Online Reputation Management (ORM) is still a new field in market research. However, given its relatively low cost, the immediacy of the data and the absence of interviewer bias, it’s fast becoming a sensible option for businesses where a level of fly on the wall research is critical.
The good news is that most businesses are doing some form of research and reporting on their performance in the market now, with many using the Internet for its near-immediate results. The bad news is that most companies are using a low-tech solution such as Google or Bing Search to determine what their consumers are up to. Truth be told, this is exactly where BrandsEye started – we began as a business which simply found mentions online. That was 6 years ago and our service (along with the market needs) has changed dramatically.
Historically, the market has been full of “one sock fits all” methodologies where all tools look to provide turn-key services to every business. Today this strategy is proving less effective and many providers are changing their focus.
Consequently, ORM tools and services are beginning to diversify and niche within this vast field and are focusing on one of three sub-specialities:
- Social CRM
Focussed on linking individual comments/mentions by a user into a sequence of interactions with the brand, Social CRM (Customer Relationship Management) allows a brand to understand how a consumer sees them and empowers the brand to build a rich profile of that specific user. In most cases a Social CRM service looks to give the brand the power to engage directly with consumers – typically in a limited number of spaces. CoTweet is a very successful example of this. Focussing on Twitter (and often Facebook too), services like this are readily integrated with a sales management solution such as SalesForce. The idea here is that quickly resolving consumers’ issues in Social Media results in the improved reputation and success of the business. Dell has demonstrated this by achieving $3million in sales through their Twitter accounts alone.
- Marketing measurement
A constant struggle for marketers, communication professionals and brand managers is the difficulty of accurately measuring the success of marketing activities. The famous quote by John Wanamaker, “I know that half of my advertising dollars are wasted… I just don’t know which half” speaks exactly to this ongoing issue. Online Reputation Management services tackle the challenge by applying the digital approach of “try – learn – evolve – try…” - a closed loop that’s possible thanks to the trackable nature of the Internet. This approach is also being applied to other areas of business – with increasing success - as the right questions are formulated and the best insights from the data are discovered. The idea in principal is quite simple: spend your marketing dollar when you have already achieved marked success, while spotting new opportunities to expand the set of possible things which may work. Businesses which are successful at managing this process are able to mechanise their marketing/communications/brand processes to provide some very robust models for calculating Return on Investment and margins.
- Strategic Insight
The route which I foresee becoming the single most successful application of this software is the pure brand approach to Online Reputation Management (we call it Passive ORM). This involves a business observing the conversation taking place and steadily moulding their strategy (not specifically on what consumers ask for) but rather to the insights gained from what the collective believe.
As these three models perform very different functions to business, very few ORM tools provide all three. This is likely because it requires the development of three divergent paths simultaneously which is both costly and can obscure the business focus.
I believe consumers are increasingly responding poorly to brands. The reality is that, as with society in general, it takes a small minority to ruin it for everybody. The same is true of brands and far too many businesses are placing huge expectations on their online “community”, without providing much in the way of exchange. The consequences are consumers who lock businesses out. In terms of the models above, this means that Social CRM may have a very short life. It also means that as consumers become more cynical of marketing messaging online, marketing’s role and impact will also decrease. The result is a space where businesses have zero control over the public touchpoints of their own brand and are left scrambling to produce outcomes (that bow to consumers’ demands without any room for negotiation).
This is the sweetspot in which BrandsEye looks most set to play. While our tool provides all three of the specialisations, its primary focus in real-time business insight, supported by Social CRM and marketing measurement functions. I am fully confident that BrandsEye can be a secret weapon in the arsenal of the business who will apply an up-to-date knowledge of their markets to outperform the rest.
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This is a vital new field and will serve to add another arrow in the quiver of 360 degrees marketing. As online overtakes print, companies reputations are at stake and in the hands of their consumers who can quickly trash a brand if it does not live up to its promise.
I will certainly be offering this service to my clients as part of the PR, online communications strategy which fits in with the marketing strategy and total business strategy. Full Impact marketing requires ORM to create a positive image of any business.
Posted by Will Gubb on 2011/02/09