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We’ve been hearing some rumblings lately about how the term “community” is starting to lose a bit of luster in the market research industry.  Specifically, communities are associated with expensive, long-term initiatives that yield a ton of information which organizations have little ability to digest effectively.

While we know this is the minority of opinions out there, it naturally has us concerned with how they are perceived.  We’d like to use this post to dispel some of the myths of online communities for market research…

Myth #1 – Online research communities are expensive

The key to this is to compare the cost relative to other methodologies.  The communities we run at PluggedIN generally cost about the same each month as two small focus groups (without travel costs).  However, a community can offer many more benefits than two focus groups.  For example, you can spend much more time (on average) with participants, dive deeper into a variety of research topics, get feedback much faster and learn more about participants than in a focus group setting.

It’s also useful to think about what these benefits mean to your organization on a larger scale.  For example, let’s imagine a community cuts your product development cycle down by just 1-2 months.  Or imagine that it yields 2-3 highly promising new product concepts.  How much potential revenue does that represent?

Finally, consider what it would cost to obtain feedback through other research methodologies.  How much can a community save over time by reducing the reliance on other methodologies to address a variety of research objectives?  In short, communities may seem expensive as a lump sum but once you dissect the cost a bit you’ll realize how much value they can provide.

Myth #2 – Online research communities include hundreds of members (typically between 300-500 people)

While research communities can ultimately be any size, they don’t have to include hundreds of people.  In fact, we’ve had success with as few as 50 participants.  Larger communities can end up driving the price up without corresponding value to the overall study (given that communities are primarily a qualitative methodology).  We’ve found great results at around 150 participants, since it allows you to get enough meaningful feedback on each activity while still getting to know participants on a one-to-one basis.

Myth #3 – Online research communities are designed to last for the long-term

Communities don’t always need to be an ongoing affair.  In fact, they can be very useful when they are targeted around a set of objectives and shut down once those objectives have been satisfied.  While some companies can get a tremendous amount of value through an ongoing community, other companies simply don’t have the need for a continuous research venue.

Myth #4 – Online research communities are hard to manage

While there is indeed a lot of information that emerges from an online research community (particularly in a longer-term community), there are techniques for effectively managing the output.  For example, having a separate project management site for clients and researchers ensures everyone is on the same page throughout the study.  In addition, frequent summaries of activities help to distill the findings into manageable pieces for quick dissemination across the organization.

In conclusion…

As with any new technique or technology, there tends to be quite a bit of hype followed by some backlash.  Some companies may have been burned in early community experiences where the community was larger and longer than it needed to be, and this may be where the current backlash is stemming from.

However, we encourage everyone to think carefully about what is possible from a flexible methodology like an online research community, and how the investment can lead to many new opportunities for your organization.

What do you think?

What’s your take on the buzz about communities?  Comments are welcome!

Interested in getting the most out of your research community? Think about some of the following:

Make your research wish list

What are the specific issues and topics you will want to explore over the life of the community? In what ways do you want to “understand” your customers better? List these out before you get started.

Set your expectations

What are you hoping to achieve through your research community? Are you replacing or supplementing other research efforts? What are the tangible measures of success for you? Share these with your vendor and review them over time.

Nominate a community champion

Who at your organization will be responsible for the research community? Who can liaise with your community vendor and your internal teams to make the experience the most rewarding? Responsibility leads to success.

Build a plan

How long do you want your community to last? How are you going to manage the flow of research activities over the life of your community? Does your business cycle require a certain focus on particular research items at specific times throughout the year? A plan is important to sustaining your community over the long haul.

Choose the right vendor

Are you a DIY or a DIFM client? Who do you want to manage your community and more importantly, can that vendor deliver on what you need? If your focus is research, make sure you are comfortable with the researchers working on your community.

Know your audience

Is there a natural affinity for your brand or are people more skeptical about you? What special characteristics does your audience possess that will impact the community design and overall facilitation techniques? Different types of people require different approaches to communities… one size does not always fit all.

The PluggedIN Nation | Teen Community allows multiple clients to tap into a single market research community to study a variety of issues exclusively with Teens.

Rochester, NY – January 20, 2008 – PluggedIN Co., a leader in online communities for market research, today launched the “PluggedIN Nation | Teen,” an omnibus online research community designed to provide market researchers and consumer insights specialists with quick, cost-effective qualitative insights exclusively from Teens.

There are over 30 million Teens in the US today and considering that the market for products bought by and for teens is over $189 billion, Teens are an increasingly important group. Teens are also the trendsetters for a variety of industries and starting to change the way that people market to young consumers.  The PluggedIN Nation | Teen provides companies with a cost effective way to tap into this important audience using a medium that Teens are naturally adept at using.

“We are really excited to launch this new Teen community. I think Teens are a fascinating audience and one that marketers and researchers are going to pay even more attention to over time,” said Ben Werzinger, Senior Research Community Consultant at PluggedIN, “and it’s a perfect online environment for them to connect with fellow Teens and share their opinions about the brands they use everyday.”

