CGM Metrics Industry
Analysis
A Contrarian Proposal
Alan D. WIlensky, Analyst, vCastProfiles

• Establishing the Practice of CGM Services is not centered solely on
Technology.
• The primary hindrance comes not from the early sector leaders –
Cymfony, Umbria, Etc.
• The multi-billion dollar brand equity and consumer demographics
agencies are total owners of the Fortune 1000 in CPG, CE, Automotive,
Etc.
• Mid-Market companies do not control enough brand equity to benefit
from CGM services due to low-frequency of \"mentions\".
• However, the SME is the recipient of brand choices, and must adjust
philosophy as to catalogs, relationships, and services outcomes.

• Cymfony Acquired by TNS
• An Advertising Research Conglomerate
• One Step Below Brand Equity
• What Does This Mean?
• Cymfony Topped Out Production / Hiring
• Brand Suitors NOT Interested

• Agencies – Zero Tech Footprint (Umbria)
• CGM Hybrid Practices (Cymfony,
Buzzmetircs)
• ASP models absent, but not undeclared
• Other metrics (Influence, Buzzlogic)
• Expert Consultants (i-Alias,You-Know)
• Integrators – IBM, EDMS soon

• Custom to Syndicated Research – more cost
efficient
• Low Cost or Free via UTB – via blog hosts
and aggregators
• M&A – early indications of shift to advertising
analytics support, and failure to impress
brand equity giants – trend too early to call

• MNC: Fortune 500 CPG, CE, and Automotive spends
100's M to billions on brand equity
• Curious about CGM, threw a few bones to the
leaders
• Concerned that there are no standards between
vendors – measurements differ for identical training
sets. Disconcerting.
• Awaiting integrated solutions with full metrics

• SME: Tough nut to crack – victim, not owner of brand.
• Greatest Disruptive Opportunities !!
• Q: An empty, unexploited sector – why?
• A: Requires creativity, resources, tangential thinking
• Needs a flex model to span MNC services that connect to SME's that represent
their brands, and…
• A model that delivers daily, cost effective, actionable brand intelligence.
• Current CSA offerings are woefully inadequate for both the MNC and especially

Customer
Relationship
Management
Business
Process
Management
Business Rules
Engine
Business
Intelligence
Text Analytics + Enterprise
wide applications = Strategic
decision making
Previous Flair Report basically accurate, but market model is
significantly more in flux, dependent on classic brand services, and
needs to supersede state of technology.

• SME wants product line performance data
• MNC wants dealer and distributor outcome data
• Both have CS data – can sanitize and open to both.
• Reconcile CS data and CS outcomes with highly
targeted CGM metrics –
• Highly Accurate and Structured Ontology –
Brand, Product, Distributor, Dealer,
Customer, Contact, Reason, Outcome.
• SME monitors and adjusts product lines and

• Will companies open CS data from call
centers?
• How to Incentivize? There are big wins for
both.
• MNC through SME connection as
distribution, retailer and dealer chains have
contiguous CS and shared brand/product
performance monitoring concerns.
• But from different perspectives

Balanced Services CSA Early Sector
• Integrates with Call No Integration
Mimics Brand Equity
Center
Practices, and badly at
• Measures Performance that.
No standards from vendor
to vendor
• Verifies Catalog Choices
Soon to be commoditized
No continuity, stops at
• Tracks Brand and subjective language, and
Channels through most is less authoritative than
consumer touch points . panels and surveys.
• Complex Technical
Engagements at first, but
gets better as

• The Universal Taxonomy of Customer
Service and Product Performance Outcomes
• Unambiguous Grading of Entire Retail or B2B
chain that unifies mentions of brand,
products, interactions, outcomes, and CGM
• Tight Modular Ontologies – Directly
Actionable
• No nonsense predictors of catalog
performance