Social Media’s Impact on NewProduct Development

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What is “GeeYee”

IdeasAggregated

Gee Yee

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Today’s Discussion

• Illustrate how directional insights obtained from social media can facilitate

and even precipitate new product innovation when opinions are quantified in

aggregate at a more granular, issue-based level.

– Case Study on Leading Smart Phones

– Case Study on Pharma

• Listening Analytics Methodology

• Additional Takeaways

• Q & A

Apple iPhone vs RIM Blackberry Storm vs Palm Pre vs Google HTC G1

Smart Phone Case Study

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Smart Phone Case Study Background

• Analysis done by a marketing research firm

– At time of study, neither of these companies were clients of the firm

• Social Media Study Time Frame: 1/2/08 – 8/22/09

• 8,106 Sites Discovered

• 309,854 Opinions on the Subjects and Issues

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Prelaunch Postlaunch

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iPhone Palm Pre Blackberry HTC G1

Social Media Analysis Marketplace Buzz

• Mentions of Palm Pre show a steady gain in the six weeks surrounding its launch, while iPhone mentions are sharply up following the Pre’s launch date.

June 6, 2009 Palm Pre

Launch Date

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What’s Actually Being Said About the Smart Phones?

• In the most popular category, Applications, iPhone dominates buzz volume.– Postings frequently mention the availability and low cost of individual iPhone applications

• Palm Pre performs well among other iPhone competitors in Applications, but is comparatively weak in Multimedia mentions.

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Applications Multimedia Display Screen Web Browsing

iPhone Palm Pre Blackberry HTC G1

“I can get an iPhone and there are thousands of apps I can get for 99 cents, or I can get a WinMo phone and spend $25 for a similar app”– Message Board Posting

“Seriously, I have bought several more apps for my iPhone than I ever have for WM because they are almost all less than $5.00, and it's like stopping to buy a cup of coffee, I don't even think about the cost.”– Message Board Posting

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• Although Apple has a strong lead in volume for Applications buzz, Palm Pre does about as well on ratio of Positive/Neutral to Negative comments.

• Palm Pre has its highest positive/neutrals in the Web Browsing category, and highest negatives in Display Screen.

Comparing Sentiment at a Feature or Issue Level => Product Development & Positioning Insights

79%84%

70%76%78% 80%

71%

84%78%

83%72% 69%

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81% 81%

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Applications Multimedia Display Screen Web Browsing

iPhone Palm Pre Blackberry HTC G1

21%16%

30%24%22% 20%

29%

16%22% 24%

29% 31%

17% 17% 19% 19%

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% Positive / Neutral

% Negative

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Finding Out Why

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Visualizing the Relationships => Product Development & Positioning Insights• Consumers associate Palm Pre with Multimedia, iPhone with Applications, Blackberry Storm

with Display Screen, and Web Browsing with G1.

Pharma Case Study

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Pharma Case Study Background

• Analysis done by a management consulting firm

– Directional insight led to customer recommendation for product

development

• Social Media Study Time Frame: 11/3/05 – 5/27/08

• 514 Sites Discovered

• 123,624 Opinions on the Subjects & Issues

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Visualizing the Side Effect Relationships Helps Direct Product Development & Marketing Communications• Negative opinions under issues “discovered” reveal that users are unhappy with the way the

drugs have to be administered.

• Such an insight leads to a product development recommendation that can impact not just one brand but an entire product category.

Listening Analytics Methodology

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Listening Analytics Methodology

– Using advanced technologies like NLP (Natural Language Processing) and machine learning, GeeYee's solution is able to quantify social media content through generating tag data (similar to that of "coding" techniques) on three dimensions at the sentence level: subject, topic, and sentiment (along with other inherent attributes of social media content such as URL, author information, post time, etc.).

– When people communicate in social media, particularly in forums , blogs, and social utility sites, they mention multiple subjects and issues and often do not explicitly refer to the subject or product feature/issue. For example:

• Implicit Subject. “This phone has a great battery life.” The subject is not explicitly mentioned but our solution will pick it up nevertheless.

• Implicit Product Feature/Issue. “This camera is too large.” Here the feature “Size” is not mentioned but our solution will detect it as such.

• Context-dependent. “This battery life is ‘long’” is a positive sentiment whereas “This movie line is ‘long’” is a negative sentiment.

Additional Takeaways

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Additional Takeaways

• Social media is one data point amongst others for optimal new product development decision making. Remember, social media is directional and traditional marketing research is representative.

• Directional insights into product development decision making are more clear when entire product categories are visualized.

• Relevant social media data is essential (i.e. don’t want edible fruits showing up in the Apple & Blackberry smart phone study).

Q&A

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Thank You!

GeeYee Tom Malkin

(312) 860-4393tom@geeyee.com