Based on the social listening results, what recommendations would you make for 221BC?

• In what other ways might social listening be valuable to 221BC?
• Why is a sentiment a valuable measure in the beverage study?

221BC can use social media listening to gain insights into the kombucha market. Using services like Infegy and Meltwater, cloud-based social media intelligence platforms that use natural language processing technology to provide real-time insights from millions of online sources, companies like 221BC can understand consumers better and faster than traditional market research methods. Some key insights found that using social listening points to a shift in how people view beverages. In short, soda is out and sparkling water and tea are in! Consumer conversations around alternatives to soda are growing at a faster rate despite the higher share-of-voice for soda brands that continue to invest heavily in advertising. In terms of sentiment analysis, kombucha has a positive sentiment while soda skews negative. In particular, comments suggest that people increasingly view sugary drinks and their ties to obesity and diabetes as negative. Kombucha, in contrast, is associated with health, clean eating, digestive health, and outdoor living. People who mention quitting sodas like Coke and Pepsi are also more likely to mention exercise and a desire to lose weight. While kombucha has a positive sentiment, in terms of alternative drinks, people talk most about switching from soda to water. Among sparkling water brands, LaCroix is the brand winner with the highest share of post volume from everyday consumers. These posts tend to include lifestyle imagery and poses with in-store displays. The sparkling water profile is quite different from that of kombucha in that it skews male over female. Sparkling water consumers tend to discuss television, desserts and baking, clothing, music, world soccer, and politics. Some comments suggest that sparkling water drinkers are not only quitting soda but also alcoholic beverages. In addition to sparkling water as an alternative to soda, people also mention coffee and tea and the class of drinks known as functional beverages, of which kombucha is a member. Functional beverages do more than quench thirst or taste good. They perform some other health function like adding fiber, vitamins, probiotics, cannabidiol (CBD), and protein. Of these, the data on protein is particularly interesting. Comments mentioning drinks with added protein appeared in 21% of the data focused on health trends. This suggests people might respond well to a kombucha with added protein.