Measuring
Brand Perception
iMedia Connection, November 23, 2005 By Dawn Anfuso
Biz360's Deborah Eastman tells us why analyzing blogs and news can provide insight
on messaging effectiveness,
brand perception,
product quality
and emerging trends.
Biz360 provides
market intelligence
to businesses about
their brands, market
and competitors.
In August, the
company launched
Auto Discovery,
a technology innovation
that automatically
surfaces the people,
products, companies
and topics mentioned
most frequently
in a company's
market. Updated
hourly, it leverages
natural-language
processing to aggregate
similar terms and
rank their prevalence
across thousands
of news articles
for a given subject.
The company's Chief
Marketing Officer
Deborah Eastman
explains the necessity
for this type of
monitoring.
iMedia: According to a CMO Council report, 90 percent of marketing executives
believe measuring
marketing performance
is a top priority,
yet less than 20
percent have developed
meaningful, comprehensive
metrics for their
marketing organizations.
Why is there such
a disconnect on
the issue of marketing
measurement?
Deborah
Eastman: Most companies
are still figuring
out how to build
a comprehensive
picture of their
marketing efforts
with metrics. Technology
can help you do
this, but it still
requires human
strategy to use
those metrics effectively.
Every company will
have different
needs in terms
of marketing measurement,
so there isn't
a cut-and-dried
approach. We've
learned that the
more successful
marketing measurement
programs have several
things in common.
First,
it's important
to measure with
a purpose, don't
measure for the
sake of measuring.
Marketers should
start with the
business goals
and work their
way down to the
key indicators
they need to measure
to know if they're
meeting those goals.
Second,
be sure to build
a sustainable program.
Don't design something
too complex to
conduct ongoing.
The key to a successful
program is consistency.
This allows marketers
to benchmark, monitor
progress over time
and continually
fine-tune their
marketing programs.
Remember, the market
is always changing,
so companies also
need to regularly
monitor the metrics
they have in place.
Third,
if you invest in
technology, make
sure you have the
resources, either
internally or through
the provider, to
get the value you
expect from that
investment. Technology
has come a long
way, but understanding
how to apply market
intelligence to
meet your business
goals still requires
human analysis.
iMedia:
Why should marketers
monitor and analyze
public content
such as news and
blogs? How will
this help them
fulfill their business
strategies?
Eastman:
Consumers are much,
much more in control
of brands these
days. The fragmenting
of media channels
and distribution
options gives consumers
more choices than
ever in reading
about and discussing
brands. In order
to guide the market's
perception of your
brand, you need
to be able to identify
threats quickly
and understand
who your brand
proponents are.
Your customers,
prospects, partners
and key influencers
are likely voicing
their opinions
through the blogosphere
and mainstream
media. Analyzing
these sources can
provide insight
on messaging effectiveness,
brand perception,
product quality
and emerging trends.
A
market intelligence
solution can help
organizations measure
the impact of a
marketing campaign,
craft strategy
for an upcoming
initiative or provide
ongoing analysis
of potential threats
and opportunities.
Developing a consistent
tracking and monitoring
strategy also helps
marketers prioritize
efforts. With millions
of sources of print,
online and broadcast
media, plus blogs
and message boards,
identifying the
largest or fastest
growing threats
to companies and
brands can be difficult.
Organizations are
putting processes
in place to mine
and analyze this
growing data source
because they realize
that every day
their company and
products are being
discussed, whether
they like it or
not.
iMedia:
What are some new
technologies that
allow companies
to measure and
analyze content?
Eastman:
There have been
some exciting technological
developments that
have enabled companies
to gather market
intelligence. To
take a step back,
one of the legacy
ways of monitoring
a company in the
news was through
print clipping
services, but there
was no intelligence
culled from these
stacks of information.
It was marketing
by the pound. Then,
powerful databases,
such as LexisNexis,
helped to organize
the information
and make it searchable.
In the last few
years, free monitoring
services through
search engines,
such as Google
or Yahoo!, have
provided widespread
accessibility for
tracking news and
blogs.
None
of these services,
however, have the
text analysis power
to tell you about
the tone of the
content, track
concepts like "innovation" or automatically surface the topics that will help you understand your brand
attributes. There
is a rise of new
companies that
pull together and
analyze content
from all of the
separate content
databases to provide
a single customized "dashboard" of market intelligence for marketers. These tools track the people, products,
companies and topics
that make up an
organization's
individual market "space."
iMedia:
How can real-time
market intelligence
help marketers
better manage their
brands?
Eastman:
Market intelligence
can help companies
identify hot-button
issues before they
get out of hand
so you they influence
the outcome. It
also can help monitor
what people are
saying about a
brand, whether
those people are
your consumers,
partners or competition.
