In sites consulting conversation mapping

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Dennis Claus | Director Brands & Conversations

[email protected]

T 32 477 60 17 90

Steven Van Belleghem, Managing partner

[email protected]

Gaining insight in brand fans & conversations

Conversation Mapping

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Answering the real ultimate questionWhat is the strategic role of online & offline conversations for my brand and how can I manage them better?

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Conversation mapping.The starting point

To become a real…A conversation mapping is the starting

point.

The philosophy of the conversation manager

The Conversation Manager has a fresh perspective on how brands operate successfully in cooperation with today's consumer. Conversing with consumers is the key. Listening to and conversing with consumers is a necessary talent to retrain as a Conversation Manager.

Conversation Mapping at the start

The first step towards becoming a Conversation Manager is observing – listening to what is being said online and offline about your brand and your competitors. Conversation Mapping uses a validated online survey to investigate who is talking about what through which channels (online & offline), how often, for what reasons & with what impact? These insights allow marketers to set a first step towards the strategic implementation of conversation management within their company or organization.

Answering the real ultimate question

There is more to conversations than the intention to recommend a certain product or service. To successfully leverage the word-of-mouth that surrounds your brand, you need to understand the strategic role of online and offline conversations within your category. By using an actionable Conversation Mapping framework, this research solution offers exactly this information. When do you need Conversation Mapping?

When you want to manage conversations strategically

When your brand is receiving bad word-of-mouth

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Conversation mapping.Take concrete action

In-depth conversation insights…That facilitate concrete actions.

Digital profile

The Conversation Mapping survey includes a number of key questions on the online behaviour of your target group: which social networks are they using? Do they express their brand fanship through social media? Everything you need to know to know how to reach out to your target group through Twitter, Facebook and other online channels.

Social media

strategy

Brand fans & haters

Choose the right content

Define objectives & KPI’s

Brand profile

We use profile your target group in terms of Net Promoter Score and Self-Brand Identification, key indicators of the extent to which you are connected to your target group. This information allows you to identify your brand fans & haters and discover unused social potential in the market: people who love you, but don’t recommend you.

Conversations today

Participants in a Conversation Mapping survey are not only asked to share their general word-of-mouth regarding a brand or company. We use a smart conversation report module that investigates the most recent conversations that consumers had.

Conversations tomorrow

The surveys allows you to get a first evaluation of any ideas you might already have to improve your conversation management. And if you don’t have any ideas, we are happy to inspire you!

Because it allows you to identify your brand fans

Because it measures the real impact of conversations

Because it tells you which efforts are driving conversations

Why you need Conversation Mapping?

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Output exampleDigital profile

F = If member on discussion board, forum or community

TOP 2 %

Clients

3% 2%

2% 1%

5% 10%

4% 3%

Q : How often do you engage in the following Internet activities in relation to insurances?

F = If member on social network

40%

19%

12%

11%

11%

6%

7%

6%

4%

4%

40%

36%

25%

21%

17%

17%

15%

16%

11%

8%

16%

34%

26%

24%

14%

32%

19%

40%

20%

17%

9%

15%

12%

8%

17%

13%

26%

16%

15%

9%

9%

9%

12%

13%

8%

16%

16%

13%

23%

41%

17%

33%

4%

33%

40%

Searching information

Finding information on products/services/brands

Reading messages on a forum/discussion board

Checking profiles or status on social networks

Using apps on my smartphone

Watching movies, videos or TV series online

Online gaming

Using route planners

Listening to podcasts

Watching vodcasts

Very often, e.g. several times a day Regularly, e.g. daily

Now and then, e.g. weekly Rarely, e.g. monthly

Hardly ever, e.g. a couple of times a year or less often Never

3%

4%

3%

4%

4%

4%

5%

4%

7%

12%

14%

12%

14%

79%

77%

75%

70%

Purchasing insurancesonline

Writing reviews

Adding messages to aforum

Sharing links, videos, etc.

Around 1 out of 5 purchases insurances online and/or writes reviews about insurances online, making digital channels essential from beginning to end in

the purchase process.Especially consumers going through a housing change (e.g. buying or moving) engage in these activities.

Digital profile Social media strategyFind out why your target group is using social media and decide based on the facts what these digital channels can do for your brand.

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Output exampleBrand fans

Q: How likely are you to recommend the following brands to family, friends or colleagues?

Q: To what extent does each of these brands fit with your personality?

33%

18%

12%

38%

32%

32%

8%

28%

21%

32%

13%

34%

26%

19%

18%

37%Compared to competing brands, Brand 1 performs well in turning fans into true promoters. However, the brand still has

16% of it’s users that could be turned into true promoters.

