social media in the fmcg industry

1

Analysis of the eight most valuable Swiss brands* in the FMCG industry:How do they use social media?

FMCG AND SOCIAL MEDIA

*Interbrand (2009)

Dec

emb

er 2

010

2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

An introduction to Social Media in the FMCG industry..........................pag. 3 Best and worst practices.....pag. 20 Methodology...........................................pag. 4 Conclusions...............................pag. 21

Nescafè......................................................pag. 5-‐6

Nestlè.........................................................pag. 7-‐8

Lindt...........................................................pag. 9-‐10

Nespresso.................................................pag. 11-‐12

Migros........................................................pag. 13-‐14

Coop............................................................pag. 15-‐16

Ricola..........................................................pag. 17

Ovomaltine...............................................pag. 18-‐19

3

FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) is a category of products characterized by frequent purchase and usually low price. We consider FMCG those like food, toiletry, and so on. As a brand, what you absolutely want to avoid is the idea of commoditization, which basically means having a category of products considered all the same, with price and only price as the discriminating variable.FMCG companies have therefore always tried to be more creative and innovative than the rest. The entire discipline of marketing, for example, owns a lot to FMCS. If it might be easy to market an innovative, wonderful laptop, the same does not apply to some common washing powder, or a bar of chocolate that looks (and maybe is) exactly as one thousand of other ones. And maybe it even costs more.That is why many FMCG saw a huge opportunity in Social Media. Going there because everybody else is going is not a good reason. Social media are increasingly becoming an essential tool to establish contacts with customers and be able to engage and maintain a va luable relationship.

Several are the advantages offered: -‐ Better understanding of customers;-‐ Possibility of collecting real and valuable feedback;-‐ Immediacy and speed of communication;-‐ Possibility of getting a rich understanding of problematic issues, or bad WOM (word of mouth) before it is too late; -‐ Communicate events, promotions, special offers, new launches;-‐ ENGAGE PEOPLE in an emotional way;-‐ Generate buzz, viral, and advocates (the best kind of advertising that a company may desire, because it is among peers and thus more credible);-‐ Give people something to talk about, making them feel important.

A company should always keep in mind that in a social media perspective CUSTOMERS are the center of the world. It is about their value system, not the companies’.

When it comes to social media, FMCG companies rely on an approach based on experience and entertainment for the customers. But this does not mean taking them for stupids. Customers must perceive quality content. Being simplistic is not he same as being clear. People hate to be treated as idiots.Increasingly, FMCG companies are shifting to social media platforms to gain competitive advantages. There was a time in which brands seemed to be the de_initive solution to avoid commoditization of products. Now branding is not enough. There is a need of something more. Social media might be a good platform from where to start.

THE TREND“We’ve moved away from TV and print towards online” Leone Ashby, skincare brand manager for Kao.

This is the trend FMCG companies are following. The expectation is that we will witness a steadily growth of investments on social media, with an exponential growth of relevance of social media platforms.

FMCG still rely very much on traditional strategies (consider that more than 60% of the budget expenditures are invested on TV campaigns)*, but social media are growing fast, and are opening a world of opportunities. Nevertheless, they need to be well integrated into a consistent and holistic marketing strategy. As a standalone social media will just mean very little.

* Smith, Nicola, 2010. FMCG brands, Newmediaage, January 7.

http://www.nma.co.uk/features/fmcg-‐brands/3008309.article

An introduction to social media in the FMCG industry

The following report deals with the social media strategies employed by the eight Swiss most valuable brands in the FMCG industry (Interbrand 2009). The analysis will be carried out on the basis of their use of social media tools, social characteristics and engagement level on the interested channels.

http://www.nma.co.uk/features/fmcg-brands/3008309.article

http://www.nma.co.uk/features/fmcg-brands/3008309.article

4

The goal of our report is to analyse the usage of social

media tools for the eight most valuable Swiss brands in

the FMCG industry (according to interbrand 2009).

