Organic Foods Not Healthier or More Nutritious, Study Says

Organic foods are almost invariably more expensive than their conventionally produced counterparts but they aren't necessarily healthier or more nutritious, new research suggests.

Scientists found no consistent differences in vitamin content between organic and conventional foods and few significant differences in health benefits. They did note, however, that organic produce is 30 percent less likely to be contaminated with pesticides than conventional fruits and vegetables -- though the pesticide levels of all foods fell within allowable limits -- and that organic chicken and pork appeared to lessen exposure to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

"I think different people will make different decisions based on our findings," said study author Dr. Crystal Smith-Spangler, an instructor at Stanford University School of Medicine and a physician-investigator at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, in California. "We thought we'd find more significant differences, but there are many reasons why someone might consume organic foods. Health is one, but they may be concerned about the environment, animal welfare practices or taste, and we weren't evaluating that."

The study is published Sept. 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Smith-Spangler and her colleagues analyzed 237 previous studies, including 17 involving human consumption of organic vs. conventional diets and 223 comparing either the nutrient levels or the bacterial, fungal or pesticide contamination of products such as fruits, vegetables, grains, meats, milk, poultry and eggs produced organically and conventionally.

Organic foods, often twice as costly as their conventional counterparts, have become big business in the United States in recent years, with estimated sales skyrocketing from $3.6 billion to $26.7 billion between 1997 and 2010, according to study background information.

Organic products are generally grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, irradiation or chemical food additives and without routine use of antibiotics or growth hormones. Organic livestock are offered freedom of movement and access to the outdoors and are fed pesticide- and animal byproduct-free organic feed.

Only one nutrient, phosphorous, was found to be significantly more abundant in organic produce, but researchers felt this had little clinical significance since few people are deficient in phosphorous. Also, no difference in protein or fat content was observed between organic and conventional milk, though limited previous studies did suggest organic milk contains markedly higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which may lower the risk of conditions such as heart disease, cancer and arthritis.

Smith-Spangler said she and her team were inspired to undertake the research to find answers for themselves, their families and their patients about the potential merits of organic foods. But, "we didn't find strong evidence that organic food was significantly more nutritious or healthier," she said, "and similar levels of both types are contaminated with bacteria" such as E. coli, which can be deadly.

"We can't exclude the idea that some organic practices may increase nutrient levels . . . or increase or decrease bacteria," she said. "But at the market you don't often get to look at the organic practices used. Many studies mention that other factors can influence nutrient content, such as ripeness, season and storage practices."

Charles Benbrook is chief science consultant at the Organic Center in Enterprise, Ore., which says it conducts "credible, evidence-based science on the health and environmental benefits of organic food and farming." He praised the study authors' "ambitious undertaking" but said the study underestimated the impact of organic livestock farming on reducing antibiotic resistance and missed analyzing research attributing important health benefits from organic produce on prenatal development.

"We need to recognize that finding strong evidence of clinically significant health benefits for eating organic food is a tall order," Benbrook said. "But I don't think their study rules out some of the more subtle benefits of consuming organic foods that are more in the nature of promoting healthy pregnancies and preventing disease."

"To practitioners [like the researchers], a clinically significant outcome and improvement relies on a much more profound change in the health and biology of a person than what most literature speaks to," he added, "which is that people who make decent dietary choices but also buy high-quality organic food . . . improve the odds that they stay healthy."

Source: US News Health (http://goo.gl/3O1xi)

Les arnaques de la grande distribution, vision de Canal+

Article publié par Carrefour

Comme il peut y avoir des côtés sombres dans le secteur du commerce de masse, voici une émission de Canal+ intitulée Les arnaques de la grande distribution. On y retrouve, quelques années après, des figures bien connues, qui représentaient alors l’enseigne Carrefour pour la France sur le banc des accusés.

L’actualité du sujet
Des articles de presse voient toujours le jour actuellement sur des thématiques  pesantes, comme celui du Parisien sur la mécanique promotionnelle de certains prix bas, que nous dénonçons depuis des mois.

En exemple de conditions que nous trouvons très particulières, voici reproduites ici une partie des conditions GARANTIE PRIX LE PLUS BAS de Carrefour.
« Nous vous garantissons les prix les plus bas sur plus de 500 produits (dans le strict respect de la réglementation – interdiction de revendre à perte). Et si vous trouvez moins cher ailleurs, nous vous remboursons deux (2) fois la différence.

