BOULDER, Colo., June 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Umbria Communications, a company
that collects the unsolicited opinions and perceptions of the online community
and turns them into actionable market intelligence, today announced new data
on the likes, dislikes and purchasing habits of Generation Y. This data was
collected using Umbria's unique natural language processing and machine
learning technology that monitors and analyzes information from more than 10
million blogs, online chats and message boards several times an hour.
Generation Y is the primary voice of the blogging community, representing
more than 40 percent of all blog postings as of May 1, 2005. Generation Y is
defined as men and women born between 1978 and 1995, currently aged 10 to 27.
Members of generation Y are generally early adopters and are twice as likely
as the general population to influence the opinions of others in areas of
life, such as what products to use, what entertainment to see, what
politicians to vote for and where to eat. What's more, Generation Y
represents 77.9 million people in the United States with a buying power of
$625 billion annually.
Umbria Communications' Generation Y findings as of May 1, 2005 include:
* Despite overcoming a rape trial, Kobe Bryant remains among the most
popular basketball players in terms of positive mentions indicating
his fans have forgiven him or are able to look past the accusations.
His approval is particularly high among Generation Y males (63 percent
positive mentions).
* Starbucks is the most mentioned non-alcoholic (coffee, tea or soft
drink) beverage brand in the blogosphere, which is ironic for a brand
that spends little money on advertising compared to Coke and Pepsi,
the second and third most mentioned brands, which have the largest
advertising budgets on the planet.
* McDonald's is the most mentioned quick serve dining brand (41 percent
of mentions) by over a two-to-one margin. Wendy's (20 percent) and
Taco Bell (16 percent) are the next most mentioned brands. While
McDonald's is most often mentioned, other quick serve brands are
perceived as either using better ingredients (Wendy's) or providing
more variety for the money (Taco Bell).
* Generation Y females converse more online about beer brands than their
male counterparts with 54 percent of mentions of the top five beer
brands coming from women. Incidentally, Guinness is the preferred
brand among Generation Y, accounting for approximately 42 percent of
mentions.
* Britney Spears was the most mentioned celebrity in the blogosphere by
almost a two to one margin (51 percent) relative to the top five.
Britney Spears had the highest percentage of positive mentions when
compared to the rest of the "teen queens" (Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan
and Hilary Duff). Jessica Simpson is the only "teen queen" conversed
about more favorably than Britney Spears.
To identify the above Generation Y data, Umbria first identified the top
five brands, products and people in each of the categories. Umbria then used
a combination of natural language processing and machine learning technologies
to analyze the speech and blogger demographics of all blogs relating to the
topics.
Commenting on the above trends, and of mining the blogosphere in general,
Howard Kaushansky, CEO of Umbria, says: "Why introduce bias into your research
with focus groups? Today, the blogosphere is providing a completely
unfiltered forum for consumer opinions, and the companies that are able to
quickly understand and adapt to these shifts will reap the benefits. By
listening to the blogosphere, companies are able to study how people perceive
and interact with their brand, the strengths and weaknesses of a new product
or ad campaign, and the moves of a competitor. There's really no end to the
kinds of questions the blogosphere can answer."
Umbria provides Fortune 500 companies with data to identify brand health,
product success, red flags and overall competitive intelligence by demographic
subgroup on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, giving them the opportunity to
immediately act on changing trends and behaviors.
About Umbria Communications
Umbria Communications is at the forefront of the marketing intelligence
revolution. Umbria analyzes the opinions and perceptions of the online
community -- which is comprised of blogs, message boards, chat rooms, and
other user forums -- and turns such comments into actionable market insights
for companies passionate about their brands and products.
Umbria gives voice to the online community by using proprietary natural
language processing and machine learning algorithms to dissect the who, what
and why of online opinion -- offering in-depth insights into the buzz about
companies, brands, products, people, and topics of interest. Umbria provides
services for some of the world's leading brands, including Electronic Arts,
Sprint, and many others. For more information on Umbria, please visit
http://www.umbriacom.com.
Media Contact Information:
Regan Petersen
GroundFloor Media
303-332-3896
rpetersen@groundfloormedia.com
SOURCE Umbria Communications
 back to top
Related links:
http://www.umbriacom.com
CONTACT:
Regan Petersen of GroundFloor Media,
+1-303-332-3896, rpetersen@groundfloormedia.com, for Umbria
Communications
|
