FGI Research » 2009 » July

Innovative Methods Still Need Best Practices

Admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:53:21 +0000

The pace of change and innovation in the world and in the market research industry is breathtaking. And, for the most part, all this change is a very good thing. However, the rush to research innovation can be costly and dangerous if not properly tested, applied and managed. Multi-million dollar decisions must be based on reliable data, insights and recommendations. Innovation just for the sake of innovation can lead to wasted resources and even disastrous results.

When innovative new research methods and tools are used, you must insist on the highest levels of quality control and the use of best practices at every step in the process. Custom panels, online communities, social media mining, “quali-quant” methods and other innovative approaches must all be used with proven processes and the steady hands of research experts. Here’s the good news: when innovation meets best practices, the result is cutting edge market research solutions that you can trust for your most important decisions.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research

Social Media Mining Belongs in Your MR Toolbox

Admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:51:39 +0000

Your customers are talking online. They are sharing their opinions…both good and bad…and the entire world (the rest of your customers and prospects) is their potential audience. Let’s consider four compelling statistics:

156,000,000 The average number of Tweets per year on Twitter
200,000,000 The number of active Facebook users
133,000,000 The number of active blogs
346,000,000 The number of people who read blogs

As I think we can all agree, today’s market research toolbox must include some type of social media monitoring solution, including sentiment mining and the ability to quantitatively validate key social media trends.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research

Online Communities Unlock New Insights

Admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:49:21 +0000

Wikipedia, an online community itself, defines online communities this way: “A virtual community, e-community or online community is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as…email, internet social network service or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes.” For our market research purposes, online communities are private online areas designed for customers and other invited participants, which are used to explore specific ideas or questions on behalf of the client.

Customers are comfortable meeting in online communities to share their thoughts and ideas. Unlike quantitative studies, participants are free to share ideas and insights that go beyond the highly structured questionnaires used in online surveys. Unlike traditional focus groups (in person or online), participants have more freedom to express their opinions without being dominated by groupthink or strong personalities.

Used correctly, and smartly integrated with other methods, private online communities can unlock needs, ideas and insights that simply are not possible via traditional means (quant or qual) and even newer methods such as social media mining. As a result, online communities deserve to have a prominent seat at the market research table.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research

Custom Panels

Admin — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:44:11 +0000

Custom panels (often called proprietary panels or advisory panels) are pre-recruited groups of people which can include customers, prospects or members. Companies and other organizations continuously engage these groups using a wide variety of survey and research methods.

In many respects, the custom panel should form the foundation of today’s market research. It provides a trusted source of sample that can be readily tapped to unlock critical opinions and ideas. The custom panel can be enriched with transactional data, segmentation scores and other behavioral and attitudinal information. Unlike third party sample sources, custom panels give companies immediate access to the voice of their customers.

Once established, the custom panel serves as a trusted platform from which to launch a host of compelling research methods, including quantitative surveys, quick polls, online communities and focus groups, trackers and social media validation studies. For companies with active market research efforts and a sufficient number of customers, custom panels have quickly become a must-have solution.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research

Don’t Delay: Embrace the Brave New World of Market Research

Admin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:41:54 +0000

Market research continues to change at an unprecedented rate. What is driving this change? Simply put: the intersection of new technologies and new customer behaviors.

The technology drivers include Internet communications, custom panel tools, community platforms, and new survey methods. In turn, customers are rapidly adopting new methods of communicating with each other and the companies they trust for goods and services.

New technologies and customer behaviors have formed the perfect recipe for a revolution in market research. Going forward, market research must fully embrace these new technologies and behaviors in order to continuously understand and appropriately serve today’s customers.

Custom online panels are fueling the market research revolution and FGI Research is a recognized pioneer and leader in custom panel technology and managed services.

But panels are only the tip of the revolution. As more and more consumers flock to the Internet to communicate, learn and share ideas, market research is expanding into online communities and social media mining. These are rich new sources of valuable and real-time market intelligence that are unlike anything we’ve seen before in the market research industry.

Companies that fail to embrace these new tools and methods (custom panels, online communities, and social media mining) will quickly find themselves out of touch with customers and their broader target markets. Let’s briefly consider the case for each new market research tool.

David Wilson
CEO
FGI Research