CustomerLifecycleFramework

Source:MichaelW.Starkey,DavidWilliams,MerlinStone,(2002)"Thestateofcustomermanagement
performanceinMalaysia",MarketingIntelligence&Planning,Vol.20Iss:6,pp.378 385
Spotlight on Social Media and the New Rules of Branding

Spotlight

The One Thing

You Must Get
Right When
Building a Brand
Yes, new media give us powerful tools and
speedbut thats not enough.
by Patrick Barwise and Sen Meehan

s usual, marketers are turning hype into

hyperventilation. This time, its about
the supposed end of marketing as we
know it, thanks to the rise of social
media and the shift of power to
consumers. But its wrong to think were entering a
world in which traditional marketing activities, and
brands themselves, will become irrelevant. In fact,
the opposite is true. Social media make it more ur-
gent than ever that companies get the basics right,
developing and reliably delivering on a compelling
brand promise.
It has always been risky for companies to disap-
point customers, at least over the long term. But
today the scale and speed of social media can make
falling short instantly painful. Consider the internet-
fueled backlash against Kryptonites expensive but
easily picked lock and Dells flammable laptops. By
the same token, companies that consistently deliver
what they promise benefit mightily when social me-
dia amplify their reputation. The obvious danger is
failing to keep pace with social media developments.
But an equal, less obvious danger is getting distracted
by them and losing sight of the fundamentals.
Weve long worked on marketing strategy with
companies across industries; over the past 15 years
weve focused on new media, and recently on social
media marketing. And weve been directly involved

80 Harvard Business Review December 2010

Spotlight on Social Media and the New Rules of Branding
in successful new-media start-ups, including one
specializing in customer advisory panels and online
brand communities. Our conclusion? The companies
that will succeed in this environment are exploiting
the many opportunities presented by social media
while keeping an unwavering eye on their brand
promise, and they are judiciously revising the mar-
keting playbook rather than trying to rewrite it.
Leverage Social Media
Most companies have cottoned on to social media as
tools for engagement and collaboration. Marketers
at leading companies have created lively exchanges
with and among customers on sites such as OPEN
Forum (American Express), Beinggirl.com (Procter &
Gamble), myPlanNet (Cisco), and Fiesta Movement
(Ford), tapping into participants expertise and cre-
ativity for product development. Of course, social
media can also boost brand awareness, trial, and ulti-
mately sales, especially when a campaign goes viral.
More important for most companies, however, is that
through social media they can gain rich, unmediated
customer insights, faster than ever before.
This represents a profound shift. Historically,
market research was product- rather than customer-
centric: Marketers asked questions about attitudes
and behaviors relevant to their brands. More recently
we have seen the rise of ethnographic research to
help them understand how both a brand and its wider
product category fit into peoples lives. Social net-
works take this a step further by providing powerful
new ways to explore consumers lives and opinions.
Procter & Gamble was an early adopter of social
media; now all its businesses have sites aimed at
specific markets and communities. Its feminine care
group, appreciating the need to listen to rather than
talk at customers, made sure that Beinggirl was less
about its products than about the tribulations of 11-to-
14-year-old girlsembarrassing moments, hygiene
concerns, boy trouble. The sites main value to P&G is
not that it drives product sales but that it illuminates
the target consumers world. Similarly, Amex uses
OPEN Forum to learn about small-business own-
ers, and Cisco uses myPlanNet to better understand
FoR Procter & Gamble, the main value
of Beinggirl.com is not that it drives
product sales but that it illuminates the
target consumers world.
82 Harvard Business Review December 2010
the new generation of developers. These sites work
because participants are engaged with the brands,
find the platforms authentic, and trust one another.
The companies create active communities by ceding
some controlin our experience, often the hardest
adjustment for marketers.
P&G recently encountered firsthand the dark
side of social mediathe speed with which they can
spread damaging messages. After the company in-
troduced Dry Max technology into its Pampers prod-
uct line last year, promising extra protection and a
less bulky diaper, Rosana Shah, an angry customer
whose child had developed diaper rash, created a
Facebook page dedicated to putting pressure on the
firm to withdraw the product. Other reports of rashes
and blisters followed, and by May 7,000 parents had
joined Shahs campaign.
Confident in its products performance, P&G stood
firm. Its long experience in the category had taught
it that some proportion of babies will always suffer
from rashes, and the frequency of such problems
hadnt changed after the introduction of Dry Max.
Aided by its well-established social media network,
Pampers Village, and its Pampers Facebook page, the
company made its case sympathetically but clearly.
It responded to all complaints, offered advice to par-
ents, and explained why the product wouldnt be
withdrawn. In September the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission reported that it could find no link
between Dry Max and the occurrence of diaper rash.
Far from curbing P&Gs enthusiasm for social me-
dia, this incident helped the company hone its ap-
proach. It plans to use greater prelaunch engagement
through these channels in future to clarify expecta-
tions and enable an even faster and more effective
response to any unexpected backlash.
Toyota, too, deftly used social media as part of its
crisis management during the sudden-acceleration
recall. It set up a team to monitor and respond with
facts to rumors on Facebook and elsewhere, and cre-
ated a Twitter presence for COO Jim Lentz. The team
identified online fans and sought permission to dis-
tribute their statements through Toyota channels.
Drawing on the companys brand reputationthe
reservoir of goodwill earned over decades of deliver-
ing on its promise of quality, reliability, and durabil-
ityit used social and other new media effectively
to neutralize much of the hostility. By March 2010,
when the recall was in full swing, Toyota sales were
rebounding, with Camry and Corolla topping the list
of all passenger-car sales.
 The One Thing You Must Get Right When Building a BrandHBR.org

Idea in Brief
The rise of social media
makes it more important
than ever to get the branding
fundamentals right.
Companies that succeed in
this environment judiciously
revise the marketing play-
book rather than rewriting
it, and exploit social media
opportunities while keep-
ing an unwavering focus on
meeting customers needs.
Brands should use new me-
dia to deliver on four basics:
offering and communicating
a clear customer promise;
building trust by delivering
on it; continually improving
the promise; and innovating
beyond the familiar.
As they experiment with
social media, companies
should use them to gain
customer insights rather
than to sell; capitalize on
the medias speed and reach
while protecting the brands
reputation; and carefully
follow the unwritten rules of
customer engagement online.

