The Recommendation IndexSM is developed through both online and offline primary research to determine which brands are the most recommended - both positively and negatively - in their category.
Beginning with an offline survey is instrumental in understanding not only the top brands of a particular category, but also the key words and phrases people use to recommend them in everyday language.
The offline findings are then used to guide online research, analyzing conversations and recommendations on a larger scale across key channels such as blogs, micro-media and photo/video sharing sites. These results provide the components needed for calculating the Recommendation Index of each brand as well as the overall category.