BOOK REVIEW LISTEN FIRST!

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT-2

NEETHU VARGHESE P11182

The book I have chosen is Listen First! by Stephen D Rappaport. It belongs to Times Business series. It is a book on turning social media conversation into business advantage.It is a playbook from the advertising research foundation. An authoritative research has been done by Advertising Research foundation. THEME - Listen First! delivers a playbook for marketing and advertising successfully in our era. This book explains what listening is , how to do it , how its used , where its headed. Done well , social media listening uncovers pivotal insights that guide marketing as well as product development , customer service , and just about all business functions that touch customers and other stakeholders. The tools , winning plays and proven tactics will teach 1) Understand what customers are thinking , feeling , and doing in their lives that affect demand and interest in products and services. 2) Identify threats to reputation 3) See how customers position competing brands in their minds , not as advertisers position them. 4) Sense market shifts that threaten existing business or present new opportunities 5) Develop new products or refine current line up by bringing customer voices into R&D , innovation and concept testing. Listening is very important for a marketer .If he/she is not doing it , will be criticized by somebody. Listening must be consistent with the historic opportunity to hear customers feely talking about the respective brand. True listening is difficult. It is a big change from the traditional way of thinking. Consequently , the single biggest opportunity in the history of consumer marketing lies dormant. The singular opportunity to tap into the brain of todays newly empowered consumer in such a natural way that it gives us the purest research is buried in naysaying. PURPOSE of the book is to change the naysaying , to get the reader excited about the promise of listening , the essentialness of listening , the unequalled power of the insight potential of listening. The intended audience would be all people related to business especially marketing.

SUMMARY Listening changes the game for people and brands ; it brings the promise of people centricity forward . As the IT sector learned , the tyranny of the installed base slams the brakes on modernization and innovation , because it is not compatible with the existing systems , or because it may require new ways of working and people with new skills or training , or shift power toward customers. The author hopes that readers will not cower before the tyranny of the installed market research base and that they figure out how best to discover , listen to , and act on the conversational dark matter that is all around them , and influencing the futures for their companies , products and services. Conversational listening can help create a business advantage .There is difference between competitive advantage and business advantage. Competitive advantage usually derives from superiority on some dimension in marketing, execution or customer service. However any competitive advantage can be matched or bested , very edge dulled , and any superiority lasting only until the next competing model , price cut , ad campaign , distribution change , or customer service fiasco. Business advantage is less vulnerable and longer lasting , because it comes from companies ability to sense respond and quickly adapt changing customers and conditions. Listen First ! is a playbook in the true sense of the word; it combines education with strategy and actions for achieving specific marketing and advertsining goals , all based on the best available research and advice from more than 50 carefully selected case studies , which feature companies of all sizes and states of maturity.This book gives you knowledge necessary to deep-six the hype ,misinformation , and anecdotes about listening , and exploit its full potential instead.This book answers 3 questions1)What is listening and how is it done? 2)How is listening used to help achieve objectives? 3)Where is listening headed? The book is organized into four parts by the author that answers them:

Part1:Steps to Effective Listening. This part explains how listening is done step by step.It begins by defining the initiative and moves onto reporting the results and evaluating the report.The different type of software solutions available for listening research are given .Summaries of more than 70 companies and their solutions and services are given. Part2-Listening-Led Marketing and Advertising: Applying Listening Insights to Achieve Key Business Objectives: Listening contributes to achieving the full range of marketing and advertising objectives set out by most businesses. Each chapter in this part identifies a single objective such as understanding consumer mind-sets , developing new products , increasing sales , providing customer service , or managing reputation and details listenings contribution to success. Part 3-Listening Led Marketing And Media Innovations: Listening is more than insight and input into energy; it is a data source too.The chapters in this part look at four emerging datadriven applications that usher changes into traditional business practices , such as social TV ratings , listiening-based-targeting , achieving share of market goals and predicting near term sales. Part 4-Listenings New Frontier-In this part , leading listening practitioners and researchers contribute essays on the way forward for listening , its practice , adoption , and contribution to creating business value. New signals must be picked up, understand people and culture , the research paradigm must be changed, rethink activities and become listening organizations. Social media listening is used for many of the same purposes as traditional market research. Listening is divided into two spheres , social , media monitoring and social research , which are tactical and strategic , respectively . Listening research is innovating rapidly , and there are many solutions to the company . Although the tools and some of the research methods are different from familiar research methods like survey research and focus groups , the principles guiding research are unchanging. Defining and setting up a listening initiative draw upon solid project management discipline : organizing , setting objectives , and establishing key performance indicators . Defining and vetting the conversation sources and selecting the voices to capture and analyze are vital to

