2. ABOUT THIS REPORT: OVERVIEW
• CIC’s IWOM insightTM Category Report is a thorough introduction to the
IWOM around the Notebook Industry. The report is ideal for brands and
marketers who want to gain better insight into the influential Chinese
Internet community and/or who are looking into create IWOM based
marketing campaigns. In order to provide this level of insight, the report
addresses the following questions: how much talk is going on, what’s being
said, who’s saying it, where is it being said and what does that mean for
brands.
• This IWOM insightTM Category Report gleans insight and digital intelligence
from various Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) sources and provides insight
into issues regarding reputation measurement, consumer research, new
media strategy and marketing inspiration.
Category Overview Report for Notebook 2
3. ABOUT THIS REPORT: DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• To complete this notebook category overview report, CIC tracked 1,065 models
from 25 manufacturers during the period of 2008, collecting 10,421,713 BBS
(online message board) messages from top consumer electronics BBS in
China. All collected messages were then categorized and mined according to a
library of terms (including Internet slang) that represents companies, brands,
products, and attributes.
• All obvious “spam” and troll messages called 灌水 (guan shui) were filtered
out. Messages that contained the correct characters yet referred to something
other than the intended object were also filtered out.
Category Overview Report for Notebook 3
4. ABOUT THIS REPORT: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This report aims to generate significant insights and information for
companies interested in the notebook industry and so will specifically focus on
topics based around:
Marketing Research
Competitive Intelligence
Customer Relationship Management
Brand Equity Tracking And Reputation Management
Public Relationship And Crisis Management
Media Planning And Purchase
Campaign Ideation
Category Overview Report for Notebook 4
6. • How much online buzz is there relevant to notebook
computers?
• What are most discussed notebook brands?
• How is the IWOM health of the top ten brands?
• What are the most talked about notebook attributes online?
• What is the brand attribute landscape for notebook IWOM?
• Where are these conversations taking place?
• Who are the efluencers of notebook IWOM?
Category Overview Report for Notebook 6
7. NOTEBOOK CATEGORY OVERVIEW
The notebook category enjoys a consistently high buzz volume, with over 800,000 posts
each month
unit: post Monthly post and conversation trend, 2008 unit: Conversation
1,800,000 During the summer 180,000
holiday, many students
1,600,000 asked questions about 160,000
buying notebooks.
1,400,000 140,000
1,200,000 120,000
1,000,000 100,000
800,000 80,000
600,000 60,000
400,000 40,000
200,000 20,000
0 0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec
Post Conversation
•Data Source: CIC Notebook IWOM Practice Data Panel
•Data Base: Total number of notebook category posts in 2008 is 10,421,713
Category Overview Report for Notebook 7
8. NOTEBOOK BRAND BUZZ REVIEW
Lenovo was the most discussed brand in 2008, followed by HP
544,169
344,223
243,065
237,452
134,062
119,106
107,988
86,164 ThinkPad
41%
53,677 Lenovo
59%
39,974
30,322
27,584
23,710
20,810 ThinkPad related posts contributed 41% of
the overall Lenovo buzz volume
18,288
17,823
14,274
12,154
11,639 •Data Source: CIC Notebook IWOM Practice Data Panel Unit: Post
10,073 •Data Base: Total number of notebook brand posts in 2008 is 1,587,871
Category Overview Report for Notebook 8
9. NOTEBOOK BRAND IWOM HEALTH
Korean and Japanese brands have a higher sentiment rating but lower buzz volume since
they focus on design, appearance, and weight
NSR IWOM health landscape of top 10 brands, 2008
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0% Buzz Volume
0 120,000 240,000 360,000 480,000 600,000
Category Overview Report for Notebook 9
10. NOTEBOOK ATTRIBUTE BUZZ OVERVIEW
Configuration and price ranked 1st and 2nd while design & appearance and accessories
& peripherals rank 3rd and 4th, respectively.
Notebook Buzz Attributes Rank, 2008
Configuration 537,975
Price 341,903
Design & Apperance 197,087
Accessory &
156,680
Peripheral
Performance 121,557
Function 111,743
•Data Source: CIC Notebook IWOM Practice Data Panel Unit: Post
•Data Base: Total number of notebook attribute posts in 2008 is 1,028,854
Category Overview Report for Notebook 10
11. NOTEBOOK ATTRIBUTE BUZZ OVERVIEW - CONFIGURATION
Consumers mentioned notebook quality depended on CPU performance.
