Insightful New Case Study on Google+
What do consumers think of Google+, the new “social layer” from Google that’s the company’s answer to Facebook? Laura Lippay of How’s Your Pony? answers that question by using NetBase Insight Workbench to develop an in-depth case study of Google+. The case study...
Cricut Netnography
Crafters generally like the results they obtain with their Cricut machine and cartridges, but many find the device and add-ons expensive. A percentage of commenters also have buyer’s remorse: they swallow hard and buy the machine, which they consider expensive, then...
Seeking the Ideal Casual Dining Experience
Judging from consumers’ comments, all the casual dining restaurants we’ve analyzed can deliver good food and service. But they don’t do it consistently, and that leads to dissatisfied customers, poor word-of-mouth, tarnished brand image and a drop in return business....
Democratizing Market Research
I recently heard on NPR about an interesting book, The Man of Numbers, by Keith Devlin. Here’s a passage from the article about the book that caught my attention: “They recorded everything in good old Roman numerals and if they wanted calculations, they went down the...
iPad 2 Camera Netnography
Our netnography of the camera feature in the iPad 2 shows that consumers were looking forward to it and saw it as a reason to buy or upgrade. Unfortunately, once they got to use the cameras, many were disappointed with the feature because of the poor quality and...
Gender Ratio in Social Media Posts
At NetBase, we’ve begun studying the demographics of people who post on social media, and we’re excited about the promise of delivering new and valuable insights from this enhancement to our social media analysis. One of the first parameters we’re exploring is gender....
T.G.I. Friday’s Netnography
Today is Friday—What better day to post our netnography of T.G.I. Friday’s? More so than other restaurants in the casual dining segment, T.G.I. Friday’s wants to be known for its ambiance and vibe more than for its food. The company’s “brand promise” is “In Here it's...
Red Lobster Netnography
Red Lobster wants to be known for its high-quality, fresh seafood. But that’s not happening, judging from the sound bites in our netnography. Many people do like the food—it’s worth noting that the biscuits got more positive feedback than the seafood—yet many others...
Bing Netnography
Bing advertises itself as a “decision engine” rather than a search engine and claims to help users avoid “search overload syndrome.” Online consumers didn’t comment on that, but they do like Bing’s great home page photos and funny commercials (for the most part). On...
How to Spot Trends
Trend spotting is something I've often heard researchers say they want to do. In fact, if you're a futurist or a practitioner of the Lead User method, then trend spotting is a necessary part of what you do. I've got a few ideas for how to spot trends that leverage...
Applebee’s Netnography
To write this netnography, we analyzed thousands of posts from consumers about Applebee’s and identified the top positive and negative themes. The large-scale analysis is performed by a natural language processing (NLP) engine, then refined by human sampling....
Outback Steakhouse Netnography
An Australian-themed steakhouse restaurant, Outback Steakhouse says on its website that “The Company’s strategy is to differentiate its restaurants by emphasizing consistently high-quality food and service, generous portions at moderate prices and a casual atmosphere...
What Difference Does Readability Make?
A wide range of individuals contribute to social media, and they write in a wide range of styles. Does it matter how hard or easy it is to understand what they write? You can easily score the readability of online text, but how is that information useful? Would you do...
Olive Garden Netnography
Olive Garden commercials show family members having a great time—in fact, too great a time—at the restaurant. The Cousins commercial in particular annoys consumers. While the commercials do feature food as well—which is the biggest positive for the restaurant—the...
Brace Yourself
Nothing makes a new CEO feel more welcome than embracing his clothing preferences. That’s why CTO Mark Bowles and our staff declared Friday, April 29 to be “Braces Day” at NetBase in honor of our new CEO, Peter Caswell, and his habit of wearing what we call...
The Cheesecake Factory Netnography
This is the first in our series of netnographies on popular chain restaurants. We will also be profiling Applebee’s, Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster and T.G.I. Friday’s. The Cheesecake Factory created the upscale casual dining segment in 1978 when it...
Why Companies Need Social Skills
To get along in society, an individual needs social skills. They facilitate interaction and communication with others. Examples of social skills include how to greet someone, take turns in conversation, be a good listener, and maintain a conversation. The same is true...
Toblerone Netnography
Toblerone chocolate is well-known for its distinctive packaging and its prism shape (triangular prism or pentahedron). For you trivia buffs, here’s a tidbit: People think the triangular shape of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps is what gave Theodor Tobler his...
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