The most-read section of Virgin

Enhance the Playbook
Although any companys decision about whether and Atlantics Facebook page includes
how to use a new tool is situation-specific, all compa- travel tips from crew members
nies should incorporate social media into their mar-
keting playbooks. But whats the best approach? Our
communication that comes across
analysis of the strategies and performance of a di- as honest, informal, and caring.
verse range of companies suggests that great brands
share four fundamental qualities:
They offer and communicate a clear, relevant cus- Trust. Obviously, trust is mainly about opera-
tomer promise. tional executionservice delivery. But keeping cus-
They build trust by delivering on that promise. tomers informed when things go wrong can prevent
They drive the market by continually improving a slipup from becoming a trust-eroding PR disaster.
the promise. Customers expect airline websites to be accurate and
They seek further advantage by innovating be- up-to-date. But during the volcanic-ash crisis last
yond the familiar. spring, VAAs website couldnt keep pace with the rap-
These basics dont sound like rocket science, but idly changing situation, so it used Facebook and Twit-
weve been surprised by how many companies still ter to communicate with customers. This was well
fail to get them right. Social media can be used to re- received by some, but VAA learned from irate callers
inforce all four, even as they make them more urgent. and site visitors that it needed to do an even better
Look at how Virgin Atlantic Airways has used social job of providing information in a crisis. The company
media to buttress the branding basics. is modifying its site to include a rapid response link
The customer promise. Customers expect inno- to real-time VAA updates on Twitter and Facebook. It
vation, fun, informality, honesty, value, and a caring sees the various social media as complementary: Fer-
attitude from VAA. This promise is reinforced at ev- gus Boyd, Virgin Atlantics head of e-business, told us,
ery customer touch point, from marketing materials Twitter is no more than a sound bite. Facebook can
and the call center to travel agents and, increasingly, be an article. The website is for in-depth detail. They
travel websites. VAA scans these sites (along with less all need to signpost each other.
obvious ones such as Camping.com and Mumsnet. Continual improvement. For VAAand for
com) to learn what people are saying. Where there is most companiesthe biggest social media opportu-
misinformation, the company rarely has to provide a nity lies in gathering insights to drive continual incre-
correction, because site visitors usually do so them- mental improvements.
selves. Like other companies, VAA uses social media For instance, since its founding, in 1984, VAA has
to check that the brand promise is both understood built its brand on the customers total experience,
and relevant. It also works to keep all its social media from her initial search for a flight to her safe return
activities true to and in support of the brand values. home. The proliferation of travel blogs has reinforced
For instance, the most-read section of its Facebook this emphasis. When the company learned that its
page includes travel tips from crew memberscom- loyalty-scheme members were complaining online
munication that comes across as honest, informal, about tedious, redundant requests for security infor-
and caring. mation, it created a secure opt-in service to eliminate

