J.D. Power Teams With Clarabridge and NetBase to Accelerate Reach and Capabilities of its Social Media Research

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., Oct. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- J.D. Power and Associates has signed separate agreements with social media technology companies Clarabridge and NetBase to further expand and enhance its capabilities in digital research. The company announced at the opening of its 2010 J.D. Power and Associates Automotive Internet Roundtable in Las Vegas that it has selected NetBase as a technology solution to bring best-in-class "deep analyses" of what consumers are saying to one another on various social media platforms. The company also said that it has selected Clarabridge as a technology solution to provide best-in-class analysis of verbatim texts aggregated from CRM systems and from consumers in response to surveys.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20050527/LAF028LOGO-a)

(Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050527/LAF028LOGO-a)

"Our agreements with NetBase and Clarabridge give us the technology platforms and support that we need to bring the unique, high-value, actionable Voice of the Customer insights from digital platforms that we have been delivering for decades from our more traditional research platforms," said Rich Belanger, vice president of technology at J.D. Power and Associates. "These agreements enable J.D. Power to enhance its core competencies for providing actionable insights and intelligence with two best-in-class voice of the customer and social media platforms."

• Clarabridge is the leading provider of enterprise class sentiment and text analytics software for voice of the customer analysis. Clarabridge uses natural language processing to collect, classify and analyze multichannel customer interaction data (surveys, panels, e-mails, chats, communities, product reviews and social media content) for meaning, intent and sentiment intensity. The Clarabridge Platform allows J.D. Power to translate customer opinions into actionable insights as well as to perform advanced social media sentiment and root cause analysis.
• NetBase has a cutting-edge social media analytics tool that uses a patent-pending natural language processing engine to understand consumer opinion, emotion, and behavior as expressed in social media and on the Web. The tool will enable J.D. Power to deliver high-value deep dives and industry monitor products with enhanced Web coverage, increased accuracy and faster performance.   

"Since entering the social media research market in 2008, J.D. Power has continually refined its capabilities for helping clients understand and better leverage social media," said Finbarr O'Neill, president of J.D. Power and Associates.  "Combining our actionable insights with best-in-class social media platforms from Clarabridge and NetBase will enhance our ability to help our clients make more informed product, marketing, and advertising decisions that improve ROI."

"Companies are recognizing social media as a strategic data source for understanding consumers," said Jonathan Spier, NetBase CEO. "In order to drive value from this new data source, they need accurate technology that can understand what's being said across tens of millions of sources. We are delighted that J.D. Power has selected NetBase to help them turn that content into actionable insights for their clients."

"J.D. Power is the leading provider of customer satisfaction research and has access to a wealth of unstructured information containing powerful consumer experiences and insights," said Sid Banerjee, CEO of Clarabridge Inc.  "Using Clarabridge sentiment and text analytics will allow them to harness the vast insights contained within their existing content sources and integrate that data with social media. The combination will allow J.D. Power customers to have even deeper and more profound insights into the feelings, thoughts and problems of consumers today."

About J.D. Power and Associates

Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction.  The company's quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.

About The McGraw-Hill Companies

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a global information and education company providing knowledge, insights and analysis in the financial, education and business information sectors through leading brands including Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts, and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2009 were $5.95 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.  

About Clarabridge

Clarabridge is the leading provider of sentiment and text analytics software for customer experience management. Clarabridge provides Global 1000 enterprises with universal views of their customers through automatic collection, classification, sentiment analysis, and reporting on text-based verbatims found in voice of the customer feedback channels. The result is improved marketing, product/service offerings, operations and customer service. Clarabridge is privately held with headquarters in Reston, Va. For more information, visit http://www.clarabridge.com.

About NetBase

NetBase provides tools for understanding consumer opinions, emotions, and behaviors as expressed in social media and the Web. Their state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) engine reads billions of conversations from more than 75 million social media sources. It automatically organizes up to one year of brand-related chatter to determine not only sentiment but also deep, actionable insights.  The seamless user experience of the NetBase platform will equip our clients with comprehensive social media analytical tools that also support custom analysis. http://www.netbase.com.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this release without the express prior written consent of J.D. Power and Associates. www.jdpower.com/corporate

SOURCE J.D. Power and Associates