WiseWindow is a company that specializes in Mass Opinion Business Intelligence. Recently, they have been looking into the airline industry. They discovered through customer opinions, that Southwest’s new advertising campaign is not as effective as their previous one. WiseWindow determined through their technology that Southwest’s campaign “Bags Fly Free” was a much more effective campaign, by examining customers’ opinions on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Through this technology companies can gather even more insights into customers’ behavior (King). WiseWindow stated that soup companies were able to determine that their competition did not solely rest with other soup companies. They were able to determine that an alternative to eating soup at lunch was fast food (WiseWindow).
When examining public opinions for most companies negative statements from customers are a sign that sales will decrease. However, this circumstance does not apply to everyone, such as music artists. Even if there is negative public opinion circulating about them, their sales will still increase (King). Companies such as WiseWindow help sift through the opinions that will have a negative impact on sales. WiseWindow also helps companies to determine when a new marketing campaign begins to affect sales. They claimed that a beverage company was able to tell that their new marketing campaign was effective weeks before the numbers showed up in the sales simply due to gathering information from social media websites (WiseWindow).
Mass Opinion Business Intelligence is allowing companies to receive immediate feedback from customers even without them knowing it. I believe that the demand for this technology is going to greatly increase over the next couple of years. Social media sights such as Facebook and Twitter are used so frequently that companies can gather a lot of extremely useful information about their customers’ views. Kia Motors wants to change the public’s opinion on their products. They are seen as an automobile manufacturer that provides efficient and cheap cars, however they also want their customers’ to think that their products have a cool design with new technology. Through MOBI technology Kia will be able to see if their marketing and product changes are getting the results that they wanted (King). The best part of this technology is its ability to determine the tone of the posts. I think that by examining masses of these messages companies are going to gain a lot of insight into their customers’ wants and needs.
Works Cited
King , Rachael. "Sentiment Analysis Gives Companies Insight Into Consumer Opinion." Businessweek 01 Mar 2011: n. pag. Web. 21 Mar 2011.
"The WiseWindow Story." WiseWindow. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar 2011.
Social media sights, such as Facebook and Twitter, seem to be the hub of communication today. We live in a world in which Facebook pages are constantly refreshed and Twitter has become the go-to website to share whatever is on your mind. There are even applications on smart phones to keep people connected while on the go. Not only are people reconnecting with old friends, or distant relatives, they are expressing their opinions, interests, and experiences. And most importantly, people are listening to each other’s opinions. Any praises or disappointments you have with products resonate with other users. It is no wonder that businesses now want a way in to market themselves.
ReplyDeleteMass Opinion Business Intelligence accesses customers’ posts and analyzes the tone of the posts. From the results, companies are able to redevelop their marketing strategies, better understand their customers’ wants and needs, and gage customers’ opinions about current products, and so on. This is an extremely useful tool for companies because it gives them access to their customers’ opinions without them even realizing it. As a result, the data collected is more accurate to people’s feelings.
Given the boom of social networking sites, many companies have made the move to them as well, creating Facebook fan pages and Twitter sites to communicate with their customers. However, this business tool is innovative and marks just the beginning of the wealth of information that social networking sites can provide companies with.
It will be interesting to see how companies exploit such features. With that said, I cannot help but question what that means for our privacy rights on such sites.
I think that the use of Mass Opinion Business Intelligence is one of the most effective things a company can do for itself now. Utilizing the information people put on the internet is a great way of increasing sales, creating effective marketing strategies, and tending to the people's wants and needs. Facebook and Twitter are used by millions and millions of people, sharing their opinions on what some see as trivial things. Information in any form, though, is all but trivial. Amongst the vast amount of information freely given out on these social networking sites, WiseWindow has the ability to filter out only the pertinent information regarding each company and on top of that, it can determine the type of tone a person uses when referring to the product or company. With information like this, companies have the ultimate resource. Many people and companies still see social networking sites as a bad thing with the privacy risks, distractions, and many other things, but the bottom line is that so many people use them at this point in time that it should be embraced, for it seems that they will be around for quite some time. To not utilize the information people give out on these websites would be ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI believe that when a company utilizes Mass Opinion Business Intelligence they are certainly giving themselves a competitive advantage. To add onto Carolyn's point that everyone is taking in other people's opinions - these people include celebrities. The opinions of public figures and icons can make or break the success of a company's product or service. If a celebrity "tweets", for example, they had a great experience at Starbuck's this is great publicity for the company. Odds are a good chunk of the hundreds of thousands of fans "following" the celebrity's page will venture out to Starbuck's in hopes of having a similar experience. Cha-Ching for Starbuck's! Positive posts being publicized through the internet are serving as external company marketers; both effective and free for the company mentioned. I would also like to point out how effective social media can be for collecting charitable donations. Many celebrities posts links for organizations in need of donations- whether global or for a fan raising money for a local cause. Donation sites for Red Cross and charities in the like "blew up my newsfeed" (as many would say) during the recent tsunami crisis. I will post this link to further prove my point:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/how-charities-harness-social-media-to-raise-awareness-money118.html
To continue on, if someone posted a flaw in their experience, another might sway towards another brand offering a competing product. What makes this information technology so key is the fact that not only can it detect the citing of their company but also the tone. With time efficient feedback a company can identify and eliminate any negativity related to their product be projected. Social media these days is addictive. But other than criticize it- companies and even charities should take complete advantage of it. It is spreading awareness of their services 24/7 to millions of people. Social media is both give and take- both which should be taken advantage of. Not to do so, is like Keith said, ignorant.
I think that Mass Opinion Business Intelligence is a fantastic innovation for both Marketing and IT. As a Marketing major, I definitely see the benefit of having technology like this. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites are a huge form of communication today. People express their opinions through status updates, posts on a friends' walls, tweets, and blog posts. If you are going to go anywhere to get a true opinion, this is where it would be. Sometimes, you are not able measure how people feel about a product early on, because they may not answer something like a survey, truthfully. Using this technology will allow them to get the raw truth from the direct consumers, through their comments and tones, allowing them to know exactly how they feel about it. I think that, besides giving the company ideas on how to improve the product, they are also able to tell them that there is a problem in it very early on. This is great because you can tell that it is effective before it shows how successful the product is before it shows up in the sales numbers, giving you more time to adjust the product before the product goes deeper into a marketing campaign. Also, I think that this is going to lead to further innovations in marketing through social media tools. One thing I am wary about, however, is how much security the consumers still have through a tool like this, because they are able to track everything that they are saying and doing on these websites.
ReplyDeleteI think that Mass Opinion Business Intelligence will become one of the most important ways in which businesses of the future gain information on customer opinions, and in turn make marketing plans. In my opinion, social media/networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are the more likely contain the true feelings of customers than any other sites or survey could. The reason for this is that when people communicate on sites like this they are more times than not communicating with at the very least acquaintances, and most of the time close family members or friends. People are therefore more likely to be honest with each other, which is a perfect way for businesses to survey their customers without them realizing it. People are not going to take a customer service survey every time they use a service or buy a product, but people will always talk about them, and these types of websites are the perfect place to gather this type of information.
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