by Dr. Björn Christensen, Chief Executive Officer of meteolytix
A rainy day can generate a sudden spike in cupcake sales while a hot summer day can generate a surge in the sales of panini’s.
These are some surprising trends hidden in mountains of information that analytics can unearth to help businesses understand their consumers better and seize the unexpected business opportunity.
Consumer-focused businesses know all too well just how much weather shifts can affect consumer demand. Retailers, restaurant chains and consumer product companies often point to the weather as a key factor driving positive and negative variations in sales.
So how can your business manage weather’s impact to predict consumer buying trends more effectively?
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by Jill Puleri, IBM GBS Retail Leader
We grew up hearing the story of Hansel and Gretel, but it’s not until recently that the moral became applicable to the business world. According to the story, Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs so the duo can find their way home, but they get lost after the birds make the bread their dinner. As the IBM GBS Retail Leader, I’ve taken a lesson or two from Hansel’s mishap — it’s that if you don’t watch the breadcrumbs carefully, you’ll never find your way to the prize. Continue Reading »
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John Squire is IBM’s director of Digital Marketing and Analytics
What do Valentine’s Day and the December Holidays have in common? If you look past gifts, romance and loved ones the answer may surprise you: mobile shopping
I have spent a great deal of time over the last two months dissecting the influence of the empowered consumer. Throughout that time, the conversation has focused primarily on the emergence of the mobile shopper. Continue Reading »
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By Steve Canepa, General Manager, Global Media & Entertainment Industry
February seems to be a month of excitement for all movie, television and sports enthusiasts. It’s that time of year – Super Bowl madness and Oscar Buzz – frenzy so electric that it transcends worlds – into the social media world. Think about it, how long does it take for you to see a Tweet or Facebook post once you hear the winner for Best Motion Picture or following the first touch-down? Seconds? Continue Reading »
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John Squire is IBM’s director of Digital Marketing and Analytics.
Updated Post
AN UPSET IN THE MAKING
3 February 2012, 11:30 AM Eastern
Just like on the field, Eli Manning is riding a late surge to overtake Tom Brady in the IBM and USC analysis of Super Bowl XLVI social media sentiment. Overnight results of Super Bowl Twitter buzz drove Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s ‘T score’ for positive sentiment ahead of Tom Brady. Manning now leads with 66% vs. Brady’s 61%, which represents an 8-point shift compared to the previous day. In another interesting development positive sentiment for Giants head coach jumped dramatically with his score rating increasing to 76% positive. That places Coach Coughlin above all of the players and coaches on both teams.
This day-to-day shift in Super Bowl fan sentiment illustrates the speed at which consumer sentiments can shift online — a factor that businesses are watching closely due to the potential impact on their brand equity and sales.
By applying analytics in social media settings we can identify nuances – positive, negative, irony, snarky vs. sincerity, in real-time. That’s enough time to help an organization, or in this case professional athletes, adjust their comments and actions to dramatically (and positively) impact their brands.
Original Post
SUPER BOWL ANALYSIS TAKES US BEYOND THE TWEETS
2 February 2012
One of the most dramatic NFL games ever played was Super Bowl XLII pitting the undefeated (18–0) New England Patriots led by record-setting quarterback Tom Brady against the surprising NY Giants with young, unproven Eli Manning at the helm. A thrilling, some say shocking victory for the Giants ended the Patriots bid to be the only 19–0 undefeated champion in league history. And now Super Bowl XLVI – The Rematch — anticipated to be the most watched American television show in history, promises to take social media to a whole new level.
As my colleague, and former NFL player Kevin Nosbusch posted on Wednesday, IBM and the University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab are conducting the first sentiment analysis of the two Super Bowl quarterbacks to illustrate how new analytics technologies make it possible to quickly assess the positive, negative and neutral sentiments shared by fans.
Why is this sentiment analysis important to IBM? In addition to being a longtime partner of the NFL, IBM recognizes that its clients, just like football players, are closely connected to their brand presence.
Using advances in analytics companies, academics, journalists can gain new insights into consumer perceptions via social media on endless topics from football and baseball to movies and retailing. Technologies can even distinguish irony and figure out which tweets are just background noise and those that are truly important.
