Tuning Into Notebook Iwom 2007 Q3

© 2008 CIC

Tuning into Notebook IWOM, 2007 Q3

An overview of Internet Word of Mouth around notebook computers on Chinese online message boards (BBS)

January 21, 2008

Study Background and Quick Takeaways

Data source: CIC Notebook Practice, 2007 Q3 3© 2008 CIC

STUDY BACKGROUND

• The purpose of this study is to provide a taste of the Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) for the mainland China notebook computer industry.

• The systematic analysis used in this study is based on 1,204,117 BBS (online message board) messages from mainland China related to notebook computers written by 160,926 unique user names for the period July 1 to September 30, 2007.

• The scope of this study covers 739 models of 71 series brands from 27 notebook manufacturers, and the systematic analysis digs deep into 395 sub-attributes from 10 categorized attributes.

• The messages were collected and mined using CIC’s patent pending data collection and text mining tools and methodology and analyzed by CIC’s Notebook IWOM analyst team

* This study was conducted independently and is not sponsored by any manufacturer or any organization.

4© 2008 CIC

QUICK TAKEAWAYS• Lenovo is the most discussed manufacturer (33.9% of total brand and product

posts), but ThinkPad fans also present a challenge for Lenovo to maintain credibility while balancing innovation.

• Dell Inspiron 1420 launch and its color choice made it the most buzzed Dell model (11.2% of total Dell posts).

• Dell used its Chinese blog to communicate with customers disappointed with shipment delays.

• Configuration and price are the most buzzed attributes of notebooks (32% and 22% of total brand and product posts). CIC’s “Brand Attribute Landscape” shows how brands are associated with different sets of attributes.

• Desire for home-use notebooks (67% of top 100 buzzed models) drive the buzz of independent graphic cards and widescreens.

• Notebook disassembling and DIY discussions reflect an active culture in forums.

• HP (with recruitment of efluencers) and Toshiba (with use of “Grab Floor” tactic) demonstrate “smart” and appropriate IWOM marketing approaches.

An Introduction to Chinese Notebook IWOM


Definition: Content including text and multimedia related to companies, products or services shared by netizens, including brands and consumers, via online community platforms such as BBS (online message boards), blogs and video sites.

BBS Blog Video-Sharing

WHAT IS INTERNET WORD OF MOUTH (IWOM)?

Please suggest me a gaming notebook which costs 12,000RMB to 14,000RMB.

Recommendation of all famous brands and value-for-money notebooks which are below 5,000RMB.

For more on this definition, see our blogs here (EN) and here (CN)

http://www.seeisee.com/sam/2007/10/24/p381

http://www.seeisee.com/index.php/2007/11/17/p410


IWOM HAS MASSIVE REACH

3.311.2 15.0

19.6

46.2 50.6

74.6

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

15.8

34.7

49.4

2005 2006 2007

*Data Source: The 21st Statistical Survey Report on the Internet Development in China by CNNIC, January 2008

• 210 million Internet users in China*

• 74.6 million regular BBS users (35.5%)*

• 49.4 million Chinese bloggers (23.5%)* 1 2 9

23 3459

8094

111137

210

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Internet User in China (Unit-million)

Regular BBS User Online (Unit-million) Regular Blog User Online (Unit-million)


IWOM MAKES BRINGS COMPLEXITY TO COMMUNICATIONS: Consumers are gaining influenceConsumers have their own media in blogs, BBS and other community platforms that can both amplify and influence traditional media as well as reflect and influence consumers themselves.

InfluenceShape ReshapeIWOM

Mainstream Media

Video SharingNewspaper & Magazines

Billboard TVC BBS Blog


1,204,117

160,926

# of BBS Messages in Q3 # of Unique BBS Posters in Q3

Notebook Related BBS Messages for Q3, 2007

Unit: Post Unit: Poster

IMPRESSIVE IWOM NUMBERS: there are over 1.2 million BBS messages in CIC’s Notebook Practice for Q3 2007.

Notebook Brand and Model IWOM


• ThinkPad owners and fans helped put Lenovo in top buzz position for manufacturers (33.9% of total brand and product posts), followed by HP (18.9%) and Dell (14.4%).

