A discourse analysis methodology based on semantic principles - an application to brands, journalists and consumers discourses

This is a R&D Paper. It describes an analysis coming from a research project about opinion measurement and monitoring on the Internet. This research is realized within "Paragraphe" laboratory, in partnership with the market research institute Harris Interactive (CIFRE grant beginning July 2010). The purpose of the study was to define CRM possibilities. The targets of the study were self-employed workers and very small businesses. The discourses analysis is linked to a qualitative study. It turns around three types of discourses: brands, journalists and clients’ discourses. In the brand discourses analysis we benchmarked brand websites belonging to several businesses. In this first step, we tried to identify the most used words and promises by brands to the target we were studying. For that benchmark, we downloaded "Professionals" sections of the websites. Clients’ discourses analysis is based on opened answers coming from satisfaction questionnaires. The questions we are studying have been asked after a call to a hot line or after a technician intervention. Journalists’ discourses analysis is based on articles, published on information websites specialized in Harris Interactive's client sector. These websites were chosen because we considered them to be representative of information sources, which the target could consult.