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Marketers Be Warned: Understand Consumers Before Going Viral

In all the hype of Web 2.0 and Facebook, marketers and researchers are scrambling to integrate social networks into their campaigns. But despite all the commotion, it’s becoming vitally clear how important it is to understand your consumers before going viral.

Wal-Mart recently launched a Facebook group in the hopes of winning back-to-school sales. The group, “Roommate Style Match,” lets students log on and design their dorm room with their roommate. It’s a great concept that has drawn over 900 members to the group, but whether it meets Wal-Mart’s intention remains to be seen.

The group “wall” is filled with people posting their opinions about Wal-Mart, including strong views on unionizing the big box chain and on how the company has closed community based businesses. Few and far between are supporters of the company, or comments about the service of matching roommate styles.

However, other leading brands are researching before launching an ad campaign, by creating a customer advisory panel where they can learn more about their consumer base. Vision Critical is working with hundreds of companies to create customer advisory panels so they can tap in to the voice of customer and gauge which ads will be most successful. If you would like to learn more, contact Julie Romas at jr@visioncritical.com or call 604.647.3557.

Posted on August 26, 2007
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