December 2010 Harvard Business Review 83

Spotlight on Social Media and the New Rules of Branding
the problem. In response to online-community sug-
gestions, it launched a system to arrange taxi sharing
on arrival with passengers from the same flight. None
of this represents a shift in strategy: The brand prom-
ise hasnt changed, but social media dialogue has en-
abled VAA to keep improving its offer.
Innovation beyond the familiar. VAA fre-
quently wins awards for innovationsuch as its
in-flight entertainment systems and premium
economy class. Fresh insights from social me-
dia reinforce this aspect of the brand. For instance,
Facebook interactions helped the company appreci-
ate an important but largely unrecognized segment:
consumers planning a big trip. Their planning starts
well in advance and involves extensive discussions
with other travelers, so VAA launched Vtravelled,
a site dedicated to inspirational journeys. Customers
moderate the conversation and exchange informa-
tion, stories, and advice. They can create a Trip Pod, a
personal scrapbook of ideas for a dream trip. VAA en-
ters the discussion using a travelers tone of voice, not
pushing a product but offering advice. The site leads
to some sales, but its main benefit to VAA comes from
brand reinforcement and novel customer insights.
In an open innovation initiative, VAA in 2008 part-
nered with the UKs National Endowment for Science
Technology and the Arts to launch VJAM. In a day-
long workshop it presented a diverse group of VAA
customers, IT developers, and social digerati with
this agenda: Social networking meets travelmagic
happens. Many ideas bubbled up at the workshop,
and many others were submitted privately. Nine of
them were short-listed, six received funding for proof
of concept, and three have become products: the Fly-
ing Club and Facebook Flight Status app, a first for
any airline; Taxi2, the aforementioned cab-sharing
service; and VAAs first iPhone app, called Flight
Tracker, which includes real-time aircraft positions
also a first for any airline.
Keep Your Eye on the Ball
VAA would not claim mastery of social media in
brand buildingno firm yet can. But heres our ad-
vice, based on the dozens of early successes and fail-
ures weve studied:
Dont throw out your playbook. Start with
your brand promise and let it guide all your actions in
social media. Dont get distracted by the abundance
of options.
Use social media primarily for insight. Com-
panies can and do sell things via social media, of
84 Harvard Business Review December 2010
hbr.org
watch Link to the video
at s.hbr.org/cHTWsV.
course, but their real value at this stage lies in learn-
ing about customers. Facebook in particular has such
tremendous reach that it can provide detailed quan-
titative analyses of communication flows between
consumers. Increasingly smart natural-language-
processing technology will, over time, help mar-
keters extract further insights from the content of
those discussions. At the other extreme, company-
sponsored online brand communities can generate
immediately applicable insights from direct, smaller-
scale interactions.
Strive to go viral, but protect the brand. The
few brands that have substantially improved sales
by using social media have done so with commu-
Anything Goes nications that convey authenticity and relevance
Blendtecs founder, Tom and are so entertaining that they go viral. Consider
Dickson, purees a rake Blendtecs inspired Will it blend? YouTube clips, in
handle, demonstrating which Tom Dickson, the companys founder, demon-
the power of both the strates its blenders power and robustness by pulver-
companys products izing everything from golf balls to an iPad. Since the
and viral marketing. campaign launched, four years ago, the videos have
Videos of Blendtec been viewed more than 100 million times, and sales
blenders blending Silly have increased by 700%. Sony, on the other hand,
Putty and a vuvuzela, stumbled badly when it paid an agency to create a
among other things, supposedly authentic blog and YouTube video hyp-
have been viewed ing the latest gaming PSP for Christmas 2006. Hit by
more than 100 million a storm of criticism when word of the deceit leaked
times on the companys out, Sony was forced to own up, withdraw the video,
YouTube channel. and post a contrite apology on the blog. The debacle
surely didnt help sales; 2006 holiday shipments were
down 75% from 2005.
Engage, but follow the social rules. Social
media conversations about brands are usually un-
structured or semistructured and moderated by the
participants themselves, using unwritten rules. Peo-
ple join in freely because they enjoy and learn from
the discussion. Your company can also join, and to
some extent influence, the conversationbut only if
you are accepted by the other participants. Those in
the company who execute its social media strategy
should naturally be at home with the culture and
rules of each social network. But they must also be
deeply knowledgeable about the companys prod-
ucts andmost importantsteeped in its brand and
values.  HBR Reprint R1012F
Patrick Barwise is an emeritus professor of man
agement and marketing at London Business School.
Sen Meehan is the Martin Hilti Professor of Marketing and
Change Management at IMD. Their latest book, Beyond the
Familiar: Long-Term Growth Through Customer Focus and
Innovation, will be published by Jossey-Bass in March 2011.
Spotlight on Smarter Sales

Spotlight Artwork Chad Wys, Shes in Pieces

2011, paint on found canvas and frame
6.25" x 5.25" x 0.75"

Tweet Me,
Friend Me,

N
Make Me Buy
Social networks are an exciting
development for sales reps. With
a little managerial discipline,
all that clicking, following, and
sharing will win more business.
by Barbara Giamanco
and Kent Gregoire Not long ago a B2B rep for the virtual-meetings
company PGi made the fastest sale of his career. One
morning he contacted a CEOsomeone who was
no pushover, having had bad experiences with the
type of product the rep sells. By late that afternoon
he had a signed agreement. How did the rep pull off
this feat? By using social media.
Heres the way it worked. The rep is a Twitter user.
Drawing on the TweetDeck feature, he had specified
keywords so that he would be alerted when they ap-
peared in a tweet, whether from someone he fol-
lowed or not.

88Harvard Business ReviewJulyAugust 2012

Spotlight on Smarter Sales

On the day in question, a message containing investigate purchases theyre considering. The shift
the term web conferencing caught his eye. The from a push to a pull world of commercial mes-
point of the tweet was how poorly web confer- saging has been thoroughly documented by now. Its
encing works. I clicked on the Twitter handle, not just that buyers start the sales process without
the rep told us, and noticed that it was a com- you; research has shown that today they typically
pany account. He called the main number on the complete most of the purchase journey before hav-
companys website and asked to speak to the per- ing any contact with sales. And by that point they are
son who handled Twitter. Moments later he was far more informed about your business than you are
talking to the CEO, who, after marveling at the about theirs.
power of Twitter, described his frustration with Much of this online activity involves social media.
the various web platforms he had used. I told Studies by Experian Marketing Services indicate that
him all about GlobalMeet, the rep said, referring social networking now accounts for 15% of internet
to a PGi conferencing service. He checked out visits in the United States. LinkedIn, the most profes-
the website and said he wanted to try it, so I sent sionally oriented of the major sites, announced more
over the agreement and received it back within a than a year ago that it had registered its 100 millionth
few hours. member and was adding a million more each week.
Its a great story, but perhaps not a surprising one. Twitter has more than 100 million active users (out
Twitter is, after all, a social network, and no aspect of of at least 200 million registered members), and
business is more social than selling. Google+ has passed 65 million members. Most of
What is surprising is that most sales managers are these people are also on Facebook, which is nearing
proving slow to recognize social medias potential. the one billion mark, meaning that it includes 14% of
In a recent survey of B2B marketers by BtoB maga- the worlds population.
zine, only 5% said that social media marketing was a When the 1950s-era criminal Willie Sutton was
fairly mature and well optimized part of their mix. asked why he robbed banks, he allegedly replied,
A clear majority (58%) admitted to being in early Thats where the money is. For any salesperson
stages, and 17% said they didnt use social media wondering why she should use social media, the
at all. Were aware of very few sales training courses answer is similarly obvious: Thats where the buyers
that cover social media use. And some companies are. In fact, 55% of buyers turn to social media when

