One more thing from the digital enthography department. Read Amazon reviews, and read them carefully, as that’s apparently quite a lucrative business. FC has recently written about a mysterious company named C&A Marketing which does exactly that. They have an entire team who read Amazon reviews, screening them for comments like “I wish this speaker were rechargeable,” and then makes exactly that.

For those less entrepreneurial, it still provides a goldmine of ideas and inspiration. How does it work? Well, pick some brand’s product and also pick competitors products. Read what people are saying about what works. More importantly, read what they are saying about what doesn’t work. Build your strategy around it.

In this age of digital visibility, planners don’t need anymore to wreck their heads to come up with a competition/brand/product/category thesis and then do everything in their power to prove it. They can merely generate a hypothesis and turn to a load of visible, human, freely volunteered information to either confirm it or not.

Simple.

Originally posted on November 26, 2013