How to Listen and Talk With the Groundswell

Whether it's the fantastic new Mexican restaurant up the street where "you've gotta try the homemade guac", or the new sneakers you bought that are "cute but really weirdly narrow in the toe",  we all have opinions that we want to share with the rest of the world. When making a decision, most of us trust the opinions of our peers, and those opinions can have a large impact on the success of any brand. Like Ricardo Guimarães says, "brands belong to customers, not companies" (Li & Bernoff, 78). Since there is so much useful feedback generated by the consumers of any given product, it is advantageous for companies to gather those opinions, compliments, and criticisms so they may cater to the needs of their customers. 

There are several ways that companies can gather that data: purchase data from marketing research firms like Nielsen or IMS Health, gather info through surveys via mail, phone, or internet, or conduct focus groups (Li & Bernoff, 79). The one flaw in this strategy is statistical response bias—you will only get responses from the people who are willing to talk. 

Another, more unique way that companies can gather insight on how well their operation is running is by recruiting someone to go undercover. Confidential Consumer is a company that recruits "secret shoppers" to play the role of customer and then report their experiences back to the business they have interacted with. This works especially well for hospitality & customer services brands, where interpersonal interactions are a significant part of a customer's experience.

(Fig. 1 — example of data presented by Confidential Consumer)

Another perk of listening to your clientele through the groundswell is that if/when a PR crisis occurs, you are much more equipped to do damage control if you can get ahead of the gossip, rumors, and negative chatter by making a public statement. Since word travels fast on the internet, a few hours can make all the difference. Companies generally manage scandals like these by recalling a flawed product, providing compensation for affected customers, or offering discounts & coupons to encourage people to give them another try. Trust is a key part of the consumer/brand dynamic, and it's crucial to avoid anything that will negatively impact that trust. 

Once something is set free in the groundswell, there is no getting it back; the general public now has the power to decide how successful it will be. For brands like Blendtec—who put an iPhone in a blender just to demonstrate just how powerful their product was—viral videos are a great (and cheap!) way to let consumers do the advertising for you (Li & Bernoff, 100). Since buying airtime for commercials can be quite expensive, many companies have turned to YouTube or other video-streaming platforms to create low-budget, entertaining advertisements that can be shared in just one click. 

This 30-second video produced by Kmart uses raunchy humor (which may have been too much for live television but is fair game for the internet) to advertise the company's free shipping policy for anything you can't find in-store. It may be a bit silly, but it works—my dad laughed at this commercial for weeks after he saw it on his Facebook timeline. And that's the beauty of it! In one click, you can share the link with a hundred friends and the company's marketing team is off the hook because their consumers do the work for them.

Another way to stay in touch with customers is by having an active social media presence. Handing the Instagram and Twitter login info to a young person on your marketing team is probably one of the best things you can do, because creating an online persona for your brand makes them much more approachable. Denny's is one great example of this: 

Although debatably crazy, the social media team at Denny's Diner has certainly gotten people talking; now it's their turn to listen.