Social media selling has risks, but sitting on

the sidelines is the greatest risk of all. And the
way to venture in wisely is becoming clear.
forbid their employees to use social networks on
company time.
Certainly there are risks, but as customers in-
creasingly engage with social media, sitting on the
sidelines is the greatest risk of all. And with early
adopters beginning to book their wins and take their
hits, the way to venture in wisely is becoming clear.
Its Where the Customers Are
Understanding why and how to engage with todays
social business environment starts with recogniz-
ing the changes in buyers behavior. We know that
customers are online and that they use the web to
theyre searching for information, according to Busi-
ness.com.
As youre reading this article, your prospects are
reading blogs and holding online discussions about
products and services theyre considering buying.
Theyre scanning YouTube videos, participating in
FocusForums, and tweeting. They might start by
using Google to look for information about your of-
ferings, but it doesnt matter how well you optimize
your search termsmost will ignore the marketing
collateral on your website. While your communica-
tions people are busily creating high-production-
value brochureware, your prospects are going to so-

90Harvard Business ReviewJulyAugust 2012

 Tweet me, Friend me, Make me Buy hbr.org

Idea in Brief
It stands to reason that
sales, that most social of
business activities, would
make use of social media.
But few organizations
employ them in a consis-
tent, productive way.
As sales professionals gravitate
to social networking, they will
find its tools most valuable in
front end prospecting and lead
qualification, and in maintaining
relationships after the deal has
closed. Management can support
reps communications with
training and structure.
There are risks, but the worst
of them are not the PR and legal
issues that grab headlines. These
can be addressed with sound
policies. Trickier to manage are
lapses of etiquette, tone, and
consistency. And the biggest risk
of all, now that your customers are
all linking, sharing, and tweeting,
is to sit on the sidelines and leave
social selling to your competitors.

cial networking channels to get the lowdown. They
know that a peer-to-peer environment holds more
promise for candid referralsand warnings.
Where Social Makes Sense
Chances are that your salespeople are already on
social media sites and are even using them in their
work. But their activity is probably scattershot, with
different people using different tools in various ways
and no one person using them consistently. Like sell-
ing itself, social media can be approached idiosyn-
cratically, but the highest-performing organizations
have outlined a clear process and figured out how to
execute on it in a disciplined way.
To bring that kind of order to your organization,
start with the sales cycle your representatives are
already familiar with. It typically runs from pros-
pecting and qualifying leads all the way through
implementing a solution and measuring results. One
activity pervades the entire process: Managing rela-
tionships is vital to each stage and can lead from the
end of one sales cycle to the beginning of a new one.
Your organization probably has detailed proce-
dures to follow and metrics to track at each stage.
The question is, How do platforms such as LinkedIn
and Twitter fit in? How can they be integrated with
other important activities, and how can they support
better outcomes?
It quickly becomes clear that social medias great-
est potential is at the front end of the sales cycle
during the prospecting, opportunity qualification,
and pre-sales-call research that lead up to a face-to-
face meeting. But social platforms also offer a means
of maintaining customer relationships and building
brand loyalty throughout. Lets take a close look at
the key parts of the cycle in this regard.
Prospecting. Sales professionals know that in
order to make their numbers month after month,
they need to regularly look for new leads. In B2B
settings, much of their prospecting has traditionally
been done through cold calling. That might produce
a higher return than other direct-marketing activi-
ties, such as direct mail and e-mail communications,
paid searches, and internet display ads, but the
return on cold calling is dropping with every pass-
ing year. Indeed, in a recent survey by InsideView,
an online provider of sales-relevant content, more
than 90% of C-level executives said they never re-
spond to cold calls or e-mail blasts. But salespeople
frequently tell us that potential customers are sur-
prisingly responsive to short messages sent via so-
cial media.
Even better, in a social network environment reps
dont always have to start the conversation. They can
often find potential customers expressing hints of
interest in the solutions they sell. Identifying these
slightly warm prospects can save a rep from mak-
ing many unwelcome calls. As the sales blogger Jim
Keenan puts it, A lead today can be a complaint on
Twitter, a question on LinkedIn, or a discussion on
a Facebook page. This was the insight that guided
the PGi rep. Having noted the executives tweeted
complaint about the poor quality of web conferenc-
ing, he treated it as a conversation already started
and plunged in.
Could this sort of fortuitous find become routine?
Yes, thanks to social monitoring tools like HootSuite,
which act as radar to pick up signals of need. A com-
pany geared for social selling would not only equip
its salespeople to do such monitoring; it would map
out pathways for guiding any resulting contacts to-
ward richer exchanges by phone, e-mail, and even
video chat.
According to the 2011 CSO Insights Sales Perfor-
mance Optimization study, reps spend almost 25%
of their time researching prospects. If your reps learn
how to access the right intelligence quickly, some
observers predict, they could spend as little as 1% of
their time researchingfreeing up virtually all their
time for actual selling.

JulyAugust 2012Harvard Business Review91

Spotlight on Smarter Sales

Wheres the Risk in Social Selling?

