Understanding consumer habits is key to brands seeking to capture consumer hearts and attention. And brands are finding that the importance of differentiating their offering for distinct segments is super important this pandemic season for precisely that reason. So, it makes sense that social media analytics has become a must have in every top brand’s toolbox.
In this post, we’ll showcase how a few brands are creating promotions for different psychographic segments and how consumer and market intelligence offers an essential assist to help them get it right, including:
- How social media monitoring can help your brand understand consumers better
- Ways that brands that have winningly captured consumers’ attention with the help of social media analytics.
Some interesting stats we’ve collected on this topic include:
- 92% of millennial consumers are more likely to buy products from ethical companies, and this is increasingly the case across the board
- Thanks to the Frito-Lay’s quick thinking, sales for Frito-Lay were up 6.5% for the quarter to $4.27 billion
Consumer Hearts Aren’t Complicated
Well, they are, and they aren’t. Sorting out their love/hates can be tricky, but it’s made much less so thanks to social media analytics.
Everything changes with time, and that applies to consumer choices. This was made more evident during COVID-19. Consumer shopping habits changed at a psychological level, and likely the habits created during this time will continue. So, understanding how your consumer thinks right now is imperative to capturing their attention. And social media monitoring over time will be critical as well, as you can expect their emotions – and loyalties to shift as everything reopens.
How can you do this? In a tool that aggregates structured and unstructured data in one space to reveal insight inherent in social media channels, surveys, focus groups, CRM data, chat logs, news sites, support forums and so much more. Everything the social web offers, your brand should be analyzing, in fact. Brands are using powerful next generation AI-powered social media analytics tools to interpret and create a single unified voice of your customer. And they’re driving strategic business decisions from it.
Looking at market analysis, the number of articles and reports focused on consumers’ changing behaviors over the past six months abound – cementing the need to be able to read the room and act accordingly.
Brands Capturing Consumer Hearts with Social Media Analytics
Brands were put into a tailspin as consumer emotions flared. Since March, it has been an Olympic show of strength and endurance as brands flexed their consumer savvy muscles and brought their A game. Capturing the hearts of consumers has not been easy, but a few brands stand out for their efforts . . .
From Giving Back to Comfort – Target, Patagonia and Disney Deliver
Target is staying up to date with fashion and their “target” audience of millennials. No doubt they took these stats into consideration:
- 92% of Millennial consumers are more likely to buy products from ethical companies
- 61% of millennials feel personally responsible to make a difference in the world – down to what their money supports.
Wanting to show a commitment to change, Target used social media to make a statement of support and show how they are working towards it.
And their efforts are resulting in lots of positive mentions from consumers and media alike:
Patagonia is also no stranger to capturing the right sentiment at the right time.
Patagonia Puts Indigenous Peoples First
Focused on healing the earth, this company stays front and center of giving back. Its ever-watchful eye is always on the concerns of its consumers. From the air quality to saving indigenous lands, their social media monitoring game is strong. Seeing consumers concerned about the lack of indigenous-led projects:
Patagonia works hard to make changes to alleviate that:
And then we see Disney as a leader in showing solidarity and giving back.
Disney Captures Consumer Hearts
Disney pulled out the stops for all of us in quarantine – first with the May 4th release of The Rise of Skywalker and then with July 5th release of Hamilton.
Disney sat beside us on the couch during a time of unrest due to the pandemic and stayed through the social turmoil. And in a magical display that only Disney can provide, they have once again offered something their consumers desired – Black is King, Beyonce’s new visual album streaming on Disney Plus.
This story models the theme of The Lion King while touching on prominent cultural and social themes today. Consumer intelligence shows they did something right, as this sentiment capturing word cloud demonstrates:
And also, sitting with consumers on the couch are snacks and coffee . . .
Coffee, Snacks and Forget Me Nots
When it comes to keeping people caffeinated, there are a lot of trends to be aware of – from the bean source to milk options and flavors. And it’s important to note that daily coffee drinkers increased from 57% to 62% in the course of a year.
Luckily two coffee kings – Peets and Keurig – are here to help.
Both companies offer a range of coffees, and though Keurig isn’t a coffee bar, they offer recipes for various drink options. Recently both caffeinated companies began pushing lattes as a standout.
While Keurig offered recipes for lavender lattes, Peet’s offered Horchata Oat Milk Lattes to order.
This is smart as market research shows that lattes are big business. And knowing this could be why Keurig began offering recipes, and why Pete’s has 12 different lattes.
Fear of the unknown prompted panic buying, which quickly emptied shelves in grocery stores. This may not have affected coffee so much, but Frito-Lay moved fast to make sure it didn’t affect munchies!
Frito-Lay Makes Direct-to-Consumer Push
Frito-Lay began offering direct to consumer (D2C) options pretty immediately. Social media and market monitoring helped them keep an eye on the storm allowed this yummy brand stay ahead of the curve.
Sales for Frito-Lay were up 6.5% for the quarter to $4.27 billion. And they are clearly winning at adapting to the new norm.
And this flexibility is key as adaptation is required everywhere now, including maintaining professional and personal relationships.
Capturing the Moment with a Card
With Zoom taking the place of in-person meetings, Hallmark captured the opportunity to create cards that capture our new and sometimes comical situation.
Market research certainly revealed that snail mail is on the rise, so the timing was perfect to be relatable and shareable, with a side of comedy. Hallmark is hip to the evolving friendship space, as well as the sentiment around it. Their social media monitoring is entirely on point – and yours should be too.
Reach out for a social listening demo to help guide that next big decision. Your brand’s evolving persona, and the consumer love (or hate) it generates, depends on it!
