CASE STUDY STRENGTHEN BRAND EQUITY, GAIN MARKET SHARE AND REBUILD TRUST WITH CLIENTS Context:

A global web company with a substantial worldwide audience was losing market share and web presence to competitors. After peaking at number 1 in web presence in 1996, the company found itself ranked 13th (with 49 million monthly visitors) and trending downwards in February of 2004 as measured by comScores ranking of monthly visitors. The CEO and senior management were concerned that the company had become complacent and had created negative customer experiences that was taking a toll on the brand. EM was called in by the market research firm already working with the client to find out why market share was declining and how to reverse the trend. After working with Emotion Mining (EM) to help clarify issues around brand equity customer experience and organizational capability, the company jumped to the 6th spot with 87 million monthly visitors in December of 2004. By early 2006, the company sat at the fourth spot overall in the top internet properties worldwide with 112 million monthly visitors.

Objectives
The Emotion Mining Study had 4 goals: 1. Understand why competitors were gaining market share and how to turn the tide 2. Challenge key assumptions of the current market positioning 3. Discover how consumers truly felt about the brand 4. Identify the emotional psychographic profiles of champions, nonchampions, and (if possible) neutral individuals to inform future marketing campaigns.

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Process
Two groups were recruited - 62 champions and 66 non-champions. Each group was asked the following questions using the EM methodology How does the CLIENTS BRAND make you feel? How does the COMPETITORS BRAND make you feel? How does using the internet IDEALLY make you feel? Each respondent spent approximately 15 minutes giving their responses to each question via the internet.

Reports were produced by Emotion Mining within 7 days of receiving input from the last respondent.

Emotion Mining Findings and Results

The client received three significant deliverables from Emotion Mining: Feedback on the Marketing Strategy Insight into the (Real) Customer Experience Understanding of the Organizational Implications EM delivered three levels of analysis: Indexed data that reflected a significant, intense customer dissatisfaction Sonargrams that demonstrated the relative intensity of a variety of emotional reactions, both negative and positive, to their brand as well as that of their competitors. Verbatim comments that both substantiated and clarified the findings in the Index and Sonargrams. The overall emotional response to the clients brand was overwhelmingly negative and unpleasant. EMs Satisfaction Index was barely 37% for the client brand. Branded services (as compared to products) involve more complex experiences and tend to evoke both pleasant and unpleasant responses. Yet, the low Satisfaction Index score indicated that a number of things could be done to increase client satisfaction and help regain market share. The top three unpleasant concepts associated with the clients brand were shame, stress and waste. The data and the verbatim revealed that users felt ashamed about having to use this provider; it actually made them feel bad about themselves. EM revealed a very intense anger within the clients customer base. Customers were angry with the client for several reasons. Although

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previous surveys and interviews had revealed that poor customer service was a known shortcoming, the executives had never seen the totality of the picture or the depth and intensity of the emotions felt about the company. Between the poor customer service, difficulty connecting and trouble maintaining connectivity customers were feeling uncomfortable, discontent, insecure and ashamed. These feelings were found to be fueling users anger at a very deep subconscious level. Even more damaging, was the fact that the competitors clients expressed far greater satisfaction with their internet service provider across all segments, in some instances by 200%. More was going on within the minds of users than mere frustration due to difficulty dialing in or maintaining connectivity. Although management was aware of some of the challenges anecdotally, the focused and prioritized data from EM was good news for the client as the generated awareness and insight could enable an opportunity to consciously redefine the brand in a more informed, customer-relevant manner. A new segment of client users was discovered individuals who were ambivalent, or conflicted, about the client. These users felt simultaneously positive and negative feelings towards the client. This presented another opportunity for the client to capture the hearts and minds of their ambivalent users In order of intensity, the top three pleasant ideas associated with the clients brand were excitement, accomplishment, and connection. Marketing messages were crafted to encourage the sense of excitement, individual accomplishment and connection to others.

Outcome
Concrete actions were taken to address the feelings of shame, insecurity, discontentment, discomfort and anger. Primary among these was an increase in customer service representatives, sharing of the EM data with CSRs to allow them to better understand the customer base and a shift in the way in which CSR training was conducted. This enabled the CSRs to accurately label and reduce the intensity of the negative emotions expressed by customers on calls. Marketing was called upon to speak to the top three positive concepts expressed by customers excitement, a sense of individual accomplishment and a connection to others. Effectiveness of the new marketing campaign was demonstrated in the huge increase in monthly unique visitors.

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The client was guided by the idea of capturing the heart of the customer (and thus increase satisfaction) by delivering on the promise of contentment (e.g., fast portable entertainment and information), serenity (e.g., a peaceful calmness), and joy. These three guiding factors were provided by customer themselves they were the top three pleasant emotions expressed by customers. The client gained a greater awareness of what information regarding their brand is getting through the clutter of media to their customer base.

Contact: John Schinnerer, Ph.D. Chief Communication Officer Emotion Mining Company, Inc. Alamo CA 94507 (925) 944-3440 www.EmotionMining.com JohnSchinnerer@EmotionMining.com

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