Brandwatch
is a digital consumer intelligence company that specializes in social media monitoring and analytics. It offers a suite of tools and platforms designed to help businesses track their online presence, gather insights from social media conversations, and make data-driven decisions based on those insights. Brandwatch's products allow users to monitor brand mentions, track consumer sentiment, analyze competitors, discover influencers, and identify emerging trends across various social media channels and the wider web.
The company was founded in 2007 by Giles Palmer, and its headquarters are located in Brighton, United Kingdom. Over the years, it has grown to become a leading player in the social media analytics space, catering to businesses of various sizes and industries. In October 2021, Brandwatch was acquired by Cision, a leading global provider of earned media software and services, further expanding its reach and capabilities in the digital marketing and PR landscape.
How does digital consumer intelligence work?
Digital consumer intelligence involves the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data from various digital channels, such as social media platforms, websites, forums, blogs, and online reviews, to gain insights into consumer behavior, preferences, sentiment, and trends. This information is then used to inform marketing strategies, product development, customer service, and other business decisions. The process generally involves the following steps:
- Data collection: Digital consumer intelligence tools and platforms gather data from multiple sources, such as social media, blogs, forums, news websites, and online reviews. They use APIs, web scraping, and other methods to access and collect this data in real time or at regular intervals.
- Data processing and normalization: The collected data is processed to filter out irrelevant content, remove duplicates, and normalize it to ensure consistency and compatibility for analysis. This step may involve language translation, sentiment analysis, and data structuring.
- Data analysis: Once the data is processed, it is analyzed using various techniques, such as text analytics, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI), to identify patterns, trends, and insights. This can include sentiment analysis, topic modeling, and keyword analysis, among others.
- Visualization and reporting: The insights derived from the analysis are presented in the form of easily understandable charts, graphs, and reports, which help businesses make informed decisions. These visualizations can highlight key performance indicators (KPIs), such as brand sentiment, share of voice, engagement metrics, and emerging trends.
- Actionable insights: Digital consumer intelligence provides actionable insights that businesses can use to improve their products, services, marketing campaigns, and customer experiences. For example, a company might identify a negative sentiment around a particular product feature and decide to improve it or use positive sentiment to create more targeted marketing campaigns.
By leveraging digital consumer intelligence, businesses can gain a deeper understanding of their target audiences, stay ahead of market trends, monitor their online reputation, and make data-driven decisions to enhance their overall performance.
How do you see the future of digital consumer intelligence?
The future of digital consumer intelligence looks promising, with several trends and advancements expected to shape its development in the coming years. Here are some key areas of growth and innovation:
- Integration of advanced technologies: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP) will continue to enhance the capabilities of digital consumer intelligence platforms. These technologies will enable more accurate sentiment analysis, trend identification, and predictive analytics, providing businesses with deeper and more actionable insights.
- Expansion of data sources: As new digital channels and platforms emerge, digital consumer intelligence tools will expand their data collection capabilities to incorporate these sources. This will provide businesses with a more comprehensive understanding of consumer behavior and preferences across a wider range of online touchpoints.
- Real-time insights: The demand for real-time analytics will grow, as businesses increasingly seek to respond to emerging trends and consumer sentiment quickly. Digital consumer intelligence platforms will improve their ability to deliver real-time insights, allowing companies to make faster and more informed decisions.
- Enhanced privacy and data protection: With growing concerns about data privacy and the implementation of stricter regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), digital consumer intelligence platforms will need to ensure compliance and prioritize the protection of user data. This may involve developing more secure data collection and storage methods and implementing anonymization techniques.
- Personalization and customization: Digital consumer intelligence will play a crucial role in helping businesses deliver more personalized and customized experiences to their customers. By leveraging detailed consumer insights, companies will be able to tailor their products, services, and marketing campaigns to cater to individual preferences and needs.
- Cross-functional collaboration: As digital consumer intelligence becomes more integrated into various business functions, such as marketing, sales, product development, and customer service, organizations will increasingly embrace a cross-functional approach to leveraging insights. This will lead to better decision-making and more cohesive strategies across the organization.