Produits concernés : Plus de 500 produits sont concernés par la présente Garantie. La liste comporte des produits alimentaires (notamment des produits Bio) et non alimentaires (notamment des fournitures scolaires). Les produits doivent néanmoins être strictement identiques (même code-barre, même marque, même emballage, même conditionnement) et vendus dans les mêmes conditions par le magasin concurrent (les produits vendus en promotion ne sont pas concernés).

Les produits sont signalés en magasin et/ou la liste des produits peut être consultée à l’accueil des Magasins Participants. La liste des produits peut être modifiée à tout moment.

Magasins concurrents : Sont considérés comme des magasins concurrents les magasins de la grande distribution généraliste ou spécialisée proposant le même type de produits et services que les magasins à enseigne Carrefour et/ou Carrefour Planet et ayant le même mode de distribution. Sont donc notamment exclus les produits proposés par les réseaux de vente à distance (vente par correspondance, Internet…), par des grossistes ou par les soldeurs. Ne sont pas considérés comme magasins concurrents les magasins du Groupe Carrefour.

Le magasin concurrent doit être situé en France métropolitaine et au maximum à 15 km (distance entendue par la route) du magasin Carrefour ou Carrefour Planet qui vous a vendu le produit.

Quand nous contacter ?

Vous devez nous transmettre l’intégralité des documents requis dans un délai de 15 jours calendaire suivant la date d’achat du produit dans l’un des magasins participants. Informations requises lors de votre demande de remboursement :
o nom, prénom, adresse postale,
o adresse électronique (obligatoire uniquement en cas de demande de remboursement via Internet),
o téléphone (facultatif),
o numéro de carte de fidélité (obligatoire uniquement en cas de demande de remboursement sur le Compte Fidélité),
o Localisation magasin Carrefour ou Carrefour Planet,
o Localisation du magasin concurrent et nom de l’enseigne,
o code barre, marque, prix du produit acheté chez Carrefour ou Carrefour Planet,
o code barre, marque, grammage, prix du produit acheté dans le magasin concurrent,
o date d’achat,
o photocopie ticket de caisse Carrefour ou Carrefour Planet,
o preuve du prix pratiqué par le magasin concurrent.

Pour bénéficier du remboursement de la différence, le produit concerné doit obligatoirement être acheté dans l’un des Magasins Participants (envoi d’une copie du ticket de caisse pour preuve d’achatobligatoire).

En outre, vous devez également apporter la preuve du prix pratiqué par le magasin concurrent (facture proforma (avec date, cachet et signature), ticket de caisse…). Cette preuve devra être datée de moins de 15 jours suivant l’achat de votre produit dans l’un des Magasins Participants. Il est précisé que nous

pourrons être amenés à vérifier par nous-mêmes le prix pratiqué par le magasin concurrent. »

· Le remboursement sera effectué en bon(s) d’achat, ou, si vous le préférez, il sera directement crédité sur votre compte fidélité (si vous être adhérent au programme de fidélité et que vous avez renseigné votre n° de carte de fidélité). L’offre de remboursement de la différence est limitée à 10 produits identiques par foyer (personnes vivant sous le même toit).

· Le remboursement de la différence sera calculé sur la base des prix de vente des produits concernés réellement pratiqués par le magasin participant et par le magasin concurrent. Seront donc exclues toutes formes de remises différées liées à ces produits (c’est-à-dire toutes réductions à valoir sur les prochains achats) et les erreurs d’impression ou d’affichage de notre concurrent qui aura signalé ces erreurs par l’apposition d’errata dans son magasin.

Si vous demandez le remboursement d’un produit ayant fait l’objet de l’opération « remboursement de la différence », le crédit sur le compte fidélité et/ou les bons d’achat doivent être restitués ou remboursés. »

Source: Carrefour: un combat pour la liberté (http://goo.gl/8BAAX)

Le géant de la distribution Walmart affûte son moteur de recherche

L'enseigne américaine, leader mondial de la grande distribution, veut monter en puissance sur Internet avec la modification de son moteur de recherche : celui-ci devient sémantique et anticipe désormais les intentions de recherche des clients.

D'après Walmart, son nouveau moteur de recherche aurait déjà généré 10 à 15% d'achats supplémentaires. Baptisé Polaris, et mis à jour jeudi dernier, celui-ci est désormais articulé autour d'un algorithme de recherche sémantique. Il est capable, comme le fait le concurrent Amazon, de suggérer des résultats lors de la saisie d'une recherche.

