Title: The relationship between unstructured information and marketing knowledge: an experiment in the US wine market

Authors: Paola Scorrano; Monica Fait; Amedeo Maizza

Addresses: Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Ecotekne, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Ecotekne, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy ' Department of Management, Economics, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Salento, Ecotekne, Via per Monteroni, 73100 Lecce, Italy

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to assess, with a view to marketing strategies, the potential of a marketing intelligence software application designed to extract information from non-structured web sources (typically websites and social media). The paper also proposes a conceptual model that SMEs can use to transform simple qualitative and quantitative data into knowledge that is useful for supporting the decision-making process in the context of international marketing. The presentation of the proposed interpretative model is followed by the application to the wine market in the USA. Comparison of the themes typical of online discourse in the worlds of supply and demand highlights a certain communicative misalignment that SMEs can resolve by adopting suitable communicative strategies.

Keywords: marketing intelligence; information extraction; wine markets; consumer behaviour; text mining; websites; social networks; unstructured information; marketing knowledge; USA; United States; wine industry; marketing strategies; social media; SMEs; small and medium-sized enterprises; communication; decision making; international marketing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2015.072772

International Journal of Management Practice, 2015 Vol.8 No.3, pp.232 - 246

Received: 26 Jan 2015
Accepted: 10 Aug 2015
Published online: 28 Oct 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article