12% 29%

16%42%

Self-Brand Identification

Ne

t P

rom

oto

r S

co

re

10%9%

11%10%

1.81

1.37

0.66

1.00

1.83

Brand 2

Brand 3

Brand 4

Brand 5

Brand 1

True promoters recommend the brand heavily among their peers. These are the real ambassadors of the brand.

Unexpected fans do not identify themselves with the brand, but will recommend it to others anyhow. The size of this segment reflects brand equity.

Silent lovers see a big overlap between what a brand stands for and their own personality. They do not share this with peers though. It’s key to awake these sleeping brand lovers.

Non Believers do not belong to the target group of the brand. They do not identify themselves with the brand, and consequently do not recommened it as well.

Brand profile Brand fans & hatersIdentify your brand fans & haters and learn how you can reach them. Identify the unused social potential in your target group and assess how you can activate it.

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Output exampleConversations today

37%

30%

29%

28%

28%

28%

26%

24%

22%

22%

21%

21%

20%

20%

19%

19%

19%

18%

18%

16%

16%

15%

15%

14%

13%

13%

11%

10%

10%

10%

Price

Wear

Mileage

Safety

Grip

Good personal experience

Winter performance

Wet braking

Features

Good place to buy/fit the brand

Weather conditions

Special offers (in store promotions)

Rolling resistance

Dry braking

Fuel efficiency

Aqua planning

Driving feedback

Handling

Professional recommendations

Innovation (new product)

Noise

Racing

Bad personal experience

Original equipment fitting

Environment

Advertising

TV programme

Events organized by the brand

Sponsorship/associations

Video (Internet)

Q : What was the conversation exactly about? Please indicate which topics were discussed with regard to each brand that was included in the conversation.

Conversations today Choose the right contentWhat are consumers talking about when it comes to your product or brand? Conversation Mapping show you in detail how your word-of-mouth sounds like today.

37%

30%

29%

28%

28%

28%

26%

24%

22%

22%

21%

21%

20%

20%

19%

19%

19%

18%

18%

16%

16%

15%

15%

14%

13%

13%

11%

10%

10%

10%

Price

Wear

Mileage

Safety

Grip

Good personal experience

Winter performance

Wet braking

Features

Good place to buy/fit the brand

Weather conditions

Special offers (in store promotions)

Rolling resistance

Dry braking

Fuel efficiency

Aqua planning

Driving feedback

Handling

Professional recommendations

Innovation (new product)

Noise

Racing

Bad personal experience

Original equipment fitting

Environment

Advertising

TV programme

Events organized by the brand

Sponsorship/associations

Video (Internet)

Conversation topics

Tone-of-voice per brand

44%

40%

38%

32%

29%

27%

27%

23%

23%

21%

20%

15%

14%

13%

11%

10%

5%

19%

26%

36%

23%

26%

50%

29%

16%

24%

20%

25%

27%

32%

17%

28%

44%

47%

57%

38%

35%

25%

45%

45%

23%

44%

61%

54%

59%

56%

59%

54%

70%

61%

46%

48%

44%

Rabobank

Generali

Mercator

Touring Verzekeringen

DVV

Deutsche Bank

Argenta

Hamburg-Mannheimer

BNP Paribas Fortis

AG Insurance

Axa

Dexia

KBC

ING

Bank van de Post

Ethias

Citibank

Corona Direct

Positive Neutral Negative

-40%

-57%

-50%

-36%

-43%

-44%Net

Em

oti

on

Sco

reBrand 1

Brand 2

Brand 3

Brand 4

Brand 5

Brand 6

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The Conversation Mapping FrameworkPlot product & service categories, brands & conversation topics & consumer to understand how conversations are driving your business and to define objectives for your conversation management.

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The ultimate outputConversation Mapping

Positive conversations with a high rate of opinion change, the ultimate position to be in when it comes to using activation as a

source of influence. Consumers love you and – more importantly – spread the love.

Negative conversations with a high rate of opinion change, the conversation nightmare. This is where you don’t want to get

stuck. Obviously.

BalladBashing

BondingBarking

Positive conversations with a high rate of opinion change, the ultimate position to be in when it comes to using activation as a source of influence. Consumers love you and – more importantly – spread the love.

Negative conversations with a high rate of opinion change, the conversation nightmare. This is where you don’t want to get stuck. Obviously.

Positive conversations with a low rate of opinion change, which create bonding between brand lovers through confirmation of the love. But these conversations are no good for acquisition.

Negative conversations with a low rate of opinion change, a position where the barking dogs do not bite.

+++---Tone of voice

Hig

hL

ow

Change

Conversations Mapping Develop a conversation strategyKnow what conversations are doing for your brand right now, what would be a realistic objective and which content can increase positive and impactful conversations.

Three dimensions, four strategic positions

The Conversation Mapping framework combines three conversation characteristics in one overview. The conversations that we plot in this framework can be about product or service categories, about brands or about specific topics.