Polaris est le fruit de dix mois de travail de la part d'une équipe d'une quinzaine d'ingénieurs officiant au sein du « WalmartLabs », le pôle d'innovation de Walmart. L'algorithme est basé sur le « Social Genome Project », une plateforme qui relie les gens à des lieux, des événements et des produits, donnant à Walmart une visibilité sur ce que les clients peuvent désirer acheter. Par exemple, une recherche portant sur le mot « denim » renverra vers une sélection de jeans, car les deux sont liés.

Par ailleurs, le moteur de recherche prend en compte les synonymes mais aussi le comportement du client sur le site pour élaborer sa liste de propositions d'achats et s'adapter à ses attentes supposées. Ces avancées sont en fait dues à l'acquisition de la société Kosmix en avril 2011, spécialisée dans les médias sociaux et le e-commerce.

Sri Subramaniam, ancien vice-president de Kosmix et désormais à la tête du projet Polaris, indique que « cette initiative ne marque que le début des efforts de Walmart pour accélérer sa stratégie de développement de commerce en ligne ».

Pour Greg Sterling, analyste chez Sterling Market Research et interrogé par Cio-Today, « si le nouveau moteur de recherche de Walmart est aussi efficace que la société le prétend, cela dynamisera effectivement ses activités de commerce en ligne ».

Ce dernier ne croit pas en revanche que le numéro 1 de la distribution ira inquiéter Amazon sur le terrain du commerce en ligne. « Il faudrait pour cela que Walmart développe un site exclusivement réservé à la vente en ligne, ce qui serait très difficile pour lui », explique-t-il.

Au dernier trimestre, Walmart faisait état tout de même d'un chiffre d'affaires de 114,3 milliards de dollars, contre 9,91 milliards pour Amazon.

Source: Cubic (http://goo.gl/jrliU)

Declare economic independence with revolutionary micro-currency

Communities around the world who find the mainstream economic system taxing at best and downright disempowering at worst are taking matters into their own hands. With micro-currency and modern day barter systems, people are making positive strides in curbing economic downturns. Both promote ingenuity, economic sustainability, prosperity and connection with neighborhood commerce. As more cities, towns and rural hamlets embrace alternative currencies and bartering, abundance thrives — free of national and global financial strangleholds.Ziggy Stardust on valid currency- This is just what the London neighborhood of Brixton has done. Called the Brixton Pound, residents can use it at over 200 local businesses. As an added bonus, businesses often extend a discount to those using this innovative (and gorgeous) money. Although backed by national banknotes, the beauty of alternative currency is that it keeps money and prosperity local. Brixton is one of four regions in the UK that currently employ this ingenious economic system.

From the Chiemgauer of Bavaria to BerkShares of Massachusetts; Montana’s Butte Bucks to Calgary Dollars in Alberta — each promote a vital sense of community and economic independence. Non-profits and businesses are encouraged to keep the Chiemgauer circulating by being charged a hefty five percent commission fee if they want to change it back into euros. BerkShares are worth more than a standard US dollar, giving people a nice little incentive to use local currency for their purchases. And Butte Bucks will exchange $40 American for $50 of local money, while a Calgary Dollars member can make local cash by listing a service, product or skill. A merry-go-round of cash flow is created by earning and spending within the community. All this allows friendly forging of business deals and helps to support a stable local economy.

Another clever economic structure is the time bank. Using the sophistication of the Internet, time banks are popping up around the globe — helping people to barter for services. A time bank will keep track of who provides what services, the number of ‘hours’ a person has contributed and how many hours are owed. 

Different skill levels will accumulate varying rates of hours. For example, a carpenter will accumulate more hours than a babysitter. As soon as an individual has accumulated hours, they can ‘spend’ them on services they need. A record of the remaining hours is then coordinated by the system. Time banks are found throughout the world — yet administrators are vigilant to make sure value is never given in hard currency which would open a Pandora’s box of taxation from governments.

Eric Garland, futurist and strategic analyst, observes in the Atlantic:

“With all this innovation going on, one big question remains: what does this mean for paying the tax man, who wants a single currency to represent all of the activity so he can measure it and take his bite- The national revenue services of the world may need to start innovating themselves if they want to come up with the answer.”

