The report provides an in-depth analysis of the infant milk formula (IMF) industry in China, focusing on internet word of mouth (IWOM) from 2008. It tracks 35 IMF brands, examining consumer discussions, brand reputation, and the effects of the Sanlu milk crisis, revealing significant insights into marketing and brand management. The report highlights key trends, driver analysis, and community engagement, making it valuable for marketers and brands seeking to enhance their understanding of the IMF market.

1. IMF (Infant Milk Formula) Report
An IWOM Category Overview Report focused on IMF in
China: your guide to IMF consumer insight and digital
intelligence from Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM)
Production: CIC IMF Team
Time Period: 2008 Jan-Dec
© 2009 CIC

2. ABOUT THIS REPORT: OVERVIEW
• CIC’s IWOM insightTM Category Report is a thorough introduction to the
IWOM around the Infant Milk Formula (IMF) Industry. The report is ideal for
brands and marketers who want to gain better insight into the influential
Chinese Internet community and/or who are looking into create IWOM based
marketing campaigns. In order to provide this level of insight, the report
addresses the following questions: how much talk is going on, what’s being
said, who’s saying it, where is it being said and what does that mean for
brands.
• This IWOM insightTM Category Report gleans insight and digital intelligence
from various Internet Word of Mouth (IWOM) sources and provides insight
into issues regarding reputation measurement, consumer research, new
media strategy and marketing inspiration.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 2

3. ABOUT THIS REPORT: DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
• To complete this IMF category overview report, CIC tracked 35 IMF brands
during the period of 2008, collecting 11,404,911 BBS (online message board)
messages from a top parenting BBS in China. All collected messages were
then categorized and mined according to a library of terms (including Internet
slang) that represents IMF companies, brands, products, and attributes.
• All obvious “spam” and troll messages called 灌水 (guan shui) were filtered
out. Messages that contained the correct characters yet referred to something
other than the intended object were also filtered out.
* Please check out the full research methodology by click here.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 3

4. ABOUT THIS REPORT: RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
This report aims to generate significant insights and information for companies
interested in the IMF industry and so will specifically focus on topics based
around:
 Marketing Research
 Competitive Intelligence
 Customer Relationship Management
 Brand Equity Tracking And Reputation Management
 Public Relationship And Crisis Management
 Media Planning And Purchase
 Campaign Ideation
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 4

5. Report Highlights:
• How many online buzz relevant to IMF are going on?
• What are most discussed IMF brands?
• How is the IWOM health of the top four brands?
• How does Sanlu Crisis affect IMF industry in 2008 Q3?
• What are the most talked attributes of IMF IWOM?
• Where are these conversations taking place?
• What do these conversations mean for brands?

6. CATEGORY BUZZ OVERVIEW
Infant Milk Formula (IMF) related buzz has average of 26,000 posts per month mentioning 35 IMF
brands and 50 drivers covered by CIC patent pending Chinese text mining technology. The overall
category buzz peaked in September 2008 which is about 3 times of the average buzz, due to the
Sanlu Milk Crisis
Monthly Post and Conversation Trends around IMF, 2008
80,000 12,000
70,000
10,000
60,000
8,000
50,000
40,000 6,000
30,000
4,000
20,000
2,000
10,000
0 0
Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May Jun. Jul. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.
Total IMF related buzz volume: 314,799 posts, coming from 55,729 conversations
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 6

7. IMF BRAND BUZZ OVERVIEW
Abbott was the most discussed IMF brand, followed by Dumex, Wyeth and Mead Johnson
Buzz Incidence of Top 10 IMF Brands, 2008
Abbott
Dumex
Wyeth
Brand D
Brand E
Brand F
Brand G
Brand H
Brand I
Brand J
Total IMF related buzz volume: 314,799 posts
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 7

8. BRAND IWOM HEALTH MATRIX I:
According to CIC IWOM Brand Health index, Dumex received the highest rating with strong
performance in both buzz volume and Net Sentiment Rate, while Abbott received high buzz volume
but relatively low net sentiment
NSR
IWOM Health Landscape of 4 Main IMF Brands, 2008
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
Dumex
Mead Johnson
60.0%
50.0%
Wyeth Abbott
40.0%
60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000 110,000 120,000
Total IMF related buzz volume: 314,799 posts Buzz Volume
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 8

