Taking Stock of Internet Consumer Trend Metrics Internet chatter is a large and valuable data source that can be mined for real-time trend tracking and reaction to market changes. To be effective Internet data mining requires tools that can be used to enhance signal-to-noise ratios and quantify, organize, and qualify collected data. This has very significant implications for the cereal foods industry, because it can provide cereal food companies with early detection of and analysis mechanisms for emergent consumer trends, identify causal relationships between consumer trends to help optimize marketing and communication narratives, and assist in avoiding or mitigating the negative effects of black swan events. As such, real-time Internet chatter analysis can improve the flexibility of companies in reacting to changing circumstances. The tools developed by the financial industry to evaluate equity markets offer the potential to significantly amplify the power of Internet chatter analysis for the benefit of the cereal foods industry, as well as other industries. |