THE NEW PULSE OF THE CONSUMER
Leveraging
Private-Sector
Learning for the
Transportation
Industry
January 22, 2012

Trends in Private-Sector Research
 Consumers are changing at the
speed of light
 Rapidly evolving technology
and communication channels
are changing consumer habits
 The volume of information
can be overwhelming
 Companies are racing to
catch up and adapt
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How has the Consumer Changed?
 Technology has shifted
how consumers socialize,
shop and interact
 The ability to influence
others has grown
exponentially
 Consumers expect more
from brand interactions
 One-way messaging is
being replaced by Lets take a closer
conversations look at Social Media…
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Social Media Across the Globe
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We are Becoming Social
Consumers
 Online Social Networks
and Blog sites rule
Americans’ Internet time,
accounting for 23
percent of time spent
online.
 More than twice the
amount of time spent on
the #2 category, Online
Games.
Source: Nielsen, May 2011
www.getsatisfaction.com
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Why is This So Important?
One Breakthrough Book – Empowered
The Central Idea Behind Empowered?
We must respond to customers' escalating power.
―…people generate 500 billion
online influence impressions on
each other every year…. this
influence is highly concentrated
— 16% of the people generate
80% of the influence.―
Bernoff J., & Schadler T. (2010). Empowered. Harvard Business Review Press.
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Social Media is Here to Stay
 Consumer habits have changed
 Customers want to engage more
than ever… on their terms
 Jumping in without a plan and the
appropriate resources in place can
be dangerous
 Making connections that fit your
consumers and business is the key
to success
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The Channels are Always Changing
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How is the Private-Sector
Responding?
 ADAPTING:
– Getting connected “The issue of social
digital media – that train
– Evolving business practices has left the station. It is a
runaway train, and it’s not
– Deploying resources coming back. And as a
result of that the
 COLLABORATING: understanding, the
capability, the insight that
– Recognizing that conversations are goes along with emotionally
cross-functional engaging with people
through these channels is
 ENGAGING: mission critical to any
enterprise.‖
– Employees and customers are – Howard Schultz
fueling innovation, solving problems
and acting as brand ambassadors
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The Future Role of Research
 Consider all
sources of Customer Relations
feedback in
Research PR
planning
 Structure, Marketing
RESEARCH DEEPER
INSIGHTS
analyze and
interpret Operations
feedback to
R&D
deliver deeper
insights
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New Private Sector Research Tools
Ideation
Sites
Communities
Command
Centers
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Southwest is Connected
http://www.slideshare.net/christi5321/join-the-conversation-2176989
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Starbucks is Engaged
Ranked #1 most engaged brand online in July, 2009.
http://techcrunch.com/2009/07/20/the-most-engaged-brands-on-the-web/
Over 27,000,000 fans globally
Over 250,000 registered
1,000,000+ followers members have submitted
100,000 ideas. Successful
loyalty programs were
―In less than 90 days, Starbucks became the among the 100 initiatives
number one company in America in terms of launched in response to
revenue and frequency of people paying for these customer ideas.
something on their smart phone at Starbucks.
However, we were able to create significant http://boomertechtalk.com/howard-schultz-on-
awareness and relationships with our customers the-importance-of-social-media-for-business/
as a result of using social and digital media to
explain it, to talk about it, and it had a life of its
own.‖ – Howard Schultz
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Other Best Practices
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Transportation Applications
Improve Response Rates
Reduce Costs
Supplement Insights
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Improve Response Rates
and Reduce Costs
Online
Invitations By: Phone
www. Country
Language
Mode
Mobile Social
Text or Web Route Media
Vessel
GPS and date verification
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Deeper Qualitative Insights
Mine survey and
Social Media
comments to add
depth to results
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Conclusions
1. Most important: Social Media is here to stay
2. The Private Sector knows this and is adapting
accordingly
3. The general public are now Social Consumers!
4. Companies must approach Research and Social
conversations cross-functionally
5. Engaging customers and creating influencers should
be incorporated in the Research planning process
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Thank Abt SRBI MID Division
Duane Clement, President
You!
email: d.clement@srbi.com
phone: +1 513.509.3886
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