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Marketers Scan Blogs For Brand Insights 181
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "Paying tens of thousands of dollars to companies that scan blogs helps companies decide on products and advertising, the Wall Street Journal reports. For example, the practice helped U.S. Cellular better understand prospective teenage customers: 'Using technology from Umbria Communications, a Boulder, Colo., company that aims to identify demographic groups online based on their speech patterns and discussion topics, WPP's G Whiz concluded that teens were really anxious about exceeding their cellular minutes, often because parents make them pay if they talk too much. The teens also resented being ambushed by incoming calls that pushed their minutes up. U.S. Cellular says that led U.S. Cellular to offer unlimited call me minutes.' Also of note: Intelliseek's Pete Blackshaw 'says companies used to dismiss vocal complaints from one or two consumers as an aberration. But now, they have to pay attention because now those complainers may have blogs. '"
1992 Called.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Is this just posted here because it has the word BLOG in it?
I'm tired of content... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I'm tired of content... (Score:2)
What's also funny are those television shows that show clever commercials so people watch tv to watch commercials then when the real commercial break comes, they go to the bathroom.
Re:I'm tired of content... (Score:2)
Re:I'm tired of content... (Score:2)
Do me a favour. (Score:5, Funny)
- Donchu h8 it when no1 sends grub cash?
- any company giving grub money gets my business!
- grub does so much and asks for so little.
- i'd buy an SUV if a car company gave grub some l00t!
Thank you.
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:2, Funny)
Am I the only one who doesn't buy this whole "blogsphere" crap? I mean, blogs aren't that relevant, not even for advertising. As a company, what are you going to find by searching Livejournal? That teenagers juse love to cut themselves and therefore, they should all start selling razor blades? Wow, I can't wait till I start seeing DoubleClick's razor blade Flash ads, with wrists getting cut in
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:2)
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:2)
a) not everyone who has a Livejournal is an angsty teenager (unless you want to include, say, Bram Cohen, Dave Jones, Dave Airlie and similar people in that group)
b) 7 million accounts *are* too much to just ignore when you want to do market research (of course, not all of these are personal accounts, and people may have more than one account, too, but I'd say it's still safe to say that the number of Livejournal users is a 7-digit figure)
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:3, Informative)
Those who cut are generally no more suicidal than anyone else who is depressed - they're just so out of touch with their feelings that physical pain is the only way 'the pain' gets out. Had a friend that did this in college - its been twenty years, he is still whacky, but not in the least bit dead.
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:1)
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:4, Funny)
Fuck that, I use LILO
Re:Do me a favour. (Score:2)
minutes (Score:1)
> minutes up.
Odd payment structure if incoming calls are taken from your free minutes allowance. Do both parties lose minutes then? According to UK contracts, if someone in the UK phones another person with a UK phone whilst the callee is abroad, then the caller doesn't pay any extra (for it being an international call) as they can't know where the callee is, so the difference (between national and international cost) is cha
Re:minutes (Score:1, Interesting)
Yes, if both parties are cellular. If only the receiving party is cellular, and the other party is a local call, then only the cellular customer pays (incoming or outgoing).
According to UK contracts, if someone in the UK phones another person with a UK phone whilst the callee is abroad, then the caller doesn't pay any extra (for it being an international call) as they can't know where the callee is, so the difference (between national and international cost) is charged
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Bar: That's not quite correct. Phone companies usually charge a connection fee for local calls, which is something like 5 cents per call.
While some cut-rate carriers may charge a per-call fee, I don't believe this is widespread. However, it may be more prevalent now, especially with "get a phone! no credit check!" outfits spamming the late-night airwaves. Some examples would be in order...
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:2, Interesting)
Remember, the US is BIG. In the UK, you're as likely to get a call from France as someone in Texas is likely to get a call from Louisiana (though in both cases, the caller may parle francais). So the pricing model in the US expects primarily domestic calls.