successful projects. Listening research represents new approaches to understanding consumers that are contributing a new paradigm for market research . The contribution listening makes to business advantage comes from doing solid research. Explanations are provided stressing the importance of data quality , ongoing checking of data and procedures . More engaging reporting that which conveys the dynamics of conversations and makes emotional connect with colleagues increases the value and contributions of listening efforts. Listening needs to be evaluated in terms of its contribution to the business processes it reports. Social media listening is helpful in detecting consumer mindsets from conversations . They reflect the way people look at the world , how and what they chose , and also influence their behavior . Of course , people hold a variety of mind-sets about countless topics . Companies that understand mind-sets relevant to their business are truly at an advantage . They put themselves in a better position to calibrate and adjust their marketing and advertising to their customers more quickly , and improve their chances of marketplace success. Companies must promote their listening results and implications , and leverage them throughout their organizations .Doing so builds awareness of listening , promotes adoption , and finally puts the customer at the center of the business. Social media listening enables companies to identify potentially valuable new markets from faint signals that emanate from related information , such as patterns of Websites links , data in routine reports and conversations about categories not specific brands . Signals need be amplified and cross-checked with additional data sources ; these enables marketers and advertisers to home in on the signals in order to define the market and develop strategies for maximum emergent opportunities. Social media listening is a data source for developing new products , supporting ideas , testing concepts , co-creating , and refining new products prior to launch. The most important step is to define a process and a clear role for social media listening , one that includes ongoing engagement with a community . Put voting or rating systems in place to provide objective measures of popularity , and assign priority for development. Always remain transparent ,

inorder to instill a sense of participation , co-ownership , and trust between customers and companies. Social Media listening helps companies create or adjust messaging that resonate with customers and prospects .While some resonant messages often combine multiple ideals that address consumer perceptions , others may be simple and short , depending on communication goals. Continous listening that creates meaningful messages in near-real time points to a future of always on listening that strengthens the relationships between companies and their customers. Social media listening identifies ways that products and services that can be improved , and , over time ,stay resonant with their consumers . Marketing and advertisers acting on signals from social media listening make certain their offerings remain in sync with their customers. Maintain synchronicity by making changes or innovating in a number of ways , including: modifying the product , improving on the online experience , refreshing content to meet evergreen and new interests , simplifying transactions , and/or focusing on unmet or undeserved needs . Do not limit listening insights to just one or two areas ; look comprehensively for insights on all aspects of product improvement. Emotions , connections , and relationships between companies and customers are sales drivers that are growing in importance; traditional differentiators are the price of entry. Social media listening provides companies with signals needed to craft sales efforts that are grounded in customer understanding. Companies using social media listening have kept sales rolling by developing and implementing customer-centric sales programs , recreating or reinventing sales tactics , such as sampling and stimulating product trials ; and overcoming problems or changing perceptions that stall sales growth. Social media listening helps companies grow business by sensing change , and then developing and acting on forward -looking customer insights . When applied to proven tactics which include capitalizing on consumer excitement , championing new product uses , creating line extensions , expanding business lines , and creating communities companies are better able to compete in the present and create advantage.

Businesses that successfully rebrand or reposition their company , products and services and do so by listening to the right voices , listening across conversational contexts to understand the range of meanings or preferences people have , reflect a peoples positioning and branding , and avoid imposing a company-centric branding or positioning onto customers . Because data from social media listening is still new and unfamiliar to most companies , organizations may sense risk and be reluctant to make decisions based on listening findings , especially when they challenge conventional wisdom or past experience . For that reason , listeners need to buil trust yet be persuasive. Managing reputation in the social media era presents companies with unfamiliar challenges and vulnerabilities. We must recognize that companies are no longer separate from customers , but rather part of their conversations a trend that can turn positive or negative , and impact marketplace performance accordingly . Brands need to anticipate those turns in order to confidently and effectively plan , engage and respond. Social media listening provides companies with insight from marketplace signals for doing so. Companies can use social media listening insights to inform a wide variety of competitive strategies , ranging from identifying specific product strengths to handling full frontal assaults. Successful organizations center their strategies on customer and prospect perceptions of their own products , as well as those of their competitors . Companies that fail to bring peoples voices into their brands risk alienating their customers and prospects , which can lead to weakened competitive viability and diminished performance. Companies use social media listening based customer service best when it is matched to the right goals . Social support should supplement other forms of support , in order for companies to meet customer needs as customers would like. Companies must realize that social support is often carried out openly , which means that their response timeliness , quality , and human-ness influence not one individual but a community of customers , with the perception of a company in the balance . Social media listening is ushering in new ways of measuring the appeal of television programs , by gauging them on their level of audience engagement . Using listening-based measures , businesses can delve deeply into conversation analysis , with implications for media planning ,

