200757272/
We still do research in much the same way we did 60 years ago! Evolution of Consumer Research Phone Surveys Door-to-Door Online Intercepts
1 Digital: Extends Our Core Fundamentals Digital translates, enables, and extends the historic P&G consumer fundamentals Making It Simple: Think Digitally Enabled Fundamentals (DEF) 6
2 Unstructured Emails, Fax, Voice/phone, Snail-mail YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, Boards, Forums, Ratings & Review Sites Direct Indirect Page Views Site Metrics Online sales, Offline sales Focus groups, Surveys, Polls, Comment Cards (Semi) Structured Digital: Unveils the Ultimate “Consumer Listener” Making It Simple: The Unprompted Voice is the New Kid on the Block! 18
How is P&G Listening today? • What we are doing well…. • Communities (Home Made Simple, PetSide, Pampers Village, etc.) • Olay for you- Custom Beauty Consultations • Social Media Lab • Community Manager Pilots (Iams, Pampers) • PR brand monitoring (PR agency lead) • Product ratings and reviews • Etc…… • What we need to do better…. • More systematic approach to listening • Integrate Consumer Relations more proactively • Listen without boundaries • Integrate into our DNA and business systems
Potential Role of Market Research • Developing listening and observational protocols to help brands extract value from unprompted conversation • Developing frameworks for concept development and new idea generation based on the analysis, especially around line extensions • Developing protocols for deeper dive analysis around surface or high level insights – e.g. more qualitative review of commentary
The Ideal Future Focus EVALUATION EVALUATION STRENGHTEN INITIATIVES FOR DEPLOYMENT STRENGTHEN INITIATIVES FOR DEPLOYMENT FUTURE RESOURCES REQUIRED RESOURCES REQUIRED INNOVATE/ CO-CREATE EVALUATION SENSE & RESPOND INNOVATE/ CO-CREATE CONSUMER INTERACTIONS
People are talking about Fabric Care everywhere The consumer
Currently key topics are not surprising Stain & Smell Solutions Value & Cost Skin Sensitivities Eco & Ingredient Concerns
So what did we do? • Used Listening to ask better questions • Social Media, blogs to inform content and language • Talk to consumer relations … transcripts of calls, e-mails • Used Listening to provide richer answers • Overlay Listening to dimensionalize findings from other research • Organized a consumer “tour” for the category team • Online twitter feeds of category-relevant consumer conversation • Create a shared consumer experience • Joined the conversation!- Fabric Care Consumer Council, Get Satisfaction
CONSUMER-COUNCILFabric Care’s On-Line Consumer Community A community that is a “living and breathing” source of inspiration for the category, by providing a capability for gathering consumer insights, in addition to providing fast & inexpensive research opportunities. Capabilities: • Discussion Board • Surveys/Polls • Blogging • Live Chat Sessions
What should you do? • Carefully review your ‘IN TOUCH’ approaches • Do you offer a balance of ‘listening’ and ‘asking’ techniques? • Do you offer easy ways for brands to stay in touch and listen to consumers daily? • What can you offer us to leverage online communities? • What do you offer in the consumers ‘turf’?
So what? “Without transforming our capabilities into approaches that are more IN TOUCH with the lifestyles of the consumers we seek to understand, the consumer-research industry as we know it today will be on life support by 2012” Kim Dedeker, Former VP-Global CMK, Procter & Gamble
So Why Is Listening Important? Consumers reward brands that value their opinion and engage in active listening