When I read Michelle’s blog on the Super Bowl Groupon ad, it made me curious. Although the ad engendered a lot of negative sentiment, how might that negative sentiment actually affect Groupon’s near-term subscriber levels?
So I used Attensity Analyze to look more deeply into the intent of Tweeters. Out of 1,000 randomly selected tweets, 48 mentioned the possibility of a customer defection from Groupon as a result of the Tibet ad.
Using Attensity’s unique voice extraction capability, I was able to drill down further to understanding how many people personally stopped using Groupon (for example “Unsubscribed from @groupon because of the #Tibet commercial”) vs people who were surmising that the ad would cause others to unsubscribe (“How many customers did @groupon just lose with that #Superbowl ad”).
Out of that random 1,000 tweet sampling, 22 people (2%) declared that they had just personally unsubscribed as a result of the ad. Now, I don’t have access to GroupOn’s subscriber database, but using Attensity, GroupOn could compare this theoretical unsubscribe rate with what they are actually seeing — performing a multi-channel analysis to see if the Twittersphere is actually reflective of their entire customer base’s actions.
(We also uncovered one subscriber with a tip for Groupon somewhat unrelated to the ad “also question what the tibet ad had to do with the 5 emails per day i get from groupon for stuff i don’t want”. This is an entirely separate issue for GroupOn to address.)
Likewise, it will be interesting to see what kind of mileage Chrysler gets from its “Detroit” ad. In another random sample of 1,000 tweets, 18 people (1.8%) said they would be interested in possibly buying a Chrysler. Unfortunately for Chrysler, 35 out of 1,000 (3.5%) mentioned that although they loved the ad, they wouldn’t be buying a Chrysler unless things changed:
“Just looked at the new #Chrysler200….its a Sebring with a new name! Try again #Chrysler #Disappointment”
Love the new Chrysler 200 comercial…Detroit is my home town. I’d buy a Chrysler if it didn’t conk out after 15,000 miles, Can you deliver?
(Interesting tidbit uncovered by Attensity text analytics: One of those 1,000 people who said they wouldn’t buy a Chrysler did say they’d buy an “Imported From Detroit” T-shirt!)
So it will be interesting to see how these two very different scenarios play out in the real world. One, with a product generally liked by its customers, making a potential misstep with its ads; the other producing a much-loved ad, but seemingly without the product to back it up.
Obviously it’s a little late for Chrysler to change the design of its vehicles, but they definitely need to step it up a notch in their marketing and sales process by ensuring that those customers who do set foot in a showroom are treated like kings, while perhaps starting a social campaign around actual satisfied Chrysler drivers.
Meanwhile, hopefully GroupOn has personally engaged with unsubscribing customers to ensure they know about their fundraising efforts and perhaps offer to make another extra $10 donation for every customer who re-subscribes?
#ItsAllAboutTheFollowThrough
About the Author Catherine van Zuylen: Vice President of Product Marketing, Attensity Americas
Catherine brings more than 15 years of experience thriving on the passion and intensity of technology startups and rollups. Prior to Attensity, Catherine was VP of Marketing for the Block Shield family of companies, where she defined and implemented new positioning, product, and branding strategies in support of company restructuring and acquisition of technology assets. Previously, Catherine was Director of Marketing at Business Objects, an SAP company. She came to Business Objects through its acquisition of Inxight Software, where she led product management and assisted in the repositioning of the company as “going beyond Google”. Catherine has also held product management and marketing roles at a variety of technology companies, including Butterfly Security, Kovair (CRM), iSyndicate (internet media), and Metcal (electronics manufacturing). Catherine holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in English from the Johnston Center at the University of Redlands. She is a true California native who enjoys working hard, but also enjoys playing hard in trail, surf, and snow.
