Posts Tagged ‘walmart’

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Social Media Sentiment: H8ers and

Monday, August 15th, 2011

H8ers! <3ers! Isn’t social media just full of people who have radical opinions? It’s been a while since we first shared information about the distribution of opinions/sentiment in social media so we thought it was about time we conducted our little experiment again.

For six different sets of data, we gathered hundreds of thousands of sentiment scores and prepared frequency distributions of the results. As you can see below, some brands have more positive (A, B) sentiment while others have more negative (C, E, F) sentiment. You can also see that some brands have more flat (E) or peeked (C) distributions, or longer tails (A, B). No matter which particular feature of a brand’s chart interests you, it is clear that all of the distributions are reasonably normal, they are generally bell shaped.

So is social media full of haters and lovers? Most definitely not. Most social media data consists of lots of moderate like and dislike, plus a healthy representation of haters and lovers. Now the only puzzle is determining which of these charts reflects the sentiment of 1) autism, 2) Lady Gaga, 3) Obama, 4) Steve Jobs, 5) Toyota, and 6) Walmart.


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Related links
Are Only Crazy People Commenting About Brands in Social Media?
Article in the Vue: Words I’ll Live to Regret
Cell + Survey + SMR: A Social Media Mashup #MRIA2011 #MRA_AC #MRX
There is no question but the research validity question

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Social Media Sentiment: H8ers and <3ers

Friday, July 8th, 2011

H8ers! <3ers! Isn’t social media just full of people who have radical opinions? It’s been a while since we first shared information about the distribution of opinions/sentiment in social media so we thought it was about time we conducted our little experiment again.

For six different sets of data, we gathered hundreds of thousands of sentiment scores and prepared frequency distributions of the results. As you can see below, some brands have more positive (A, B) sentiment while others have more negative (C, E, F) sentiment. You can also see that some brands have more flat (E) or peeked (C) distributions, or longer tails (A, B). No matter which particular feature of a brand’s chart interests you, it is clear that all of the distributions are reasonably normal, they are generally bell shaped.

So is social media full of haters and lovers? Most definitely not. Most social media data consists of lots of moderate like and dislike, plus a healthy representation of haters and lovers. Now the only puzzle is determining which of these charts reflects the sentiment of 1) autism, 2) Lady Gaga, 3) Obama, 4) Steve Jobs, 5) Toyota, and 6) Walmart.


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.
Related links
Are Only Crazy People Commenting About Brands in Social Media?
Article in the Vue: Words I’ll Live to Regret
Cell + Survey + SMR: A Social Media Mashup #MRIA2011 #MRA_AC #MRX
There is no question but the research validity question

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The Highs and Lows of Walmart

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Walmart is a stunningly huge and successful corporation that has generated an awareness level in the North American market that is near absolute. Because of this, consumers aren’t shy about sharing their opinions of Walmart and millions have done so online.

Using sentiment analysis to evaluate social media consumer opinions, we have identified a number of strengths and weaknesses of Walmart as expressed by consumers.

Discussions of Walmart are often made in relation to other types of retailers. Based on the chart below, you can see that when consumers talk about Walmart and Beauty Stores, Toy Stores, Electronics Stores, or Sports Stores, it is done in a very positive way (the highest columns). In other words, Walmart is seen to have offerings in these areas that make it just as competitive as the specialty stores. Also popping up among the favorable items was being environmentally friendly. Given the push that Walmart made with its sustainability index, this is no surprise.

On the other end of the spectrum (as evidenced by the lowest columns), consumers have also used the social media space to voice their dissatisfaction in a number of areas.  Consumers have identified that they are less satisfied with wastefulness and crowding of the stores. In addition, they are unhappy with the presence of people who are seen as undesirable, for instance, suspicious looking people or those with poor hygiene. And finally, consumers have indicated that they are less satisfied with how people who have special needs are accommodated.

As with any retailer, consumers have high expectations of the types of products, services, and experiences they want from Walmart. Though few retailers will ever reach those expectations, it’s important for retailers to know where to reach first.

How To Create Brand Names Worthy of Social Media

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Why do brand names matter? For one, brand names are how consumers instantly recognize who and what you are. Brand names let consumers find you and talk about you with ease and clarity.

What makes a great brand name? Great brand names are instantly recognizable by everyone. Who doesn’t know what products are created by Chrysler, Coca-Cola, or Walmart? Just hearing these words conjures up images of each of the products. However, social media brings a new consideration for branding, namely, would you be able to find your own brand name if you were to search for it on the internet?


Let’s consider Chrysler. Is there any possible way that someone would use the word “Chrysler” to refer to anything other than an automotive company? A search for Chrysler on the internet brings up nothing but mentions of vehicles, a perfect scenario. Let’s now consider Coca-Cola. As with Chrysler, an internet search of Coca-Cola brings up nothing but mentions of the beverage. But wait… how does the average consumer talk about Coca-Cola? Not as Coca-Cola but simply as coke.  A search of the word “coke” brings up many non-beverage mentions. In fact, interspersed among many legitimate uses of the word, this search returns many, many results for a very addictive and illegal drug. This is certainly not a best case scenario for social media monitoring. The task of separating which mentions of  “I’m addicted to coke” refer to the beverage versus the drug is an intricate process. But, brand recognition for Coca-Cola is so incredible that it would be extremely detrimental for them to rebrand simply to accommodate social media. Who else might have some difficulty? How about “The Gap” or “Target,” both stores with great brand recognition but extremely low uniqueness in terms of their name.

Other brands have gone through the rebranding process, though clearly not with social media in mind. Electrasol, a wonderful and 100% unique brand name, recently rebranded its dishwashing detergent to “Finish.” A quick search on the internet reveals that this new name will make the task of picking out conversations of the detergent extremely difficult. The same must be said for Dominion, a grocery store which recently rebranded to “Metro.” Given the widespread use of the word metro to refer to subway trains and metropolitan areas, this chain will also have difficulties taking advantage of social media.

On the other hand, some brands have made great decisions. Changing “Indian Shaving Products Limited” to “Gillette” was a great move. Gillette is a word that would rarely be used to mean anything other than the shaving products company. They should have no fear that their search results will return vast quantities of irrelevant data. Who else might navigate the social media waters with ease? How about Nissan, Molson, IBM, and Radioshack. Instantly recognizable and unique names ripe for social media research.

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