Nielsen's New Tool to Visualize Brand Associations Within Internet Chatter

The Brand Association Mapâ„¢ (BAM) uses advanced text-mining algorithms to plot the most important language, attributes, issues and themes about a brand in concentric circles, derived from consumer expression in blogs, boards, ratings sites and other forms of consumer-generated media (CGM). With the brand represented in the bull's eye, the resulting visualization empowers marketers to quickly grasp how brand identity, reputation and equity mesh with core assumptions.

The Brand Association Map takes a powerful snapshot of a brand DNA, helping marketers reconcile intuition and beliefs about brands with how consumers really contextualize them," said Jerry Needel, senior vice president, Product Management, Nielsen BuzzMetrics. "This aids understanding of true brand health, and results in marketers asking the right questions and making better decisions."

Brand stakeholders who benefit from BAM include:

-- Marketers - to understand relevant initiatives and product benefits.

-- Researchers - to identify hot issues invisible or unaddressed by traditional techniques.

-- Advertising Agencies - to ensure messaging preserves and optimizes brand equity.

-- External Relations - to uncover vulnerabilities in corporate reputation.

-- Media Buyers - to measure response and engagement with specific communications campaigns, spokespeople and contexts.

The Nielsen BuzzMetrics service, marketed by BuzzMetrics, Inc., is the global standard in measuring consumer-generated media and word of mouth.