• Brands should track buzz health as part of key performance indicators.

Findings Implications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Notebook Brand and Model IWOM

• ThinkPad fan buzz around the changes of T60 and T61,especially on widescreen (i.e. not classic enough) ,shows the challenge for Lenovo to maintain credibility with fans while balancing innovation.

• Buzz for Dell’s Q3 launch of Inspiron 1420 was driven by it’s multiple color choices, putting Inspiron in top buzz spot among all Dell notebooks with 6,631 posts.

• The color choice drove the 1420 buzz, but unfortunately, so did complaints and concerns around the colors being out of stock. Dell utilized its Chinese blog (Direct2Dell Chinese) to communicate with consumers.

• Lenovo should track fans feedback carefully and develop innovative interactive programs to enhance communication and involvement with this important and vocal customer base.

• Dell could further enhance buzz around its popular colors by following the lead of consumers who shared more colorful pics online.

• Dell could better utilize its blog as a voice for issue/crisis communications channel by systematically tracking buzz and developing benchmarks to guide if and how to respond.


* Buzz Incidence of Top 10 Discussed Notebook Manufacturer in Q3, 2007

*Note: Buzz incidence of manufacturer is the percentage of manufacturer posts (posts mentioning notebook manufacturer brand, series brand, and models) among total brand and product posts.

MANUFACTURER BUZZ VOLUME: Lenovo led the buzz, followed by HP and Dell

Base: Total number of brand and product posts is 411,445

2.9%

6.7%

7.2%

7.5%

8.3%

11.8%

14.4%

18.9%

33.9%

2.8%Apple

Samsung

Sony

Acer

Toshiba

Hasee

Asus

Dell

HP

Lenovo


LAPTOP SERIES BRAND BUZZ VOLUME: Thinkpad dominated all other series

* Buzz Incidence of Top 15 Discussed Notebook Series Brand in Q3, 2007

0.7%

0.7%

0.7%

1.1%

1.3%

1.3%

1.7%

1.7%

2.1%

2.3%

2.8%

3.0%

3.4%

17.2%

0.6% XPS

Vostro

Versa

Satellite

Latitude

Cheng Yun 承运

Tian Yun 天运

Tian Yi 天逸

Pavilion

Aspire

Presario

Xu Ri 旭日

VAIO

Inspiron

ThinkPad

*Note: Buzz incidence of series brand is the percentage of series brand posts (posts mentioning series brand only, not including its model posts) among total brand and product posts.



ThinkPad T60# of posts in Q3: 12,657

Dell Inspiron 1420# of posts in Q3: 6,631

Sony VAIO FZ15# of posts in Q3: 2,616

Lenovo 旭日 410# of posts in Q3: 5,556

HP Presario V3400# of posts in Q3: 3,901

STAR MODEL* OF TOP 10 SERIES BRANDS: unique positioning or features triggered consumers’ hot discussion

Acer Aspire 4710# of posts in Q3: 941

HP Pavilion DV2500# of posts in Q3: 2,977

Lenovo 天逸 F41# of posts in Q3: 2,496

Hasee 天运 F206s# of posts in Q3: 757

Hasee 承运 L730T# of posts in Q3: 1,140

BUZZED ANGLE:the first Lenovo made ThinkPad notebook.

BUZZED ANGLE:8 colors for consumer to choose from.

BUZZED ANGLE:multimedia, extreme entertainment function.

BUZZED ANGLE:new Compaq logo, high performance price ratio.

BUZZED ANGLE:3999RMB, popular low-end notebook.

BUZZED ANGLE:new “Gemstone Concept” and Dolby Home Theater sound system.

BUZZED ANGLE:excellent multimedia and entertainment. Integrated fingerprint reader and webcam.

BUZZED ANGLE:mainstream middle-end home/family notebook.

BUZZED ANGLE:9999RMB, high configuration “Santa Rosa”. Integrated Intel Turbo Memory.

BUZZED ANGLE:3999RMB, new Intel Pentium Dual Core processor powered, value for money.

*Note: Star Model is the most buzzed model of each series brand.



