One of the most common questions ListenLogic gets from clients is ‘how are other companies strategically using social business intelligence?’ Given the deep experience ListenLogic has across the food and beverage, media, automotive, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals and entertainment industries, it’s understandable that leading corporations are interested in learning best practices an applications from other leading corporations – and ListenLogic serves as a hub for that knowledge.

In response to this question, we compiled a consortium of academic and professional social business intelligence experts that collaborated to write Social Business Intelligence: Reducing Risk, Building Brands & Driving Growth with Social Media (hardback, 191 pgs, Ascendigm Press, $24.95).

Today, advanced social business intelligence is delivering detailed, actionable insight on shoppers, consumers, markets, influencers, brands and competitors like never before possible. With the exponential growth of commentary across mainstream social networks and niche open-source channels, like blogs and forums, social business intelligence is now a “big data” challenge requiring massive, real-time processing capabilities and concept modeling beyond the limitations of keyword lists and data samples.

This book provides the first comprehensive business guide to unlocking and leveraging social business intelligence across the enterprise. In fact, this book serves as an executive guide exploring social business intelligence with analysis and case studies on leading brands like Apple, BMW, Disney, The Daily Show and Wisk, providing recommendations on how businesses can effectively implement an advanced social intelligence strategy to set strategy, drive innovation and make decisions.

Early reviews for the book include:

“This book is a must read for any business executive or market researcher.”

-Jerry Wind, The Lauder Professor, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

“The analysis and research in this book provides the practical hows and whys for managers to effectively leverage social business intelligence.”

-David Larcker, James Irvin Miller Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business

“…this book shows you not only case studies of how social business intelligence can move brand forward, it gives you a framework for doing it yourself.”

-Jason Falls, Founder, Social Media Explorer

We are reserving a select number of complimentary copies for qualified professionals. If you’re interested in receiving a complimentary copy to learn more about strategically implementing social business intelligence for your organization register here. If you’re interested in purchasing copies you can contact us at SBIbook@ListenLogic.com.

Stay tuned to our blog as we feature case studies and analysis from the book in coming weeks.

Rationale Behind Consumer Holiday Shopping Behaviors Understood Through Social Media

FORT WASHINGTON, PA – December 1, 2010 – Social market research and analytics company, ListenLogic, analyzed tens of thousands of public online conversations throughout the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping period to reveal how consumers think about, prepare for, and act upon Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping and how these behaviors differ.

“The numbers detailing sales figures for Black Friday and Cyber Monday are only part of the story. Actionable insights come when you investigate and understand the consumer mindset behind these purchases,” said Mark Langsfeld, ListenLogic founder and CEO. “By analyzing aggregated public online conversations in real-time, our social market research enables retailers to quickly make informed merchandising decisions throughout the holiday shopping season.”

Top Reasons ‘Why’ Consumers Shop on Black Friday

1. The tradition of shopping with friends and family (40%)
2. Inspiration of holiday music and decorations (21%)
3. Prospect of finding a great deal (18%)
4. Afraid item(s) will sell out (17%)

Top Reasons ‘Why’ Consumers Shop on Cyber Monday

1. Couldn’t resist the impulse to check out deals (39%)
2. Heard about a promotion through someone in their online social network (21%)
3. The ability to comparison shop with ease (18%)
4. Received feedback from their online social network for peace of mind (13%)

Planning and Purchasing Behaviors Differ Friday to Monday

Time spent planning purchases differed greatly between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. 22% of consumers who mentioned shopping on Black Friday noted making plans at least one week in advance, as compared to just 6% of those who mentioned shopping on Cyber Monday. Interestingly, 19% of consumers noted making purchasing plans within just 24 hours of Cyber Monday, as compared to 3% for Black Friday.

The short planning-to-purchase cycle of Cyber Monday is evidenced by the fact that 21% of consumers noted making an impulse purchase on Cyber Monday, as compared to just 6% of consumers who mentioned doing so on Black Friday. Furthermore, 18% of consumers completed their Cyber Monday shopping and then decided to shop at least once more that day, as compared to 2% of consumers who completed their Black Friday shopping.

Shopping Intent: Black Friday is for Friends and Family; Cyber Monday is for Me?