Since Facebook is the only social media which is

supported by all the companies, we used this platform as

a main base for our comparison. In addition we also

analysed Twitter and YouTube as far as there were ofQicial

pages supported by the examined brands.

To cope with the huge amount of available posts and

comments, we decided to limit the analysis to the time

span of one month, which was in our case November.

Generalizations to longer periods of time might be

possible, but we could not determine whether the

variables are constant over time, or if they are deviating.

We only considered the ofQicial pages, since it is where

the companies try to moderate, inQluence and/or actively

support the conversation with the consumers and

amongst them.

Users are considered to be future, present or past

consumers of the brands, that is why users are also called

consumers or customers in this report.

To evaluate the usage of social media, we tried to specify

the variables “dialog”, “advocacy”, “support”, “innovation”,

“brand engagement”, “leadership” and “linking value”

using the following indicators:

1) Dialog: in order to quantify the dialog between

company and consumers, we counted the number of

ofQicial pages, the number of “likes”, the used

languages, the number of consumers posting and

commenting.

2) Advocacy: to have a measure for advocacy, we

calculated the ratio of positive posts over negative

posts posted by users. We decided to only take posts

into consideration since it is the stronger expression

of someone’s opinion if he or she decides that that

opinion is worth a post.

3) Support: we calculated the percentage of company

answers to direct questions posed by users and the

percentage of replies to customer complaints. For the

same reason as above, we only considered posts.

4) Innovation: as an indicator of innovation we

computed the percentage of active users that

proposed service or product improvements. Users

who are posting were considered being active.

5) Brand Engagement: we took the number of

channels in which the company is present as an

indicator for brand engagement. The indicators for

communication leadership have also a certain

explanatory power for the brand engagement.

6) Communication Leadership: here, we had a look at

the number of posts by the company and we checked

if the company does offer free content.

7) Linking value: to evaluate the linking value the page

has for its users, we calculated the percentage user

posts which were answered by other users.

8) Other additional information: we observed which

page boxes were available to users and if there were

applications.

9) General Goals: we tried to estimate the general goal

of the speciQic pages. Of course this point is just a

general estimation and only the company itself

knows the real goal of their page.

To analyse the other social media platforms, namely

YouTube, Twitter, Flicker, Migipedia, and discussion

forums we used the same framework as above but

applied it in a more qualitative manner. Our analysis is

not so speciQic in those cases, but we observe data in

general.

METHODOLOGYfollowed in the report

The brands are ordered according to their classif ication in the study of the “Switzerland 40 most valuable brands” elaborated by Interbrand (2009)

Nescafé is a brand of Nestlé, representing with $ 12.753 millions the most valuable brand of Switzerland and the world’s leading coffee brand. Nescafé is known for its instant coffee. It provides a large product range from the classic Nescafé stepping into Cappuccinos, Latte Macchiatos and iced beverages. Besides instant coffee, Nestlé introduced Nescafé Dolce Gusto, which offers single cup coffee machines with corresponding coffee capsules and Nescafé Xpress including coffee to go, to be found in supermarkets and at gas stations.

Dialogue Nr. Of total ofQicial pages 1

Pages Nr of likes 893.644

Pages Languages at least 7

Number of Posts on the Wall 270

Number of comments on the wall 562

Advocacy Ratio of positive messages over negative messages by users (only for posts)

107/3 = 35.67

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 0%

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 0%

Innovation Absolut number of users that propose service/product improvements 11

% of users that propose service/product improvements 0,01%

Brand Engagement/Social presence

Nr. of channels used 5

Communication Leadership

Number of Posts on the wall by the company 7

Number of comments on the wall by the company 3

offers free content? Yes: Videos, Fotos

Linking Value % of users who discuss with their peers using the brand related social media spaces

16 of 270 = 6%

Other additional information

What kind of boxes are available? Wall, Info, Photos, Youtube, Twitter, Notes, Links, Video, My Flickr, Discussions, Poll, Events

Type of applications? Youtube, Twitter, Flickr

General goals of the Facebook page

To learn what customers are talking about, encourage customers to talk about the brand, adver7se, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and compe77onsNescafé gets a lot of people to engage themselves by expressing themselves on the Nescafé Facebook page. But they do get hardly any ques7ons/complaints or ideas by their customers, which would be good sources of informa7on. Nescafé also fails to get customers to talk to each other. They are only pos7ng but rarely answering to other user's posts.

