CHAPTER 5

RESULTS
The results have been discussed under the three sections of Interactivity, Brand Communication
and CRM respectively.
5.1. Interactivity
Results
5.1.1. The responses from users indicated that accepting feedback and allowing a two way
interaction between organization and user, (FEED), was the most important contributor to the
function of interactivity of a corporate blog. Customer engagement (CE), Ability to locate
information a user is looking for (INF), Building Brand Relationships (BBR) are other
significant contributors to the function of interactivity as per a user perception. (Table 5.1)
Table 5.1
User Perception of Interactivity
Very
Parameter

Barely

Important

Important

Relevant

Not relevant

*4

*3

*2

*1

accept feedback and allow two

W(FEED)=

way interaction between

organization and customer

43

189

26

17

165

19

29

165

0.21883
W(BBR)=

increase amount of time spent by

consumer with the brand

0.21883
W(INF)=

locate information a customer

has been searching for

0.25066
W(CE)=

engage the customer and enable

him to be part of the community

Weights

14

32

160

0.2122

25

25

75

0.09947

provide product/service
comparisons

91

5.1.2. The structural features in a blog contributing to the function of interactivity were identified
as per the discussion in the previous chapter. The frequencies of blogs depicting a particular
structural feature, out of the total sample, were as follows (Table 5.2).
Table 5.2
Structural Interactivity of a corporate blog

S. No.

Structural feature

Frequency

Comments on posts

33

Feedback through email

Email id of user

32

Option to subscribe by email

Option to subscribe through a reader

31

Subscribe to newsletter

Response to user comments by organization

28

Category

22

Archive

24

10

Calendars

15

11

Most viewed/recent posts

14

12

Most comments/recent comments

13

Search bar

31

14

Languages

15

Corporate contact details

31

16

Information/name of post contributor

32

17

Link to Customer Service department

14

Links to website/other blogs/

18

communities/forums

30

19

Blogging policy/blog user guide

22

20

Opinion poll

92

5.1.3. The maximum number of structural features in the corporate blogs appeared to cater to the
objective of building a Brand Relationship (Table 5.3). This was achieved by consolidating
structural features under the variables FEED, CE, INF and BBR, as per discussion in the
methodology section.
Table 5.3
Frequencies of Structural Features

Factor

Frequency

FEED

66

CE

75

INFO

116

BBR

130

5.1.4. The Interactivity score for each blog was calculated (Annexure VI).
5.1.5. There existed a very strong positive association between INF and INT and BBR and INT
(Table5.4), which clearly showed that organizations should concentrate on more number of
structural features catering to the functions of aiding a customers quest for information and
building a brand relationship.
Table 5.4

SPSS output-The correlation matrix

Correlation

ENG

INF

BR

INT

ENG

1.000

-.156

-.026

.270

INF

-.156

1.000

.612

.844

BR

-.026

.612

1.000

.821

INT

.270

.844

.821

1.000

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The strong positive association between BBR and INF further indicates that organizations which
focus on the importance of having interactive features in the corporate blogs for the purpose of
93

Building a Brand relationship, also take care of the customers quest for information. A negative
correlation between BR and ENG as well as INF and ENG clearly indicate that organizations end
up including greater no. of structural features for the purpose of building a brand relationship and
a customers need for information at the cost of features catering to increasing the engagement of
the consumer.
5.1.6. The Alexa Reach of the corporate blogs
There existed a positive relationship between the Interactivity Scores of the three corporate blogs
and the Reach of a blog (Fig 5.1)
Fig 5.1
Alexa Traffic Chart (Daily Reach) for different blogs

94

5.1.7. There existed an inverse relationship between the Interactivity scores and the Traffic Rank,
(Table 5.5, 5.51).
Table 5.5
Interactivity Score and Traffic of a Corporate Blog

Company

Blog

Interactivity

Traffic

Score (INT)

Rank(TR)