Meanwhile, with the increase in popularity of entertainment functions, such as gaming
and HD, consumers are beginning to discuss the quality of the graphic card as well
Configuration 537,975
Price 341,903
Design & Apperance 197,087
Sound Card Wireless
Keyboard 1% Network Card •如果把CPU换成酷睿双核2代T7100，性能能相
Accessory & 2% 1% 156,680 差多少？(link) /
Peripheral
CD/DVD/CD-
RW Drive • If the CPU was replaced with a T7100, how
4% much performance will be lost?
Performance 121,557
CPU
Screen 23%
Harddisk
5% 11%
想玩游戏就买T61P吧.T61的显卡玩大型3D游戏
Function 111,743 不行的. (link)
Motherboard / Graphic card
Chipset If you want to play games, T61P is better.
21%
16% Because the graphic card in the T61 is not
Memory suitable for 3D games.
16%
•Data Source: CIC Notebook IWOM Practice Data Panel
Category Overview Report for Notebook 11
12. NOTEBOOK BRAND ATTRIBUTE LANDSCAPE:
• Configuration and performance are
most frequently mentioned near
BENQ, ASUS, DELL and Acer
•Configuration notebooks by consumers
•Performance
•Service & Channel
•Price
•Function
• When discussing design and
appearance, Samsung is the
most mentioned brand.
•Marketing & Promotion
•Design & Appearance
• Consumers mentioned price and marketing promotion
when discussing Lenovo and Hasee
Category Overview Report for Notebook 12
13. COMMUNITY BUZZ OVERVIEW
Over 80% of the buzz was generated from the top 3 sites
Buzz share of sites Notebook Top 10 BBS Rank by Posts, 2008
100%
80% Rank Community URL # of Post % of Total
1 太平洋电脑网论坛 pconline.com.cn 4,197,076 40.3%
2 中关村在线 zol.com.cn 2,405,477 23.1%
60% 3 It168 本友会 benyouhui.it168.com 1,783,813 17.1%
4 xxxx bbs.pcpop.com 838,067 8.0%
5 xxxx we.pcinlife.com 592,629 5.7%
40% 6 xxxx nbbbs.enet.com.cn 265,352 2.5%
7 xxxx q.yesky.com 102,253 1.0%
8 xxxx bbs.benber.com 75,102 0.7%
20%
9 xxxx tech.163.com 54,725 0.5%
10 xxxx bbs.ccidnet.com 51,091 0.5%
0% sites
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Category Overview Report for Notebook 13
14. SAMPLE EFLUENCER PROFILE
Jetblack is a board moderator of IT168, and has strong influence within the “notebook
club” sub-forum.
ID : Jetblack
Many netizens like to ask
Jetblack for help
Summary: Jetblack is a board moderator of IT168’s “notebook club” sub-forum. Since he is a expert on notebook
computers, he likes to give detailed answers to other netizens' questions. Many netizens on IT168 like to ask
jetblack for help with various computer issues. Furthermore he holds the position of board moderators. This
combined with his reputation for giving advice makes jetblack an efluencer.
CIC View: BBS users like to choose people who are active online and knowledgeable about notebook computers
to be the board moderator in notebook forums and often these moderators become efluencers and can be good
targets for brands
Category Overview Report for Notebook 14
16. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CIC buzz measurement process
Identify relevant source of online conversation source
Data Collection Using customized tools and industry term library collecting data
Filter out irrelevant and duplicate data and assess data quality
Expert construct product & driver categorization
Data Mining Data mining by powerful natural language mining tools
Human quality assurance for data mining result
Using customized tools to analyze buzz volume and content
Data Analysis Experienced analyst to dig out insights behind IWOM dynamics
Buzz findings Delivery on regular basis in flexible format
Category Overview Report for Notebook 16
17. IWOM RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DATA COLLECTION
Notebook Report
Industry Analysis FIXED FORUM
Empowered by CIC self-
developed patent BBS
message Spider/Robot
CIC Notebook Industry Practice
Fixed Research Data Panel
Industry
Practice
CIC Notebook Data Panel Database
Collect average 0.8 million messages every
Notebook related
month from CIC selected and fixed BBS IWOM
forums related to Notebook and Computer
hardware industry practice.