To learn what customers are talking about, encourage customers to talk about the brand, adver7se, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and compe77onsNescafé gets a lot of people to engage themselves by expressing themselves on the Nescafé Facebook page. But they do get hardly any ques7ons/complaints or ideas by their customers, which would be good sources of informa7on. Nescafé also fails to get customers to talk to each other. They are only pos7ng but rarely answering to other user's posts.

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Pages Languages 1-‐7



Advocacy ratio of positive messages over negative messages by users (only for posts)

29/16 = 1,812

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 1 of 10 = 10%

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 0

Innovation Absolut number of users that propose service/product improvements 1 out of 133

% of users that propose service/product improvements 0,75






offers free content? Yes: photos


27,30%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall, Info, Discussions, Notes, Boxes (Discussion Board, Favorite Pages, Links)

Type of applications? None


To allow Nestle to make consumers aware of company news, product innovation, and special offers and to allow followers a free space to share thoughts on the brand.To allow Nestle to make consumers aware of company news, product innovation, and special offers and to allow followers a free space to share thoughts on the brand.

Nestlé S.A is the biggest company in the world in producing consumer-‐packaged goods and offering a most diverse range of products. The company was founded in 1866 in Switzerland, Vevey, where is still based. As one of the leading wellness and nutrition companies, Nestlé has 6,000 brands present in different markets and offers a range of products (such as coffee, bottled water, chocolate, ice cream, frozen and refrigerated food, pet food etc.), which are sold all around the world. In order to maintain its brand, the company constantly innovates its product lines.

source: wikipedia

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND GENERAL STATISTICS:

YOUTUBE: 149 subscribers, 4.598 channel views, 14 total uploaded videos, 12.815 total upload views. Used to inform consumers about future plans, products, results, production and R&D activities.

FLICKR: 62 photo sets. Used to share company’s photos about new products, production lines, forums, etc.

LINKEDIN: 27.739 followers, 18.043 employees on it. Used to display company information, history and to serve as a platform for employees.

TWITTER: 3.140 followers, 14 tweets in November. Used to display newsworthy company events and product innovation.

Lindt & Sprüngli is recognized in the market for high quality chocolate, offering a wide range of products in more than 100 countries all over the world. Founded in 1845, Lindt & Sprüngli currently counts six production sites in Europe, two in the US and distribution and sales companies on four continents. Since 1986, the shares of Chocoladefabriken Lindt & Sprungli AG are listed on the Swiss stock exchange.



Pages Languages 5



Advocacy ratio of positive messages over negative messages by users (only for posts)

62/1

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 0 of 0

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 0 of 0

Innovation Absolut number of users that propose service/product improvements 0 of 71

% of users that propose service/product improvements 0%






offers free content? Yes: Photos, Events, Links to other ofQicial pages


0


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, Photos, Events, Notes, Worldwive

Type of applications? no apps available


Promote and advertise new products, keep members updated, inform followers about upcoming events, share the latest news related to Lindt World.Promote and advertise new products, keep members updated, inform followers about upcoming events, share the latest news related to Lindt World.

Lindt provides fourteen ofQicial pages on Facebook, and six upcoming ones. Each page refers to a speciQic country Lindt is present in. “Share your passion for chocolate” is the motto for attracting users on Facebook. The page that features the majority of the followers is the Italian one. Page members are pretty active in writing posts on the page wall. Their principal purpose is to share their positive opinions about speciQic products. In fact, no negative comments are present. The company doesn’t reply to fans’ comments but is very active in promoting new products through photo albums/posts and upcoming events through an “Event” section.