buying , creative executions , and television programs themselves , which in combination , may lead to more effective engagement and communications. Listening based targeting provides a new and complementary approach to ore conventional methods . Analyzing conversations and the contexts in which they occur leads to insights for targeting and segmentation strategies , and capture the diversity of voices interested in categories , companies , products or services. Consider integrating listening-based targeting with conventional targeting approaches to achieve business objectives. A solid body of research validates the correlation between advertising share of voice and share of market. Early evidence suggests that the correlation holds between conversational share of voice in social media and market share . If that is the case , marketers and advertisers have an additional metric for setting their budgets and targeting conversational share of voice levels to achieve. Unlike share of advertising voice which is accomplished only through media buying , raises conversational levels results from atleast four factors that can be influenced through marketing and advertising strategy , tactics and programs. Share of conversational voice may also be used to evaluate marketing and advertising effectiveness and provide near real-time guidance for taking actions that maximize or correct them. Social media listening data is being used to accurately predict sales in the short term , providing businesses with signals about their current environment. These forecasts allow companies to take action by responding to expected changes in demand. Initially based on buzz volume , prediction volumes have matured to capture the content and characteristics of online discussion that drive sales. Marketers and advertisers can leverage those qualities to create and implement strategies and tactics that resonate with customers and link directly to revenue growth. Because customers and prospects are not automations , you must carefully consider the pros and cons in discussions , consider the writers or speakers perspective , and act according to their judgement. Conventional notions of the impact of influence , sentiment and product ratings do not apply across the board , and companies need to reflect upon the applicability of these ideas to their specific situations . Last , listening based sales predictions provide measures that nearly every function appreciates and understands . Sharing them across your organization can bring the value of listening to entire enterprise.

These are steps of future listening companies must focus on1)Listen to new signals-Not all listening signals come from conversations ; some can be found in the silent signals of emotions . Listen openly , without pre-conceived notions and without prejudice in order to hear what people are really saying or expressing. 2)Focus on culture-Deeper insight comes from understanding people in all of their cultural contexts. Listening is more than recognizing what people say; it includes understanding the values , motivations , meanings , and relationships that help explain why people speak and act as they do. 3)Change the research paradigm-Social media listening research should bring about an era of real-time data that anticipates change and can be used to visualize and create a rewarding future .For that to happen , data quality needs to improve ; companies need to ensure that their people develop and work with quality data ; and organizations need to effectively communicate the insights from these data throughout their enterprises. 4)Rethink marketing , advertising and media- Conversations are being considered like media . This change challenges conventional notions of what advertising is , how it is planned and brought , how it is consumed, how it is evaluated. One controversial scenario outlined describes an emerging world where advertisers pay people for their conversations that ripple through social networks , instead of paying media companies for ad placements as often as they used to. Conversations , engagement and mobility are creating a globe-circling peoples network with new rules for effective and successful marketing. 5)Become a listening organization- Productive listening requires that you have the right organizational structure and executive support- something many companies often lack. We need to view and implement social media listening strategically , with an eye toward improving business processes and driving company culture . Organizations must embrace a new mental model for listening , one that is capable of sustainably creating value for the enterprise. EVALUATION-The book has been written in a very interesting manner using apt examples to describe relevant information. The style of writing is also good.The introduction about listening

and its importance is very intriguing . .A conclusion has been drawn at the end about future of listening. CONCLUSION This book will change the perspective of business to many businessmen.How social media listening can change a business is clearly written with numerous references to real life situations. The book gives a lot of examples and practical ideas to small business or entrepreneur for creatively listening to customers .Listening will help them to identify new business opportunities .It also helps them to select apt partners for development and implementation of effective listening strategy. IMPORTANCE & USEFULNESS This book provides you with expert view points, evidence, research which will help you to utilize listening. It will help business people to improve the business over short haul & long haul. In order to have a business advantage which is sustainable in an uncertain world we should give listening its due. MY LEARNINGMost of us think of listening as a passive activity.However it is not.We also think that listening occurs without judgement.It is not true.Listening is work. Nowadays listening refers to something specific in terms of brand conversations and communications . To truly listen implies no presumption nor any judgement. Listening converstations real, online gives competitive advantage. Organisation must become listening organizations.Listen to new signals.Understand the change in research paradigm. Marketing must be understood from new perspective

RECOMMENDATIONSMore theory could have been included .Description in examples could have been lessened making book more compact.