Many sales leaders monitor
their reps social media use for
purposes of damage control.
Theyre concerned about
inappropriate posts that
could cause a PR crisis; false
representations, unguarded
disclosures, and copyright
violations that could bring legal
exposure; leaks of confidential
company information; and the
possibility that competitors will
learn too much about client
relationships and early-stage
opportunities. Deborah Gonza-
lez, an attorney specializing in
social media, has seen dangers
arise particularly in industries
such as health care and finance,
which have strict requirements
regarding communications
but shes observed privacy and
confidentiality issues in less
regulated environments as well.
These risks, however, can
be managed with well-crafted
guidelines. Policies at IBM,
Nordstrom, and the U.S. Air
Force, for example, highlight
the importance of exercising
good judgment, showing re-
spect, refraining from disclos-
ing confidential information,
avoiding conflicts of interest,
and representing opinions as
purely ones own. Each lists
steps to take to repair a mis-
take, beginning with an apology.
Need a starting point for draft-
ing a policy? The consultant
Chris Boudreaux maintains a
database of more than 200
organizations policies at
SocialMediaGovernance.com.
The harder-to-manage risks
concern basic execution. Even
if not illegal or offensive, posts
can be tonally unappealing,

At PAKRA, a company that provides game-based about the companies and buyers theyve targeted.
training, managers have devised an effective way They can set up trigger alerts for such topics as lead-
for salespeople to build prospecting networks on ership change, acquisitions, new products, funding
LinkedIn. It involves sending invitations to connect developments, and corporate challenges. They can
and following up within a day via Twitter, e-mail, or follow companies to receive news of business de-
phone. Seventeen out of 20 people accept the invita- velopments. Beyond picking up free-ranging clues
tion within 36 hours. They then receive a short, per- like these, they can use a social networks direct
sonalized message from the rep that includes a link messaging function to ask a prospect a few qualify-
to the PAKRA website. Half the people in this group ing questions. Indeed, a message format can be par-
respond, at which point the exchange is poised to be- ticularly helpful in vetting a lead, since responses
come a meaningful conversation. must be short and are thus likely to get straight to
Perhaps the most basic area in which reps need to the point.
be supported is in setting up profiles and establish- One company we know through our training
ing information-sharing habits that brand them as work has social media to thank for learning of the
intelligent and helpful. Virtually every sales profes- impending retirement of the CIO at one of its tar-
sional has a LinkedIn profile, for example, but it may geted accounts. Its immediate question, of course,
not be optimized to make a good impression. Having was who the replacement would be. That news came
gotten a direct message through a social network, a within 24 hours of the retirement announcement, in
prospect whos at all interested will check out the a daily summary of the activity on various social
senders profile. What should he find there? Content networks. Then it was time for some homework on
assuring him that the rep has relevant insight and ex- the incoming executive. LinkedIn revealed where
perience. If he encounters a tweet stream or a Face- he had worked, which areas he was interested in
book wall filled with trivial or mean-spirited com- (indicated by the LinkedIn groups hed joined), and
ments, or simply ones having nothing to do with the whether anyone in the sales teams network knew
solution hes seeking, the contact will go no further. him. The strongest connection turned out to be a
Qualifying leads. Not every sales opportunity good friend of one rep, and he was happy to make
is worth pursuing, of course. IBMs famous guide an introduction.
to qualifying leads is the acronym BANT: Reps must Managing relationships. So far weve focused
determine that the customer has the necessary bud- on using social media to get in front of the right buy-
get, that their contact has the authority to buy, that ers faster and to shrink the effort required to close
theres a genuine need for the product or service, and deals. But social tools are also invaluable for main-
that their timeline for delivery aligns with the cus- taining customer relationships and working on re-
tomers expectations. tention at the back end of the cycle, after the sale is
There are many long-standing methods for an- complete.
swering these questions. But the information that Developing in-depth knowledge of the client is
can be found on social media is often surprisingly the fastest way to position for a long-term collabora-
revelatoryand its much easier to obtain. tion. Sales remains a relationship-driven activity, but
Using data intelligence tools like InsideView, who you know is now trumped by what you know
salespeople can gain relevant, real-time insights about who you know.

92Harvard Business ReviewJulyAugust 2012

 Tweet me, Friend me, Make me Buy hbr.org

off-brand, or ungrammatical.
Inexperienced reps may use so-
cial networks as a megaphone
for blasting generic pitches far
and wide.
The only way to reduce
such risks is through training.
Beyond walking reps through
the basics of setting up profiles,
you need to teach them how
to use social tools to network,
build referral relationships,
prospect, generate leads, and
conduct pre-sales-call research.
Be sure to cover the etiquette,
with its dos (personalize your
message, participate often,
listen, give value) and donts
(send sales spam, show impa-
tience, pretend to be some-
thing youre not).
Its especially hard to teach
the nuances of online com-
munication. First impressions
count, and without a face-to-
face or phone interaction, it
can be hard to gauge what im-
pression is being made. Much
of social selling happens in
short, staccato messages that
are easily misconstrued.
A risk thats often over-
blown is the fear that social
media will distract from real
work. This kind of worry is not
new; reps have always engaged
in activities that may seem
purely social. Its typically been
addressed by a relentless focus
on outcomes. In other words,
salespeople have always had to
think about the return on social
activity; theyre unlikely to stop
doing so now. And to the extent
that the risk is real, its easily
mitigated: Connect with your
reps on LinkedIn and follow
them on Twitter yourself.