Dell

Direct2Dell

3.533

106447

Amazon

Amazon Web Services

2.879

170865

2.661

325460

Blog
Southwest Airlines

Nuts about Southwest

Table 5.51
SPSS Output-Correlation between INT and TR

INT

Pearson Correlation

INT

TR

1.000

-.871

Sig. (1-tailed)
TR

.164

3.000

Pearson Correlation

-0.871

1.000

Sig. (1-tailed)

0.164

3.000

The negative Pearson correlation, -.871 (Table 5.51) indicates a strong inverse relationship
between INT and TR. The Direct2Dell blog had the highest interactivity score and the highest
reach over a 3 month period.
5.1.8. There existed a positive relationship between the Technorati authority figures and
interactivity score for selected blogs, (Table 5.6), as specified by the Pearson correlation value of
0.677 (Table 5.61). The Pearson correlation between Interactivity Score and Technorati
Authority is 0.677 (Table 5.61).

95

Table 5.6
Interactivity Score and Technorati Authority.

Technorati
Company

Interactivity score(INT)

Authority(TA)

Boeing

2.661

67

Kodak

2.667

105

Cisco

3.315

119

Marriott

2.879

134

GM

2.88

364

Amazon

2.879

397

Dell

3.533

799

Table 5.61
SPSS Output -Correlation between INT and TA

INT

Pearson Correlation

INT

TA

1.000

.677*

Sig. (1-tailed)
TA

.047

7.000

Pearson Correlation

.677*

1.000

Sig. (1-tailed)

.047

7.000

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed).

5.1.9. An optimal solution for the level of interactivity of a corporate blog can be calculated by
maximizing the interactivity score. INT, FEED, CE, INF and BBR, are each represented by a, w,
x, y and z respectively. The optimal solution was a = 4.43; w = 3, x = 4, y = 7, z = 6. This can be
achieved by having highest no. of variables in a blog catering to the function of aiding a
customer in his quest for information (Annexure VII).

96

5.2. Brand Communication

Table 5.7
Total Variance explained

Initial Eigenvalues
Component

Total

% of Variance

Cumulative %

9.669

35.812

35.812

7.137

26.433

62.245

6.778

25.102

87.348

3.373

12.492

99.839

.043

.161

100.000

5.891E-16

2.182E-15

100.000

4.985E-16

1.846E-15

100.000

4.104E-16

1.520E-15

100.000

3.770E-16

1.396E-15

100.000

10

3.354E-16

1.242E-15

100.000

11

2.819E-16

1.044E-15

100.000

12

2.606E-16

9.652E-16

100.000

13

1.887E-16

6.990E-16

100.000

14

1.356E-16

5.023E-16

100.000

15

1.165E-16

4.314E-16

100.000

16

5.867E-17

2.173E-16

100.000

17

2.891E-17

1.071E-16

100.000

18

-3.991E-17

-1.478E-16

100.000

19

-8.619E-17

-3.192E-16

100.000

20

-1.664E-16

-6.163E-16

100.000

21

-2.068E-16

-7.660E-16

100.000

22

-2.599E-16

-9.625E-16

100.000

23

-2.831E-16

-1.048E-15

100.000

24

-3.500E-16

-1.296E-15

100.000

25

-4.731E-16

-1.752E-15

100.000

26

-5.064E-16

-1.875E-15

100.000

27

-5.763E-16

-2.134E-15

100.000

97

5.2.1. Factor analysis-The principal components method of extraction was used for data
reduction. Components with eigen values greater than 1 were extracted, (Table 5.7). As the
communalities were all high, the extracted components represented the variables well. Four
principal components formed the extracted solution. They explained nearly 99.83% of the
variability in the original variables.
Hence the complexity of the data set was reduced considerably by using these components,
with only a 0.17% loss of information. The rotated component matrix was used to interpret
the solution. The rotated component matrix helped determine what the components
represented (Table 5.8). The first component is highly correlated with InfoOrgGrowth and
OrgCulture, InfCSR, InfOrgEvents, InfOrgProject, EmpExp, InfOrgAwards. The first
factor extracted was hence named as Organizational posts (Table 5.9). The second
component is highly correlated with Bloggersmeet, Dealer_issue, Feedback, Rumor_resp,
Controversy, Helpconsu, ConsuWorries. The second factor extracted was termed as
Relational posts. The third component is highly correlated with Prod_Features,
Prod_Prices, NewProd, PromCamp, Prod_Camp, Prod_Griev, Persuade. The third factor
extracted was termed as Promotional posts. All remaining posts were categorized as
General Posts.

