Nielsen and Bazaarvoice Team for WOM Alliance

In the US, Nielsen has partnered with word of mouth (WOM) specialist Bazaarvoice to integrate the latter's consumer ratings and reviews into its BuzzMetrics dashboard.

The alliance, which is designed to provide marketers with a better understanding of consumers' online behaviour, integrates Nielsen's own WOM feedback across social media, with the consumer feedback Bazaarvoice collects from brand product sites.

This, the firms say, will provide a 'complete picture' of customer opinion through analysis of product reviews.

All consumer-generated ratings and reviews collected by Bazaarvoice will feed into Nielsen's BuzzMetrics, which analyzes the data through a dashboard. The partnership also allows users to order custom analytic reports that compare ratings and reviews data against benchmarks and other social media data collated by Nielsen.

'The integration of on-site and off-site social media finally gives brands the 360-degree insight they need to address the big marketing questions of the day - Who are my most vocal and influential customers? Does their feedback represent a larger trend that product and marketing must address? Does a negative review or blog post indicate an emerging brand reputation threat that I can stop now?' explained Bazaarvoice co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Brant Barton.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.bazaarvoice.com .