“LENOVO MADE THINKPAD”: ThinkPad fans’ comparison of the design of T60 and T61 brought sustained buzz about old model T60

Weekly Post Trend of ThinkPad T60 and T61 in Q3, 2007


0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

7.1-7.7 7.8-7.14

7.15-7.21

7.22-7.28

7.29-8.4

8.5-8.11

8.12-8.18

8.19-8.25

8.26-9.1

9.2-9.8 9.9-9.15

9.16-9.22

9.23-9.30

T60T61

Unit: Post

Loyal ThinkPad fans think T60 is more classic than T61, because the changes (e.g. the widescreen) on T61 make it unconventional.

How to maintain the classic while develop innovation is a challenge of Lenovo.

帖子示例: “当t61出现的时候，我觉得是不是设计师真的换过了，因为ThinkPad一直以来在t系列坚持的设计美感，荡然无存。”Quote: “I doubted whether the designer had been changed when I saw the T61. The eternal aesthetic feeling of ThinkPad frame has disappeared.”

帖子示例: “确实T60是经典的设计。”Quote: “The design of T60 is definitely classic.”

帖子示例: “宽屏是趋势没错，但是T61的宽屏看着太恶心了，还是普屏好一点。”Quote: “Widescreen is certainly the future trend, but the widescreen of T61 looks too ugly, so I still prefer normal screen.”

A special “normal” screen T61 was launched which triggered comparison between widescreen and regular screen for T60 and T61.

<adjust based on eight days data>

http://q.yesky.com/uploads/images/2007-07/25/xg34id6e.jpg


Positive: the fancy design and colorful appearance burst 1420 buzz soon after its launch in July. Compare to Latitude D630 (the second hot Dell model), “COLOUR” is a real spotlight of Inspiron 1420.

COLORFUL DELL INSPIRON INSPIRES BUZZ: the eight colorful backs of Inspiron 1420 generated much buzz

*Note: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency Analysis around “Inspiron 1420” and “Latitude D630”.

Dell Inspiron 1420# of posts in Q3: 6,631

11.2% of total Dell buzz

Rank - Keyword - Frequency

1 Vista 2,113

2 XP 1,696

3 System 1,638

4 Graphic card 1,552

5 Hard disk 1,500

6 Configuration 1,489

7 Diver 1,439

8 Sales 1,203

9 Use 1,177

10 Memory 1,092


11 Price 997

12 Screen 982

13 Test 971

14 Arrive 904

15 Color 883

16 Purchase 852

17 Performance 835

18 Order 833

19 Game 811

20 Black 785


21 Battery 710

22 Software 699

23 Buy 630

24 Colorful back 613

25 Order form 590

26 CPU 580

27 Blue 534

28 6999 515

29 Discount 500

30 Shell 484


1 Price 1,260

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Configuration 1,128

Graphic card 1,082

Latitude 1,070

Hard disk 1,064

Memory 1,038

Vista 972

Seeder 711

Socket 710

Performance 707


11 Purchase 700

16 Quadro 589

17 802.11abg 566

18 Price performance 529

19 Experience 507

20 Business laptop 505

12 Screen 689

13 NVS 652

14 Battery 645

15 Business 589


21 Processor 499

22 Design 444

23 Shell 427

24 Intel 422

25 Centrino 415

26 Game 412

27 Recommend 410

28 T7100 409

29 Service 396

30 Test 358

Dell Latitude D630# of posts in Q3: 3,0735.2% of total Dell buzz

*Keyword Frequency Rank For Inspiron 1420

*Keyword Frequency Rank For Latitude D630

Multiple Color Option

No Color Option


SHOW OFF THE COLORFUL BACKS: consumer posted photos are more “real and natural” than those on Dell website

帖子示例: “因为dell官方网站没有每个颜色的实物图大家都怕买完了跟自己想象或者看到的图片不相符所以发出来大家参考下底下这些图片都是我搜集来的.”Quote: “Since the official Dell website doesn’t provide real product photo of each color, and everyone doesn’t want a laptop that is different from what you expect, I share the below collected photos with you.”

