COMMUNITIES
Discover New Insights
The genius behind online communities for marketing research is simple: you discover new ideas and opportunities that are only possible when customers collaborate with each other in an online, honest and unscripted forum. Unlike one-to-one research modes (surveys, intercepts, depth interviews, etc.), FGI Research communities allow participants to respond to your questions, post questions of their own, and even suggest ideas and insights that are outside of typical “research framework.” In this way, communities give researchers the opportunity to uncover needs and opportunities and opinions that they would otherwise have failed to ask about. There is real power in online community research.
Improve Other Studies
In addition to the ideas and insights generated during the communities themselves, the results are often very useful in improving other studies. For example, if the research plan and questionnaire design for a new concept study is poorly defined, a quick online community can dramatically improve the depth and quality of the final design. In addition, online communities are useful for probing issues and ideas that are discovered during a quantitative study. In this way, quantitative and qualitative methods are fused by FGI Research to yield even greater insights and context for decision makers.
Combine Customer Panels & Communities
Independently, custom panels and online communities are vital marketing research tools. Used together, they are even more effective. At a basic level, a custom panel is typically the best source for recruiting participants into communities. In addition, online communities can be actively integrated into a custom panel, allowing panelists to engage and collaborate with each other whenever they are so motivated. Our Gateway Community solution is a good example of this type of panel-community integration. Finally, custom panels and online communities easily combine to allow for quantitative and quality studies that yield tremendous insights.