Sources for this article include:

“Local Currencies Aren’t Small Change” Joel Stonington, UTNE, June 2004. Retrieved on August 28, 2012 from: http://www.utne.com

“The Next Money: As the Big Economies Falter, Micro-Currencies Rise” Eric Garland, The Atlantic, May 16, 2012. Retrieved on August 28, 2012 from: http://www.theatlantic.com

“Communities print their own currency to keep cash flowing” Marisol Bello, USA Today, April 10, 2009. Retrieved on August 28, 2012 from: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2009-04-05-scrip_N.htm

“Tough Times Lead to Local Currencies” Judith D. Schwartz, Time Magazine, July 13, 2009. Retrieved on August 28, 2012 from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1908421,00.html

“Local Currencies: ‘In the U.S. we don’t trust’ Blake Ellis, CNN Money, January 27, 2012. Retrieved on August 28, 2012 from: http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/pf/local_currency/index.htm

About the author:
Carolanne enthusiastically believes if we want to see change in the world, we need to be the change. As a nutritionist, natural foods chef and wellness coach, Carolanne has encouraged others to embrace a healthy lifestyle of organic living, gratefulness and joyful orientation for over 13 years. Through her website www.Thrive-Living.net she looks forward to connecting with other like-minded people from around the world who share a similar vision.

Source: Tina Crock Diet Dips (http://goo.gl/AhcsL)

Circuler dans un magasin et repérer l’organisation des rayons

Dans le magasin :

L’entrée du magasin est le plus souvent à droite du magasin car les clients ont tendance à tourner à droite dans un magasin et à rester dans la première partie du magasin. En général, à la droite du magasin en entrant se situe le plus souvent le rayon hifi, télé, gros et petits électroménager, livres… Le but recherché est d’attirer les clients dans cette partie du magasin afin de leur faire réaliser des achats d’impulsion (des achats qui ne sont pas sur leur liste de courses).

La nourriture et le rayon frais sont le plus souvent au fond du magasin ou sur les côtés afin d’obliger le client à traverser les autres rayons pour l’atteindre.  Dans un supermarché, les fruits et légumes seront parfois à l’entrée du magasin tandis que dans un hypermarché, ils seront au fond à droite.

Pendant les fêtes : Noël, Halloween et encore les soldes sont des occasions pour les chefs de rayons de prouver leur efficacité en mettant en valeur leurs produits.

Dans chaque rayon :

Il faut garder à l’esprit que les produits ne sont pas posés sur les rayonnages d’une façon anodine. On a étudié que le consommateur s’arrêtait au milieu du rayon et le balayait du regard en s’attardant sur le milieu. Par conséquent, un produit bien placé (au milieu) peut voir son chiffre d’affaire augmenter d’environ 30% ! Les têtes de gondoles sont eux aussi des endroits stratégiques concentrant le plus souvent des produits de marque nationale en promotion.

En général, un rayon comporte 4 divisions verticales :

• La première, tout en dessous, est destinée aux produits premier prix.
• La 2^ème, un peu plus haut, accueille le plus souvent des produits de marques nationales.
• La 3^ème, au niveau des yeux, est la place réservée aux produits de la marque du magasin, produits sur lesquels le magasin se fait une plus grande marge.
• La partie la plus haute est pour les produits légers et qui prennent de la place. Ce sont aussi parfois des produits destinés à une catégorie réduite de population car beaucoup de clients n’y ont pas accès (personnes âgées, enfants, individus de petite taille…).

Source: J'aime Acheter (http://goo.gl/bpSQ8)

As Spain's Recession Darkens, Alternative Economies Rise

As Spain's economic recession has continued to deepen, conditions for people within the country are expected to get worse following austerity measures that increasingly cut into everyday economic survival, Reuters reports Tuesday. However, as many economists grapple over numbers, and search for signs of hope for a free market revival, many people within Spain have increasingly started to turn to alternative currency systems, or parallel euro-free economies -- giving up the ghost of a neoliberal recovery in exchange for a new way.

According to Reuters, following recent extreme austerity measures, a rush of consumers and firms withdrew their money from Spanish banks in July, with private sector deposits falling almost 5 percent, to 1.509 trillion euros ($1.896 trillion) at end-July from 1.583 trillion a month earlier, signally an extreme loss in faith in the austerity economy.

"Analysts believe it is inevitable that Spain will soon have to call for a European rescue package to help bring its debt costs down as austerity measures designed to slash the public deficit push the economy deeper into recession," Reuters reports.

"With much more fiscal austerity in the pipeline and unemployment at astronomic highs, the risks are clearly tilted towards a more protracted recession," said Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING.

