innovation
May 17, 2010
New ideas and spontaneous insights sprout in the “walled garden” of private online communities.
The focus group (online or in person) is a tried-and-true method for gleaning qualitative insight from a subset of your target audience. One of the most attractive benefits of the focus group is the presence of a trained moderator, who can direct and manage conversations so as to target specific questions. The answers to these questions can produce valuable insights that drive marketing decisions and fuel additional quantitative research, both of which ramp up business performance.
But what are your options when you need qualitative reactions from a larger group of people? Or if you’re not exactly sure what your focus should be? What if you don’t even know what issues you need to address? How do you reach your target audience and get them talking freely about what ...
August 28, 2009
We’ve all heard the adage “no news is good news” but is it?
Not today.
If you’re not being discussed online, something’s up. Whether it’s about your latest product, recently published research report, or company, or if it’s positive, neutral, or negative feedback you want to have your fair share of the social media pie. If people are talking about you online then that means you can directly tap into what your customers (and potential customers) are saying about you – with no censorship.
July 21, 2009
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
July 17, 2009
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.
July 1, 2009
We live during a time of dramatic change, turmoil, risk and opportunity. The only thing that is certain is that we will be surrounded by continual uncertainty. The only silver bullet for success in today’s hyper-competitive and constantly changing world is this: get (and stay) radically close to your customers. Competitors will change. Cultures will change. Economies will change. Governments will change. And, most assuredly, your customers’ needs, behaviors, attitudes and opinions will change.