It also gives marketers
a sense of what
influential groups
such as the media,
analysts, industry
experts or early
adopters are saying
about a brand.
This knowledge
helps you to better
craft brand messages
targeted to the
right audiences,
measure the impact
of those efforts
and track the perception
of your brand.
iMedia:
Can you give an
example of how
this is done?
Eastman:
A research team
at Biz360 analyzed
a fast food marketing
campaign to illustrate
best practices
when tracking brand
messages. When
CKE's Carl's Jr.
launched a new
advertising campaign
featuring Paris
Hilton in May,
the company realized
there would be
no shortage of
publicity. The
controversy over
the risqué ad drove
more public discussion
during its first
month than similar
campaigns from
its competitors.
The
multi-million dollar
ad campaign may
have generated
more awareness
of Carl's Jr. among
its target demographic
of 18- to 34-year-old
males, but as sales
numbers indicated,
that awareness
turned out to be
passive. Same-store
sales were only
up 1.5 percent
by the end of June.
Capturing
attention and turning
it into action
still requires
compelling brand
and product messages,
but those appeared
in only 30 percent
of the impressions
of the campaign
coverage.
*MediaSignal
is a weighted reach
metric that adjusts
the impression
count for each
article by how
prominently the
subject is featured.
In this chart,
MediaSignal is
measured in millions
of impressions.
Note that the reach of the "Paris Hilton TV Ad" topic is over three times as great as the MediaSignal of the "Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger" or "Spicy Burger" topics.
Carl's
Jr. missed an opportunity
to leverage that
publicity by failing
to turn attention
back to the product
it was promoting.
In the end, the
CEO of CKE, Andrew
Puzder, found himself
explaining why
sales were less
than analysts expected,
given the amount
of publicity surrounding
the campaign. Puzder
told Advertising
Age that Carl's
Jr. had four million
web hits during
the campaign, but
his remarks about
the publicity were
simply that "the coverage has been incredible." With deeper data on the publicity, he could have said that the press coverage
from the campaign
generated 96 million
impressions, but
the brand messages
only accounted
for 30 million
of those impressions,
so expectations
were not as high
for product sales.
With
increasingly integrated
marketing campaigns,
understanding the
impact and effectiveness
of each channel
requires objective
measurements. Having
quantitative data
allows you to evaluate
the marketing mix
and reallocate
funds to where
they are most effective.
Benchmarking against
the competition
can assist in goal-setting
for future campaigns.
In
advertising, you
know what the message
is because you
decide it. With
publicity, that
message isn't always
in your control,
but measuring it,
benchmarking it
and influencing
it with the right
insight at the
right time is.
Estimating the
return on investment
from publicity
is easier when
you have quantitative
information on
the penetration
of your brand or
product messages.
It gives you the
insight you need
to adjust campaigns
on-the-fly and
tweak the marketing
mix for a higher
impact on sales.
*MediaSignal
is a weighted reach
metric that adjusts
the impression
count for each
article by how
prominently the
subject is featured.
In this chart,
MediaSignal is
measured in millions
of impressions.
Note that in May, the "Paris Hilton TV Ad (Carl's Jr.)" topic had more MediaSignal than any of the other campaigns for any of the other
months.
iMedia:
How has the internet
boosted word-of-mouth
chatter about brands,
and how does that
impact companies?
What are some trends
in how marketers
are monitoring
blogs, for example?
Eastman:
Customers have
been talking about
brands for as long
as there have been
brands. As an evolution
in this behavior,
blogs are helping
people leave a
digital trail of
those thoughts
that anyone around
the world can access.
So, if there are
a high percentage
of people who find
a product to be
low quality, there's
a good chance there's
a digital trail
in the blogosphere
about the product's
shortcomings.
Marketers
are monitoring
and analyzing the
blogosphere as
another feedback
channel, helping
them stay connected
to their customers,
and the market
as a whole, to
drive product development
and outbound communications.
For
example, for product
marketers, blogs
and message boards
are a great way
to monitor product
discussions for
quality issues
and trends in feature/functionality
of a product. For
web marketers,
it allows them
to track messages
and monitor for
new messages to
integrate into
their campaigns.
Advertising managers
monitor the blogosphere
for trends that
tie to their products
and to measure
buzz around campaigns.
In Corporate Communications,
they're researching
and identifying
the most influential
bloggers so they
can form relationships
with those influencers
in the same way
they have relationships
with many professional
journalists. They're
monitoring their
mindshare (or share
of voice) against
the competition.
Blogs,
as one form of
consumer-generated
media, not only
spread buzz on
the web, they also
represent a growing
source of information
that feeds mainstream
media. You not
only have to worry
about the direct
effect of blogs
on your brand and
reputation, discussion
in the blogosphere
can translate to
mainstream media
and at the point
has an even greater
impact on your
company.
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