9. SANLU CRISIS - CONSUMER FEEDBACK
Netizens expressed their anger in creative and sarcastic ways pointed to IMF brands directly
“I drank Sanlu milk powder
ever since I was a small kid” “If I had been a spokesperson for Sanlu, I
“Coach, get me two could blame quitting the Olympics on the
glasses of Sanlu, and I dairy farmers…”
can run the whole game
without having to pee”
“If I had drunk this
milk powder I
wouldn’t have had
to go to the toilet
Use 500 fighter jets to exchange with China for the and Bush would
Sanlu formula! No cost will be spared to get this kind have never caught
of chemical weapon! me.”
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 9

10. IMF DRIVER OVERVIEW
The origin of the IMF brand (i.e. imported or domestically manufactured) was the top driver of buzz
around IMF in 2008
Top 10 Most Discussed Attributes around IMF, 2008
Origin
Marketing Approach
Formula
Target Period
Price
Side Effect
Milkpowder Sort
Purchase Channel
Crisis
Package
Total IMF related buzz volume: 205,953 posts Note: Buzz Incidence refers the ratio of
number of relevant posts in total posts
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 10

11. ATTRIBUTE ANALYSIS - SUCROSE (FORMULA)
Sucrose was the most mentioned attribute in discussions about milk formula, driven by posts
mentioning Sucrose can cause harm to babies
Buzz Incidence of Top 5 Attributes
Buzz Incidence of Top 5 Drivers around Formula, 2008
around IMF, 2008
Sucrose
Origin
Marketing Calcium
Approach
Formula Iron
Target Period DHA
Price Protein
Summary: Sample Quotes: (Link)
Product formula is often mentioned in discussions about IMF 给宝宝选奶粉时一定要注意：不能含有蔗糖
as moms are always careful to check the ingredients before Attention! Don’t choose milk powder that contains
choosing a milk powder. sucrose, it’s not good for babies.
In particular, sucrose is the most discussed attribute in the
糖分高的奶粉虽然孩子愿意喝不过对孩子不是很好
milk powder category. In discussions, moms typically prefer
milk powder that does not contain sucrose, as many believe Although milk powder with high sucrose is more liked by
sucrose can cause harm to their babies. babies, it can be bad for them.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 11

12. E-COMMUNITY BUZZ OVERVIEW
The top 4 e-communities dominated the IMF IWOM with a total of around 80% of all IMF related
posts, while 19th floor (19楼) shows up as a hot parenting e-community
Buzz contribution of Top E-communities for IMF, 2008
100%
80% 82.2%
77.1%
70.8%
60%
51.8%
40%
20%
0%
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Total IMF related buzz volume: 314,799 posts Number of Site
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 12

13. HOT KEYWORD ANALYSIS
In Spring 2008, the price of IMF products was a popular discussion topic, due to price increases in
March and April and special discounts offered online in May
DATA PERIOD: March - May, 2008
Hot Keywords Around IMF in March SIZE OF WORD: represents times
of mention
Hot Keywords Around IMF in April
Price
appreciation Hot Keywords Around IMF in May
Price
Appreciation
Special
offer
Finding:
• At the end of March, it was announced that the price of IMF products would increase in April.
• Not surprisingly, “Price Inflation” became one of the main topics discussed online in April.
• Following April discussion around price increase, “Special Price” became the most mentioned keyword
around IMF in May.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 13

14. What is the research
methodology?

15. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
CIC buzz measurement process
Identify relevant source of online conversation source
Data Collection Using customized tools and industry term library collecting data
Filter out irrelevant and duplicate data and assess data quality
Expert construct product & driver categorization
Data Mining Data mining by powerful natural language mining tools
Human quality assurance for data mining result
Using customized tools to analyze buzz volume and content
Data Analysis Experienced analyst to dig out insights behind IWOM dynamics
Buzz findings Delivery on regular basis in flexible format
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 15

16. IWOM RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DATA COLLECTION
IMF Report
Industry Analysis FIXED FORUM
Empowered by CIC self-
developed patent BBS
message Spider/Robot
CIC IMF Industry Practice
Fixed Research Data Panel
Industry
Practice
CIC IMF Data Panel Database
Collect average 1 million messages every
Baby care & IMF
month from CIC selected and fixed BBS related IWOM
forums related to Baby Care and IMF
industry practice.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 16

