Anderson Analytics’ Tom H. C. Anderson to speak on text analytics in market research and competitive intelligence at University of Connecticut, Stamford July 9th
For those back from their 4th of July vacations and interested in how to apply text mining in market research and competitive intelligence, I’ve been invited to speak at the University of Connecticut, Stamford by the Connecticut chapter of SCIP (Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals). I’ll be covering text analytics overall briefly and then move on to some specific case studies with a mix of market research and competitive intelligence applications.
Below is additional information from SCIP including registration on their site. Hope to see some of you there!
-Tom Text Analytics for Competitive Intelligence and Market Research
Information: Fred Wergeles, CT Chapter Chair, 860-408-9093, Email Fred [at] IntelStrategy.com
Presentation:
Text Analytics allows research professionals to finally gain insights from the majority of data collected in business (80% which is in unstructured/text format). Learn how Anderson Analytics, the first consultancy to harness the new technology in ad-hoc research has leveraged the technique in a wide range of situations. Case studies will be discussed including work done with Starwood Hotels and Unilever.
Speaker:
Tom H. C. Anderson is founder of Anderson Analytics, a next generation research firm which leverages new technologies such as data and text mining with traditional market research techniques.
Mr. Anderson has presented extensively on text analytics over the past few years at industry and academic events. Anderson Analytics methodologies and best practices have been covered in several journals and text books this year including Business Research Methods 10e and Qualitative Market Research - Approaches and Applications.
He received an MBA with honors from the University of Connecticut, and a Masters in Economics with honors from Lunds Universitet, Sweden.
First day back in the office stateside today. I noticed in this morning’s mail I had been elected to the Stamford Historical Societies Board of Directors where I have been serving the past few months on the board unofficially. It should be fun to learn more about Stamford’s history and help the society with their marketing efforts.
As interesting as US and Stamford’s history is, it’s hard to compare with what Europe has to offer. I mentioned a few of them recently here on the blog, like Glimmingehus in Sweden and Roskilde Viking Ship Museum in Denmark.
On this last trip to Sweden, my wife and I also visited a few megalithic monuments, one which is about 5000 years old, another from the bronze age (about 3000 years old), and the other more recent, from the end of the Iron Age (500 AD). The latter, known as Ale’s Stenar (Ale’s Stones) looks a lot like Stonehenge but is shaped like a Viking Ship and placed high atop a hill with the sea on three sides.
It’s very impressive when viewed as a grave and when you consider all the work it must have taken to move these stones into place. But even more interesting is when you consider it from an archeoastronomical perspective. Apparently, the placements of the stones also seem to function as a very accurate calendar not just for 365 day year but also for the autumnal and vernal equinox, the winter and summer solstice etc.
It occurred to me that considering the time and effort it must have taken to set this up, perhaps the ancient Vikings, Babylonians, and Egyptians valued analytics more than we do today?
I posted a couple times on the Absolut Vodka “Mexico - US PR Fiasco” so when I saw a large display of Absolut Vodka’s new pro GBLT packaging in Kastrup airport in Copenhagen I took this picture. Not sure if it has reached the US market yet? Even if it has I doubt there would be displays this grand.
Absolut has been advertising to the gay community for a while and has recently been recognized by an organization, Commercial Closet, for their continued support of the community.
Barriers to entry just as important today as they were over 500 years ago
Glimmingehus Skane Sweden
I drove by Glimmingehus the other day and decided to stop in briefly. It’s not very spectacular as far as castles go but it has a few other characteristics which make it very unique. Other than being one of the best preserved 15th Century medieval manors in Northern Europe, it also probably has the most death traps per square foot.
Built by Danish Knight Jens Holgersen ‘Ulfstand’ (Wolf’s tooth), who managed that part of Southern Sweden on behalf of the Danish King (think Sheriff of Nottingham), it was built to protect him against all his enemies including farmers and Swedish Knights. Jens was also a privateer attacking Swedish ships trading with Germany.
Jens had a very good life and made a VERY profitable living. When farmer rebellions and Swedish Knights burned all other Danish interests in the area, Glimmingehus stood untouched. It was considered too strong for all but a full out attack by a royal army.
If an army could make it past the surrounding wetlands, there was still the moat to pass. Additionally archers, cross bowmen, and later blunderbuss and cannon were positioned in all directions on the top floor. The castle was built directly upon the water well so that defenders would have uninterrupted water supply during any possible siege.
Should anyone reach the reinforced barricaded door, molten lead and other nasties would be dropped from the murder hole above while cross bowmen and archers continued to shoot down. Should anyone be unfortunate enough to penetrate the door and enter the hallway of the first floor, Glimmingehus was designed to actually trap the invaders on the first floor by closing off the exit with an iron drop gate. All those who had entered would then be shot down through the various kill holes on the sides of the walls, through the stairway, and from murder holes above. If needed the defenders could retreat to the second floor, third floor, fourth floor, etc. repeating the slaughter in the kill zones.
While thankfully business strategy need not be as bloody as military strategy, I think Jens can probably teach us a few things. I’m sure he would have been a fierce business competitor should he have lived today.
