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The Conversation IndexVolume 1

We’ve reached another turning point.For as long as humans have been able to communicate, we’ve been evaluating, recommendingand sharing. After thousands of years of word of mouth, these conversations began to take placeonline, where it is now digitally archived.Naturally, smart businesses got hungry. Here was a chance to capture what their customers — realpeople actually using their products and services – were saying about them. But, as has happenedso many times before, technology eventually outpaced our capacity to truly understand its impact.To companies that were hungry for social data, suddenly it seemed there was simply too much of it.Navigating the flood of social content and arriving at meaningful insights about customers becamea challenge — and still is — for many businesses.Social data isn’t slowing down, but we’re now able to get ahead of it, to make sense of it.We’ve arrived at a turning point at which social data can be captured, analyzed—and mostimportantly, acted upon—to drive true, customer-centric change across companies, and evenentire industries.But this report isn’t about social data. It’s about the people behind the data. We’re excited toshare with you what we’ve learned about them from the hundreds of billions of conversationsour technologies have been a part of.The Conversation Index you’re about to read is the first of many to come. Now, on to the insights Best,Erin Nelson (@erinclaire)Chief Marketing Officer, Bazaarvoice

Table of ContentsThe Conversation Index .2Consumer language reflects economic uncertainty .5All over the map: sentiment by region, country .6The Friday Facebook flood . 10Women fuel word of mouth . 12Controlling spending, leading conversations . 14Summer warms traveler sentiment . 18Poor service destroys product sentiment . 21One in five spread the love .22Pivot language reveals product opportunities .25As price and complexity increase, consumer .26UGC served at 3 kilohertz, volume soars .30Conclusion .32Citations .34About Bazaarvoice .35

The Conversation IndexBrands that lead, capture, and analyze customer conversationsdevelop a deeper understanding of what they must do to meetand exceed expectations and become truly customer-centricenterprises. In The Conversation Index, you’ll find the latestand most actionable customer insights, drawn from millions ofcustomer conversations.The substance of these conversations is user-generated content(UGC), an insight-rich form of social data that enables analysis atevery level of focus—from global consumer trends, to productand customer-specific sentiment, and all degrees of granularityin between.In serving over 220 billion pieces of UGC (and counting),Bazaarvoice has collected massive amounts of social data forhundreds of top brands across industries. From this pool of socialdata, our Social Analytics team has extracted select findings tobe featured in this report.The findings in this report are aggregated based on a 5 milliondata point sample of UGC indexed in Q2-2011 (April–June), fromconsumers in 210 countries around the world.2Our analysis reveals the following key takeaways:The way consumers talk about products changesduring economic downturns.Distinctions between offsite, onsite, and siloed channels arecrumbling, but some still exist. Onsite and offsite consumerbehavior is largely similar in some areas, but Facebookbehavior is unique.Those who control spending in a product category lead theonline conversation about that category.Product quality and interactions with brand representativesare inseparable in the minds of many consumers—poorcustomer service is the product sentiment killer.Innovative product improvement ideas, as well as flaws, canbe found just as readily in positive reviews as in negativereviews by searching for pivot language.Consumers seek facts and details, not opinions andsubjective comparisons, when the price and complexity ofproducts and services increase.

Q1 2009: Highest number of reviews mentionprice when Dow and CCI at lowest points.Dow Jones 120 Index60 10K4014% Pricereferences12%10%8%6%9K4%8K204Price reference vs. Dow Jones Industrial and Consumer Confidence IndexQ2 2011Q1 2011Q4 2010Q3 2010Q2 2010Q1 2010Q4 2009Q3 2009Q2 2009Q1 2009Q4 2008Q3 2008Q2 20080%Q1 20080 6KQ4 20072%Q3 20077K

Consumer language reflects economic uncertaintyOne in ten reviews in Q2 mentioned “price.” To understandhow economic conditions affect price sensitivity in reviews, theBazaarvoice Social Analytics team compared references to pricein customer reviews to two key economic indices around andduring the Great Recession, from July 2007 to August 2011.When comparing price references to the Consumer ConfidenceIndex, an overall correlation of -.66 was determined, meaningreviewers mention price more often when the CCI is low. TheCCI sank to its lowest point in February 2009, the same monthprice mentions hit a new high; 11.5% of all US reviews explicitlymentioned price.Mapping price references in reviews to the Dow Jones IndustrialAverage reveals an even stronger negative correlation of -.68.The pattern is nearly the same. Beginning September 2008,conversation around price skyrocketed as the Dow averagecontinued its fall. A second pattern began January 2010,continuing until October 2010, with price mentions falling as theDow average improved.During economic downturns, use UGC to promote value and easethe hesitation price-sensitivity brings. Brands should highlightreviews and answers that praise a product’s high quality for itsprice. Additionally, they should feature value-touting customercontent in online and offline advertising to reassure potentialcustomers that their money will be well spent.5

All over the map: sentiment by region, countryOverall, customers in the southwest Pacific region showed thehighest overall sentiment this quarter, followed by the NorthAsia and Europe regions.Interestingly, sentiment by country doesn’t seem to correlatewith two intuitive explanations – money and happiness.We found essentially no correlation between a country’spurchasing power and sentiment, and essentially no correlationbetween sentiment and scores on Gallup’s Global WellbeingSurvey, either.Blog: Do happier peopleleave higher product ratings?http://bv-url.com/a5r96Even geographic proximity isn’t a reliable indicator of sentiment.Moldova has the highest average rating of any country (4.54out of 5 stars), while its neighbor Ukraine has the lowest (3.31).While they share a border, the two countries are further apart inproduct sentiment than any two countries in the world,according to our data.