Dialogue users reached (visualisations ???)

Follower: 945, Following 924 74 registered users, 3492 channel visualizations, 703557 total loading visualizations

% of users active 113 tweets in November (84 of them as answer)

Comments: depends on the video: minimum: 1 (and 3 likes it, 0 don’t), max: 277 (and 896 like it, 23 don’t like comments)

Advocacy % of positive WOM 1-way communication..no direct comments on the page by others (all anwers referred actively to positive tweets)

depends on the video

% of negative WOM 1-way communication..no direct comments on the page by others (no answers referred to negative tweets)

none

Support % of users rceived reply The only information given: 84 answers in 1 month, but no info on how many asked

No interactivity so no answers

Innovation % of users proposed solutions etc (co-creation)

no answers to improvement suggestions

No interactivity, so no direct contact with employees or the brand


Nr. of channels used 3 3

Communication Leadership brand manages communities directly?

they use to ask questions to followers about specific products taste or the “lindt” meaning for them. In addition, they answer to followers’ opinions about products and suggest trying other products.

page created recently (13/08/2010), just video posting, promoting trend setter Roger Federer

offers free content? no Videos

free entertainment no no

YOUTUBE: recently opened. The channel still lacks of information since it is gaining subscribers day by day. The company uses the channel for sharing the several commercials they make. Users tend to comment positively on each posted video. No negative comments were found.

TWITTER: the social platform the company mostly exploits. The ofQicial page “Lindt USA” features 945 followers. The ofQicial language is English. The company uses Twitter differently from Facebook. Apparently, there are page administrators that actively monitor page evolvement, as followers seem very active in asking product related questions directly to the company. Replies are quite immediate and there is high interaction between the two parties. In addition to this, administrators are use to ask brand perception feelings and opinions to followers such as “What is everyone planning on cooking and baking for Thanksgiving this year?”, “We would like to know: What does Lindor mean to you?”, “What do you like best about our Intense Orange Excellence bar?”

Nespresso is a brand of the multinational Nestlè that produces premium quality coffee capsules and coffee machines (with a form of tie-‐in). Nespresso, whose revenues have been of 2.77 billion CHF during 2009, has built its fame by introducing a new class product promoted with very consistent marketing strategies and substantial investments. A heavy usage of celebrity endorsement, together with the idea of a stylish, reQined and exclusive product (even we are in the FMGC category), contributed to the strength of the brand worldwide.



Pages Languages 1 ofQicial and other 8

Number of Posts on the Wall 650 general, 6 corporate

Number of comments on the wall around 1400


550/20 = 27,5

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 13 of 66 = 20%

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 50%

Innovation Absolut number of users that propose service/product improvements

more than 30

% of users that propose service/product improvements 5%




Number of Posts on the wall by the company 650 general, 6 corporate


offers free content? Yes: Videos, Fotos, Pools


around 16%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, Coffee types, Fotos, Videos (youtube), House rules, Kazaar event, Twitter, discussions, Pools, Events

Type of applications? No Apps available


Nespresso’s facebook provides contents and information, engages fans, produces a dynamic two-‐ways communication by fostering the dialogue in a familiar atmosphere. Insipire people with discussions about: new tastes of coffee capsules, tv advertisements, and new places, or consumption occasions. People are generally enthusiast about the product and its conceps. Get insights and ideas (5% of comments are toward innovative).Nurture strong attachment showed by clients. Support should be improved.

Nespresso’s facebook provides contents and information, engages fans, produces a dynamic two-‐ways communication by fostering the dialogue in a familiar atmosphere. Insipire people with discussions about: new tastes of coffee capsules, tv advertisements, and new places, or consumption occasions. People are generally enthusiast about the product and its conceps. Get insights and ideas (5% of comments are toward innovative).Nurture strong attachment showed by clients. Support should be improved.