Also, on land lines, you don't pay by the minute (generally), and incoming calls are the same as local outgoing calls. So when cell
Re:minutes (Score:2)
My cellphone number is based is Atlanta, although I've since lived in New Mexico and am now in Cincinnati - so, while it may seem crazy, it does make a lot of sense to students or folks who travel a lot.
It's universal, of sorts.
Re:minutes (Score:2)
The only exeception is when you are with you home mobile in a differnet contry, registered with a foreign network. You are using their network, so it kind of makes sense to pay a bit more (actually a fee comparable to the - overpriced - international calls from mobile abroad when at home). The char
Re:minutes (Score:2)
When you're always on the move, it begins to sound much better.
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Re:minutes (Score:1)
So, to answer your question, if a person calls a cell phone from a landline (as long as it's not long distance) he doesn't get charged by the minute -- only the person receiving the call. In ef
Re:minutes (Score:2)
A practical measurement (subjective but informative) is how much do you pay for cell phone service and how much do y
How this applies to marketing to teenagers in US (Score:2)
Thus, one big marketing push is to motivate households to unite their services all under one plan (5 phones free for the kids, etc) and for cliques to all sign up with the same provider so they can call each other at will.
Re:minutes (Score:2)
Odd payment structure if incoming calls are taken from your free minutes allowance. Do both parties lose minutes then?
Well, if it is a mobile-mobile call, maybe.
Basically, what is different here is in the way mobiles are perceived on our side of the pond versus yours.
When mobiles were introduced here, the idea was that it was a luxury for the owner of the mobile. As such, the cost of having that luxury was assigned to the owner of the mobile. It has pretty much stayed that way ever since.
However
Why in YRO (Score:1, Redundant)
Anyway this seems like a good thing - companies taking notice of their customers.
Customer Service: The Blog (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Customer Service: The Blog (Score:1, Interesting)
I hope not! (Score:2)
Now, couple those people with their blogs, and you have the makings of a public relations nightmare on your hands, just because some "a list blogger" blogged about a bad experience with your company. That's even MORE scary when you realize that no matter what you do, some customers aren't going to be happy.
There's a reason that I discount most anything I read in a blog. It's just too easy for bloggers
Re:I hope not! (Score:2)
Re:I hope not! (Score:2)
NO, tell me it isn't true. astroturfers? (Autobiography of ultranova?)
The future of the internet (Score:5, Funny)
50% while be whiny, angsty teens complaining about the world in blogs with poor grammar.
The other 50% will be companies data-mining those blogs for insights about what kind of products to market.
Then again I could be wrong as this means that the internet will be 0% porn, which as we all know just isn't going to happen.
Re:The future of the internet (Score:2)
0% porn (Score:2)
Within the next three years the following will happen:
Porn will be outlawed in the US.
Service providers hosting pron sites will be branded "terrorists" for attacking our basic values.
Foreign net blocks will be filtered on a massive scale using technology pioneered by China.
Running a Freenet node will be considered a terrorist act.
blog-based personalized advertisements (Score:1)
A single angry customer makes a lot more noise.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Likewise, I had an issue at a Travelodge motel, and they did not acknowledge my complaint at all. My story (on my blog) was picked up by a newspaper here in the UK and suddenly Travelodge were very apologetic. That said, Travelodge did a very good job of accomodating us, and my faith in them is very much renewed.
But, yes, blogs really amplify opinion, especially if it gets picked up by Google nicely
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now a single complaint on the blogsphere can not only garner support through trackbacks of other complaining customers to create a virtual web of action, but a single voice can now have an adverse effect on sales for even the largest
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:4, Funny)
******* sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:4, Insightful)
A perfectly valid point, but that's the beauty of Google's PageRank (when it works, of course). One raving lunatic could put up a page describing how he got screwed by, say, ThinkGeek [thinkgeek.com]. He could detail how he bought a shirt and it arrived too small and the company refused to issue a refund, etc etc.
If it's a real problem, then others will probably have had similar experiences, write about them, link to each others blogs, and so on... until the pat-on-the-back web gets dense enough to move up the Google rankings.
