Analysing competitors' online persuasive themes with text mining

• Published in: Marketing intelligence & planning Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 187 - 200
• Main Authors: Leong, Elaine K.F, Ewing, Michael T, Pitt, Leyland F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01-03-2004
• Subjects: Colleges & universities; Communication; Competition; Competitive advantage; Competitive analysis; Competitive intelligence; Content analysis; Data handling; Data mining; Information retrieval; Internet; Knowledge discovery; Linguistics; Market positioning; Marketing; Online advertising; Product positioning; Semantics; Social sciences; Software; Statistical analysis; Studies; Text analysis; Text retrieval; Websites; United States > US; Internet; Data handling; Competitive analysis; Product positioning; Text retrieval
• ISSN: 0263-4503; 1758-8049
• DOI: 10.1108/02634500410525850

Information is power. Cliché, but true. The Internet has simultaneously empowered individuals. Prospects can click, choose and control their online interactions. For organisations, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. They face more competition and are overloaded with more information than ever before. Manual tracking and processing of competitor activity are tedious, inaccurate, and rapidly outdated. Technology has created the "problem", and technology can offer potential solutions. This study explores the use of text mining technology to analyse competitors' online promotional text messages. To examine its potential applications, a text mining analysis is applied to top educational sites in the USA. How their Web content is positioned relative to their competitors is analysed and discussed.