Identifying Consumer Problems Using Online and Social Media

Identifying Consumer Problems Using Online and Social Media

Traditional methods of discovering consumer problems have tended toward direct questioning of consumers. Today’s online environment, however, can be seen as a potential goldmine for identifying consumer problems at both the category and brand level by monitoring the “conversations” happening online.
Sometimes those conversations will be happening on a brand’s own online and social media outlets, as when a consumer tweets a company about recent product failure. Sometimes these conversations will be happening in the broader social media environment, as when bloggers discuss product failures or general needs in a specific product area. Consider the following statements from Radian6, a leader in the field of social media measurement:
Problems, needs, and wish lists from your potential customers or your competitor’s customers are being tossed out to the social web all the time. From product reviews to casual statements about what’s not working right, consumers are giving you loads of intelligence about what problems they need you to solve.
Tracking is not enough—responding to problems and concerns is a critical part of the whole package. That is, it is not enough to know, via postings on your brand’s Facebook fan page that there are problems with your newest software release. It is critical that those problems be solved in a timely and appropriate manner. Radian6’s comments are informative here as well:
[It’s] about understanding how your business solves problems for people, and then connecting with them in a meaningful, helpful way when they need you most. It’s not about a sales pitch. It’s about creating a solution for someone that they’re asking for.
Sounds simple right? Think again. Online and social media outlets (both the company’s and general) are extensive. Imagine trying to monitor all of the conversations or “chatter” happening in cyberspace at any given time and filtering that down to usable information. One study by Forrester Research notes numerous such venues including customer forums, blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. And that’s before you consider the company’s website and e-mail.
These options are a growing source of potential consumer feedback and input. The challenge is how to track, consolidate, interpret, and react to all of the online chatter. The interpretation part can be difficult particularly for non-brand specific problems. It’s easy to know when a customer is complaining that your software has a specific flaw; it’s much harder to recognize those broader consumer needs that lead to truly breakthrough innovations. Though tracking specific types of keywords can help, the interpretation process is still difficult and as yet not well understood.
Companies such as Radian6 offer proprietary solutions to help companies through these and the many challenges associated with this form of consumer problem discovery.

Critical Thinking Questions:

1. What are some advantages of online and social media tracking compared to traditional methods?


Nowadays, thanks to the dominant development of the Internet and the popularity of smart devices, the marketers now can use online and social media tracking as the most efficient way to shorten the gap with the customers and also the fastest way to figure out what is going on the users' mind when using their products or services. Here are some advantages of online and social media tracking to support marketers in identifying consumers problems:

• Saving time by responding to customers’ complaints promptly, avoiding the escalation of differences since more customers now prefer to complain to brands about poor products and services on social media than to make phone calls or send emails.

• Improving online brand image by showing that you care and you are interested in your customers.

• Gaining the feedback you need to help and develop your products and services that match your customers’ needs.

• The capability of using keywords to search for consumers’ opinions, since then finding out if consumers are negatively or positively referring to your brand, services and/or products – and for what reasons.

• Identifying a crisis on time and treating it properly before it becomes giant.

• Improving products: Companies can determine their product’s shortcomings and strengths by listening to social media conversations related to their products. Those insights can help guide future product enhancements and develop new products.

• Saving time and cost researching the market: Social media analysis for market research can supplement – or perhaps even replace – traditional market research. Traditional market research – surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews — reflects feelings of a small group of people at one point in time. The information gathered is time-constrained, selective and skewed. Social media analytics can produce data in hours or days, as opposed to weeks or months for conventional research methods. In addition, because the information gathered is unprompted, it is more likely to reveal customers’ true feelings.

2. In what ways might the viral nature of a given topic be important to marketers in assessing the importance of a given problem?

Viral marketing is basically a technique of marketing where the information about the goods and the services of the company is passed electronically via the Internet from one user to another. Viral marketing mostly attracts smaller companies or businesses because viral marketing is considered a cheaper alternative. For example, a company may promote its service and advertises' messages in e-mail notes of every user. Besides, the viral speed is one of the factors to be considered since it is really fast in this technology revolution 4.0, the marketers have to know how to control it. Whenever a problem occurs, the word-of-mouth control is very important as everyone knows, the news will spread out with high-speed. This would affect the reputation and the people may call upon to boycott that brand. That is a strength of viral that fear not only the marketers but the owners. In contrast, if there is positive news or information about the brand, the marketers try to make full use of the viral nature of that topic to connect and interact with more customers. Since then, the brand image, brand awareness, ... will be promptly improved.

3. Do you see any ethical concerns related to this approach? Explain.
In my viewpoint, the only unethical concerns related to using online and social media methods is consumers' privacy. Some businesses have tried a lot to get the data, just to support the need of the market. Unfortunately, this is sometimes done at the expense of the consumer. Some businesses collect data from users without their consent, others use it for their own personal benefits, neglecting the overall good of the consumer. 



So sad but it's true that while advances in technology have significantly improved the way we live and work, it comes with some risk of unethical activities and an invasion of privacy. I think that Consumers should be concerned about how businesses use their information, especially the giant social network Facebook, Google or Instagram. With the increase in online shopping, marketing, communication, and sharing, it will be critical that consumers stay aware of how their personal data is being used by businesses.