In this realm, even more than at the front end,
salespeople can benefit from organizational sup-
port and structure. At any given time, the urgency
of pursuing new business means that maintaining
established relationships takes a back seat. Todd
McCormick, the vice president of sales at PGi, has
addressed this problem. One of his solutions is Blog
Tuesday. Each Tuesday he publishes a post on an is-
sue common to many of PGis customers. This gives
his reps a reason to make social contact once a week,
without having to spend time thinking up content
on their own. As soon as the post is live, they start
tweeting about it, liking it, and sharing it through
LinkedIn status updates.
It might seem unlikely that a business buyer
would follow or friend a rep. In fact, its quite during which he displayed the names of the people
common. Norms of reciprocity in social networks
are well established by now; following someone
and engaging with their contentby retweeting a
message, for exampleoften generates a follow in
return. Whether the connection endures depends
on whether the reps content has sufficient value for
the buyer.
The social world is about giving without expect-
ing an immediate return. That can be tough for sales-
people to swallow when they are anxious to close
deals. It may feel counterintuitive to share white pa-
pers, case studies, and other materials when theres
no guarantee that those efforts will lead directly to a
sale. But such activities are part of a larger behavioral
shift that must take place if sellers are to move suc-
cessfully from a transactional approach to a value-
focused process. be impossible to sell without them. 
Jump In, the Waters Fine
Platforms for online collaboration are rapidly chang-
ing the way we work, offering new ways to engage
with customers, colleagues, and the world at large.
Sales reps now have the ability to participate in
global conversations about their products, their
field, and their expertise. But some companies are
so worried about potential mistakes or loss of control
that they dont allow participation. Thats a bad idea.
Choosing not to be present in social networks puts
your company and your salespeople at a competitive
disadvantage. (See the sidebar Wheres the Risk in
Social Selling?)
With the right social media policies and training
programs, a company stands to gain an enormous
amount from its sales organizations online com-
munications. And heres another thing to consider:
Social media might alter whom you recognize as your
sales organization. The social media consultant Mark
Schaefer tells the story of a meeting with executives
in their company who had the greatest social media
influence. (He used a tool called Kred, which consid-
ers both the number of followers a person has and
whether those followers engage with shared infor-
mation.) One of the executives said, I dont know
any of these people! You mean theyre representing
our company? It turned out that 80% of the top
influencers were in functions other than public rela-
tions, sales, service, and marketing.
As you equip your people with a social media
tool kit, dont stop with the social media team or
the marketing organization. Dont even stop with
sales. Make the whole workforce comfortable with
the possibilities. Its only a matter of time until your
competitors do so. And once your customers have
learned to expect social network connections, it may
 HBR Reprint R1207G
Barbara Giamanco and Kent Gregoire are partners
at Social Centered Selling, a consultancy focused on
bringing social media capabilities to sales organizations.
Giamanco is a coauthor of The New Handshake: Sales Meets
Social Media (Praeger, 2010).

JulyAugust 2012Harvard Business Review93

 IDEA WATCH

Vision Statement
Six Ways to Find Value
in Twitters Noise
Text by Scott Berinato; data and visualization by Je Clark

Its easy to dismiss Twitter as jabber, but smart

1
Learn about the
competitive landscape.
marketers will recognize it as a stream of free Tweets about your product
consumer data to be mined in near-real time. that include the names of
rival brands can reveal a lot
Online visualization tools can help pinpoint what about market positioning.
Most of the KINDLE tweets

2
consumers are reading and sharing, elucidate
didnt focus on the iPads
memes in the chatter, and unearth trends. To being a Kindle killer (or, for
show marketers how they can gain insight from that matter, a laptop killer).
Instead, they hailed the
Twitter, we captured more than a half million arrival of the Kindle app for Look for unexpected
tweets containing the word iPad that were the iPadalerting Apple themes. Persistent words
that its own books app will point to persistent ideas.
broadcast during the products launch weekend face serious competition. The word CASE became far
in April. We then mapped key words that ap- more common right after
@jusfonzin: The Kindle people started buying iPads.
peared in those tweets on the graph below. app makes the #iPad The sources? Oers and
HBR Reprint F1006Z a lot more interesting ads for free cases, and cus-
to me. tomers trading tips about
The iPad Launch by the Numbers @Tom_Fishman:
protecting their expensive

547,898
RT @cherwenka: The
iPad Kindle app drives
to Amazon, skirts
Apples 30% cut. No-
bodys happy except
the consumer.
new gadgets.
@osiodmak: FYI, some
10" Netbook sleeves
will work as a perfect
#iPad carrying case.

TOTAL TWEETS USING IPAD DURING PRODUCTS LAUNCH WEEKEND (Note: These are all
actual tweets.)
13%
TWEETS FLAGGED AS
18%
PREDOMINANTLY
8%
PREDOMINANTLY
SPAM (CONTAINING POSITIVE TWEETS NEGATIVE TWEETS
WIN OR FREE)

