This idea is a marketing innovation that allows new companies and new products to take advantage of existing perceptions--and predict future perceptions--to maximize their market penetration.
By analyzing trends in public opinion as expressed in published materials, blogs, discussion threads and event, it is possible to measure relevance, tone and accuracy of people's perceptions.
And it is also possible to plot trajectories to predict at what point in time the "next big thing" becomes the "next big flop."
This in turn allows savvy marketers to ride the waves of hype and fad and avoid the pitfalls of disappointment and learning curves that inhibit their competition.
The technology behind this innovation is nothing proprietary--it involves optimization of search strings, business intelligence software and reporting tools that are either purchasable in existing software packages or easily customizable on Excel spreadsheets. The intellectual property here lies in the qualitative and quantitative methodologies for mapping hype and misperceptions, and then for planning marketing strategies around those misperceptions.
The technique has already been put to use in marketing campaigns for several leading technology vendors,
The next logical step in this idea is to develop software that automates much of the time-intensive analysis process, which for the time being is conducted manually.