Photos from Dell website Consumer Posted Photos from BBS

http://group.zol.com.cn/tips/show_pic.php?picid=898535

http://group.zol.com.cn/tips/show_pic.php?picid=898550


0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

6.24-6.30 7.1-7.7 7.8-7.14 7.15-7.21 7.22-7.28 7.29-8.4 8.5-8.11 8.12-8.18 8.19-8.25 8.26-9.1 9.2-9.8 9.9-9.15 9.16-9.22 9.23-9.30

<adjust based on eight days data>June reference (pre-launch) Q3 (post-launch)

Weekly Post Trend of Dell Inspiron 1420 in Q3, 2007Unit: Post

Colorful Inspiron 1420 out of stock issue.

帖子示例: “1420只有黑得能出厂，其他的颜色都缺货，今天给客服打电话说最少要五天来货，白色的还要晚！！！！！！”Quote: “Only black back 1420 is available; other colors are all out of stock. I called service clerk today and was told that I need to wait for at least five days, and it needs more time for the white back edition!!!!”

Negative: colorful backs were out of stock in August, consumers were so upset and the buzz reached a peak

INSPIRON 1420 OUT OF STOCK ISSUE: Consumers frustration causes a spike in buzz


link

DELL’S CHINESE BLOG IS ITS IWOM VOICE: during out of stock issue, Dell utilized Direct2Dell Chinese blog to communicate with consumers

“关于戴尔部分产品的订单情况

Status of orders of several Dell products”

Inspiron 1420

Inspiron 640m

LCD Screen

XPS 1330

Direct2Dell Chinese Blog:帖子示例: “客户对于我们的Inspiron新产品需求踊跃，加之部分物料紧张，和某几种彩壳热销，目前出现了供货延迟的现象。已经下单的客户，我们正在按照先来先得的原则加紧处理您的订单。据保守估计，这些订单的发货时间，从目前起计算，还需从1周到5个星期不等。”Quote: “The new Inspiron products are in great demand by our customers, but the material is very limited and several color shells have sold well, so they are out of stock right now. We are speeding up the process for the customers who have already ordered. According to our estimation, another 1-5 weeks is needed to deliver the these products from now.”

Consumer Comment from Blog:帖子示例: “终于有一篇出自官方对近期缺货原因的解释，心里略微平静点。”Quote: “Finally, an official response to explain the out of stock issue, I feel a bit more comfortable.”

Response from Dell Blog Administrator, Jacqui Zhou:帖子示例: “Caterpillar，我们会在确保质量的情况下加快生产的.”Quote: “Caterpillar, we will speed up the production while ensuring the quality.”

Dell Chinese Blog

http://chinese.direct2dell.com/archive/2007/08/06/1229.aspx

Notebook Attribute IWOM


• Home-use notebooks (67% of top 100 buzzed models) are more talked than business notebooks (33%). The buzz suggests that independent graphic cards and widescreens are a must because of its benefit to gaming and entertainment.

• Brands should utilize IWOM analysis to distill issues or needs of greatest concern in order to better target marketing communication programs for this savvy, influential group of users.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Notebook Attribute IWOMFindings Implications

• Configuration and price are the most buzzed attributes of notebooks (32.4% and 22.3% of total brand and product posts).

• CIC’s “Brand Attribute Landscape”shows that consumers buzz more about performance and design / appearance around HP, Acer and Sony; buzz more about price and marketing/promotion around Lenovo and Hasee; and buzz more about service and channel towards Dell.

• Brands should utilize IWOM analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses of their own products and those of competitors for better positioning and communications.

• Systematic online buzz tracking could assist brands to recognize customer needs which can assist R&D on product design.


22.3%

11.0%9.9%

8.7% 7.9%6.4%

32.4%

Configuration Price Design &Appearance

Service &Channel

Performance Function Marketing &Promotion

* Buzz Incidence of Overall Notebook Attribute in Q3, 2007

HOT BUZZED NOTEBOOK ATTRIBUTES: configuration and price are the most discussed attributes

*Note: Buzz incidence of attribute is the percentage of attribute posts among total brand and product posts.

帖子示例: “迅四平台、8400独立显卡，这都是目前中高端机型的标准配置…… 对于家庭娱乐用户而言，也是一个中端价位高端配置的选择。”

Quote: “4th Centrino Platform, nVIDIA 8400 independent graphic card, all these are standard configurations for middle-high end notebook…… For family entertainment user, this notebook is a good choice for middle-end price with high-end configuration.”

