Consumer Insights for the Consumer Technology Industry

Listen to consumer tech conversations in real-time

There is no shortage of online conversation when it comes to technology. Social networks, review sites, and forums are all rich sources of information. When you have a social intelligence platform at your disposal to pool all of those conversations, you can analyze and react in real-time.

The key is conducting social media research that goes beyond counting mentions of your brand. With the right approach, you can uncover robust insights that lead to a real business action.

In-depth consumer insights for the consumer technology industry

It starts with asking the right questions. Brainstorming specific, targeted questions that can deliver actionable recommendations is the key.

Forget about how you are going to answer the questions – leading social intelligence platforms like Brandwatch are highly flexible – focus on what you want to achieve as a result of your research.

There are two main approaches to this research. First, you can conduct a planned analysis, where you are looking for an answer to a specific question. Alternatively, an exploratory analysis sees you listening to data to discover the story within.

This second technique can often involve a brand agnostic query, looking at a type of conversation across the product category.

Segment different topics as you read through the data. Cross one group of categories with another group of categories, and you may begin to see patterns and differences. For example, different author groups may have different concerns about a product.

Drive product innovation

Sentiment analysis can be used to gain an overview of a product and particular features. Deeper consumer insights for the consumer tech industry will be surfaced with a human analysis of the data.

This allows you to dive into more detail, categorizing common issues revealed by the data. Revealing these insights can allow the product roadmap to be prioritized in alignment with customer pain points.

Product innovation can be sparked by monitoring ideas and wishes of customers, in addition to their frustrations. An analysis of popular features of a competitor’s products will also be useful here.

It’s hard to get that feedback once someone has a laptop or a TV in their home. It’s hard to find another way to get feedback like that

Sarah Dickinson, Head of PR and Internal Communications for Europe, Toshiba

Hone your competitive edge

Measuring share of voice provides an overview of your position within the market. Share of voice can be broken down further into different regions and demographics. This uncovers insights around audience segments, and whether you are gaining or losing ground in a specific area. This can also reveal opportunities for development, with more marketing budget assigned to growth areas.

Consumer technology brands can surface further consumer insights by monitoring brand associations, helping to reveal unique selling points and the strengths and weaknesses of the competition. The differences between two competitors can be highlighted for a comparative analysis.

PS4 has better games
The UI for the Xbox is trash
The Xbox’s reveal was the worst reveal in history

There you go https://t.co/x84TtA9WVg

— SKRRT RUSSELL (@Khalifist) August 24, 2016

Optimize your marketing efforts

You can understand the performance of your online and offline marketing efforts easily with social intelligence. Consumers’ positive and negative reactions can be mined for more specific details. A demographic analysis of the data lets marketers know if their campaigns are resonating with the target audience.

 

Samsung’s advert for their new S7 phone is just the guy opening the box.

Galaxy S7: What A Great Box

— Jon Brady (@jonbradyphoto) March 1, 2016

Crucially, this knowledge is available in real-time, meaning brands can react quickly and intelligently, tweaking their campaigns to provide the maximum ROI.

Stay alert to emerging to trends

The consumer tech industry is one of ever-changing updates and innovations, with new players entering the market on a dizzying scale. Brands that were once behemoths in the industry have withered and died due to not keeping up with the latest trends.

Keeping abreast of emerging trends is one of the most important consumer insights for the consumer technology industry. Knowing about emerging trends before your competitors is a vital part of being a modern, agile brand.

Google Trends can show you the waxing and waning of interest in a topic over time, but the insights are pretty basic. The tool is a worthwhile addition to the research mix. The problem is the lack of detail regarding the intent and sentiment of those searches.

Social intelligence can offer much deeper insights, with qualitative insights at a quantitative scale. Not only can you track the level of conversation over time, including retrospectively, but you can also dive deeper. A mixture of human and machine analysis will reveal sentiment, emotions, associated concerns, and desires.

Pretty concerning that the biggest games in VR so far seem to be built on the theory that it’s A-OK to make a sizeable % of players sick.

— Aaron San Filippo (@AeornFlippout) August 31, 2016

Consumer tech is one of the most innovative and competitive industries.

Social intelligence can be a vital part of the research mix for surfacing consumer insights for the consumer technology industry. It allows brands to stay ahead of the latest trends and keep an eye on competitors, as well as reach customers and prospects wherever they are talking on the web.