A benchmark analysis of consumer reviews of netbook laptops collected from leading consumer electronics review websites has just been released by Biz360 Inc., a leading provider of market and media intelligence solutions.
One of the consumer research study’s findings indicates that consumer advocacy for the Netbooks category lags behind consumer advocacy for all laptops. Biz360 analyzed over 20,000 online opinions, culled from review consumer electronics websites such as Amazon, Best Buy, CNET, Newegg, PC World, Circuit City and CompUSA for the period May 15, 2008 through November 15, 2008. The company’s new Opinion Insights social media measurement solution was used to analyze the online comments.
Fast facts
- “Net Advocacy” for Netbooks category is 40 percent lower than Net Advocacy for all laptops.
- Performance, display & features/accessories are the most important laptop product attributes according to consumer reviews.
- While performance is the #1 attribute driving laptop advocacy, the performance Net Advocacy for the Netbooks product category is predominantly negative.
“Net Advocacy” is Biz360’s proprietary metric that factors the positive and negative sentiment of individual comments, as well as the impact of the source of each comment, to yield an indicator of a product or brand’s referral value in the marketplace. This process is automated by Biz360’s Opinion Insights product, which lets companies quickly compare advocacy scores of different brands, models, product attributes and features. By measuring consumer sentiment on a specific product or feature, Opinion Insights is able to deliver marketers ongoing insight into consumer opinion more cost effectively than traditional consumer research.
Report findings
Note to reporters: more details of this social media study are available from Tamairah Boleyn, Biz360, tam.boleyn@biz360.com. Findings will also be reviewed via a consumer electronics industry webcast on January 22 at 11:00 am PT, see www.Biz360.com for event access.
- The research study highlighted the attributes and features most likely to be commented on by consumers. Their comments indicate which factors most influence satisfaction and purchase decisions in the laptops category.
- For laptop manufacturers, four key product attributes accounted for more than 70 percent of all online opinions: performance, display, features and accessories, and general opinions.
- While Acer is the Q408 top-seller in the netbook product family, Acer ranks lowest in Net Advocacy among the 6 laptop brands. The Acer’s Aspire One series had a 34% lower Net Advocacy than the average Net Advocacy of all laptop brands.
- Nearly one quarter of all laptop online consumer reviews are about performance. Advocacy for Netbooks category performance is predominantly negative.
- Acer’s Aspire One series, like almost all Netbooks, is regarded by the majority of their new owners as not technically performing up to their expectations.
“Based on our work in the consumer electronics sector and the 2008 sales growth of netbooks as a flourishing market category, we were interested in how this category is faring among consumers and also in identifying market share opportunities,” said Stephen Foster, senior director of analyst services at Biz360. “The results of the social media analysis indicate that there is a lot of opportunity for improvement across the board for Netbook products. Netbook manufacturers also face a significant challenge with consumers whose expectations are based on years of desktop pc usage.”
“Technology has changed the buying landscape forever. Consumers now have the tools to be more vocal and influential than ever before. Whether satisfied or not with a product, they can reach out and communicate their opinions to a world of other consumers. And whether we like it or not, consumers are listening and are influenced by those heartfelt opinions expressed by their peers,” said Brad Brodigan, CEO of Biz360. “In order to make smart business decisions, it is essential that marketers embrace new tools to understand and interpret the new online consumer dialogue that is happening around them.”
About Opinion Insights
Opinion Insights captures and analyzes consumer opinion from thousands of expert and consumer review and shopping sites. This proprietary Web-based solution is built on advanced data aggregation and analytics techniques, including natural language processing (NLP) to enable expert and consumer review extraction and analysis across multiple brands, products, attributes and features. It provides marketers with a series of real-time metrics that can be leveraged over time in product planning and development.
About Biz360
Biz360 delivers media and market intelligence solutions to Global 2000 business decision makers, providing them with a 360-degree view of their marketplace. The company gathers and analyzes vast amounts of traditional news media, social media and customer opinion information about an organization, its brands, products and competitors to deliver real-time insights that help its clients make better and faster business decisions. Biz360’s clients include AAA, Aetna, AstraZeneca and Sun Microsystems. Biz360 can be reached at 866.424.9360 or www.biz360.com.
