Archive for the ‘Co-creation’ Category

A report just out, published by Forrester and titled 'Past Present & Future of Market Research' came our way today, as we've been sited as an example of how to use private online communities to capture the views, opinions, experiences of consumers via our forward-thinking, task-based engagement platform.

The report sites three major trends in Market Research (MR) as being 1) Global market research spend is increasing year-over-year, 2) Online surveying is here to stay, and 3) Market research is transforming to market insights.

Naturally, we're delighted to learn of the increased spend in market research, though it is the the third and final point that I'm going to discuss further. Traditionally, market research has been contained within departments that can, on most occasions, be somewhat disconnected to the wider decision-making process within an organisation. Often, MR is commissioned to validate ideas or hunches, and fails to deliver more powerful and engaging strategic influence.

Dub's work in developing online customer communities overcomes this by creating a forum and a voice that can deliver hard and fast research, but also a stream of actionable insights that, by the power of technology and design, can be shared throughout an organisation in a more digestible and engaging manner. As such, it's ability to shape decisio-making, promoting organisations as more 'listening' or 'customer-centric'.

Insights, information and data garnered from online customer communities can include new ideas for product and service innovation, sales leads and new business opportunities and advocacy, among other things. So, while it ticks the research box, it goes much further and brings with it new relationships, sales increases and greater innovation capabilities.

We recommend you consider this, and other reports from Forrester to keep in touch with the advancements of online customer communities, or alternatively subscribe to this blog!

We're delighted to be included in one of Forrester's very latest research reports titled Past, Preset, And Future Of Market Research, available here.

The report, which looks at how the internet has changed the role of market research agencies, survey respondents and consumer market researchers, underpins our own belief that web2.0 (urgh!) will revolutionise how companies interact and communicate with their customers.

The latest Matterbox, a project that Dub helped define some time ago, has finally arrived following its successful trial earlier in the year (or was it last year?!). Matter is a new direct mail service that arrives through your letterbox containing a handful of goodies that have some purpose, from brands we supposedly love(?). I'm not going to list all of the contents as there are a myriad of blogs around detailing them thoroughly, and with pictures of the opening ceremony! Have a dig around.

What we at Dub are pleased to see is that some of the brands are taking our advice and progressing the door-step experience and moving it towards the PC experience, engaging brands in 'conversation' online.

Matter is a neat idea, and we sincerely hope it succeeds in its mission to provide tangible brand experiences by giving people something that has value to them. The power of the groundswell has served Matter well thus far, so if you've received one and want to suggest ways of improving it, go to Matterbox online, or tell us here.

There's this great little article over at zdnet which explains the value of open-source, something that Dub practices. If you're with us, then you should read this.

Some new research just out by Gartner, one of the world's leading IT research company, states that 'More Than 60 Percent of Fortune 1000 Companies With a Web Site Will Connect to or Host a Form of Online Community by 2010.'

In what is one of the most interesting looks at online communities so far, albeit it US-biased, the report highlights both the reasons for success AND failure. Specifically, Gartner has sited the lack of 'mutual purpose', and the necessary skills to engage with and meets the needs of Generation Virtual as a major failure factor.

Dub's response to this has always been to support communities with skilled Community Managers (CM), thus going beyond simply delivering a piece of web-based technology, albeit it leading-edge. Our CM' work with clients at the beginning of a project, and throughout the life of the community to ensure that it is sustained, grows, and is a safe place to interact, among other things.

The report goes on to say that 'A key benefit of establishing a community is the amount of information an organization can gain about its customer base, which can be used for short-and long-term customer relationships,' said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst at Gartner. 'Data can be collected and used for product development, customer feedback, loyalty management, customer segmentation, campaign targeting, and individual or group customer satisfaction management. This wealth of data can be used for marketing, in particular, as well as an entire customer-focused organization.'

'To dive deeply into what different personas want, what and who they are influenced by, and for help on predicting future behavior, marketers will need to rely heavily on the social sciences for insight into the evolving needs of their customer base,' said Mr. Sarner. 'They also will need proficiency in game design to create highly engaging, highly relevant environments to promote customer interaction. The Chief Marketing Officer should plan to attract these skill sets today, because, in less than 10 years, they will comprise much of what the marketing organization will look like.'

A large part of our work in building thriving private online communities revolves around identifying those social connectors, or Influencers, that can kick-start the community and spread the good word. The practice of spreading the word, or 'word-of-mouth marketing' as it has recently been defined, has born many books (notably Andy Sernovitz's aptly titled 'Word of Mouth Marketing') and an organisation called WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association). WOMMA's mission is to promote and improve word-of-mouth marketing through the definition of best practice, ethics and by evangelising.

Recently, WOMMA has launched their Influencer Handbook which helps identify who these people are, what differentiates them and how best to engage them. It's a concise and easy to use guide and one we recommend anyone interested in engaging connectors and Influencers digest.

