The social web and the opportunity for grocery retail
by Bill Bishop
Last week, a panel at FMIConnect presented highlights from the final section of a major retail report on using the social web. Developed by grocery industry leaders for use by the industry, the report covers the topic in many dimensions. The three-year project was sponsored by the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council of North America.
Michael Sansolo, the Council's research director and a widely respected retailing thought leader, talks with us here about how the Council approached the project, what they learned from their latest research, and how they hope the complete report will be used by retailers. We are also pleased to have Michael Sansolo as a BMC Black Belt.
Was it difficult to agree on what made up the social web?
Sansolo: When the Council’s group of grocery business leaders conceived the project in 2010, the group recognized Facebook’s dominance, but also that the project’s usefulness depended on creating a tool that could be used as the social web evolved. When the project began, we had no way of knowing about the proliferation of apps and social sites such as Instagram or Snapchat – but we did know that the social web had huge potential for business.
What were the biggest hurdles to getting your minds around the topic?
The first challenge was to understand such an incredibly new and changing environment. The open nature of the social web is in many ways a completely different world from traditional company cultures. Hierarchy is limited, the rules are non-existent or at least very hard to enforce and commentary is open and completely free flowing.
A second challenge was to let go of a lot of preconceived notions about groups of shoppers and/or business size. Council members learned a lot from each other’s businesses:
- Bodega Latina in Southern California demonstrated that Hispanics are extremely active on the social web.
- Dollar General showed the same for lower-income shoppers.
- Knowlan’s, with just two locations in Minnesota, showed that even a small operator could build an incredible personality for the stores and food on the social web.
What does the Council hope retailers will gain from Part 8 of the report?
Two main things – first, a clearer idea of what shoppers want from their grocers on the social web, and second, insight into the obstacles companies are running into as they try to achieve what shoppers want. For this final installment, we surveyed 3,700 shoppers and conducted in-depth interviews with 10 social media leaders at key supermarket chains.
Consumers recognize that their supermarkets have taken up residence on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites, but so far, they are underwhelmed with most of those efforts/presences. The unique advantage of the social web is its ability to foster two-way communication with shoppers, where recipes, shopping strategies and more can be shared easily. Consumers say that food businesses should focus on building that kind of space, but that’s not what they’re finding.
Instead, shoppers who use supermarket social media sites (and the numbers are strong) report that they interact with their store in much the same way they use traditional media: to find out about specials and to look for coupons. They take information and share little in return – because, they tell us, that’s what most business sites push them to do. This means the social web’s relationship-building potential is barely being approached by business.
Our in-depth discussions with industry executives shed light on why some of those shopper relationships are so shallow. They showed that most companies and most layers of management inside companies are not yet embracing the need to fully engage the social web. Internal silos or worse keep companies from the complete discussion necessary. Many companies remain uncertain about how to cope with a 24/7 environment that is constantly expanding in new directions. In countless ways consumer use of social technology is running ahead of companies.
What surprised you the most about what shoppers will expect from the social web in 2020?
The good news is that biggest surprise is also a huge opportunity: Shoppers actually want to see their supermarkets fully embrace this environment. They want business to understand the larger relationships possible on the social web and they expect it to participate. That’s a huge challenge for business, but it also points up the opportunity if companies can focus their efforts.
Some companies, including both retailers and suppliers, are finding success. For example,
- Lowe’s home improvement stores have a wonderful series of Vine videos that demonstrate how even a six-second video loop can explain basic home repair problems.
- Target seems to excel at finding ways to present itself on a collection of social sites.
- Coca-Cola has created amazing relationships and discussions with consumers, leading to incredible consumer-generated content around the experience of the soft drink.
In your opinion, what separates the retailers who GET IT when it comes to the social web from those who don’t?
The social web is a new environment and it requires a new method of communicating. The companies that really get it understand the importance of listening and participating in that discussion instead of dominating it.
This is a new skill for many, but it’s how you succeed on the social web. By listening, you get a great sense of what your consumer wants, and from there you can build great things.
How would you recommend retailers use the complete report?
The Council wanted to design a report that could start constructive dialog within companies about how to participate in this new environment of communication and community that has so much potential for building customer relationships. We also knew that people would approach the topic with widely varying levels of familiarity, so the report covers a lot of ground and is designed to let folks drop in where they need to be.
- The first few parts cover foundational issues such as defining the social web and understanding why so many people are using it.
- The middle parts deal with the challenge of operating in such an open environment, and with creating structure for internal and external social web strategies.
- The eighth and final section (A Look at Today and a Vision for 2020) uses interviews with shoppers and industry leaders to deliver a critical assessment of the current use of the social web and a vision for moving forward.
Where can our readers find it?
The report is posted at the CCRRC website. Here's a link: Untangling the Social Web: A Grocery Shopping Perspective.
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