If the truth is that the guy ordered a medium shirt for his 400-lb carcass, and tried to return it after a 4-hour pizza buffet binge [cicispizza.com], and sent it by carrier pigeon with a note saying "SEND ME ONE MILLION DOLLARS OR ILL BLOG!"... then nobody else will link to his blog in a "me too!" context, and it will have no effect.
So, it's not "I saw it on the Internet, so it must be true." It's "I saw it in the first page of Google results, so it must be true."
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:2)
Well, no.. but it's the first time average joe has had a means of mass distribution for his opinion.
Up until now the only standard has been "I saw it in an advert, so it must be true". At least now the other side of the story can be represented through a mass medium. It may not do anything for the factual accuracy, but at least it's some kind of improvement.
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:2)
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:2)
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:2)
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:4, Interesting)
All this reminds me of the time I went to a boat show on Lake Union in Seattle. Boating is a big deal here. A guy was out in the lake on a sailboat, driving in circles, displaying a huge sign showing a picture of the bottom of his boat that was covered with fiberglass blisters, a manufacturing defect. The sign said "30,000 blisters, I'll never buy another again." I'm sure the dealer was cringing while thousands of potential boat-buyers gawked at the guy, but I also realized the guy must be incredibly bitter to spend a sunny summer day doing that instead of actually sailing. Now, though, you don't have to be bitter for more than about 20 minutes to get your complaint into a blog and into Google.
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:2)
I'm the third link for that search term. You think Saturn gives a shit? I doubt it. People interested in buying a Saturn are going to type in "Saturn cars" for their query and not "saturn sucks".
Yeah, so what, my engine has blown multiple times due to moronic techs. Who's going to know about that expect people who already hate Saturns?
Re:A single angry customer makes a lot more noise. (Score:3, Insightful)
that's the problem with blogs - people often *don't* update the story and all that's left behind is the negative press.
(Granted, this happens in the MSM as well - doesn't make it any better)
Good! (Score:2)
C U L8R (Score:1)
3rd Marketing/Tracking story - IN A ROW?!?! (Score:4, Informative)
If the article had contained a SHRED of tech info, like how they hash l33tspeak, or why anyone would listen to whiny teenage messageboards, then it would be something.
As it stands, any idiot who would spend money to find out what people think through blogs is as good as broke anyway. There are too many trolls out there for this to work any better than focus groups. Next.....
New feature. (Score:5, Funny)
This is the most retarded market research. (Score:2)
Heck, with any luck, we'll have Sony producing televisions optimized for playing NES and Mazda making cars with break parachutes.
easy (Score:2)
paste this as value:
65=4,66=8,67=(,68=|),69=3,70=F,71=6,72=|-|
Got your insight right heah! (Score:3, Funny)
> "DoubleClick Warns Against Ad-Blocking Browsers"
( Read More... | 482 of 587 comments
And on that note, I would just like to say:
> Using technology from Umbria Communications, a Boulder, Colo., company that aims to identify demographic groups online based on their speech patterns and discussion topics, WPP's G Whiz concluded that t
*coffeespew*
"G Whiz? G. Whiz, of WPP? You're a jerk, Whiz. A complete asshole."
(Yeah, it sucks being immortal, but some days suck less than others.)
My Latest Blog Post (Score:2)
Marketers need your help! (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine some company reverse engineer a number of different software programs (word processors for example) to find similarities between codebases -- how is that any different? What I write in my web blog is my IP just as that code is the company that packaged their code into a product. I think we can honestly say this service doesn't care where they pull the information from (although it would be hard to keep track of it all of it, but that's only a side issue). Isn't this the basis of copyright -- credits and permission?!
Re:Marketers need your help! (Score:2)
Re:Marketers need your help! (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't, however, want anyone to learn anything from what you've written? Or actually think about it? Sure, they can't copy your blog and use it in advertising or anything but actually consuming the information you're putting out on the web is also wrong?
Isn't the whole point of blogging to let other people know what you think about something?