Kindle love
laptop
business

case

Flash

gmail iTunes

SATURDAY 12 A.M.
PRODUCT LAUNCH

34 Harvard Business Review June 2010

1191 Jun10 VisionStatement.indd 34 5/4/10 10:30:06 AM


Scott Berinato is an editor at HBR.
Je Clark is a developer and information
visualizer based in Toronto.
3 speedy
Dip deeper into the
stream. While stream
graphs give an overall
impression of what people
are tweeting about, its
important to know what
other words are being used
in relation to those in the
stream. A thin ribbon of
tweets containing the word
EVIL came not from Apple
haters but from gamers
tweeting about the arrival of
Resident Evil 4 for the iPad.
In our chart, it might look
as though a lot of tweet-
ers were calling the iPad
AMAZING, but in fact, most
of this trac came from
users retweeting a joke from
comedian Conan OBrien.
@gdmitchell: Lol!
RT @ConanOBrien:
Just got the new iPad.
This amazing device
has already revolu-
tionized the way
I use a calculator.
hate
evil
amazing
keyboard
battery
1191 Jun10 VisionStatement.indd 35
HBR.ORG
How to Read This Graph
This stream graph shows tweet volume
over time. Each rivulet illustrates the
proportion of iPad tweets containing a
given word, such as HELP. Color is used
only to distinguish rivulets.
horrible
5
awkward
fast weird
strange
used Learn why negative
words are coming up.
TYPING
easy
super
bad
Finding negative words
is a good way to locate
consumers pain points.
Though not frequently,
DISAPPOINTED and
4Look for user experi-
ences. Product testing
PROBLEM appeared in
tweets that focused on
product functionality.
Customer service could
be adjusted to address
the most common
6 Learn about conversa-
tion dominators. Words
and reviews cant replace complaints. that suddenly dominate
user reactions. Looking at the tweet stream mean
iPad tweets with the words @jgamet: Im having something has happened
TYPING and KEYBOARD, problems moving apps thats worth learning about.
and then singling out the between screens on The term JAILBREAK refers
most common words in my iPad. Anyone else? to hackers use of iPad
those tweets (see above), source code to run software
gives you feedback from @darrmurr: Very not authorized by Apple.
disappointed that
thousands of users. The the iBook app for Tweeters were sharing links
negative words could iPad is not allowed to stories, code, and video
help prioritize marketing for iPhone/iPod. Apple tutorials on how to hack
messages and product is trying to force the the device.
development. upgrade.
@oncee: RT @jjarmoc:
Hackers Gained Full
@singha: Methinks
#iPad will be really Root Code Execution
good for reading of iPad, Jailbreak is
stuPDFs, NYTimes, Around Corner!
so on. Landscape
typing was awkward.
help
disappointed
beautiful
jailbreak
e
MONDAY 12 A.M.
June 2010 Harvard Business Review 35
5/4/10 10:30:15 AM
 IDEA WATCH

Vision Statement
Behold the Extreme
Consumers
If youre like most brand managers, youre unaware
of or turned o by extreme consumerspeople
so infatuated with the brand that they spend more
than 10% of their lifetime income on it. But they can
be your most powerful allies. This study of 2,000
extreme consumers in China, Europe, and Japan
100%
PERSONALLY IDENTIFY
WITH AND SAY THEY
reveals that their passion is contagious. They GAIN MEANING FROM
A FAVORITE BRAND
promote the brand via blogs, fan websites,
YouTube videos, and word of mouth.
Data and analysis by Andreas B. Eisingerich, Gunjan Bhardwaj,
98%
HAVE DEFENDED THEIR

5
FAVORITE BRAND AGAINST
and Yoshio Miyamoto; visualization by Jackson Dykman PERCEIVED ATTACKS IN THE

%
MEDIA OR FROM OTHER FIRMS
OR INDIVIDUALS

96%
DESCRIBE THEIR
FAVORITE BRAND AS
PART OF THE FAMILY

94%
DISPLAY THEIR EXTREME
BEHAVIOR IN RELATION TO
JUST ONE BRAND

ONLY AROUND 5%
OF CONSUMERS
GO TO EXTREMES,
ON AVERAGE, BUT THEY HAVE
94%
AGREE STRONGLY THAT
AN ENORMOUS IMPACT ON A MORE OFTEN THAN NOT,
FIRMS PROFITABILITY BUYING CHEAP IS EXPENSIVE

Theyre loyal.
They tend to stay true to their
brand no matter what, and they 94%
NEVER EVEN CONSIDER
speak up for it when its under BUYING A BRAND THAT
attack. RIVALS THEIR FAVORITE

They have resources.

Most are 30 to 45 years old,
79%
PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY AND ASSOCIATED PRESS
and their income is above their
national average. REGULARLY TALK UP
THEIR FAVORITE BRAND
TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS
They add real value.
Consider the iPhone apps built
by die-hard Apple fans, or the
Japanese Ferrari dealership
opened by Osamu Enomoto,
71%
SPEND MORE THAN ONE-
a former engineer who quit his THIRD OF THEIR INCOME ON
THEIR FAVORITE BRAND
job at Toyota to sell the cars
he loves most. Enomoto has
sold more than 1,000 Ferraris
in a country that has a total of 53% REGULARLY DISPARAGE
around 10,000. COMPETING BRANDS

What do One person has lived

exclusively on food
Another has bought
so many pairs (99, to
Another has pur-
chased more than 150
Another has eaten
breakfast, lunch,
extreme that contains Arm & be exact) of the same Canon cameras since and dinner at Panda
consumers Hammer Baking Soda
for more than 30
Nike shoe that, the
customer says, home
2006. Express every day for
the past ve years.
do, exactly? years. looks like a Nike store.

30 Harvard Business Review April 2010

1075 Apr10 Vision Statement Layout.indd 30 3/16/10 2:59:56 PM


and Learn to
Embrace Them
A survey of 640 executives shows that
managers are concerned about losing
control of their brands positioning. Many
worry (wrongly) that the consumers
antics could signal that the brand
appeals only to extreme individuals.
82%
OF MANAGERS HAVENT THOUGHT
ABOUT HOW TO USE EXTREME
CONSUMERS TO GROW THE
BRAND OR INCREASE SALES
65 %
ARE WARY OF THEM
10%
ACTIVELY AVOID THEM
8
%
OF MANAGERS CATER TO
THEM WITH STRATEGIES
LIKE THOSE IN THE CASE
STUDIES ON THE RIGHT
Another has drunk And another has
nothing but Coca-Cola consumed 12 Krispy
for more than 20 years. Kreme doughnuts per
day for more than four
years.
1075 Apr10 Vision Statement Layout.indd 31
HBR.ORG
Case Studies
TWILIGHT
LET CUSTOMERS
TAKE OWNERSHIP
Stephenie Meyers
Twilight series of books
and movies encourages
collaborative use among
the ultradevoted. On the
brands ocial website,
visitors can form their own
committees and promote
fan-run events. In es-
sence, theyre developing
tools for attracting other
customers.
PATAGONIA, ADIDAS
ASK CUSTOMERS
FOR HELP
Patagonia relies on fear-
less customers to test
products in the planets
harshest environments.
Adidas invited enthusiasts
to spray grati on ware-
house walls and then used
the designs to decorate
shoes.
ANIME, BEN & JERRYS
SPONSOR EVENTS
Happenings tailored
to extreme consumers
engender a feeling of
belonging and create
positive buzz. In Japan,
manga (comic book) and
anime (animation) series
host events at which fans
dress up in costumes and
literally live the brand.
Ben & Jerrys sundae
festivals initially targeted
the extreme crowd but
have become mainstream
events over time.
RED BULL
SHARE
CONSUMERS
STORIES
This is an eective way to
convey the sense that the
consumers are brand he-
roes. Red Bull celebrates
its extreme athletes in its
web publication The Red
Bulletin.
Andreas B. Eisingerich (a.eisingerich@
imperial.ac.uk) is an assistant professor of
marketing at Imperial College Business School.
Gunjan Bhardwaj is the leader of Ernst & Youngs
Global Business Performance Think Tank. Yoshio
Miyamoto works as a product manager at Verba-
tim, Mitsubishi Chemical. Jackson Dykman is an
information designer based in New York.
HBR Reprint F1004G
April 2010 Harvard Business Review 31
3/16/10 3:00:08 PM
 IDEA WATCH HBR.ORG
RESEARCH Follow HBRs coverage