15 mostpositive countriesAverage ratingMoldova4.54Georgia4.52Latvia4.4515 mostnegative ed Kingdom4.34United Arab Emirates3.98New Zealand4.33Argentina3.98Puerto kraine3.31Average rating

EuropeAverage rating: 4.26North AmericaAverage rating: 4.23North AfricaAverage rating: 3.97Mexico & Central AmericaAverage rating: 4.21South AmericaAverage rating: 4.148Global average ratings by region

North AsiaAverage rating: 4.32East AsiaAverage rating: 4.09South & Southeast AsiaAverage rating: 3.95West & Central AsiaAverage rating: 4.11Sub-Saharan AfricaAverage rating: 4.16Southwest PacificAverage rating: 4.35Ratings based on a 5-star scale9

The Friday Facebook floodNearly a third (32%) of all reviews collected on Facebook in Q2were submitted on Fridays. The remaining reviews were collectedfairly evenly throughout the week.data, where 21% of reviews gathered this quarter weresubmitted on a Tuesday, the most popular day of week for thisactivity. In fact, Fridays accounted for only 11% of onsite reviewsubmissions—only Saturdays (9%) saw lower activity rates.Facebook reviewers are also moreHowever, a study of 50,000 posts from the top 14,000 pageson Facebook found that Friday posts had the highest weekdayinteraction rates2, so it’s likely that when brands invite Facebookusers to review their products, the calls to action posted onFridays are driving more review submissions than similar poststhroughout the week.positive, with a 12% higher averagesentiment for Facebook reviewsover reviews not collected on thesocial network.This Friday spike in Facebook reviews doesn’t match overallusage patterns for Facebook pages, which see the most activityon Wednesdays.1 Nor does it mirror onsite review submission10Facebook reviewers are also more positive, with a 12% higheraverage sentiment for Facebook reviews over reviews notcollected on the social network. With many of these reviewscoming from existing Facebook fans, this can be attributed to themore positive disposition of Facebook fans toward the brandsthey like. In fact, 60% of Facebook fans say they’re more likelyto recommend the brand since becoming a fan.3

Daily review submissions via Facebook11

Women fuelword of mouthWomen dominate social networks, as the majority on bothFacebook (58%) and Twitter (64%).4 This dominance is also seenin onsite social use, with women producing 60% of all UGC in Q2.Women were also more positive than men. The average rating forfemale-written reviews was 4.43 stars out of 5, as compared to themale average of 4.32 stars.Women produced60% of all UGC in Q2.Overall, consumers age 35-44 contributed the most UGC acrossBazaarvoice clients this quarter. Collectively, consumers between25 and 54 years old were the biggest content drivers, contributing70% of all UGC. The majority of social network users also fall inthis age range.4

5.016%16%15%4.511%11%Average 4.0rating fromwomen9%9%6%Averagerating 3.5from men3% 3%25-34F M35-44F MReviews from women,percent of total, by age45-54F M55-65F M66 F MReviews from men,percent of total, by ageAll reviews by gender and age13

Controlling spending,leading conversationsIn consumer packaged goods (CPG), the vertical with the highestaverage sentiment (4.68, 11% above the cross-industry average),women contributed a huge majority of UGC in Q2 (84%), andwrote 3% more content when doing so.This is likely due to the fact that women typically control CPGbudgets for their households. In the US, women control 85% ofhousehold spending and 93% of food purchases.5 It follows thatthe women researching, considering, and purchasing CPG arealso talking about and recommending these products online.Blog: Social media for the sexes: threeways to capitalize on gender differenceshttp://bv-url.com/82sk18

5.025%Average 4.5ratingfrom menAveragerating from 4.0women20%20%13%5%3.53%2%25-34F M35-44F MReviews from women,percent of total, by age45-54F M6%4%4%55-65F M66 F MReviews from men,percent of total, by ageConsumer packaged goods reviews by gender and age15

5.04.519%17%Averagerating fromwomen16%16%15%4.010%Averageratingfrom men3.51%25-34F M35-44F MReviews from women,percent of total, by age16 1%1%45-54F M4%55-65F MReviews from men,percent of total, by ageConsumer electronics reviews by gender and age66 F M

The CPG conversation peaked among 45-54 year olds,with 35-44 and 55-65 trailing just behind. CPG saw highersentiment among older generations this quarter, keeping withhistorical patterns.The consumer electronics vertical showed the opposite gendermakeup, with a large majority (77%) of word of mouth generatedby men, the plurality of which came from men age 45-54.Again, we see that those who control the budgets tend tocontrol the conversation: men spent 53% more than women onconsumer electronics in 2010.6 To influence these spenders,solicit and display UGC wherever purchase decisions are made.In addition to product and category pages online, use customerwords and product ratings in advertising, on packaging, incoupons, and via mobile to reach shoppers in stores.CPG review readers show6% higher average ordervalue than visitors whodon’t read reviews.21