YOUTUBE: creativity and a strong user-‐centered perspective. It is possible to sneak a peak on the historical tv advertising featuring celebrities like George Clooney, but it is also possible to put oneself into the director’s shoes. The user can see director’s cut, choose which sequence of scenes could Qit the best for the campaign, and even create its own spot by editing different visual pieces together.All this is offered in a very dynamic and graphically impacting website. The user has the sensation to be providing a useful opinion.

TWITTER: a customer care arm. Tweets are limited (only 632 up to the end of November 2010). The size of followers is limited as well if compared with Facebook). Most relevant topics are: location of Nespresso’s shops and availability of coffee Qlavor.

Dialogue users reached Follower: 6266, Following 1053

864 registered users, 1.555.187 channel visualizations, 509.530 total loading visualizations

% of users active 16 tweets in November (15 of them as answer)

Comments: depends on the video

Advocacy % of positive WOM 1-way communication..no direct comments on the page by others


% of negative WOM 1-way communication..no direct comments on the page by others


Support % of users rceived reply The only information given: 16 tweets, 15 of them answers.



no co-creation, just informational answers; generally about flavors, and shops availability

Strong interactivity




it works mostly as a customer care arm. Topic of the discussions are generally about flavors, and shops availability

No, not directly, no direct contact between employees and consumers, only video dissemination, creative ads etc for people to send to their freinds themselves

offers free content? RSS Feeds Yes, Video, and editing possibilty

free entertainment No Creative advertising, high impact visual design, possibility of editing, see director's cut, see backstage

Migros is a cooperative that was founded in Switzerland in 1925 (Zürich) and that is divided into different regions (Bern, Basel, East-‐Switzerland, Ticino, Aare, Geneva, Luzern, Neuenburg-‐Freiburg, Wallis, Waadt , Zürich) that operate independently from one another. Migros is traditionally the biggest supermarketchain in Switzerland, followed by Coop, although Coop has overcome Migros when looking only at the traditional sales in supermarkets, but when you take into account that Migros owns several other brands from different sectors (Generali (insurances), Globus (high-‐end retail), Fitnessparks, Golf Parks….) then Migros still is the largest retail brand in Switzerland.The brand has traditionally encompassed values such as swissness, sustainability, fair prices and tradition.


Pages Nr of likes 25809

Pages Languages 1 corporate, 3 in the comments




19/14 = 1.357

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 31 of 37 =83.78%

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 16 of 17 = 94.12%

Innovation Absolut number of users that propose service/product improvements 9 of 85

% of users that propose service/product improvements 10,58%








35 of 85 = 41.17%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, Christmas, Fotos, Videos, Notes


General goal of the Facebook page:

To learn what customers are talking about, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and competitionsTo learn what customers are talking about, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and competitions

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Coop is the second-‐largest retail group in Switzerland. Close to its customers and organized in Qive sales regions, Coop operates over 1,800 stores and has a workforce of approximately 53,000. Coop is the clear market leader in environmentally friendly and fair-‐trade products. Coop is also well known for its free weekly magazine called Coopzeitung (in German), Coopération (in French) and Cooperazione (in Italian), read by 3,3 million people.



Pages Languages 3




5/1 = 5

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 6 of 7 = 85,7%

% of replies to customer complaints (only to posts) 2 of 2 = 100%


% of users that propose service/product improvements 1 of 48 = 2%


Nr. of channels used




offers free content? Yes: Videos, Fotos, Games


5 of 48 = 10.4%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, Wochen-‐Quiz, Fotos, Videos


General goal of the Facebook page

Promote news in Coopzeitung and get customers involved in competitions and quizes. Provide customers the opportunity to chat about Coop and Qind like-‐minded people.Promote news in Coopzeitung and get customers involved in competitions and quizes. Provide customers the opportunity to chat about Coop and Qind like-‐minded people.