Overall, the future of digital consumer intelligence will be characterized by advancements in technology, a broader range of data sources, real-time insights, and increased emphasis on privacy and personalization. These developments will enable businesses to better understand their customers and make more informed decisions to stay competitive in the evolving digital landscape.
Who are the main players in the market for digital consumer intelligence?
The market for digital consumer intelligence features several key players that offer a range of tools and platforms designed to help businesses gather insights from online channels. Some of the main players in this space include:
- Brandwatch
: A leading digital consumer intelligence company that provides social media monitoring and analytics tools. Its suite of products includes tools for tracking brand mentions, sentiment analysis, influencer identification, and competitive analysis.
- Talkwalker
: Talkwalker is a social listening and analytics platform that helps businesses monitor, analyze, and leverage online conversations across social media, blogs, news websites, and other digital channels. Talkwalker's tools include sentiment analysis, trend identification, and influencer tracking.
- Sprinklr
: Sprinklr is a comprehensive customer experience management platform that offers a range of social media management and analytics tools. It helps businesses engage with customers across multiple digital channels, track online conversations, analyze sentiment, and measure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
- Meltwater
: Meltwater is a global provider of media intelligence and social listening tools. The company's platform helps businesses monitor their online presence, track brand mentions, analyze sentiment, and uncover insights from social media, news websites, and other digital channels.
- Hootsuite
: Hootsuite is primarily a social media management platform that also offers social listening and analytics features. It helps businesses schedule and manage their social media content, monitor online conversations, and analyze performance metrics to inform their marketing strategies.
- Crimson Hexagon (now part of Brandwatch): Crimson Hexagon was a social media analytics platform that provided tools for sentiment analysis, trend identification, and consumer insights. In 2018, Crimson Hexagon merged with Brandwatch, further expanding the capabilities of the combined platform.
- Synthesio
: Synthesio is a global social listening platform that helps businesses monitor online conversations, analyze sentiment, and gain insights from social media, blogs, forums, and news websites. Its tools include influencer identification, trend tracking, and competitive analysis.
These companies represent some of the main players in the digital consumer intelligence market. However, there are many other smaller players and niche providers that offer specialized tools and services to cater to specific industries or use cases. The market is continuously evolving, with new entrants and innovative solutions emerging to address the changing needs of businesses in the digital landscape.
Do you know successful projects that used digital consumer intelligence?
Yes, there are several examples of successful projects where businesses have leveraged digital consumer intelligence to drive positive outcomes. Here are a few cases:
- Domino's Pizza: Domino's Pizza used social listening to identify customer complaints and preferences on social media. By analyzing customer feedback, the company discovered that many customers were unhappy with the taste and quality of their pizzas. Domino's used these insights to revamp its menu and improve its product offerings. This led to a significant increase in sales and a turnaround in the brand's reputation.
- Airbnb: Airbnb has used digital consumer intelligence to understand traveler preferences, sentiment, and emerging trends in the vacation rental market. By monitoring online conversations, the company was able to identify key areas of concern, such as safety and trust, and develop new features and policies to address these issues. This proactive approach has helped Airbnb maintain its strong brand reputation and grow its user base.
- Unilever: Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, used social listening to identify a trend in the demand for natural and eco-friendly products. By analyzing conversations across various digital channels, the company discovered that consumers were becoming more environmentally conscious and seeking sustainable alternatives to traditional products. As a result, Unilever launched its 'Sustainable Living' initiative and introduced new eco-friendly product lines, which resonated with its target audience and contributed to the company's growth.
- Samsung: Samsung has leveraged digital consumer intelligence to monitor its online reputation and respond to customer concerns in real time. During the Galaxy Note 7 crisis, where some devices were reported to catch fire, Samsung used social listening to track consumer sentiment and understand the impact of the issue on its brand reputation. This allowed the company to make informed decisions on product recalls, communication strategies, and customer support, helping to mitigate the damage and restore consumer trust.
These examples illustrate how digital consumer intelligence can be used to inform various aspects of a business, such as product development, marketing, customer service, and reputation management. By leveraging insights from online conversations, businesses can make data-driven decisions that align with customer needs and preferences, ultimately driving success and growth.
Peter Auwerx, chatting with the latest version of chatGPT. You can see that the answers are more detailed than in the previous version.
