Below is an Executive Summary of a report I did to track the number of blog posts and searches in Google for three topics, which were box office movie studios, men's running shoes companies, and personal computer companies.
Short Executive Summary
This report seeks to compile a methodology for blog and web search trend analysis. It does this using the free services of BlogPulse and Google Trends. Only with a proper understanding of a company’s relative online market position can a marketer stay on top of consumer trends. By keeping on these trends, the company will continually benefit by creating awareness, goodwill, and possibly even sales through their online presence.
This report looks at the top three brands in three diverse product categories. The categories are box office movies, men’s running shoes, and personal computers. All categories are looked at in the United States only.
Analysis was performed on the three lowest companies in their respective product categories. These companies were: Disney, Adidas, and Apple in the categories of box office movies, men's running shoes, and personal computers, respectively. It appeared that Disney's website was too cluttered with non-movie oriented content and needed a seperate section for box office pictures. Adidas and Apple shared in common their lack of user interactivity. They need to create new ways to attract and keep users to increase their reach and buzz for their products.
It is the intent that this report will establish a broad framework for both compiling and starting to understand blog and search trends. By performing analysis the trends take on meaning and become tools for optimizing the marketing efforts of a firm. Lastly, trend analysis is a useful way to assess the online presence of company’s competitors.
REFERENCES
Adidas.com (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2008 from http://www.adidas.com
Apple.com (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2008 from http://www.apple.com
BlogPulse. (2008). BlogPulse Trend Search. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from http://www.blogpulse.com/trend
Disney.com (2008). Retrieved April 6, 2008 from http://www.disney.com
Garrett, D. (2008). Thinking outside the box office: bragging rights are fine, but profit is key [Electronic version]. Variety, 409(7), 10. from TableBase.
Google. (2008). Google Trends. Retrieved April 6, 2008, from http://www.google.com/trends
Olenick, D. (2008). 2007 PC shipments higher than expected [Electronic version]. TWICE, 23(3), 20. from TableBase.
The winning numbers: women's performance footwear and apparel outdistanced fashion offerings at retail in 2006 [Electronic version]. (2007). Sporting Goods Business, 40(3), 6. from TableBase.