However, as the Washington Post reports today, at a time when the future of the euro is in doubt and millions are unemployed, alternative forms of exchange and survival are springing up in the cracks of capitalism, allowing people to exchange, barter, and live outside of failing currencies.

One example given by the Post is the proliferation of "time banks" throughout the country. Time banks allow people to trade their services amongst one another in a currency of hours. One provides a service for a certain amount of time and can 'buy' another service for that same amount of time. Time banks allow people to exchange labor and services without the need for abstract currencies.

In another instance, residents in the city of Malaga have established a website which allows individuals to earn money and buy products using a virtual currency.

In the Catalonian fishing town of Vilanova i la Geltru, residents are experimenting with a localized currency, which is worth slightly more than the euro when it is used at local stores.

“This is a way for people who are on the fringes of the economy to participate again,” said Josefina Altes, coordinator of the Spanish Time Bank Network.

"This is part of the cooperatives, credit unions, community banks, organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate economy — that the Occupy movement is groping towards"

Similar projects have been taking place in Greece, Portugal and other hurting euro-zone countries.

"While each social-money project has its own accounting rules, the basic concept is the same. You earn credits by providing services or selling goods, and you can redeem the credits with people or businesses in the network," the Post reports.

"These experiments aim to take communities back to a time when goods and services were bartered, before things such as interest rates, market speculation and derivatives complicated the financial world."

Time Bank organizers say as the crisis deepens more and more people are signing up for such projects.

There are now more than 325 time banks and alternative currency systems in Spain involving tens of thousands of citizens. The projects represent one of the largest experiments in "social money" in modern times.

Peter North, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool who has written two books on alternative currencies, told the Post that the recent efforts in Spain may last longer than similar projects in the past because they are connected to the 15M, or “Indignados,” movement -- a protest movement which began in Spain and helped inspire the global Occupy movement.

“Instead of just being a desperate way for people to survive a horrible economic crisis, this is part of the cooperatives, credit unions, community banks, organic farms and recovering factories — the alternate economy — that the Occupy movement is groping towards,” North said.

Anger over austerity measures has consumed Spain over the past two years. Tensions heightened again in July when the Spanish parliament passed an $80 billion austerity package, which included pay cuts for civil workers, an increase in sales tax, benefits cuts and a raise in retirement age.

The package came in exchange for a $122 billion rescue package pushed for by Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy, and approved finally by the German parliament. Following the deal, protesters took to the streets on a nearly daily basis, culminating in a countrywide protest of tens of thousands of demonstrators across 80 cities on July 19, 2012.

The Rajoy government is expected to formally request additional Euro bailout money by mid-September or October, and is likely to continue drastic austerity policies.

Source: Common Dreams (http://goo.gl/bwI0u)

Listening to the Web: Effective Sentiment Analysis Makes All Departments Customer Centric

In an era when “green” and “sustainability” are feel-good buzzwords, it might be hard to imagine how anyone could be against an energy-saving light bulb.

Migros, Switzerland’s largest retailer, didn’t have to imagine, however. They detected the discontent by eavesdropping on conversations on the Web. With scanning tools that analyzed the Web for key words, Migros was able to identify a still-small movement called “Bulb Fiction,” which is trying to mobilize against a new light bulb the company is promoting. “Because of the identification of this movement we could, now, prepare a communication package ready to be launched in case ‘Bulb Fiction’ would become more vocal,” says Jann J. Hatz, vice president of corporate development for Migros.

Gazing at a tsunami of Facebook updates, tweets, and blogs, companies are pondering how to convert all this user-generated content into actionable information.

Customer sentiment analysis uses natural language processing, computational linguistics and text analytics to identify and extract subjective information from the web.  The tools offer dashboards and other visualization techniques that can reveal the volume and quality of the sentiment. In the case of Migros, the company scans for key words and judges the consumer’s conversation as “positive,” “negative,” “question,” or “comment.”

Jann J. Hatz of Migros

Customer sentiment analysis has already helped Migros avoid some touchy situations. For example, the company is sponsoring some open-air musical festivals. Online monitoring identified an upcoming PR risk because of complaints that a singer with supposedly homophobic lyrics was at one of those festivals.

“Knowing about the increasing number of comments on the topic we were able to proactively address the issue by setting up a conference among the interested parties to discuss the topic and work out a solution,” Hatz says. “In the end the festival organizers and the artist agreed to cancel the engagement and we got very positive feedback on all channels.”

