Groundswell: A Book Review

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.