Last Fall, Michael Osofsky, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at NetBase, walked into my office and said, “What if I told you we can identify the number one thing women want?” I replied that the number one thing this woman wants is a nap, but I was intrigued.
Michael explained that ConsumerBase, our social intelligence warehouse filled with billions social web conversations, could be queried to find all the sentences in the database that take the form “I want (object).” He could then use the functionality we’d recently added to NetBase that allows us to identify whether a post comes from a man or a woman, and we’d have the answer to the eternal question, “What do women want?”
How could I say no?
Explaining the Methodology
We decided to pursue Michael’s idea because we thought it would be fun and interesting, but also because it would help us illustrate all the possibilities that exist for understanding conversations in social media. We proceeded to identify categories of wants, pinpointed the most talked-about and most-loved brands, and found themes associated with each of the brands. We finally had to stop and admit that there are endless possibilities for what you can do with this kind of data. To establish our credibility upfront, check out a semi-in-depth explanation of our methodology, at the bottom of this post*.
But for now – let’s get to the good stuff!
Presenting (Ta Da) … the Infographic
We think the results are fascinating. We had so many interesting insights that it was hard to decide what to put into our infographic, but see the entire finished product below! You can also find it on Mashable here, and read comments from viewers. What do you think, did we get it right?
Stay tuned for even more fun insights from the clipping room’s floor!
*NetBase has created a cloud-based natural language processing (NLP) engine that reads social media and web content using deep parsing, English language grammatical analysis, industry lexicons, and filters that determine sentiment and gender voice. We queried our social intelligence warehouse (ConsumerBase) for all online conversations including the phrase “I want X” within 27 billion social media sources over the past year. Next, we determined the Top Ten wants for both men and women according to mentions of “I want X” online. Then we queried ConsumerBase for mentions of each of the Top Ten wants for men and for women to determine the Top Ten brands that were surfaced (based on amount of chatter) in each category. With our NLP, we were able to determine the most-buzzed, the sentiment of the brand mentions, and the most-loved brand in each of the categories within men’s and women’s Top Ten wants.
Lisa Joy Rosner
The Brand Passion Index, other cool ConsumerBase insights, and thoughts on understanding the social media universe from Lisa Joy Rosner, NetBase CMO.
Lisa, nice insight… but I wonder how this translates across Europe? I imagine data result only from “American” or “North American” men’s and women’s wish list, right? I don’t think this is representative for europe, tell me if I’m wrong. I’m posting the article appeared on mashable.com on my linkedin groups, I would be correct and sharp in reporting sharp details.
I tell you moreover, if you’re interested in something for UE or EMEA, please let me know, I’d be honored in supporting you, and plan something with a third part provider as bridge. Thanks for any reply
Massimo
Amazing correlations. Cute idea. The one thing that might negate this is that women rarely feel comfortable about talking about what they really want. Ice cream is just safe. So where as the numbers say this… What is wanted is rarely expressed, because us women, sometimes don’t understand our desires.
Men on the other hand get railed by the females if they express theirs.. so again. Cars are safe and don’t yell at them if they mis speak.
Where is the detailed methodology explanation alluded to at the top of the post?
i absolutely agree. it would take years of therapy for me to say what i really want so I’ll just say turkey hill chocolate peanut butter cup. social media tells all but reveals very little.
I love cars, especially my Ford Edge which my my oldest son talked me into buying. He’s sales manager at New Brighton Ford in the Minneapolis, Mn area. He was right when he said I would like the Edge. My son’s name is G. Michael King. My number two love is the Dairy Queen “Blizzard” (Heathbar flavor), so what does that do to the survey? In all honesty friends I have to say that my wife (Pat) is really the love of my life and she doesn’t have this love for cars and just a little for Ice Cream.
I agree with the list for men except this bacon thing???
I really don’t like bacon, and chocolate chip cookies take the lead on the desert menu. Dark Chocolate has taken the lead on my “want list”. Bud Light, wine and once in a while a frozen Margarita. Chicken over red meats and good old veggies and yes I like Pizza of most kinds. I still put the Blizzard in the top spot for my Ice Crream choice.
car? gas costs to much women are what guys want a cool car was just away to attacked women.
If I would have known Ice cream attracted women it would have saved sooooo much trouble
What AMERICAN women (and men) want, clearly. Fun though.