'Narrative Analytics' Targets Consumer Beliefs

In the latest attempt to figure out what consumers want and how much they are willing to pay to get it, a "narrative analysis" platform launched this week crunches "cross-platform data sets" to divine consumer "beliefs and motivations." San Francisco-based Protagonist (formerly Monitor 360) said this week its platform leverages machine learning and natural language processing to gauge the "narratives that impact a given market." Narratives are defined as "consumer beliefs that drive behavior." The platform, which combines data science with social science to reveal consumer "beliefs at scale," is aimed at chief marketing officers and advertisers. It is also intended to replace traditional market research tools such as focus groups, customer surveys and social media campaigns.