Mood and food: You are what you tweet?
Everyone knows: You are what you eat, but what does what you eat and tweet say about your mood? Relevation Research, Barrington, Ill., analyzed the connection between individuals’ food choices and moods mentioned on Twitter. The firm’s analysis studied the presence of approximately 40 different emotional states and 20 comfort or popular foods in tweets across two 30-day periods (spring and fall 2009). Emotions and food/drink mentions were then correlated.
“It’s commonly believed that consumers use food to satisfy many needs and cravings beyond simply hunger or thirst. There are definitely strong correlations between moods tweeted and foods being discussed by the Twitter population, as well as a number of weaker correlations,” said Nan Martin, president and founder of Relevation Research. “Some of them are quite surprising and others can be defined as downright contradictory.”
When chocolate is a hot topic, there is a lot of happy talk going on. This was the strongest correlation uncovered in the research. Surprisingly, ice cream correlates negatively with expressions of feeling lonely, sad or guilty - despite the widely-accepted image of someone alone (usually female) eating a pint of ice cream after a breakup. Instead, soup seems to fit more the ice cream myth, correlating with lonely and alone.
Beer equals crazy, wild, funny or fun times, but also alone and lonely. Beer and stress don’t mix. Pizza is aligned with the identical moods as beer. Coffee is the antithesis of pizza and beer and a bit polarizing, correlating strongly with stress but weakly with feelings of contentment. Similar to coffee, taco tweets correlate with stress but also with calm.
Burgers go hand in hand with fun, but there is also a dark side to them because they correlate with furious and alone as well. Pass the chips if one is miffed because the two link strongly. When love is in the Twitter air, so is sushi. Counter to love, bacon patterns parallel indications of being scared and afraid. BBQ peaks with fun but drops when expressions of excitement or stress are on the rise. When the mood is mad, sandwich chatter is depressed.
Scathing research feedback guides Domino’s makeover
When its marketing research handed it tomatoes, Domino’s not only made new marinara, it also upgraded its cheese and added an herb-butter-brush to its pizza crusts, according to John Gallagher’s January 6, 2010, article “About time Domino’s pizza is upgraded, some say,” in the Detroit Free Press.
After research respondents savaged its products, the pizza chain didn’t sit on the results and hide the negative feedback. It accepted the criticism as truth and understood that the pizza could no longer compete: Bland and middle-of-the-road is not sufficient to succeed in today’s pizza marketplace.
Domino’s latest mea culpa ad campaign features clips from focus groups and customer feedback comments in which, for example, one focus group respondent proclaims that Domino’s crust is like cardboard; another comment stated it was the worst pizza a customer had ever had; another claimed the pizza is devoid of flavor; and in yet another segment the sauce is likened to ketchup - all unappetizing (and potentially brand-damaging) comments if Domino’s had left it at that.
Instead of hiding the fact that its pizza was markedly subpar compared to its adequate scores in service and delivery, Do-mino’s showed America that it is highly in tune with the voice of the customer, aware of its shortcomings and willing to go to great lengths - and spend millions of dollars - to correct them.
If the company’s new-and-improved pizza can match the success of the company’s candid campaign, Domino’s may be back in the flavor game.
Alice.com streamlines shopping, offers insight into online CPG buyers
Alice.com has launched an e-commerce platform designed to enable consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers to create customized, branded storefronts at their own Web properties that will share the Alice.com checkout and fulfillment process.
The site is designed to organize household essential products, offer coupons and deals, send reminders when items might be running low and help users order the items needed to avoid a trip to the corner drugstore or the big-box store - with no shipping charges. The platform essentially allows consumers to purchase from multiple CPG manufacturers in a single online shopping trip and receive one box of goods direct to their door and aims to drive incremental revenue and deliver a “learning lab” of consumer data and insights.
The Internet has changed the way we shop for things like books, clothing, shoes and electronics, but when it comes to home essentials, most still opt to shop in-store. Perhaps it’s the nature of these CPG items that makes shopping around and purchasing online difficult: When you need toilet paper, you need toilet paper. And you probably don’t want to pay $1 shipping on a $3 tube of toothpaste. These obstacles have made commanding the online retail market a challenge for CPG manufacturers, and, in turn, consumer data on those purchasing these products has lagged behind.
By selecting the Alice solution, manufacturers will have access to a suite of interactive marketing opportunities and a set of consumer data intended to allow them to better understand their customer, develop new products and build their brand. “CPG manufacturers need to get closer to their customer and collaborate with their retail channels more than ever before,” said Mark McGuire, co-founder and president of Alice.com. “The Alice.com solution unlocks a host of consumer insights and transactional data the manufacturer can share with their retail partners to drive more sales.”
Alice.com is making its e-commerce solution available to the 100+ CPG manufacturers that have joined the Alice.com platform. A number of manufacturers have begun using the solution to power their virtual storefronts.