Branding Upset on the Digital Playing Field
The Super Bowl analysis shows us that today the two quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Eli Manning are in statistical dead heat: Brady earning 65% positive sentiment and Eli Manning earning 62% positive sentiment. That actually represents a big branding upset on the digital playing field. Most sports and marketing followers would assume that Brady should be far ahead given his lofty status as an elite QB for many years and three championship rings.
Other noteworthy findings show that wide receivers have upstaged the quarterbacks, who are being positioned in the news media as the chief protagonists — Wes Welker is #1 in positive sentiment and Victor Cruz is a close 2nd. Interestingly Brady leads by 3% points, exactly the point spread Las Vegas oddsmakers have favored the Patriots.
So while it looks like Tom Brady is going into the game as the Social MVP, now is not the time to get cocky. Eli Manning is holding his own against the more experienced Brady in terms of positive sentiment.
The IBM USC analysis illustrates the potential insight and benefits that social media analytics can deliver to a brand — whether you’re an professional football player or a global enterprise. Businesses that ignore the impact of social media will be stuck on the sidelines.
Learn more about IBM and USC AIL social media analysis projects.
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By Vol Pigrukh
Co-founder and CEO of Profitero,
IBM SmartCamp UK and Ireland winner
Editor’s note: Vol Pirrukh leads one of the contestants in the IBM SmartCamp competition world finals this week (Jan. 31, Feb. 1 and 2) in San Francisco. Nine startups from around the world will compete for fame and expert advice. To follow the event virtually, return to A Smarter Planet for liveblogging, view livestreaming video and follow the Twitter hashtags #IBM SmartCamp and #startups.
Yes, it’s true; our company name did come from those delicious little cakes – profiteroles. When we were brainstorming the name of our start-up we all liked “profiteroles” because it has “profit” and “the cherry on top” – i.e. sweetness – in it. But it was a bit too long and the domain Profiteroles.com was taken. So we sent a survey to over 100 friends to pick their favorite name from a few alternatives and “Profitero” got the most votes. Continue Reading »
Today’s shoppers are smarter, better connected, and more empowered than ever before. They want to do business with retailers on their own terms — when, where and how they chose. Using mobile devices. Through social networks. And via new digital venues.
To see smarter commerce at work, you only have to observe the holiday shopping rush that took place on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A record number of consumers focused on finding the best online deals using social networks and mobile devices; while the big retail winners were those that delivered compelling, relevant deals that people could easily access from their channel of choice. This is based on findings from IBM’s fourth annual Cyber Monday Benchmark, which tracks more than a million transactions a day, analyzing terabytes of raw data from 500 retailers around the country.
Click on the images below for a larger view, or here for the entire set:
Every day, companies make bet-the-business decisions about their customers, competitors, new products and even their own reputation based on account balances, delivery schedules, profit margins, customer feedback and more – and most do it with crossed fingers.
That’s because they know that decision-making today is an art based on incomplete and conflicting information, and that hunches play a big role in determining which way to go.
Now imagine a company that could look at all of its information at once; Spot hidden trends before they occur; Glean insights into customer sentiment from data in a wide variety of formats; And keep up with consumer conversations and opinions moving at the speed of the Web.
Click on the images for a larger view:
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By Vincent Quan, Associate Professor, Fashion Merchandising Management Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT)
I had the opportunity to participate in an informative and lively dinner panel hosted by IBM for the retail press in the Big Apple last Wednesday. Joining me on the panel were Nihad Aytaman, director of Business Intelligence at Elie Tahari, IBM Global Retail Industry Leader Jill Puleri, IBM Retail Analytics Leader Michael Haydock and IBM Enterprise Marketing Management Executive Director John Squire.
A few takeaways from the dinner: Continue Reading »
By Jill Puleri
These days when you check out of almost any retail store, nearly without notice or care, the checker passes your purchases under or above a laser and you hear a “bleep” as the laser picks up the product information from that strange looking set of black bars on each product. The name and price of the product then pops up on the register – and the register sends that data back over a network to a database for inventory processing and analysis. All this happens in an instant, all while you’re getting out your credit card, reading the latest scoop on a celebrity, or trying to keep your kids from adding more candy bars to the checkout belt.
Adding a series of black lines to a stick of gum changed the world of retail. Click the image to read the whole story.
Well, here’s something for you: The next time your son REALLY REALLY REALLY needs to have that pack of Juicy Fruit (he just can’t live without), you can pick up the package of gum in the familiar yellow wrapper and show him those crazy looking black bars and on the side and say: Continue Reading »