ANOMALY: There is no official public Coop page in Facebook. The data above refer to Coopzeitung (a free weekly magazine published by Coop) which is also available online.

Coop blog Twitter Youtube

1 channel since November 10, 2010

Dialogue users reached* 9% Follower: 4, Following 1 "Channel Views: 176

Total Upload Views: 219"

% of users active 52000 users/month 0 0 comments

Advocacy % of positive WOM - - -

% of negative WOM - - -

Support % of users rceived reply

- - No interactivity so no answers


- - No interactivity, so no direct contact with employees or the brand


Nr. of channels used 4 4 4


brand manages communities directly?

Yes, Coop every month write an average of 5 post, but there aren't comments posted by users

average of 5 post, but there aren't comments posted by users"

- No, not directly, no direct contact between employees and consumers, only video about a Coop mini series, general news, product review, etc for people to send to their freinds themselves

No, not directly, no direct contact between employees and consumers, only video about a Coop mini series, general news, product review, etc for people to send to their freinds themselves

offers free content? Videos and Podcasts No Yes, Videos (Ads)

free entertainment No "Advertising, Coop mini series (Schreiber vs. Schneider)"

YouTube and Twitter: used very little or even not used by Coop. Indeed there are no messages on the wall either from the

company or from the users. Hence there is no form of interaction.

Facebook is used more than Twitter and Youtube, but there is only an ofQicial page, that is the Coop Zeitung and not the Coop

page.

This little interest shown by Coop for these social media channels is due to the fact that Coop has recently modernised and

restructured its Website, that is “www.coop.ch”.

The goal of this modernisation was to improve customer beneQits by adding more precise and useful contents.

In fact a blog, games, and videos which can substitute the traditional social media tools were added.

http://www.coop.ch

http://www.coop.ch

The family enterprise was founded in 1930 in Laufen and is now exporting its Herb-‐Specialities (30 kinds of candy, tea and chewing gums) in over 50 countries. They have more than 400 employees and had a revenue of 319 Million Swiss francs last year.



Pages Languages 2




12/3 = 4

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 3 of 3 = 100%%



% of users that propose service/product improvements 1 of 22 = 4.5%






offers free content? Yes: Videos, Competition


4 of 22 = 18.18%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, "Grüezi Ricola" (Link to competition App) Products, Photos

Type of applications? Competition


To learn what customers are talking about, encourage customers to talk about the brand, advertise, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and competitionsTo learn what customers are talking about, encourage customers to talk about the brand, advertise, counter rumours, handle complaints, promote new offers and competitions

ANOMALITY: Ricola started their Facebook page in the end of September 2010. That is considered to be rather late. Since their competition is only open for Swiss residents, we concluded that they are focussing on Switzerland only. Other Nationalities are welcome to join.

Dialogue Nr. Of total ofQicial pages 2 (one general, one for UK)


Pages Languages 2




14/1 = 14

Support % of answers to direct questions (only to posts) 8 of 9 = 88,9%



% of users that propose service/product improvements 4 of 32 = 12,5%








10 of 32 = 31.25%


What kind of boxes are available? Wall,Info, "Fotos, Youtube, Twitter

Type of applications? No apps


Ask some question, in order to make people interact, give advices or information, post comments. However, it does not happen very often.a. Promote activities done by the company itself.

b. Make other various communication (eg. “Happy Birthday Didier :-)”4, for Didier Cuche, the Swiss skier)

c. Its main role is that of replying and commenting the posts of the fans.

Ask some question, in order to make people interact, give advices or information, post comments. However, it does not happen very often.a. Promote activities done by the company itself.

b. Make other various communication (eg. “Happy Birthday Didier :-)”4, for Didier Cuche, the Swiss skier)

c. Its main role is that of replying and commenting the posts of the fans.