Category Overview Report for Notebook 17
18. IWOM RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DATA ANALYSIS
Product Buzz evaluation, to identify which product is being discussed
Structured Brand/Product Analysis Diversified Attribute Analysis
Our experts construct detailed customized product According to naturally occurring online discussion
buzz categorization based on natural online and the scope of the interests, we also look into the
discussion using powerful language mining tools to attributes and aspects of the online buzz and the
measure the quantity of buzz and brand mentions. associations with product related talk.
Sample Product Tree Sample Driver Tree
Note: the tree showed here is a small part of the tree structure, which for example.
Category Overview Report for Notebook 18
20. FULL CONTENT FOR NOTEBOOK CATEGORY OVERVIEW REPORT (1)
Introduction of Category Overview
• Report Description: A comprehensive overview of the Mainland China Notebook IWOM environment which includes “how
much Notebook talk, what’s being said, who’s talking, where they are talking, what does it all mean and what brand/agency
should do”.
• Data Coverage: 10,421,713 BBS (online message board) messages generated by 1,364,184 conversations on parenting
communities during year 2008.
Part I: China IWOM Introduction
• The Power of The Internet Community: key statistics, perspectives, and case studies that demonstrate how Internet Word
of Mouth (IWOM) is redefining the brand/consumer relationship in China
• IWOM as Strategic Intelligence: selected cases for “Brand Reputation Management”, “Consumer Insight from Product
Talk”, “New Media Intelligence” and “Marketing Ideation”
Part II: Brand Reputation Management
• IWOM Health Analysis
Buzz volume and buzz trend of overall Notebook category
Brand IWOM health (including buzz volume and sentiment)
Buzz volume and trend of leading brands
Hot positive or negative topics around brand discussion
• IWOM Crisis Case Study
Introduction of crisis 2.0
Key crisis case review in 2008
• IWOM Based Brand Image Analysis
Brand image analysis of key brands (analyzing the brand image of key brands in netizens’ mind via qualitative
methods)
20
21. FULL CONTENT FOR Notebook CATEGORY OVERVIEW REPORT (2)
Part III: Consumer Insight from Product Talk
• IWOM Dynamics of Product Discussion
Buzz volume of key attributes (i.e. configuration, price, design & appearance)
Qualitative analysis of key attributes to provide in-depth understanding
Buzz volume of key sub-attributes (i.e. configuration’s sub-attributes are CPU and memory)
Buzz volume of brand related key sub-attributes
• Consumer Insights from Interesting Topics
Part IV: New Media Intelligence
• Hot Communities Analysis (via CIC community analysis index as below)
Participation & Passion
Creativity & Interactivity
• Key Efluencer Analysis
• Community Case Study: a look inside the culture and key functions of an influential community
Part V: Marketing Ideation
• Digital Culture Analysis for Notebook Category
Hot net language in Internet
Hot keywords within Notebook talk
Hot conversations within parenting communities
• Campaigns and Inspiration
Creative ideas from netizens
Successful campaign case study
21
22. HOW CIC CAN HELP ON SOCIAL MARKETING IN CHINA
• Market evaluation: evaluate the IWOM performance of notebook brands and other
various brands (buzz volume and sentiment)
• Competitive intelligence: understand key competitors’ performance and marketing
activities in social media
• Consumer insight: find out netizens’ needs and feedback on various Notebook
products
• PR management: understand netizens’ feedback on potential/ current crisis and
help the brands respond quickly to and manage crises
• Media buy: tell the brands where to launch social media marketing activities and
advertisements
• Online campaign tracking and evaluation
22
23. Contact us:
Production: CIC Notebook Team
Time Period: 2008 Jan-Dec
CIC Contact: Wayne Wu (wayne@cicdata.com)
24. OUR BLOGS:
www.seeisee.com (Chinese)
www.seeisee.com/sam (English)
Thank You
OUR WEBSITE:
www.ciccorporate.comm
www.iwommaster.com
CONTACT US:
info@cicdata.com
This report is copyrighted material owned by CIC. Any improper
use of this document or its content will be considered a
violation of CIC IP copyright and CIC has the right to take legal
action.
本研究报告归CIC公司版权所有。任何对本研究报告或报告中任
何内容的不当使用都将被视为对CIC知识产权的侵犯，CIC有权
诉诸于法律。