Companies can tap into the PluggedIN Nation | Teen in two ways.  They can post a series of qualitative research activities to the research community as a whole or clients can also set up their own private group within the main community for running ongoing research activities with a targeted audience of Teens.

“In these times, we think it is crucial to provide more efficient ways for our clients to access targeted audiences through communities,” Werzinger said.  “Teens are such an important audience for many of our clients. Our Teen research community helps clients tap into this audience and experience many of the advantages of online research communities in a cost-effective manner.”

PluggedIN Co. also offers private online communities for companies interested in designing their own venue for customer insights, as well as SaaS (software-as-a-service) options for market research consultants.

For additional information on PluggedIN Nation shared communities, contact Ben Werzinger.

About PluggedIN Co.:
PluggedIN Co. is a qualitative market research agency that specializes in designing and facilitating online research communities.

Contact:
Ben Werzinger, Partner and Senior Community Consultant
PluggedIN Co.
bwerzinger@pluggedinco.com
585-325-7910

http://www.pluggedinco.com

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While we’ve learned a lot over the years about how to run successful research communities, we’ve also had our share of mistakes.  However, it’s from these mistakes that we’ve learned some of our best techniques for running research communities… (To learn about some of these techniques, download our “10 Tips for Creating Successful Online Research Communities” paper).

Here are three examples of where we’ve gone wrong in the past, and what we’ve learned from our mistakes.  Hopefully they’ll help you as you setup or run your own online research community.

Mistake #1 – Trying to do too much, too soon

It’s easy to get really excited about all the possible topics a research community can cover in the planning stages.  In the past, we would sit down and brainstorm every possible topic and try to figure out how we could cram that into a facilitation plan that made sense.

Since then we’ve learned that it’s best to pace out the activities over the life of the community for two reasons:

• It is more mindful of the member experience – While participants are generally compensated for their time and are usually very willing to share their opinions, there is a certain point of no return.  Overwhelm them early on with too many activities and they won’t come back.
• It acknowledges the role of “organically” building out the facilitation plan – We’ve learned that it makes more sense to start with a few guided topics/areas of interest to the client, and then let them build into detailed discussions over time.  It’s impossible to anticipate everything members want to talk about.  Once you realize and accept that as part of your planning, you’re on your way to a more authentic and in-depth discussion with participants.

Mistake #2 – Combining segments that don’t fit

We’ve made this mistake on a few occasions now…  There is often the temptation to combine segments during the community design phase since it saves money and is generally more efficient to moderate and manage.  However, it’s wise to carefully consider the topics you intend to cover with each and whether or not the segments belong together.  I’ve covered this before in my post on “Should I combine segments in a single research community?“

If you have a primary segment of interest, we recommend starting there first and then thinking about the segments you can cover otherwise.  If budget is a concern, perhaps using an already-established shared research community would be a better option to cost effectively run ongoing research with your secondary segments.

Mistake #3 – Not varying activities

This is an easy mistake to identify, but a hard one to overcome…  We’ve made the mistake before of just running discussions, since research communities are ideal for ongoing qualitative feedback.  Over time, this impacted attrition rates in some of our larger ongoing communities.

Since then we’ve learned that it’s wise to vary up activities with a short survey or multimedia exercise from time-to-time, just so the experience doesn’t become boring for participants.  This seems like a fairly obvious recommendation, but it’s one that can be tricky to plan for.

Care to share?

Have any “lessons learned” from mistakes you’ve made with research communities?  Comments are welcome!

I’m a huge fan of The Onion and happened to come across an old article of theirs titled “Focus Group Reveals: 95 Percent Of Americans Would Like to Go Home.” It’s funny and a bit disheartening at the same time, only because it’s mostly true…

Let’s face it, the focus group participant experience hasn’t changed much since this article was written (1997) and isn’t likely to change much over the next 10 years.  You can doll up a focus group room with a “creative” atmosphere and feed participants all the M&M’s they can stomach, but it’s still the same experience (ignoring for just a second the role of a great focus group moderator and stimulating topic

It’s time for change in the qualitative market research world…

It’s time that qualitative market researchers started to think more about how to enhance the experience of research participants.  I’ve recently come across a few demonstrations of new and unique survey question types that draw on “Web 2.0″ tools to enhance the experience of survey takers, but haven’t seen great strides in the qualitative research space.

The question is how qualitative researchers can make the experience actually “fun” for participants.  I’m reminded of a favorite quote of mine from Plato – “You can learn more about a person from one hour of play than from a year of conversation.”  As qualitative researchers, how can we harness the concept of “serious play” into a better overall experience for participants and tangible research findings for our clients?

Online qualitative research (including online bulletin boards, online focus groups, online research communities, etc…) has helped to change the focus group experience since this Onion article was written, by allowing people to participate at their convenience from home or work and offering up new ways for people to express their thoughts and opinions.  That’s a step in the right direction.  I think qual researchers can do better though…

What do you think?

How can qualitative researchers make research “fun?”  What role will online research play in this (if at all)?  At PluggedIN, this is something we’re always thinking about in our research communities and research community platform, but we’re always on the lookout for the latest and greatest.  Am I just not catching what’s “cool” in the qualitative world?

Comments are welcome!