Am I really brandless?

Discover what you can learn from online category conversations in the social media space from SKIM’s Communication and Social Media expert, Sourabh Sharma.

Am I really brandless? SKIM’s social media expert answers in Vue magazine

Even if you’re not a highly branded player in the market, you can learn from online category conversations in the social media space. We’re proud to share that SKIM’s Communication and Social Media expert, Sourabh Sharma, was asked to contribute to the June 2013 issue of Vue magazine.  Find out in the resulting article how “brandless” brands can turn special challenges, revealed through social media research, into insights that can be turned into actionable strategies.

Make social media research actionable

The Internet consumer world is abuzz 24/7. Everybody talks about everything, and even a sliver of conversation can yield some usable insight. And because these insights are unprompted, highly personal, often public, and readily available, they provide a candid, honest, and real-time view of consumer perceptions. It is no longer a debate about whether social media research should be conducted or not, but more a matter of how one proceeds with it. This, in turn, depends on one’s brand or category.

Along the brand-category spectrum, there are two extremes: some categories are so defined by a particular brand that they become synonymous with the brand (e.g., Kleenex and Popsicle); other categories are so commoditized due to the absence of a dominant brand (e.g., margarine, table salt or printer paper) that it becomes difficult for any brand to make itself known.

When conducting social media research, special challenges exist for brands that occupy the “brandless” extremes described above. These insights can be turned into actionable strategies.