Competitive intelligence is naturally very important for most businesses but I’m wondering how many businesses also employ defensive countermeasures similar to Jens. Protecting and increasing the barriers of entry into our markets is something which, while difficult in this online age, needs to be considered by anyone who is as successful as Jens and wishes to withstand competitor attacks.
-Tom
Images:
Some Defensive Barriers/
Death Trap Schematics
A Murder Hole
Murder Hole View
No Escape/
Drop Down Gate
(Above & Behind Door)
A Removable Stairway Block
(For Shooting Into Kill Zone)
Offline Marketing S*cks…how do you feel about offline/traditional market research?
Was having breakfast this morning in Copenhagen when I saw this guy. I asked for permission before taking the picture
He was attending the reboot2 conference. Loved the shirt. I may have a couple made up as well “Offline Market Research S*cks” and/or better yet “Traditional Market Research S*cks”?
I’ve been meeting with a few companies here in Southern Scandinavia this week. Have just one more meeting tomorrow and I’ll be heading back to the US until October when I’ll be here again on business.The other day I was in Gothenburg, Sweden and had a chance to meet with my friend at Zebra Advertising. I always find it interesting to see what they are working on.
Leif Strid, Zebra Reklam
Scandinavian companies do seem to be disproportionately creative compared to their US counterparts. This is part of the reason Anderson Analytics established our European satellite office in Stockholm in 2006.
There are probably many reasons for Scandinavian companies being so innovative. One important reason is probably the flatter management structure of companies here. In the advertising space, I think it also has to do with the fact that for many years in Sweden, government controlled TV was not an option for advertising so ad/pr firms had to think outside of the box and leverage other means of communication more.
I also had the pleasure of meeting up with Ann Margreth Hellberg, who is ESOMAR Vice president and works in the MR field for a Swedish consumer products co. Prior to serving on the ESOMAR council she was also president of SMUF (Sveriges MarknadsUndersökarköpares Förening) or Sweden’s Market Research Buyers organization.
Hellbergs & Tom
In terms of innovative new MR technology, two Scandinavian companies, one Danish and one Swedish, quite literally caught my eye last week. Tobii and iMotions use eye tracking software that is quite impressive. iMotions also measures the pupil dilation etc. to measure emotion. Eye tracking software might not be brand new technology but its application is definitely not wide spread and this was the first time I had the chance to test it myself. I think it would be quite useful for usability testing and ad/concept testing as well.
Tobii Eye Tracking Output
I look forward to coming back in October to speak at Sveriges Marknads Forbund (Swedish Marketing Association) in Stockholm. This is their big Tendensdagen event with over 600 participants. Should be very interesting.
-Tom
A few pics illustrating creative/
comfortable atmosphere at Zebra:
Zebra DM Efforts
One of the many Zebra paraphernalia displays
[My rough translation from Swedish of the Zebra Reklam philosophy : “There are over 200 horse types in the world. The Zebra is one of them. The Zebra is distinctly different from its relatives because of its special pattern…In marketing it’s just as important to differentiate yourself from the masses and have your own look…We strive to make sure all advertising efforts are as effective as possible. Often this is a function of budget. However, with increased creativity, increased marketing strategy and unexpected solutions we can make your advertising activities even more effective.”]
Roskilde makes up for in interaction for what it lacks in ship detail
I was at the Viking ship museum in Roskilde Denmark earlier today. While I think the ships in the Oslo Viking museum are a bit cooler, as they are better preserved, what’s impressive about the Roskilde museum is the length of some of the war ships.
Most of these ships were scuttled in Roskilde Fjord in the 11th century as part of a defensive strategy against an incoming attack. There is little evidence of an actual attack on Roskilde at the time, so they may have been part of a defensive planning exercise. Who doesn’t love some good historical navy/military strategy though?
The museum has archeologists on staff who are still digging pieces up out of Roskilde Fjord as well as craftsman who are building full size replicas. One of the ships the Sea Stallion recently sailed to Ireland. Even more impressive is that this museum actually conducts full day lessons teaching you how to sail & row Viking ships of various sizes!
Shot a brief video of one small ship coming in. They had just taken down the sail when I started filming on my Flip Mino.
Would have been nice to take a class, but I didn’t have too much time as I had to take care of a call with a client in PST zone. Wondering how much of an issue the 6-9 hour time difference would be if I spent more time over here?
I was very pleasantly surprised and honored yesterday to have the paper I presented on Text Analytics in Market Research at the ESOMAR Innovate conference nominated for the best ESOMAR paper of the year award!
My presentation which was based on the paper took the audience through 3 case studies. A hospitality guest satisfaction case from 2005, an e-commerce segmentation with projective techniques from 2006, and a CGM case from 2007, and suggested an approach we have developed to analyze highly unstructured data.
Apparently I had saved rehearsal timing within my presentation file so the presentation was “running away from me” i.e. advancing on its own. Mental note to self and warning to anyone else who is running a PowerPoint presentation, make sure to NEVER save the timing. Kind of funny in retrospect.
Also nominated was Serious Play - Innovation in the Digital Space presented by MTV/Nickelodeon’s Alison Bryant. Congratulations Alison! I mentioned her presentation in yesterdays post.
There were several other great presentations at the conference. I hope to summarize a few of them here later if I have time. Heading off to Sweden tomorrow for Midsummer!