帖子示例: “迅四平台、8400独立显卡，这都是目前中高端机型的标准配置…… 对于家庭娱乐用户而言，也是一个中端价位高端配置的选择。”

Quote: “4th Centrino Platform, nVIDIA 8400 independent graphic card, all these are standard configurations for middle-high end notebook…… For family entertainment user, this notebook is a good choice for middle-end price with high-end configuration.”



*Note: “Brand attribute landscape” uses the distance to visualizes the relationship between the manufacturer brands and the attributes, the nearer distance represent the closer association.

Performance and Design / Appearance are most frequently buzzed by consumers around Acer, HP, and Sony notebooks.

Consumers talk about Price and Marketing / Promotion mostly regarding two local brand, “Lenovo” and “Hasee”.On the topic of Service and Channel,

Dell is the most discussed brand.

BRAND ATTRIBUTE LANDSCAPE*: different brands have their unique hot buzz angles in relation to notebookattributes discussion


*Note: “Brand attribute landscape” uses the distance to visualizes the relationship between the manufacturer brands and the attributes, the nearer distance represent the closer association.

BRAND ATTRIBUTE LANDSCAPE* BREAKDOWN: Analysis of sub-attributes of DESIGN & APPEARANCE and PERFORAMNCE attributes


HOME-USE NOTEBOOKS ARE THE MOST BUZZED MODELS: more consumers choose notebook for family use over of desktop

Family67%

Business33%

Notebook Category (according to the use) Distribution Among Top 100 Buzzed Models

Data Base: *Top 100 buzzed models

*Note: Total post number of top 100 models is 147,202 which contribute 86% of total models posts. CIC tracked 739 models from 27 manufacturers.

帖子示例: “想买个笔记本，主要用途就是打类似于热血江湖和魔兽的网络游戏，因为家里空间有限，实在没有地方能安置另一台（台式机）了。”

Quote: “I’d like to buy a laptop mainly for playing some online games like Hot Blood and WOW. As the space of my home is so limited, and it is impossible to put another desktop computer.”

帖子示例: “现在笔记本价格这么便宜，低端配置的价格和台式机持平，中等的配置比台式机也贵不到哪里，尤其在高校很多地方还方便无线局域网，所以我估计笔记本应该会成为主流的了。”

Quote: “Nowadays laptops have become much cheaper for us. The price of a low-level configuration laptop is just similar to that of a common desktop, and the price of a mid-level configuration laptop is not much higher either. Furthermore, more places like universities support wireless LAN, thus as far as I’m concerned, laptop should become the mainstream among the computer market.”


IndependentGraphic Card

61%

IntergratedCard39%

Notebook Category (according to the graphic card) Distribution Among Top 100 Buzzed Models



INDEPENDENT GRAPHIC CARD ARE MORE POPULAR: Due to increasing need for family-use notebook, the independent graphic card is going to be a must because of its benefit to gaming and entertainment

帖子示例: “学生，基本上没不玩游戏的，独显好些....”Quote: “Almost all students play games, so independent graphic card seems to be the better choice.”

帖子示例: “本人想买台华硕本子，主要作用是上班之余娱乐玩玩魔兽世界，极品飞车，实况之类的游戏，比较追求游戏效果。显卡性能>=x1600或go7600”Quote: “I want to buy a Asus laptop. Besides daily work, I can use it to play some games like WOW, NFS and WE. In addition, I care about the effects of gaming a lot, thus the graphic card should at least reach the level of X1600 or Go 7600.”

*Rank Keyword (CN) Keyword (EN)

1 游戏 Gaming 695

4 内存 Memory 474

5 处理器 Processor 403

2 性能 Performance 630

3 显存Graphic Card

Memory 524

Number Of Mentions

*Note: the rank is according to CIC Keyword Frequency Analysis around “Independent Graphic Card”.


Notebook Category (according to the type of screen) Distribution Among Top 100 Buzzed Models



WideScreen

85%

NormalScreen

15%

14’ and 15’ WIDESCREEN IS MAINSTREAM: consumers discuss widescreen as good for watching movies

帖子示例: “宽屏看电影很爽”Quote: “It is really cool to use widescreen to watch movies.”