Ovomaltine is one of the brands handled by Wander SA, a Swiss subsidiary of the Associated British Foods. In the USA this brand is owned by Nestlé. This brand is also known as Ovaltine. The product was created in 1904, as a medical product for children and sick people. Nowadays it is sold in around 100 countries around the world as a fast moving consumer good. The ingredients of Ovomaltine are: malt, milk, cocoa, eggs and yeast. Ovomaltine is widely known in Switzerland (99% of the population) where it is also one of the 20 preferred brands. The brand is highly involved in sponsoring sport events.

Dialogue users reached Follower: 212, Following 115 depends on the video, min 0, max 712

% of users active 7 tweets in November (3 pictures)

In general no comments and no likes/dislikes

Advocacy % of positive WOM 1-way communication..no direct comments on the page by others (5 over 7 positive)

% of negative WOM no negative messages

Support % of users rceived reply Not many questions are asked to Ovomaltine (none in November), but in general reply are always given



0 No interactivity, so no direct contact with employees or the brand




Yes, with the account @sstirnemann that retweets, publishes special offers, disseminates info, replies and is reactive to tweets by others

Only video dissemination for people (they can send the videos to their friends)

offers free content? Yes, Video, ads

free entertainment

YOUTUBE: not really exploiting YouTube has a channel to interact with Ovomaltine.

The majority of the videos are TV commercials that the company used in its advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, it is not possible to add any comment, unless you subscribe in the YouTube community. This fact probably inQluence negatively the number of comments posted by users (that is very low).

We can conclude that on this platform the interaction company-‐fans does not really exist. Ovomaltine could used YouTube better, offering people more contents (and not just the TV-‐commercial), in order to make them visiting more often.

TWITTER: in this case Ovomaltine is more active in the communication, publishing more information, and not just answering to the questions that other users ask: -‐ It publishes links to interesting pages (also external blogs) for Ovomaltine fans;

-‐ It publishes information about products and general advices.

-‐ It also tries to receive followers’ opinions, asking questions such as: “Diesen Sommer hat ovo drink eine Reise im Wert von CHF 10'000 verlost. Welchen Hauptpreis von ovo drink wünschst du dir für nächsten Sommer?”4 (This summer ovo drink rafQled off a trip worth CHF 10,000. Which prize would you like to have next summer?). This can be seen as a way to co-‐create something with the fans, or at least to make them feel important for the strategies of the company;

-‐ It makes comments to what others twittered

-‐ It answers to questions that other users ask.

Ricola just started their Facebook page two months ago. Such a late start should have given them the opportunity to learn from

other companies beginner’s mistakes and to do it better with a well prepared launch.

Instead, they decided to kick-off their page with a competition which is only accessible for inhabitants of Switzerland, which already

caused some bad atmosphere within the community.

Nevertheless, the indicators for Ricola’s support and leadership for the page are

looking encouraging. It seems that they are on the right track. At least if they manage to keep their support on a constantly high level.

When Nescafé Dolce Gusto was introduced in Belgium, Cleverwood was asked to increase the online awareness. One of its social media strategies was to

set up a Facebook page with people favoring the newly introduced coffee

system. In only eight weeks, it got 4000 members that participated actively.

Fans are enthusiast about the Nespresso brand. Nespresso scores an outstanding 85% of positive comments on Facebook during November 2010.

Fans are more than happy to help in co-creating and judging new coffee tastes,

share experiences and give hints and tips for new tastes.

Coop is not very active in social media.The

reason of these little interest of Coop for

these social media channels is due to the fact

that Coop has recently modernized and

restructured its Website. We could say that

Coop prefers to capture the audience directly

in its Website, rather than using for example

Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

Trying to (and in some cases suceeding to) have negative press (i.e. videos, Facebook comments) removed from social media sites is not a good idea. Nestlé did that and had to face the

consequences. Its social media strategy is a must for practitioners: to learn what

should not be done.

