NLP represents the intersection of statistical and linguistic analysis. Some efforts can be as simple as counting specific keywords over a span (a.k.a buzz), but more involved models can do robust affinity / correlation analysis between words based upon a number of factors. At its deepest levels the efforts around NLP mirror those of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Relevance for the marketer? As more and more forms of interactions move to digital there will be a much greater ability to tell how consumers are feeling and what they are thinking.