You think someone reading a blog is similar to reverse engineering a word processor? But...but...*head explodes*
Re:Marketers need your help! (Score:2)
Re:Marketers need your help! (Score:2)
Copyright just prevents people from copying your work. Fair use provides for using portions of it for the purpose of analysis, which is exactly what you're doing. Orwell's lawyers didn't jump on you when you wrote a paper on Animal Farm in high school.
If you don't want people knowing what you think, don't publish your ideas on the Internet.
Re:Marketers need your help! (Score:2)
Bloggers not representative... shock! (Score:4, Funny)
"Not everything bloggers have to say about brands correlates to the real world. Last summer, Umbria, working for a fast-food client, was monitoring Burger King Corp.'s Angus Burger and found it got some bad reviews from bloggers. Some were deriding Burger King's tongue-in-cheek TV ads that called the burger a diet food. Bloggers notwithstanding, the Angus Burger has become a hit.
In other news: Banana Republic cancelled a range of unisex one-piece pyjama suits, after discovering that its blog research didn't represent its potential market.
incoming calls (Score:1, Redundant)
Gee, have they ever thought of not answering the phone? Most if not all cell phone plans include caller ID.
Re:incoming calls (Score:2)
Bring forth my Sup-r-Tonez Mega-Phone, squire!
Is Anyone Suprised? (Score:1)
Here's the process:
1. wget url1 url2 url3
2. find: OMG ur phone IM text message
3. Ask the clients what they want to hear.
4. Tell them what they want to hear.
5. Profit!
How would -anyone- quantify the juvenile (sp?) thoughts anyway?
I need to start a scam like this. Baby needs a new pair of shoes!
You know... (Score:1)
Pretty soon at the rate things are going the internet is going to be changed to the BloggerNet... bleh. I couldn't care less what some jackhole down the street has to say in his blog, 99% of what I've seen in blogs is pointless drivel (yesterday, hehe i went to bandcamp whee, look at my personality test results.) I've been guilty of blogging but I'm not proud of it.
I k
Re:You know... (Score:3, Funny)
Thats beyond ludacris.
I wouldn't go so far as to say that...I've heard that Ludacris is actually rather tech-savvy. ^_^
Re:You know... (Score:2)
I should set up a consultancy (Score:3, Interesting)
e.
Marketing that I don't despise (Score:2, Insightful)
No doubt (Score:2)
Logical extension (Score:3, Interesting)
Doesn't seem useful...but could be (Score:1)
But I can see how blog-watching could develop into an industry. One way companies watch teen trends is by keeping tabs on a few "trendsette
Dictionary companies apply within... (Score:2, Interesting)
In any case, I am amazed that no one finds it silly to use this kind of lingo in everyday talk and in writing. Sure, it's easier to type, so it makes nominal sense to use it in typed-mediums (see: informal).
I wish some dictionary companies would buy the ADs and put them to good use.
Oh well
-c
Pay-before-use cards (Score:2)
Here in Sweden we have pay-before-use cards. If you choose this you can't waste more than you can afford, since you have to pay in advance. Don't you have them in the US?
To fill the card you buy a code that you enter on the phone's keypad.
Most youngsters here have mobile phones, and most of them use this arrangement.
U.S. Cellular says that led U.S. Cellular to offer unlimited cal
Re:Pay-before-use cards (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure we have them. They cost ~4 times as much per minute though, so unless you almost never use the phone they are a waste of money. This article is about teen girls who have a reputation of talking on the phone for hours every day. Pre-paid cards would be more expensive for them.
There is a good chance that the teen's parents are intentionally buying them phones with less minutes than the kids want, in teach them a lesson in budget. (Might be misguided, but since I'm not their parent I'm not going
But cellphones are cheaper to use here (Score:2)
My wife and I get 500 minutes a month (to anywhere in the US or any other US cellphone), free nights, free weekends, free calls to other t-mobile users (most of our friends & collegues), unlimited data and we each have a smartphone which we can have replaced every year.
We pay around $80/month for it - In the UK that would scarely cover a few hours of w
oh god.. (Score:2)
the signal to noise ratio is out of hand already to the point that you could spend all day every day reading their tripe and come up with nothing original or interesting..
