SMILE 012

A mapping study of a brand name product - F/Brand

Background
The SMILE 012 telecommunications company is one of Israel's three largest ISPs, and also offers local and international telephone services to businesses and private homes. In the second half of 2009, SMILE 012 asked Buzzilla to analyze the company's positioning compared to its competitors, as reflected in consumer conversations taking place on social network sites.

Challenge
To improve SMILE 012's image among its own customers, as well as among its potential customers currently held by competitors. The company had recognized that its customer service required improvement, and the SMILE 012 management was interested in understanding the root causes of dissatisfaction with this service. The management also wanted Buzzilla to locate the main sites where conversations about the brand were taking place.

Solution
In order to compile a situation report on consumer conversation about the company, Buzzilla conducted a mapping research study that indicated the social network sites on which conversations about SMILE 012 were taking place. This study revealed that the brand conversation was not uniformly distributed among the company's customers. Instead, it was concentrated in a specific segment: young people on gaming sites, some of whom frequently complained about suffering technical problems, such as having their web access suddenly cut off while they are online. When speaking to the 012 support division, these young customers sometimes encountered service personnel who were not skilled enough to deal with the specific problems encountered while running various online games.

Segmentation of conversation about SMILE 012, by site:

Insights
The case of SMILE 012 demonstrates how a vocal minority can dictate general consumer sentiment online about a certain brand. As the main criticism came from a well-defined, tightly-knit online group, it was relatively simple to improve the conversation about SMILE 012 via a targeted effort to meet the needs of that specific group.

Segmentation of conversation about SMILE 012, 2009-2010: