Groundswell-
what is it? It isn’t just another catchy phrase that a marketer made up. Groundswell in the purest form is how people,
technology, and economies collide to impact a business. Today people rely more and more on what their
peers have to say over what corporations have to say. It is technology that is allowing people to
connect in ways like they never have been able to do before and companies need
to learn to adapt or risk missing out.
The authors
of the Groundswell feel that a social trend is happening around us in
which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other,
rather than from traditional institutions like corporations. The target audience for the book is any
entrepreneur or professional who is trying to adapt to the new landscape of
marketing to consumers. What makes the
book so enjoyable is the use of case studies that show how the power of the
internet and social media is influencing business. Instead of using fluff and boring numbers to prove
its point, it uses case studies. Using
case studies show what has been happening and how various businesses are
adapting or not adapting.
Where there are many examples in the book, my favorite that I can relate
to is the story about how my company, Del Monte, created an online community to
understand the needs of those who purchase pet products. This community brought ideas to our research
and development teams that embraced the needs of the consumer. It allowed us to create products that people
desired and it moved the decision of what products we create from an office to
the actual consumers.
This example of how Del Monte moved in and embraced the consumer and
reacted is a theme that is seen throughout the book. It
shows how companies see opportunity and what they decide to do about it depending
upon the various populations that they are interacting with. The diagram below shows how the groundswell
can be embraced by companies.
The book also discusses listening to the groundswell. It is about being able to hear what your
consumers are saying about your product.
It is the consumers that are making your brand what it is and these
voices should be heard. This can be done
through hiring outside firms to collect data on consumers or to something as
easy as setting up an online community for consumers to chat about your
product(s).
Overall the book is about how business gains off the groundswell that
is created by new media and consumers colliding. It is about being ready to jump on opportunities
when they come up, collaborating across lines and most importantly keeping in
constant contact with consumers and listening to them. To me, these are obvious actions that a successful
business should take. It is about knowing your market and those in it.
I enjoyed the book and the way the information was shared. It was an
easy read, but as I say after reading many similar books, these are ideas that
should be common sense to marketers. In
the end, it’s the consumer that keeps you in business and if you don’t listen
to what they have to say, you run the risk of losing site of the needs of your
consumer.
Before
purchasing this book, I did read reviews online and I knew in advance I might
feel this way after reading the book. I
love books that try to explain how marketing is changing with web2.0 and social
media, so I had to read it anyways. Reading
reviews of the book, I learned that the most popular books on this subject came
out in the 2007-2009 time frame. This
really surprised me. At that point in
time, marketers and companies where just beginning to see the need to change or
update the way they market. It seems
that there was a small population that saw the groundswell was coming in
regards to what the new social media tools where going to bring us.
As I said, I
did read reviews on the book because I was truly interested in what others have
to say. I first read reviews on
Amazon. Amazon readers gave it 4.5 stars
out of 140+ reviews. I dug a little
deeper to see what professionals in the industry had to say about the book
because my peers might feel a book holds merit on a topic while professionals
who live and breathe the topic might feel different. A Google search for reviews of the book
brings up a list of reviews from
professionals worldwide that are mostly positive. Not only where there written reviews, but
many respected professionals loaded YouTube videos with their reviews of this
must read book.
I am glad I
read the book. The case studies helped to
show that this is a real issue facing businesses in many different industries
from children’s toys to many different providers of consumer goods. Groundswell is truly a book that shows that
if we do not embrace new media as consumers and as businesses, we are going to
miss out.