帖子示例: “6320是XGA的哦，以后笔记本宽屏是趋势。”Quote: “HP 6320 uses XGA screen, and widescreen seems to be a trend in the future.”

帖子示例: “屏幕，最好是宽屏的——这样看电影比较爽”Quote: “I prefer to widescreen, it is more comfortable for watching movies.”

1%

32%

52%

7%8%

12 inch13 inch14 inch15 inch20 inch


IntelProcessor

87%

AMDProcessor

13%

Notebook Category (according to the processor) Distribution Among Top 100 Buzzed Models



INTEL DOMINATES: Intel mobile processors are considered better performers with higher stability, while AMD is considered the economical choice

帖子示例: “在同等条件下，优先选择intel平台，笔记本最重要的特性是稳定”Quote: “Under the same condition, you should consider laptop with Intel platform first, because the stability is the most important factor for laptop.”

帖子示例: “另外，我个人觉得AMD和Intel cpu差距还是挺大的。不过，如果你只是个人使用，没有移动办公之类的需求，也可以不考虑这种差别。毕竟AMD的cpu便宜不少。”

Quote: “In addition, in my opinion, the distance between AMD and Intel mobile processor is still quite far. However, if you only buy the laptop for personal use and do not apply it for mobile business use, you can still ignore such distance. After all, AMD platform laptops are much cheaper.”

帖子示例: “移动领域我还是更喜欢I,毕竟是带头老大,现在购买64位的处理器并无什么实际意义,64位真正普及还远着呢!现在已经不能只看主频了,毕竟构架都有很大差距的!”Quote: “I still prefer Intel within mobile processor field. After all, Intel is the industry leader, and nowadays it is meaningless to buy 64bit processor since it still needs much time to get popularized. In addition, these days frequency is no more the dominant factor, after all there's a far distance between Intel and AMD's architecture.”

Notebook IWOM Culture


• HP productively recruited passionate and loyal fans to establish HP-Fans-Regiment through notebook BBS communities.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Notebook IWOM Culture

Findings Implications

• Like HP, brands can identify brand fans and notebook fans to develop relationships by offering more and desirable opportunities to interact directly.

• Brands can leverage interest from chatty “disassembling” and “DIY”culture by officially displaying the inside structure of notebooks and releasing more customizable models.

• Brands should understand IWOM culture and integrate it into campaigns to naturally and effectively “participate” in conversations.

• Notebook Disassembling and “Do It Yourself” (DIY) represent an active culture on notebook forums.

• Toshiba used the “Grab Floor (占楼)”tactic used by many forum administrators to encourage and incentivize participation in campaign conversations.


DISASSEMBLE THE NOTEBOOK: inside structure is open to every consumer

Passionate and skillful notebook savvies are able to disassemble the notebook so as to look into the internal structure.

帖子示例: “准备了几天，终于在昨天完成了这次的拆解工作. 我看了有不少的本友都对IBM的X60有着相当的好感，也许有的本友已经入手了此款小黑了，还有的正在痛苦的选择与观望中，那就让我们一起看看吧 ”Quote: “I prepared several days and finish disassembling it yesterday. I have seen that many notebook fans favor IBM ThinkPad X60. Some have already bought it, the others are still choosing and observing. So let’s have a look at it (from inside).”

Usually, general consumers don’t have the chance to look inside the notebook. They make a purchase decision based on the outside appearance, write-down configuration, and so on.

But through the BBS, consumers are able to see the interior design and materials now. This is an important factor for some for purchase reference check.

Brands can also leverage this net culture through providing such kind of pictures. If the notebook is really well-designed, brand can attract consumers “from outside to inside” now.


DO IT YOURSELF: more and more consumers upgrade their notebook by themselves

Notebook can also be DIYed. This is the representative of DIY spirit.

帖子示例: “第一次尝试换u ，还是用了很大勇气，阿财鼓励了我，真的不是那么的难~”Quote: ”This is my first time to upgrade the laptop processor. It need a lot of courage. “阿财” (a forum administrator) encouraged me and made me feel easy to DIY it.”

