social espionage (digital marketing)
TRANSCRIPT
SOCIAL ESPIONAGE
DRAWING BENEFIT FROM
COMPETITORS’ SOCIAL MEDIA
PRESENCE
Joni Salminen, MSc. (Econ.)
William Degbey, MSc. (Econ. & Bus. Adm.)
Turku School of Economics
Markkinoinnin laitos
20014 Turun yliopisto, Finland
” Facebook admits hiring PR firm to
smear Google”
“The clash of the Internet Giants reached new heights after a spokesman
for Facebook confirmed to Daily Beast that Facebook paid a high
level Public Relation firm to publish and spread stories against
Google throughout the media to study various methods to examine
the allegations that Google has been violating user privacy.”
(Slashdot, 12th May 2011)
Competitive intelligence?
” the action of defining, gathering, analyzing,
and distributing intelligence about products,
customers, competitors and any aspect of the
environment needed to support executives and
managers in making strategic decisions for an
organization” (wiki)
Goal is to gain competitive advantage
Social media?
Social Espionage
From manufacturing to service industries
From privacy to corporate
transparency
From trade secrets to customers relationships
From closed dialogue to social media
Trends promoting shift to
social espionage
Information can be…
• private
• public
• AND ALSO
• semi-public/private
Rivals are now able to tap into
the customer relationship (!)
FIRM CUSTOMER
RIVAL
What constitutes social espionage?
Tactical activity Rationale
Intercept messages to understand competitor’s
relationship to its customers
Identify competitor’s weak points to create offensive tactics
Launch rapid promotions to encourage switching
behavior
Use direct selling to encourage switching
behavior
Participate in discussion to generate leads
Identify unsatisfied customers to generate leads
What constitutes social espionage?
Operational activity Rationale
Analyze customer’s
communicative styles
to build customer profiles
Analyze customer complaints to encourage switching
behavior
to improve own products
to avoid “easy” mistakes
What constitutes social espionage?Strategic activity Rationale
Analyze macro-competitive data to detect patterns
to detect deviations
Identify competitor’s weak
points
to improve own positioning
Focus on unfilled niche to avoid direct competition
Drop prices to crush competition
Play benchmark to improve own social
media strategy
Play war-game to predict competitor’s next
moves
Benefits of social espionage
1. Tactical level
2. (Operational level)
3. Strategic level
…but wait, these are also risks!
Strategic Grid (Salminen & Degbey 2011)
Engage Not engage
Spy Jackpot “Machiavellian
payoff”
Not spy “Sucker’s
payoff”
Empty pot
Social espionage (100%)
=
competitive intelligence (40%)
+
social media (40%)
+
Machiavellian attitude (20%)
Thank you!