98

Table 5.8-Rotated Component Matrix

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis
Component
1

InfoOrgGrowth

.990

-.004

-.087

-.103

OrgCulture

.983

.145

-.107

-.008

Prod_Features

-.186

-.164

.960

-.127

InfCSR

.977

-.178

-.116

-.009

Prod_Prices

-.073

-.162

.964

-.197

InfOrgEvents

.989

.055

-.132

-.041

Books_Films

-.133

-.039

-.139

.980

InfOrgProject

.988

-.066

-.082

-.110

EmpExp

.920

.356

-.142

-.079

InfOrgAwards

.986

-.013

-.112

-.123

NewProd

-.072

-.104

.972

-.197

PromCamp

-.146

-.064

.986

-.053

Envissue

-.083

.433

-.170

.880

Bloggersmeet

.354

.912

-.157

-.067

Persuade

-.142

.666

.732

-.011

Dealer_issue

.612

.782

-.102

-.051

Prod_Comp

-.141

-.239

.958

.069

Prod_Griev

-.250

.508

.810

-.141

Eco_issue

-.099

-.115

-.106

.982

Pol_issue

-.129

-.039

-.138

.978

Feedback

-.149

.964

-.122

.159

Rumor_resp

.423

.863

-.125

.246

Controversy

.009

.998

.053

.034

HelpCons

-.091

.991

-.059

.076

ConsuWorries

-.101

.993

-.009

.067

Celebrations

.038

.315

-.140

.938

Tech_Issue

.011

.045

.978

-.205

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

Rotation converged in 5 iterations.

99

Table 5.9
Content Categorization

Organizational
Posts on
Organizational growth
(InfoOrgGrowth)

Promotional
Posts on
Product features
(Prod_Features)

Relational
Posts on
Soliciting feedback
(Feedback)

Organizational culture
(OrgCulture)
CSR activities
(InfCSR)

Product prices
(Prod_Prices)
New product
(NewProd)
Promotional
campaigns
(PromCamp)
Product comparisons
(Prod_Comp)
Product grievances
(Prod_Griev)
Persuasive to try
product (Persuade)
Technological issue
(Tech_Issue)

Bloggers meet
(Bloggersmeet)
Dealer issues
(Dealer_issue)
Response to
rumors/criticism
(Rumor_resp)
Controversy/media
report (Controversy)
Consumer worries
(ConsuWorries)
Consumer help
(HelpConsu)
Celebrations
(Celebrations)

Organizational event
(InfOrgEvents)
Projects and research
(InfOrgProject)
Employee experiences
(EmpExp)
Awards
(InfOrgAwards)

General
Paste
Economic issues
(Eco_issue)
New
book/movie/music
/jokes (Books_Films)
Environmental
issues (Envissue)
Political issues
(Pol_issue)

5.2.2. Per post comment rate, (Table 5.10) was highest for Relational posts for DELL, General
Motors and Marriott and highest for promotional posts for SouthWest Airlines.
5.2.2.3. Percentage of Relational comments was the highest for Dell, Marriott and South West
Airlines and sizeable for General Motors as well.

General

Motors had higher volume of Promotional posts, DELL had equal volume of Promotional and
Relational posts, Marriott and South West had greater volume of Relational posts.
5.2.3. A strong correlation, (Table 5.11) was detected between volume of posts and comments in
most cases.