Research Watch How Online Retailers Can Avoid TMI

of the latest academic research.
http://blogs.hbr.org/research/

As anyone whos sold an item Administration, in Nashville, recommendations, and lead

on eBay knows, high-quality
images can help persuade
online shoppers to make
a purchase. When giving
buyers a receipt, though, a
low-quality drawing can be
a better choice. Jacqueline
Conard, an assistant professor
of marketing at Belmont Uni-
versitys College of Business
observed that the high-quality
photos some online retailers
included on their receipts
rarely looked good after a trip
through a home printerand
rarely brought the retailers any
benet. She found that simple
line drawings were more apt
to increase customers satis-
faction, inspire word-of-mouth
to repurchases. The idea here
is to provide enough informa-
tion to allow [buyers] to feel
good about the money that
they had just spentbut not
enough detail to allow their
memory of their purchase to
be altered, she says.

MORALE by Utpal M. Dholakia Overworked or skeptical employees are

Why Employees Can less able (or inclined) to create a positive

customer experience. Their behavior can
make the Groupon offer backfire, since two
Wreck Promotional Oers keys to reaping profits from the coupons
are getting the Grouponers to buy items in

I n theory, the social media site Groupon

is a win-win for consumers and busi-
nesses. Shoppers get deep discounts
at stores and events, and companies get a
massive influx of customers. But theres
Groupon is the best-known of several
new sites that marry social media and
coupon marketing. (Others include Living-
Social, BuyWithMe, and Scoutmob.) It
offers a daily deal$50 worth of clothing
addition to the discounted one and to be-
come repeat customers who will pay full
price in the future. In fact, preparing em-
ployees for upcoming promotions and ob-
taining their buy-in is the most important
a crucial weak link in the chain, a vulner- from The Gap for $25, for instance, or a $175 factor influencing a Groupon promotions
ability faced by any service company thats facial for $59. The coupons are valid only success: Employees at businesses where
offering a promotion: Employees. if a certain number of people buy them, the coupons generated profits had a 63%
If employees at a company using Grou- so would-be users must rally their friends, higher satisfaction rate, in terms of how
pon arent happy with the promotion, my typically via Facebook or Twitter. Some they viewed customers, than employees
research shows, customers may have a bad deals attract more than 20,000 buyers. at businesses where the promotions failed.
experience, and the company may obtain Many coupons are for things you dont This association is compelling evidence
no long-term benefit. And many employ- usually see discountedartisanal bread, that managers deciding to try Groupon
ees arent happy when Groupon comes on kayak rentals, helicopter-flying lessons should take steps to keep their employees
the scene: Theyre the and many of the par- contentfor example, by agreeing ahead of
ones serving the meals COPING WITH ticipating businesses time to compensate them for longer hours
and waxing the eye- GROUPONERS have little experience or lower tips.
10
brows of customers who Employees with coupons and bar- Another important variable affecting the
are sometimes less than average gain hunters. As a re- success of Groupon discounts, of course,
self-reported
gracious. sult, managers may fail is how many of the coupon users are new
happiness with
Most of the Grou- customers to anticipate how an customers; giving existing customers a
poners are deal seekers, behavior onslaught of customers lower price will hurt, not help, long-term
during Groupon 7.09 Promotions
one restaurant owner that turned will affect their employ- profits. But its hard to overstate the value
PHOTOGRAPHY: PROVIDED BY BELMONT UNIVERSITY

promotions out to be
said during a survey I protable ees. Workers often re- of getting employees into the right frame
conducted of 150 busi- sent the extra work they of mind for Grouponsor any promotion,
nesses that used Grou- have to do and dont for that matter. Your employees stand be-
pon from June 2009 4.36 Promotions grasp the logic behind tween your product and your customers,
that turned
to August 2010. They out to be the special deal. Some and ultimately theyre the ones who will
unprot-
felt entitled to special able e m p l oye e s t h o u g ht make a promotion succeed or fail.
treatment, didnt spend we shouldnt be giving HBR Reprint F1101C
more than the price of EMPLOYEE away the product for
SATISFACTION Utpal M. Dholakia is an associate professor
the Groupon item itself, so little, one business of marketing at Rice Universitys Jones
and didnt tip. 1 owner told me. Graduate School of Business.

28 Harvard Business Review JanuaryFebruary 2011

1568 JanFeb11 IW.indd 28 12/3/10 3:30:59 PM