"Activist Chatter Analysis" Corporate Governments new business to keep you quiet?

Good afternoon ATS.

I was a wee bit confuddled on where to place this thread, but Political Madness seemed appropriate enough.

Today, going through the regular mail for my business, I came across a mailer ad that caught my attention. On the front, a cartoonish picture of grey colored, faceless people appearing to be protesting, and holding blank signs, sits above a very large text that reads,"ACTIVIST CHATTER ANALYSIS", then below that it reads "Intelligence on Anti-Business Activists".

This was a little disheartening to say the least, judging from the fact that the first two lines on the card blatantly state that they are an intelligence gathering company that serves the private sector. Also, my company is WAY to small to ever need anything close to this. I have had several government contracts in the past, and that is the only reason I can figure why my company would be on a mailing list such as theirs.

So I decided to go to their website to see what this company is all about.

Here are a few excerpts regarding the services they provide:

Activist Chatter Analysis

For Use By Managers in: Association Research, Corporate Communications, Corporate Social Responsibility, Government Affairs/Relations, Issues & Crisis Management, Public Affairs, Public Relations, Sustainability, Strategic Planning

The freewheeling and anonymous nature of worldwide social media encourages activists in blogs, social networks, forums, etc. to say things about your company, and to organize actions against it, in ways never before possible.

Much of what passes for “information” on the social web is actually opinion. And the audience often mistakes that opinion for “truth.” Today, instead of “truth” taking months to find its way through one thousand people, that same “truth” can streak through one thousand people in minutes, maybe even seconds. Your irregular competitors know that and take advantage of this new, open, and very public communications environment.

Discover, leverage, and manage what your irregular competitors say about your company in the unrestricted forum of social media. Use our Activist Chatter Analysis Service to:
* Determine the level of public sentiment toward specific activist issues.
* Explore which issues may become corporate reputation threats.
* Learn activist strengths / weaknesses in using social media against your company.
* Forecast possible future activist protests against your company.
* Locate an issue’s “Patient Zero.”
And more.

Source

The company that sent the mailer is called "The Kahuna Institute Inc.".

Is this an addition to the already blooming private sector "big brother"?

With everything going on recently, ie. almost anybody who disagrees with government and big corps being labeled a "domestic extremist", Federal employees being banned from reading anything "wikileaky", net neutrality, etc.; are private "intelligence research" companies going to be the next infringement on our freedoms?

Your thoughts ATS...

Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the ATS community. I have been exploring the concept of launching an opinion based website for visitors to express dissatisfaction with companies who provide inadequate goods, services or engage in deceptive business practices or shoddy products.

While I agree that "opinions" are often misconstrued as facts, I don't find their action as nefarious unless they engage in influence peddling. Market research, focus groups and customer satisfaction surveys seem tolerable to me if a company is sincere about overcoming negative image problems or are genuinely concerned about pleasing their clients/customers.

I find it interesting how they pepper their service description with lingo-speak as opposed to just describing what they do. Thanks for sharing. I found it quite interesting.

Now if a company like that eneded up being a target... that wud be kinda funny..
kx

The only thing that would surprise me about that would be if it was only one company. The intelligence agencies probably have a few fronts like that to get you to help pay for their work.

reply to post by kinda kurious


Thanks for the reply, I do indeed concur with you.

At face value, the company seems innocent enough, but the malevolent possibilities are something that does appear to be very feasible considering the services they provide.

What concerns me most with this company, is who exactly they are trying to pander to.

Regarding the excerpts i quoted in the OP, it appears to me as if their motivations are more political than business. Keyword being "activist".

But with the political and financial climate of the past 30+years, who can tell the difference from politics and business anymore

reply to post by purplemer

Now if a company like that eneded up being a target... that wud be kinda funny.. kx

Well, according to their definition of "Irregular Competition", it would appear that their services would fall under what they claim to be against, with exception to the fact that they are a for-profit company.

Irregular Competition Defined
What is “irregular competition?”

The irregular competitor is more generally known as the privately or publicly-funded, non-profit activist organization, or NGO (non-governmental organization), pursuing an agenda of advocacy for a political, social, economic, or cultural objective when doing so competes with a company for the meaning of its brand or company image and reputation.

Irregular competition often acts against a targeted company’s interests and competes with that company for its reputation. The irregular competitor does this because:

1) by attempting to influence, or even control, public sentiment about a company or brand image, the irregular competitor can employ the notoriety of a company’s reputation to achieve publicity and legitimacy for the objectives that the irregular competitor pursues, and/or;

2) through their actions directed at changing the “meaning” of your company, the irregular competitor can “destabilize” the targeted company, forcing it to pursue the objectives desired by that irregular competitor.

Source
That would be funny

I think that the most interesting part of that is that they offer the service of finding "patient zero". As in the person who originated a "claim" or the truth or whatever the case may be.

Do you suppose that is so they can have a friendly chat and work out their differences? I think that is just a little spookey in the sense that we all know that corporations and members of the elite can do anything they want. If you are caught bad mouthing these people and they find you, they can crush you in many different ways. Kind of scary.

Also, I don't think they would limit themselves to legal means of silencing a "patient zero". They could just leave it at ruining you financially or perhaps ruining your credibility or they could maybe even make you disappear.

I don't like it. I think that if a person starts an untrue campaign vs another person or company they should be dealt with through legal channels. This gives them the option of circumventing legal means. Not good.

S&F.

Its got the stench of government agency all over it...