100

Table 5.10
Analysis of Posts, comments and per post comment rate

Item
Percentage of Organizational
posts to total posts
Percentage of Organizational
comments to total comments
Per post comment rate for
Organizational Posts
Percentage of Promotional posts
to total posts
Percentage of Promotional
comments to total comments
Per post comment rate for
Promotional Posts
Percentage of Relational posts to
total posts
Percentage of Relational
comments to total comments
Per post comment rate for
Relational Posts
Percentage of General posts to
total posts
Percentage of General comments
to total comments
Per post comment rate for
General Posts

Dell
30.04

GM
28.99

Southwest
30.23

Marriott
27.77

6.19

15.78

19.67

20.48

7.34

20.06

15.89

12.43

32.77

36.68

14.18

20.37

34.31

44.63

26.21

15.37

37.3

44.83

45.13

12.72

32.14

20.11

37.2

30.55

58.58

31.06

45.73

46.51

64.94

56.9

30.01

25.66

5.04

14.2

18.37

21.29

0.91

8.51

8.37

17.62

6.45

22.08

11.12

13.95

Table 5.11
Correlation between Posts and Comments

Correlations
TotP and TotC

GM
0.69

South West

Marriott

OrgP and OrgC

PromP and Prom C
RelP and RelC
GenP and GenC
OrgP and PromC
PromP and RelC
OrgP and TotC
PromP and TotC

0.687

0.496
0.471
0.401
0.821

0.506
0.78
0.726
0.59

0.843
0.734
0.687
0.673

101

Dell
no significant
correlations

5.2.4. Fitting a regression model, (Table 5.12)-A strong correlation was observed between the
total no. of posts put up by General Motors and no. of user (current and prospective consumer)
comments on the blog. Comments demonstrated an incremental growth trend of 22 per unit
increase in post (Fig. 5.2). This is clearly indicative of the level of success General Motors has
achieved with its blog. (Approx. 48 % of variation in no. of comments was explained by the no.
of posts-Calculations done over a 20 month period).The histogram was acceptably close to the
normal curve and the P-P plot showed that the normality assumption is not violated. There was
good scatter.
Table 5.12
Regression Model for General Motors

102

Fig 5.2
Linear Regression Plot - GM

103

5.3. CRM and Campaign Management

1. A factor analysis helped load the diverse comment typologies onto 6 different factors (Table
5.14 and Table 5.15). Folksonomies related to consumer liking, satisfaction, and involvement
are established. All comments tagged under the tag cluster visible under the folksonomies of
liking and satisfaction can be diverted for sentiment mining to aid consumer segmentation. All
comments under the tag cluster representing the folksonomy of Involvement I and II are routed
to the Customer Service and Support functionality. All comments under the tag representing
the folksonomy of Involvement III are directed to the Marketing Communication function and
all comments under the tags clustered under Involvement IV are sent to the Product
development function.
Involvement I-IV together represent various levels of consumer involvement. It is further
possible to segment consumers on the basis of their sentiment score as lying on the continuum
between liking, satisfaction and involvement.
Figure 5.3
Using a Corporate Blog for Campaign Management

thanking

Segmentation
Segmentationthrough
through
Sentiment
Sentimentmining
mining

Satisfaction
unhappiness

approval

happiness

anger
recommend
disappointment

liking

praise

congratulating

agreement
like

dislike

appreciation

Product
Product
Development
Development
Customer
CustomerService
Service
and
andsupport
support

Marketing
Marketing
Communication
Communication

Involvement IV
Feedbk_prod Feedbk_prod

Involvement I
doubt

worry

Involvement III

Involvement II
complaint

Feedbk_org

query

Feedbk_comp

CRM 2.0 :

Sugg_org
Sugg_comp

Using a Corporate Blog for campaign management

104

2. Results obtained from a study of a set of campaigns (promotional posts) hosted at Southwest
blog are included below2a.Term extraction and calculation of sentiment score for each consumer comment- Different
comment typologies are established and the sentiment bearing words in each comment are
identified, (Table 5.13).Each individual comment here is assumed to reflect the thought process
of a single consumer. The respective scores of words in each comment and the resultant
sentiment score for each comment, reflecting individual consumer is calculated. This is used to
calculate the mean sentiment across each campaign, as represented by an organizational post.
Table 5.13
Comment typologies

