teachthe4ps.com - For instructors of marketing.

It is always nice to find articles about marketing research.  This article, “Sentiment Analysis Gives Companies Insight Into Consumer Opinion” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, March 1, 2011) is an example of a trend in marketing research — real-time analysis of social media data.  Kia, Best Buy, and Viacom are among a handful of firms using…

…a tool that can swiftly analyze large numbers of opinions on the Web, including blogs, the microblogging site Twitter, and social networking service Facebook. It’s called Mass Opinion Business Intelligence and it was developed by an Irvine (Calif.)-based company called WiseWindow. It coughs up a continuous, real-time feed of relevant consumer sentiment, gathered from millions of sites.

The article cites a number of different examples that might be useful in class.  An accompanying slide show of “Most Loved — And Hated — Tech Companies” shows a real example that maps 10 tech companies on a 2×2 matrix — see below.  Check out the slide show and article for a full explanation.

Here’s another example of a marketer experimenting with social media.  This article (“Rubbermaid Social Media Effort Thinks Inside the Container,” ClickZ, October 8, 2009) describes how Rubbermaid gave a popular blogger (Leanne Ely – a nutritionist and author) a kitchen makeover.  Ely then blogged about the makeover experience and was able to offer Rubbermaid coupons to her 50,000 readers.  The article provides links to Ely’s blog and specific results of downloaded coupons.  This example shows how easy it is to measure results from certain types of online promotions.