I’ve been publishing our netnographies both here on the NetBase blog and on the Netnography.com forum. Beginning now, I’m going to publish them only the Netnography.com forum and simply announce them here. I’ll always include a link you can follow to read them. So here’s where you’ll find the See’s Candies netnography, one of six netnographies we’re doing on chocolate companies. Michael Osofsky Ideas still in the works and the latest thinking on Innovation and Netnography from Michael Osofsky, NetBase Chief [...]

Having just returned from a busy and wonderful ARF Re:think Annual Summit, I can safely say that there is no spring break in my immediate future, but the airports are certainly slammed with people jet-setting off to their vacations. It got me thinking – for this trip I went straight to Continental’s website, but I usually use a travel booking site – I wonder what sites all these spring break and business travelers have been using and which ones do [...]

Toblerone chocolate is well-known for its distinctive packaging and its prism shape (triangular prism or pentahedron). For you trivia buffs, here’s a tidbit: People think the triangular shape of the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps is what gave Theodor Tobler his inspiration for the shape of Toblerone. However, according to Theodor’s sons, the triangular shape originates from a pyramid shape that dancers at the Folies Bergères created as the finale of a show that Theodor saw. Positive Themes The biggest [...]

Lindt, actually Lindt & Sprüngli, is a Swiss chocolate maker founded in 1845. The company makes premium quality chocolate, offering a large selection of products in more than 100 countries around the world. Sometimes the taste of their high-cacao-content bars is a surprise for consumers, which presents them with an opportunity for education and some fun marketing. Positive Themes Consumers love Lindt’s “great flavors” and cite two dozen of them as their personal favorites. Dark chocolate, mint and white chocolate [...]

We are excited to announce a number of significant improvements to the Insight Workbench (new name for the ConsumerBase product). We improved our Likes & Dislikes insights, added domain filters to Topics, and further increased our Twitter and Facebook coverage.

Personally, I love Red Robin but wish they were easier to find. I saw a lot of them in southern California but they’re harder to find around here. Their burgers are really hot and juicy. I love the basket of fries, but a story I’m told by my grandma is that as a kid I found it very undignified and requested a plate to eat my burger and fries properly. I also love their steak fries—very “beefy.” The first Red Robin opened in Seattle [...]

I’m thinking of getting a new HDTV, so this is the first in a series of netnographies on TV brands. I currently have a Sharp Aquos and I hate that the dark colors in dark movies like Harry Potter are so dark you can’t make anything out. I may as well just listen to the sound track on CD! One leading brand I’m considering is VIZIO. It’s the first American brand in over a decade to lead in U.S. LCD [...]

Sometimes I spend a good portion of my day on WebEx. I’ve met some of the staff at Cisco and when they pass control of the meeting to another participant they say they’re “passing the ball,” because the WebEx icon looks like a ball. According to the Cisco WebEx website, “WebEx web conferencing lets you connect with anyone, anywhere, in real time. WebEx combines desktop sharing through a web browser with phone conferencing and video, so everyone sees the same [...]

I’m not much of a fast-food burger fan, but Jason Falls, of Social Media Explorer, definitely is. So, with Jason’s burger expertise and NetBase’s social media insight and analysis, we teamed up to see what online consumers are saying about their favorite guilty pleasure. Check out where your favorite burger landed on the Brand Passion Index: While I added In-n-Out to the list just out of California pride, that’s where my burger wisdom ends, so be sure to catch up [...]

First Martha, then Wolfgang, now Bobby Flay. This is the third installment of our Celebrity Chef series. As with the other two, Bobby Flay does more than one thing. He’s the owner and creative force behind several restaurants—Mesa Grill, Bolo Restaurant & Bar, Bobby Flay Steak, and Bar Americain—and he’s an award-winning cookbook author and television personality. His website states that his first priority is always his restaurants, so let’s judge him primarily on that. However, as we’ll see, that’s [...]