Comment
A comment expressing liking
A comment where consumer is
thanking the organization
A comment where consumer is
congratulating the organization
A comment where consumer is
providing feedback in response to org
query

Comment typology for tag

creation
liking
thanking
congratulating

Sentiment bearing words

like, love, good, fair, nice, favorite
thanks, thankyou, grateful
congrats, congratulations, applaud, well
done

feedback_prod,
feedback_org,
feedback_comp
suggestion_prod,
suggestion_org,
suggestion_comp

N.A.

approval

commend, respect

happiness

pleased, impressed, proud

praise

surprised

appreciate

appreciate, wow, great, terrific, smartest,

awesome

agreement
complaint

agree
complain

A comment expressing disappointment

A comment expressing anger
A comment expressing dislike
A comment expressing unhappiness

disappointment
anger
dislike
unhappiness

A comment expressing doubt

doubt

unfortunately
worst, rude, most miserable,
bitter, never
distressing
intrigued, confusing, doubtful, mixed,
restricted

Recommending the product to someone

recommend

recommend

A comment where consumer is giving a

suggestion
A comment where consumer is giving
his approval
Expressing happiness with
oragnisation/product
A comment where consumer is
praising/appreciating the orgn
A comment where consumer is
praising/appreciating the orgn
A comment where consumer is
agreeing with the organization
A comment listing a complaint

105

N.A.

Table 5.14 Total variance explained

Initial Eigenvalues
Component

Total

% of Variance

Cumulative %

11.329

47.204

47.204

4.226

17.607

64.810

2.856

11.901

76.711

2.393

9.970

86.681

1.768

7.368

94.049

1.428

5.951

100.000

7.484E-16

3.118E-15

100.000

3.629E-16

1.512E-15

100.000

3.028E-16

1.262E-15

100.000

10

2.488E-16

1.037E-15

100.000

11

1.091E-16

4.546E-16

100.000

12

7.225E-17

3.010E-16

100.000

13

1.053E-17

4.386E-17

100.000

14

-8.682E-18

-3.617E-17

100.000

15

-2.098E-17

-8.741E-17

100.000

16

-4.559E-17

-1.900E-16

100.000

17

-1.109E-16

-4.620E-16

100.000

18

-1.644E-16

-6.849E-16

100.000

19

-2.319E-16

-9.662E-16

100.000

20

-2.816E-16

-1.173E-15

100.000

21

-3.459E-16

-1.441E-15

100.000

22

-4.040E-16

-1.684E-15

100.000

23

-4.807E-16

-2.003E-15

100.000

24

-6.759E-16

-2.816E-15

100.000

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

106

Table 5.15 Rotated Component Matrix

Component
1

liking

-.090

-.114

.975

-.002

.100

.136

thanking

.991

-.072

.012

-.080

.043

.065

congratulating

.973

-.059

-.140

.166

.040

.020

feedback_prod

-.217

-.198

-.171

.094

.171

.920

feedback_org

-.157

.969

-.048

-.140

.080

.094

feedback_comp

-.112

.980

-.080

.083

.093

.074

query

-.201

-.199

-.162

-.055

.929

.168

approval

.931

-.105

.315

-.078

.072

.105

happiness

.959

-.096

.228

-.079

.064

.094

praise

.991

-.072

.012

-.080

.043

.065

appreciation

.994

-.075

.005

.044

.049

.053

agreement

.973

-.077

-.005

.205

.056

.036

complaint

-.326

-.381

-.437

.195

.529

.490

disappointment

.969

-.078

.002

.226

.058

.035

anger

.955

-.067

-.087

.271

.051

.017

worry

.015

-.055

.197

.974

.078

-.058

dislike

.170

-.133

.958

.043

.113

.144

unhappinesss

.977

-.088

.093

.150

.064

.055

doubt

.304

-.025

-.203

.924

.046

-.095

recommend

.991

-.072

.012

-.080

.043

.065

suggestion_prod

-.217

-.198

-.171

.094

.171

.920

suggestion_org

-.157

.969

-.048

-.140

.080

.094

suggestion_comp

-.112

.980

-.080

.083

.093

.074

general

-.209

-.208

-.106

-.049

-.932

.177

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.

Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.

107

2b. 396 consumers across a corpus of 25 promotional campaigns (posts) were evaluated. 17%
consumers displayed negative sentiment and 83 % displayed positive sentiment. 57% consumers
displayed a sentiment score between 0 and 0.5 (Fig. 5.4).

Figure 5.4
Consumer segmentation

Formulation of strategies on the basis of consumer sentiment in the B2C space.

Consumer sentiment
45
40
%consumers

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
less than - 0 to -0.25
.25

0 to .25

.25 to .5

.5 to .75

.75 to 1

sentiment score

Dissatisfaction

Liking

Disappointment
Anger
Unhappiness
Dislike

108

Satisfaction

Involvement

Praise
Approval
Happiness
appreciation

Feedback
Suggestion

Table 5.16

Clustering of consumers

Cluster Membership

Collection of data from one sample campaign and subsequent

Case

cluster analysis is demonstrated.

Cluster
no.

Sentiment scores for 18 consumers who posted comments on a

1:Aaron

post on the Corporate Blog of SouthWest Airlines, (Annexure

2:Brian

3:Drew

4:Bill

5:John

6:Bob

7:Rusty

belongs to cluster 3. All remaining members belong to cluster

8:Oliver

2. Classification of consumers under separate clusters based on

9:Rob

their sentiment scores can help organizations target them

10:Sam

appropriately. Members of Cluster 1 depict consumers with

11:Michael

negative sentiment, thereby indicating a state of dissatisfaction,

12:Carlos

while members of cluster 3 show a low level of liking where

13:Oliver

the organization needs to work to build a greater rapport.

14:Mat

15:Edward

16:Glenn

17:Mikey

18:Todd

XI) were subjected to Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. The

proximities matrix is depicted in Annexure XIII. Three clusters
are identified, (Table 5.16). The dendrogram is shown below
(Fig.5.5).Aaron, Bill, Bob belong to cluster 1, while Drew

Members of Cluster 3 depict a certain degree of satisfaction

and can be treated separately.

109

Fig.5.5
Dendrogram using Single Linkage
Rescaled Distance Cluster Combine
C A S E
Label
Num
Edward
Todd
Mat
Sam
Rob
Oliver
Carlos
Glenn
Rusty
Brian
Mikey
Oliver
Michael
John
Drew
Bill
Bob
Aaron

15
18
14
10
9
13
12
16
7
2
17
8
11
5
3
4
6
1

0
5
10
15
20
25
+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+

2c.The distribution of mean sentiment scores is shown (Fig.5.17). For a sample of 25 posts, the
mean and standard deviation are listed.
(i)The mean of the population hovered around 0.22 (Fig.5.6)

Table 5.17
Distribution of mean sentiment scores across various campaigns

(Mean sentiment score for 25 campaigns)

Descriptive Statistics
N

Minimum

Maximum

Mean

Std. Deviation

Mean_sentiment

25

-.37

.84

.2219

.28598

Valid N (listwise)

25

110

Figure 5.6

Distribution of mean sentiment scores across various

campaigns
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2 1
-0.4
-0.6

2 3

6 7

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Campaigns

(ii)Consumer sentiment for individual campaigns was a function of the respective campaigns.
(iii)No correlation was observed between no. of words per post and sentiment score of the
campaign.
2d.Tag dominance representing the tag dominating the view of the maximum no. of consumers
can be analyzed by studying a TF_IBF measure for each campaign. Tag clouds can be used to
view the dominant consumer viewpoint.
2e.Cosine similarity measures, as discussed earlier can be used to study similarity of responses
between a set of campaigns, which can help predict consumer response to a particular campaign.

111