BEST PRACTICES

WORST PRACTICES

During the economic downturn, Nescafé introduced a successful social media

campaign in Spain, called “Con5centimos”. They promoted the

campaign on a Facebook page and on Youtube, making people aware that they would only have to pay five cents for a

coffee. A game was created that allowed “users to play with a five cents coin and throw it into a Nescafe cup in order to score”. Additionally, users were able to upload videos of them while paying it.

The best video was rewarded.http://www.grupobetalabs.com/2010/02/social-‐media-‐case-‐study-‐nescafe/

http://www.cleverwood.be/blog/2010/02/nescafe-‐dolce-‐gusto-‐chooses-‐cleverwood-‐and-‐goes-‐social-‐media/

A DIFFERENT APPROACH

http://www.grupobetalabs.com/2010/02/social-media-case-study-nescafe/




http://www.cleverwood.be/blog/2010/02/nescafe-dolce-gusto-chooses-cleverwood-and-goes-social-media/




Conclusions

The analysis shows that all eight brands are present in social media, although Coop is only on Facebook with its newspaper “Coopzeitung”. The number of brand-‐channels ranges from one to Qive, whereas Facebook is the only social media page which is used by all brands.

In the dialogue section, we can see that Nescafé has the most “likes”, followed by Lindt and Nespresso. Between the biggest Facebook pages and the smallest, a large gap exists. This might be due to the fact that some of the brands are known worldwide, while others such as Coop or Migros are only relevant for Switzerland.

The computation of the ratio of comments/posts by users reveals major similarities across brands. Most of them range between 2 and 2.5. Ovomaltine and Coop are standing out with smaller numbers, Lindt with much larger. Comparing those results with the ratios for the indicators for leadership, we can conclude that the largest pages seem to manage their page differently. They are less involved with their users and let the community share ideas and comments freely.

Linking value can be considered as an indicator about the health of the community. The more comments are commented, the more vivid is the community. A possible negative correlation between linking value and group size can be assumed. Migros, Ovomaltine and Ricola stand out with high numbers, granting Nespresso which shows a pretty high percentage, considered its size.

When it comes to advocacy, the big brands tend to stand out again. Still this number is not too meaningful; even though we used

a ratio, it needs a certain page size to come to such large numbers as the 35 of Nescafé for example. Peculiarly, Nestle and Migros do have pretty low ratios there. In the case of Migros this is most likely due to the fact that the retailer also handles complaints on its page, and complaints are more likely to occur for a retailer than for a manufacturer. For Nestlé, there have to be other reasons. Nestlé is to be found under the 100 most valuable brands according to Interbrand. Despite this fact, their page is rather small with only 150’000 “likes”, and their advocacy ratio is as low as 1.8, this could be indicators for Nestlé being a quite powerful but (or maybe therefore) not that popular brand.

Another Qinding about advocacy is that none of the brands had a ratio below one, meaning that all brands had more positive posts than negative. This is good news for the brand especially when considering that people normally tend to spread negative word of mouth much faster than positive.

Regarding the rest of the channels that are used, we identiQied that all brands set different priorities.

Although all channels are mainly characterized by communicating one-‐way, few brands consider Twitter as an option to highly interact with their consumers such as Nespresso, Lindt, and Ovomaltine.

An interesting example for social media is Migros. The brand developed the successful Migipedia platform that allows reaching a large number of users per day. It shows a good source to derive useful information on product improvements from the exchange of its consumers.

In conclusion, it can be said that the importance of applying social media tools varies among all organizations. While most of them stick to the classic pages such as Facebook and Twitter, few brands show a proactive approach and implement their own ideal social media platforms.

FROM

FMCG EDUTAINMENT

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Dec

emb

er 2

010

FMCG and social media, analysis of the eight most valuable Swiss brands* in the FMCG

industry: how do they use social media?

is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-‐ BY)

social media in the fmcg industry

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