17. IWOM RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: DATA ANALYSIS
Product Buzz evaluation, to identify which product is being discussed
Structured Brand/Product Analysis Diversified Attribute Analysis
Our experts construct detailed customized product According to naturally occurring online discussion
buzz categorization based on natural online and the scope of the interests, we also look into the
discussion using powerful language mining tools to attributes and aspects of the online buzz and the
measure the quantity of buzz and brand mentions. associations with product related talk.
Sample Product Tree Sample Driver Tree
Note: the tree showed here is a small part of the tree structure, which for example.
Category Overview Report for Infant Milk Formula 17

18. How do I learn more?

19. FULL CONTENT FOR IMF CATEGORY OVERVIEW REPORT (1)
Introduction of Category Overview
• Report Description: A comprehensive overview of the Mainland China IMF IWOM environment which includes “how much
IMF talk, what’s being said, who’s talking, where they are talking, what does it all mean and what brand/agency should do”.
• Data Coverage: 11,404,911 BBS (online message board) messages generated by 969,861 conversations on parenting
communities during year 2008.
Part I: China IWOM Introduction
• The Power of The Internet Community: key statistics, perspectives, and case studies that demonstrate how Internet Word
of Mouth (IWOM) is redefining the brand/consumer relationship in China
• IWOM as Strategic Intelligence: selected cases for “Brand Reputation Management”, “Consumer Insight from Product
Talk”, “New Media Intelligence” and “Marketing Ideation”
Part II: Brand Reputation Management
• IWOM Health Analysis
 Buzz volume and buzz trend of overall IMF category
 Brand IWOM health (including buzz volume and sentiment)
 Buzz volume and trend of leading brands
 Hot positive or negative topics around brand discussion
• IWOM Crisis Case Study
 Introduction of crisis 2.0
 Key crisis case review in 2008
• IWOM Based Brand Image Analysis
 Brand image analysis of key brands (analyzing the brand image of key brands in netizens’ mind via qualitative
methods)
19

20. FULL CONTENT FOR IMF CATEGORY OVERVIEW REPORT (2)
Part III: Consumer Insight from Product Talk
• IWOM Dynamics of Product Discussion
 Buzz volume of key attributes (i.e. origin, marketing approach, formula)
 Qualitative analysis of key attributes to provide in-depth understanding
 Buzz volume of key sub-attributes (i.e. origin’s sub-attributes are imported milk powder and exported milk powder)
 Buzz volume of brand related key sub-attributes
• Consumer Insights from Interesting Topics (i.e. emerged purchase channels and substitutes for IMF after “Sanlu” Crisis, etc.)
Part IV: New Media Intelligence
• Hot Communities Analysis (via CIC community analysis index as below)
 Participation & Passion
 Creativity & Interactivity
• Key Efluencer Analysis
• Community Case Study: a look inside the culture and key functions of an influential community
Part V: Marketing Ideation
• Digital Culture Analysis for IMF Category
 Hot net language in Internet
 Hot keywords within IMF talk
 Hot conversations within parenting communities
• Campaigns and Inspiration
 Creative ideas from netizens
 Successful campaign case study
20

21. HOW CIC CAN HELP ON SOCIAL MARKETING IN CHINA
• Market evaluation: evaluate the IWOM performance of IMF brands and other
various brands (buzz volume and sentiment)
• Competitive intelligence: understand how key competitors’ performance and
marketing activities in social media
• Consumer insight: find out netizens’ needs and feedback on various IMF products
• PR management: understand netizens’ feedback on potential/ current crisis and
enable the brand learn quickly with the help of CIC experience on crisis management
• Media buy: tell the brands where it could launch its social media advertisement
• Online campaign tracking and evaluation
21

22. Contact us:
Production: CIC IMF Team
Time Period: 2008 Jan-Dec
CIC Contact: Abel Dong (abel.dong@cicdata.com)
Read more:
Press Release: http://www.ciccorporate.com/index.php/en/sep-17-2009.html
Sample Case: http://www.seeisee.com/index.php/2009/09/16/p1543

23. OUR BLOGS:
www.seeisee.com (Chinese)
www.seeisee.com/sam (English)
Thank You
OUR WEBSITE:
www.ciccorporate.comm
www.iwommaster.com
CONTACT US:
info@cicdata.com
This report is copyrighted material owned by CIC. Any improper
use of this document or its content will be considered a
violation of CIC IP copyright and CIC has the right to take legal
action.
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