January ’08 Commentary: Scotch Whisky 100

Headlines:

Another Islay whisky tops Scotch Whisky 100, well done to Lagavulin.

Macallan keeps steady in the top 5 with Laphroaig re-joining at no.2.

Fettercairn makes a surprise top 5 placing.

Further commentary:

Whyte & Mackay brands of The Dalmore and Fettercairn make the top 5. Fettercairn could be seen as a surprise brand inclusion. Last month it was Tobermory inclusion in the top 5 that produced a few comments which we thank you for. With Tobermory it was not mentioned that many times in blogs but when it did, it scored high. Fettercairn is different, it is scoring real high on number of mentions and when it is mentioned in context, it score really well too. Be interesting to know why the online community has sparked such interest?

The volatility of movement in the top 30 is less marked than Decembers index. We still have new entries with Highland Park and Speyside Distillers. These two brands present a challenge: both the words, Highland and Speyside are used in a much wider context than a bottle of whisky, i.e. regions of Scotland or referring to the Scottish mountains etc. For the Scotch Whisky 100 we want to score these two brands words on their whisky context and this month we have included them as we apply a new scoring technique to our service.

Positive Scoring of a brand:

We score brands on the frequency they appear online and score them on the context they appear. The scoring is based upon these following words coming up in context of a whisky brand:

malt
single
skye
speyside
whiskey
whisky
blend

dram
favorite
favourite
good
great
highland
islay
like
happy
positive
scotch

These words are: words to name whisky, whisky regions and positive words to do with the whisky experience.

We are building a more sophisticated scoring model, if you have ideas on that please get in touch. Also, remember the Scotch Whisky 100 is deigned to give an industry wide, consistent view of whisky conversations. The scoring words can be personalized for each brand, we have done that and for that service we offer a paying service.

Whisky Styles

We’ve just published an analysis of the Scotch Whisky Styles for December online.  These are very unsurprising, conversations around malts dominate online.

December Commentary: Scotch Whisky 100

Headlines:

A new brand tops the chart, Bowmore.

Highest new entry straight in at no.2 is Tobermory.

The Edrington Groups, Macallan and Famous Grouse make strong moves up to enter the top 5.

There were 21 new entries in the top 100.

Why did these movements take place?

This can be explained by asking two further questions, which are also the two most popular feedback questions we receive:

1. What online sources of conversations are being analysed?

2. What words are being used to score the brands?

Lets start with Q1. What online sources of conversations are being analysed? Thousands of new conversations have been added since the Novembers index. The range of conversations covered in December are on a much broader front, Novembers data had a high percentage of specialist whisky forum pages. This may explain why the Famous Grouse and Chivas brands that scored lowly in November are charting much higher in December.

The inclusion of new conversation sources may also explain why 20% of the Index was made up of new brand entrants in December.

Quesitons 2. What words are being used to score the brands? mepath.com has chosen the words and they are the same words used in November.

Starting in January 2008 we will provide an overview of the data sources used in creating the Scotch Whisky 100.

Feedback is welcomed on the Scotch Whisky 100.

Bowmore moves +3 to top Scotch Whisky 100 December

The December Scotch Whisky 100 has just been published.  Congratulations to Bowmore for taking the top spot this month.

A full commentary on the Index will follow soon.

The Scotch Whisky 100 tracks over 280 Scotch Whisky brands.  If you do not see your brand listed in November or Decembers please tell us and we will check to see if it is included in our database.