20% of consumers noted purchasing something for themselves on Cyber Monday, as opposed to only 6% who mentioned purchasing something for themselves on Black Friday.

Top Recommendations for Brick-and-Mortar Retailers

• Leverage online social networks to encourage offline social shopping
• Utilize online promotions that stress immediacy to prompt in-store purchases

“Holiday shopping is a very social behavior both online and offline. Brick and Mortar retailers should leverage online social networks, promotions that require checking-in, and immediate incentives such as timed deals via email, Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic into stores and extend their Black Friday success throughout the month of December,” states Vincent Schiavone, ListenLogic co-founder and executive chairman. “Promotions such as those that encourage sharing a deal with one’s social network and bringing a friend to the store can be used to cultivate a more social shopping experience offline.”

Research is based upon public online conversations that mentioned shopping on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday and were posted between 12:00 a.m. on Friday, November 26th and 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 28th.

Further information can be found at: www.listenlogic.com.

Media Contact:

Matt Donaruma
For ListenLogic
215-867-8600 ext. 257
mdonaruma@garfieldgroup.com

Download the PDF

Situation:

A large consumer packaged goods company wasn’t getting the sales expected on a new product line.  The client is in a highly competitive industry and wanted to understand the consumer attitudes toward the product and identify the reasons for/against purchasing.

Solution:

We used our proprietary social media intelligence methodology and analyzed all public online mentions about the product line.  Four (4) relevant themes were identified within the consumer conversations: brand reputation, cost and value, product quality, and product packaging.  We further analyzed the demographic and geographic information within the discussions to further segment and uncover rich consumer insights.

Results:

Within two (2) days, ListenLogic collected and analyzed 17,000 comments over a 30 day period.  We determined the following:

• Consumer attitudes toward the brand, reputation and value were relatively positive for all age and gender segments, no issues there
• Quality was seen as a slight issue, but not enough to explain the lack of adoption
• For female consumers, specifically 18-34 which was one of the product’s primary targets, packaging was the issue

Through social media analysis, we were able to determine that females, specifically 18-34 located in the Northeastern United States, had real issues with the packaging design and were choosing a competitor’s product.  The packaging size was too big, and during the cold stormy winter in the Northeast women didn’t want to carry the large package out to their cars from the retailer.  The competitor’s packaging was 25% smaller.

Armed with this qualitative and quantitative data, the client made a well-informed decision to quickly alter the packaging size to make it more universally acceptable, as well as create a new campaign targeting female consumers.

For more information and to see how we can help you leverage social media for consumer intelligence, please contact ListenLogic at 1-888-ROI-ON-SM or info@listenlogic.com.

Company:

Carnival Cruise Lines

Date:

March 2010

Objective:

To understand travelers’ perceptions of Carnival Cruise Lines as well as reputation issues surrounding the brand. Some specific questions to be answered include:

1. What drives decision making for particular cruise ships?
2. Is the ‘Fun Ship’ reputation turning away travelers?
3. Are ‘noisy kids’ harming the brand?
4. How is Carnival’s cancellation policy viewed?

Answers:

We used our standard methodology of mining social data on message boards, forums, blogs, microblogs, news and social networks sites using RESONATE, our monitoring technology, to extract themes, opinions, influencers, demographics and geographic segments.  Our analysts were then able to interpret the data and provide the following insights:

1. Travelers discuss multiple reasons for switching cruise lines including ship noise, doors slamming, loud public announcements, and the “partiers, drinkers, kids” on the ship.
2. Nearly 10% of Carnival consumers are attracted to their budget friendly cruises, but hesitate due to fear that it will be too much of a party atmosphere.
3. Experienced Carnival travelers indicate kids are kept very busy and are not a noisy distraction
4. Carnival’s cancellation policy is perceived very negatively. Particularly surrounding flight delays and flight cancellations due to weather.

Additional Findings:

In addition to the above insights, other interesting findings were uncovered:

• Carnival travelers favor the amount of pre-travel information that’s supplied including destination information and logistics
• Travelers find group travel easy with Carnival
• Some travelers have concern over Carnival’s food, “It can be very inconsistent”
• Many travelers had concerns over the impact of large groups on individual travelers, “I’m stuck on the Star Trek ship!”