Still an Inexact Science 
Anecdotes like this can make marketers and others whose livelihoods depend on the public’s mood giddy, but the reality is gauging the temperature of people on the Web isn’t easy. Customer sentiment analysis is an inexact science.   A sentiment analysis tool might judge a consumer’s comment about a product to be negative because his post included the word “crap.” However, the software might have missed the context: “Holy crap! This product is amazing!” As analyst Howard Dresner notes, “There are a lot of false positives.”

And even when the sentiment is accurately gauged, understanding what to do with it isn’t always easy. While sentiment analysis can indicate mood, it doesn’t reveal cause-and-effect.  “In sentiment analysis we can search for key words and count the incidences which already give some hints,” Hatz says. “The rest is educated interpretation.”

Consequently, he says Migros doesn’t systematically analyze customer sentiment in combination with sales figures (for example, matching public opinion with product sales). “The effort required is too big and that the customer sentiment data alone don’t give the full picture,” he says. “Therefore, not everything is analyzed.”

The Importance of Tangible Metrics 
Because of such challenges, Leslie Ament, vice president, research and client advisory of theHypatia Research Group, says  early adopters who are doing best with customer sentiment analysis pick a few key business initiatives that are directly tied to corporate goals and have tangible metrics.

She points to StubHub, a business unit of eBay that allows fans to sell tickets to concerts and other events to other fans.  The site facilitates the transaction, and guarantees the tickets will be valid, but doesn’t set the price. “For example, if a Cher concert sells out, the ticket sellers exploit supply-and-demand,” she explains. “StubHub is at the receiving end of a lot of negative comments, even though the problem is out of their direct control.”

As the volume of complaints rose, StubHub had one employee search them out one by one—but he could only respond to 20 a week. The company turned to software tools to find comments on LinkedIn, Facebook forums and other places. Then the comments were sorted by category of issue, such as return ticket or price issue, and judged to be  “positive,” “negative,” or “neutral.” This allowed an employee to respond to more than 200 conversations per week—a 10-fold increase in productivity. That was a slam-dunk for customer sentiment analysis, since the sites’ business model depended on people having faith in the service’s reliability.

The StubHub case, recounted in a new report by Ament, is not typical, however.  Ament‘s research indicates that more than half of companies aren’t even trying to measure the return on investment from their social analytics measures.  “Even the ones who are measuring ROI aren’t always measuring the right things,” she says.

Tips for Analyzing the Web’s Tea Leaves
Experts offer these points of advice for getting the most out of today’s first-generation customer sentiment analysis tools:

• Do use sentiment analysis to discover clues to consumers’ moods. But don’t assume any cause-and-effect relationship between online expressions and actual action without further analysis.
• Tie a sentiment analysis program to selected business initiatives that are tied to corporate goals.
• Remember that customer sentiment analysis is not for marketing alone. It should be integrated into your overall “voice of the customer” efforts, rather than be thought of as a standalone component.
• Understand your needs: Consumer-grade software might not be able to handle a large enough number of sources or volume for your purposes.
• Find ways to measure ROI of the efforts. Most companies don’t.

When All Departments Are Customer Service Departments
One reason is that customer sentiment analysis projects tend to be isolated in specific departments with their own agenda. Mitch Lieberman, vice president of strategy for CRM technology providerSword Ciboodle, points to the marketing department in an automobile manufacturer. “A  car that is advertised as getting 30 mpg,” he says. “People realize that the car actually only gets 15 mpg and begin to complain about it. Negative sentiment, for sure. What is marketing going to do? Giving comfort that 15 mpg is pretty good is not the solution—what else can marketing do in isolation?”

Instead, Lieberman says the consumer discontent should be directed to the right part of the organization (product, service, customer service) and then the resolution should be communicated back to the customer. He says companies at the extreme forward tip of customer sentiment analysis are figuring out ways for their customer service and marketing departments to work in conjunction with the information they unearth. But they have prickly issues like incompatible metrics—customer service is judged by customer retention, marketing by new customers. “People often talk about data silos, but operational metric silos are just as big an issue,” Lieberman says.

At this very early stage in the technology, it’s important to remember that customer sentiment analysis can be a useful tool when applied correctly, but it’s not a magic bullet or scientific research. “Social media is the new flavor of ice cream,”  Ament says. “It’s an important channel to understand customer feedback, but it’s not a panacea for every business problem.”

Joe Mullich, a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, can be reached at joe@joemullich.com. 

Source: Data Informed (http://goo.gl/9qZLw)