My favourite part of the book is its identification of how Influencers aren't doing what they do to help your brand; they are doing it to help other users. This is similar to the approach of open-source development and one to keep a careful eye for the future, in all forms.

Dub has this week launched its biggest, most ambitious workplace innovation jam, covering a workforce of over 900 staff in 23 countries around the world. The internal community will be convening over the next six months to debate, among other things, the brands direction and the issues most important to deliver future growth.

More information to follow...

A project that we've been helping develop over the past year has been gaining interest, not just from the online community, but recently in the national press. Royal Mail's Matter service put brands in the hands of the people that matter - the customer. We've been working with originator Tim Milne to help him understand how to turn the door-drop experience into an interactive, co-creation opportunity that gets brands and consumer talking, thus creating a powerful network of customers.

Despite what the article suggests, the contents are high quality, well considered objects that have a real use to those that receive it. Try for yourself and see.

A second mail-out is coming your way soon. For more details, see here.

ExpoTV, the people that bring you videopinions - short unbiased consumer-made videos about their experiences with products, service and brands, have published a new study which shows that 55% of consumers want an ongoing dialogue with brands. The survey, which explores how direct consumer engagement creates brand advocacy, reveals that positive brand experiences can generate word-of-mouth buzz. More than 60% of those questioned said they would tell 10 or more people about the products they like, with a third telling more than 20 people.

Consumers' growing desire to share their experiences - good AND bad - with other consumers, and their appetite to converse directly with brands is growing, fast! This bodes well for Dub, as we work to bring position brands and consumers side-by-side, and turn these online conversations into meaningful, valuable transactions - innovation, advocacy and new relationships.

Time and again, Lego has been used as the benchmark in this area, through their development of the Mindstorm with their community of passionate collectors and budding engineers. From this new study, we see that nearly 50% stated that they would be interested in knowing what new products are coming out, and expressed a designer to share new ideas on new products and services.

The benefits to a brand of hosting an online community, and taking an active role in activities and discussions, is evident, and not just confined to research and marketing departments, but business-wide as it seeks to become truly consumer centric in its decision-making process.

Couple the willingness of the consumer to talk, with some easy-to-use tools, an ear or two, and an openness to share information and your brand will thrive.

During a meeting with an Ethnographer yesterday, we were asked a very straightforward question that prompted me to write this blog and clarify the fundamental difference between research panels, and those things that Dub builds; namely private online communities for insight and innovation purposes.

Panels have been used for many years, both online and offline. They consist of a group of pre-selected individuals that assist research companies by completing surveys and questionnaires. Panel members are 'recruited', meaning that they meet several criteria set by the commissioning company or agency, and they usually have a history of taking part in surveys, thus showing a willingness and compliance.

Communities for insight & innovation, as we prefer to label them here at Dub, are also recruited, although this often happens quicker by taking advantage of existing online networks. Fundamentally, the objective of research community, hosted online, is to allow its members to collaborate on tasks and activities, and to encourage them to 'share' or 'socialise' their experiences and ideas so that others can comment on them and/or add to them.

Group-think, or co-creation is an important benefit and function of online research communities, and one that the isolation of panels cannot provide. By allowing community members the chance to work together, share ideas and rate or add to others ideas, the good stuff (ie the best insights) will rise to the surface. This filtering mechanism also provides provides an excellent way to test new concepts and ideas on groups of consumers.

Another benefits of research communities is that they are always on-call. By this we mean that as the interface is a PC, the community member can take part and complete the tasks and activities on their terms, be it in their home, at work, night or day. This is more natural to them, and removes the barriers and tension of being in a room with strangers. It also impacts the rewards and incentives they require in a positive way. Often, these can be in the form of social and emotional rewards as well as financial and physical. Play and gaming are two other very compelling techniques to encourage participation and get the most out of your community members time.

Online research communities also allow you to access often hard-to-reach people that would otherwise be unable to take part in focus groups. These include the disabled, time-poor professional and frequent travellers.

The research communities that Dub develop require management, or Community Management as we label it. Community Management is part moderation, part facilitation, and part communication. It's a point of contact with the community that enriches the insights and builds new relationships that can be valuable to brands outside of the research arena. The Community Manager needs to engage the community and steer the discussion. They will respond and provide feedback to tasks, giving the community the knowledge that they are being truly listened to - something panels cannot achieve in the same way. As an example, if the community consisted of academics or experts in a certain field, feeding back a summary of some of the findings would in itself be reward enough for their time.

The Community Manager is also responsible for spotting interesting insights and discussions as they happen. Using our Knowledge Dissemination Tools, these can be quickly passed to the client and their colleagues, and made central to business decision-making.

So you see, panels and research communities are very different. Each has its benefits, clearly, but the quality and richness of insight provided by online communities is far greater. Most importantly, the idea of many heads being greater than one can be put to work in group-think sessions. This in itself will deliver a multitude of new ideas and concepts that can help position the brand and retain it's innovation edge.