Upgrading the processor implies the aspiration of extreme performance; upgrading the screen indicates the pursuit of wider vision.

Through DIY (instead of buying an official higher configuration model), besides saving money, those consumers not only personalize their notebook but also show off their technical ability.

A special notebook represents the unique personality of the owner. Although it is not the mainstream for notebook yet, brands could still consider to take advantage of this as an unique sales point in terms of making the notebooks more configurable.


BRAND DIRECTLY ENGAGE FANS: HP recruited five loyal fans to establish HP-Fans-Regiment through notebook BBS community“Fan club” is an essential component of community net culture in China. Usually, pop star fans will get together on the e-community like Baidu Postbar to cheer for their idols. Actually notebook fans are passionate as well. They are the “army” of brands.

HP recruited five passionate and loyal fans to establish HP-Fans-Regiment through notebook BBS community. The five regiment members got an HP Bluetooth wireless mouse, the opportunity to attend HP new product launch event and to experience new HP notebook.

Besides what HP has done, every notebook manufacturer can leverage the “resource” and popularity of brand specific forums on those notebook communities to officially get fans together and provide more opportunity for them to interact with the brand.

帖子示例: “顶了，好活动！！！”Quote: “Great campaign, I support it !!!”

帖子示例: “这是我拥有的第一款本本，也是我拥有的第一款惠普笔记本，我想，要是下一次换机，我还是会选择惠普！”Quote: “This is my first notebook, and this is also my first HP notebook. I think I will still choose HP next time.”

帖子示例: “好活动啊，支持，其他品牌的有没有可能有类似的活动呢”Quote: “This is a great campaign, I support it. Is it possibly for other brand to hold such kind of activity?


“GRAB FLOOR (占楼)”: Toshiba leveraged the popular netizen-initiated campaign model which involved high participation

Campaign: Toshiba is love, Love on the Chinese valentine‘s day (七夕) --- grab floor use your love announcement.Rule: people who grab the 7th, 77th, 700th and 777th floor will get prize accordingly. Replies: 7,835 Page view: 33,876

Campaign: Toshiba alarm clock give-away. Guess the price of this clock.Rule: people who guess the correct price of clock can get one and people who grab the 500th or a floor of a 500 multiple can also get one.Replies: 5,048 Page view: 11,342

“Grab Floor” (占楼) is another essential component of community net culture in China. It refers to “occupying” a specific “floor” in a BBS conversation with a comment. The person originating the thread may incentivize commenters with gifts or privileges to occupy a specific floor number (i.e. whoever writes the 100th or 1000th comment will get a gift) which can lead to massive participation.

This innovative netizen campaign model provides actionable implication for brands to plan their interactive event. Such tactic is not only very net style to help grab netizens’ attention but also could be very buzz worthy since the conversation could be actively participated. Using this netizen-familiar concept, Toshiba successfully held two campaigns on notebook BBS community.

帖子示例: “世界上最浪漫的事,就是和你慢慢变老.”Quote: ”The most romantic thing in the world is to stay with you and become older and older.”帖子示例: “我爱你的心是直到世界末日也不变.”Quote: ”My love of you will never be changed until the Doomsday.”

http://www.seeisee.com/index.php/sam/2007/11/30/p417

About CIC


ABOUT CIC

CIC is the leading Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) research and consulting firm in China. CIC helps its clients make sense of the buzz found on Chinese blogs, BBS, and other IWOM platforms using proprietary data collection and text mining technology developed specifically for the Chinese language.

CIC was founded in 2003 by a team of local and international professionals with rich experience in the Chinese marketing communications, public relations, brand consulting, data collection and text mining. With sensitivity toward marketing, market research, media planning, public relations, and product development, CIC’s team of IWOM analysts provide actionable insights for a stable of Fortune 500 retainer clients in China and around the world.

For more information, please visit www.cicdata.com (CIC website), www.seeisee.com (CIC Company blog in Chinese) and www.seeisee.com/sam(CEO’s blog in English).

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Tuning Into Notebook Iwom 2007 Q3

Technology

Transcript of Tuning Into Notebook Iwom 2007 Q3