13 year old girls with colored markers, the lot of you!
blogs + viagra spam = 0mfg watch out (Score:2)
You'll see a sudden explosion at your local pharmacies
Companies scanning newsgroups (Score:3, Informative)
OH GREAT!!! (Score:2)
*sigh*
Society's going to hell in a handbasket...screw it, pass the popcorn...hope I can at least enjoy the show.
Blog Tracking & Marketing (Score:3, Interesting)
The reason why most people miss the importance of tracking blogs for marketers is that they focus on the individual conversations. Marketers are interested in aggregates - which is why they look at people based on demographic, attitudes and so forth.
Why is this important? Say you were the CEO for Fair Beans Coffee company. Some guy starts complaining that you aren't supporting the troops because you aren't given them free coffee. Someone reads that and then writes about it - and then it spreads through the "blogsophere" for whatever reasons, like a chain letter.
The problem is that it isn't accurate. No one ever asked you to give free coffee to the troops. You had planned to give your workforce a day to work together to refurbish a school. But hey, it is actually a good idea - the soldiers might remember what you did and buy your coffee when they get home, so you decide to donate some.
The issue here is that you cannot react to a problem you aren't aware of - and there are occasionally opportunities where someone has a good idea that you can act on. However, if you don't know about it - people are just left with the misinformation and dislike you company based on groundless reasons.
When used in this way, it is just another way for companies to figure out what they customers want - and give it to them. Of course, there could be bad applications - but any technology can be applied for nefarious purposes.
Young kids like minivans - teens like SUV's - DUH! (Score:2)
"Soccer moms said their young children love minivans, which they regard as 'a playhouse on wheels,' but teens regard them as lame and want SUVs."
and her comment was "DUHHHH!!!!"
I was kinda surprised that the "blog marketing expert" didn't say what Mom's thought about minivans, since (after all) they are the ones buying it, not the kids. My wife used to own a red Mazda sports car, bu
Re:Young kids like minivans - teens like SUV's - D (Score:2)
Re:Young kids like minivans - teens like SUV's - D (Score:2)
You don't think that's cool?
I guess... (Score:2)
Do you really need to pay to know that? (Score:2)
You know what else they want with their phone service? Let me check my eHALadulator-j.net 5000 blog scanner... Ah ha! - Better
To save money, though... (Score:2)
Hey, customer satisfaction is 100%! Let's knock off early!
Here's the actual software (Score:3, Interesting)
At Almaden they have a zillion Linux boxes spidering the web building data mining databases. They then sell the ability to mine to companies for marketing research. For example, conceptually mapping Slashdot, you find that users who post on ./ also frequent OSNews, Groklaw, and pr0n.
Uh, wait... Hmm. Maybe that isn't such a good thing...
Orbitz blows. (Score:2)
--grendel drago
Zonk and blogging stories (Score:2)
Drug Companies (Score:2, Interesting)
Further readings seem to be here [buzzmetrics.com] and here [buzzmetrics.com].
It appears that before poor drug trial results were announced for Zocor, a higher percentage (24%) of people were negative about Zocor than after the trial results were released (13%). It doesn't matter that the amount of negative comments rose, just that the percentage dropped. (The related traffic quadrupled, so there were twice as many bad comments.)
I'm not
Re:What amazing research! (Score:1)
once u work in the industry especially once u become a PHB, it becomes harder and harder to know what ur customers want. PHB's have money to burn, while the customers they are targeting don't. A lot of PHB's aren't really tech savvy at all.
Re:Please Tell Me It's A Joke (Score:2)
A lot of this collected data for Homeland security is being shared with... drum roll please... PR Firms.
I saw a special that talked about the use of PR firms in campaigns and marketing companies and seeding the News agencies with phony spots. Near the end of the documentary, they showed up at a government agency collecting data about citizen
Novak, maybe? (Score:2, Insightful)
No. Complaints about aquarium supplies. Why make better products when you can sue to shut the complainers up [petsforum.com]?