Tone of voice: Are consumers currently talking positively or negatively about certain brands? How will they discuss a new product?

Change: To what extent are conversations currently changing consumer awareness, trial & recurrent buying?

Bubble size: The number of conversations in which a brand or category was mentioned.

By using this framework, it becomes possible to know what conversations are doing for your brand right now, what would be a realistic objective to set within your category and which content you should develop to increase the number of positive and impactful conversations.

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The ultimate outputMore on Barking, Bashing, Bonding & Ballads

The dark side: Barking & Bashing

Obviously, you want conversations about your brand to be positive. However, things don’t always go as planned. But in a way, the good news is that not all barking dogs bite. Take Coca-Cola for example. When we tracked conversations about Coke Zero a couple of years ago, it turned out that although the tone-of-voice was more negative than the buzz around more established soft drink brands, consumers did not necessarily change their opinion because of that. A closer look at the content of these conversations revealed why this was the case: consumers were talking about the most subjective thing of all – taste. Some loved it, some hated it and in fact, few of them had the ambition to actually change each other’s minds. If the question is: “what is word-of-mouth exactly doing for my brand?”, then having your brand exposed to barking conversations means that these are not changing opinions, but are mainly raising awareness.

Although soft drinks (and everyday food products) are often stuck in the bashing position, things can turn into impactful bashing if objective arguments are blended into the conversations. When The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a complaint against Coca Cola because they believe that “the excessive quantity of sugar present in the drink may in fact offset any health benefits”, discussions about Vitamin Water were no longer about taste. From that point onwards, the conversations were about facts. Consequently, the impact increased and word-of-mouth did exactly what a lot of marketers fear the most: cornering the brand

The bright side: Bonding & Ballads

Contrary to common belief, the majority of conversations are positive about brands. In fact, only around 5% is extremely negative. But even if your brand receives nothing but praise from consumers, this does not necessarily mean that you can expect word-of-mouth to automatically grow your business. If you don’t play your cards right, the role of conversations could as well be limited to sustaining your current fanbase.

When investigating the game console category after Nintendo released it’s Wii console, we noticed that although Playstation and Xbox received predominantly positive buzz, these conversations seldomly led to a change of hearth among the consumers involved in the talks. The newly launched Wii however did not just enjoy good vibes, but really reaped the benefits of impactful conversations. A closer look at the conversations reported by consumers, provided a clear explanation for the difference within this category. Apparently, Playstation and Xbox mainly had their existing fans bonding with eachother. Yes, they were positive about the brand of their preference, but they simply did not bother to become evangelists instead of just fans. With the new controller, the Wii console provided the perfect conversation starter for their lovers to take the conversation out of the inner circle and into their broader social network of non-gamers. True ballads for a radical innovation, that gave the brand the sales lead over competition.

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BalladBashing

BondingBarking

The ultimate outputExample with product & service categories

+++---Tone of voice

Hig

hL

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ChangeExample

CarsPortable game consoles

MagazinesSoft drinks

Liquors

Sports clothing&shoes

Radio channels

Game consoles

Computers & laptops

Mobile phones

Mp3 players

Games

Telecom

Product & service categories in the frameworkUnderstanding the role that online and offline conversations are playing in your sector will allow you to set realistic and relevant objectives for your brand. For example, if you are working for a soft drink, it is very ambitious – and maybe even unrealistic – to define your objective as making all brand conversations positive.

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BalladBashing

BondingBarking

The ultimate outputExample with brands in one category

+++---Tone of voice

Hig

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ChangeExample

Coca colaPepsi

FantaSpa

Sprite

Chaudfontaine

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

-40% -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Make sure that people can talk directly to you. Nothing makes a basher bash more than not being able to tell it to your face.

Go beyond the ballads, into keynotes. Use your brand fans to answer questions from other consumers and further increase impact.

Allow yourself a hype. If awareness and trial are the main objective, frequency of conversations becomes more important.

Involve your fans in the brand. Initiate co-creation processes (e.g. through communities) and let them to shape new products.

Brands in the frameworkKnowing what conversations are doing for your brand today gives a clear direction for the next steps in your conversation management. It is clear that Chaudfontaine in this case will have to focus on turning the negative conversations around, while the challenge for Sprite is to increase the number of conversations in the first place.

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Time to start the change!InSites Consulting conducted Conversation Mapping projects for several leading brands* on an international scale. If you are looking to take your conversation management forward, don’t hesitate to get in touch for more information.

*Some of our references – case study on the next slide

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Click here to

read the full

story!

http://www.theconversationmanager.com/2011/06/14/how-diageos-digital-strategy-came-to-life/

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T +32 9 269 15 02M +32 477 601 790E [email protected] http://connectwith.insites.eu/dennisclaus

Ghent I Rotterdam I London

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