Image Barometer

The perfect compliment to traditional qualitative and quantitative research!

Focus groups and surveys are important research tools, valuable in obtaining critical feedback from targeted groups of people and proving hypotheses. Par Excellence’s Image Barometer offers the perfect compliment to traditional research methodologies.

The Image Barometer is a powerful tracking & analysis tool, monitoring and measuring Consumer Generated Media and accessing consumers’ deepest thoughts and opinions in an unbiased manner.

It’s no secret; the Internet and social media have changed the way millions of people communicate around the world. Social media gives the average consumer new places to express themselves, both negatively and positively, sharing their thoughts with hundreds of thousands of people. Discussions on blogs, message boards, review sites, etc. can have a tremendous impact on the success or failure of a brand. In addition, these venues provide the perfect insight into trends, consumer likes, dislikes, and opinions.

Protect Your Brand! Track What Consumers Are Saying About Your Brand, and Competitors’ Brands. Identify and Monitor Trends and Opinion Flows.

The Image Barometer is the only tool of its kind, utilizing proprietary software to crawl the entire Web, searching for related Websites, blogs, forums and news. Automated processes and skilled human analysts are used to filter out irrelevant results and classify data so you can see how customers perceive your brand and your competitors.

It also allows you to identify and track trends in the marketplace.

Data is analyzed and compiled into a report including graphs, charts and key summaries for each issue and sub-issue, organized according to a range of factors including importance, relevancy, type of Consumer Generated Media, positive versus negative attitude or comment, geography and more. Results can be tracked and reports generated on a One Time, Monthly, or Quarterly basis. Customized projects are also readily available upon request.

The Image Barometer can literally achieve what people alone cannot!

The Image Barometer allows you to:

• Measure how others perceive your product, brand or company.
• Identify trends and specific threats that can affect your organization.
• Carry out targeted surveillance of particular Websites.
• Discover the full range of opinions and perspectives on issues affecting your industry.
• Identify and respond to hot topics before they become critical.

Hybrid Marketing Research Model
The Image Barometer can be classified as a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative research. With its many benefits, it allows you to observe consumer behavior in an unbiased manner. Consumer Generated Media has created strong communities, and has altered the way people engage together. These postings are powerful, truthful and allow deeper access than many focus group settings. Observational research at its best; we are able to observe thousands of participants instead of just a few at a time, as in traditional ethnographic or focus group settings.

The Image Barometer is similar to quantitative in that the tool accesses thousands of relevant opinions. It is much less expensive than a survey and yet delves deeper into what people are thinking, doing and why. From the volumous findings, it is easy to find common patterns, and findings can be coded in a quantitative manner.

Demographics
As the Internet has matured, it has grown into a very demographically attractive audience represented by virtually every age group. Click on the following link for the latest demographics published by Pew Internet & American Life Project – 2007 Demographics. According to a report on blogging released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, approximately 12 million American adults keep a blog, approximately 57 million American adults read blogs and about 48 million Americans post on blogs and other social media sites. Canadians are also avid users of the Internet with demographics similar to the U.S. According to a report by The Info Shop, eight out of ten Canadian Internet users visit social networking sites, and nearly two-thirds read blogs.

For more information, please visit our official Image Barometer Website, Email or call us toll free at: 877.594.9990. To view our PowerPoint Presentation, please click on the following link: Image Barometer Power Point.