march 2010 cartoon
 

 

 
 
Greetings!
 

"Online research" is a big concept, encompassing multiple methodologies. While online quantitative research is pretty pervasive, if you've never done qualitative research online, it can seem overwhelming. What if I choose the wrong methodology? How do I get answers out of respondents anyway? The good news is that online qualitative research has a million applications and there's almost certainly a methodology that meets your research needs. The better news? Even if there isn't an online methodology, the fact remains that in-person research isn't going anywhere.

 
Ideas to Share - Online Research - Missy Carvin
 
  
Know your target audience. Who are your most important customers, clients or prospects, and why? Know what is important to them and address their needs in your newsletter each month. Include a photo to make your newsletter even more appealing. Add a "Find out more..." link to additional information on your website.
 

So what are the options? Let's take a look at some, shall we?

 

The big granddaddy of online research is the traditional, online bulletin board focus group. Imagine an in-person focus group, with a moderator who has a guide of questions she'd like to cover with the group. Now recruit your respondents from anywhere in the country, have them log in via computer and type their answers to the moderator's questions and comment on each others' responses. Cover all the material over the course of 3-4 days and voila! You have an online bulletin board focus group.

 

Remember that respondents answer asynchronously, at their own pace, and log in whenever they can. We ask them to log in twice a day to cover all of the questions and respond to any probes. Questions can be "masked" so that respondents must input their own answers before they see the others' responses. The moderator can probe each respondent for more insights. And no one has to leave their home or office to participate.

 

Another popular online research methodology is chat focus groups. In this case, take a "traditional" in-person 90-minute focus group and conduct online, in real time, using chat as the medium. So rather than sitting around a table talking to one another, the respondents all log in at the same time and type their responses to the moderator's questions and probes immediately. Everyone logs off after 90 minutes (or two hours or an hour whatever length of time is predetermined). Usually this method creates a lively conversation that mimics in-person groups quite closely.

 

If you have a sensitive subject to research or just don't need a lot of group interaction, online IDIs may be right for you. Usually conducted asynchronously, many IDIs can be completed at one time. Online IDIs work extremely well in conjunction with an in-person focus group, with the moderator following up and going deeper with respondents about topics raised in the in-person group. They are also ideal for particularly sensitive topics, since being online makes respondents feel extremely "anonymous."

 

Sometimes you need to be right where your consumers are right when they are making decisions or interacting with your products. But in-person ethnographies can't be conducted across the span of several days or weeks. That's where immersive online research comes in. With respondents performing specific tasks (go shopping for baking supplies), answering interesting questions (how many times did you touch your cell phone today?) and photographing their own environments in real time (show me what your bathroom looks like first thing in the morning), immersive software allows researchers to follow respondents for a period of time. Consumers have the opportunity to enter independent "blog" posts in addition to answering moderator questions and probes.

 

Check out Revelation for an example of a platform supplier of this amazing research or listen to this podcast presented by QRCA Breakthroughs for a case study of immersive research.Know your target audience. Who are your most important customers, clients or prospects, and why? Know what is important to them and address their needs in your newsletter each month. Include a photo to make your newsletter even more appealing. Add a "Find out more..." link to additional information on your website.
 

These are just the tip of the online research iceberg. There are moderators working within Facebook and twitter to really find the pulse of their clients' brands. Webcams are cheap and pervasive enough to offer a peek into the lives of consumers and conduct real-time (or asynchronous) video focus groups or IDIs. Many companies have started their own online communities to take a *very* long-term look at their customers. The applications for online research are only limited our imaginations.

 

For more information about online research, check out:

Using Qualitative Research Methods to Your Advantage 

There are also several good articles on the Quirks website. (Subscription to Quirk's Magazine required)

 

There are also many studies designed as "hybrid" research studies with both in-person and online components. For instance, asking respondents to fill out an online diary during a home usage test followed by in-person focus groups or an online photo collage submitted a few weeks after an IDI. The possibilities are nearly endless.

 
In This Issue
Ideas to Share - Online Research
Consumer Insights - Listening to the 1%
New Products - McCormick Recipe Inspirations
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Consumer Insights - Listening to the 1%  - Jane Goldwasser
 

 

It's one thing if 100 dissatisfied customers call your 800 number to complain about a new product. Savvy companies will acknowledge the communication, promise to look into the issue and often send out a nice, high value coupon to thank the consumer for taking the time to report the problem.

 

But what if each of those 100 people not only called in but wrote to their friends and neighbors, published their complaints in blog posts and in online product review sites and tried to influence many other consumers to boycott your new product? Chances are your little public relations issue would begin to snowball out of control. It may be only 1% of your customers who are affected, but the internet certainly lets them make their voices heard.

 

More than any other single characteristic, today's consumers are demanding transparency from manufacturers and service providers. Chances are Toyota would have had much less of a problem if it had simply come out and said, "We have discovered a problem with our accelerator pedals. We are stopping production until we figure out an answer. We will replace all accelerator pedals when we know how to fix this." ...and done it last summer when they first knew there was a problem. Now every new story makes it look like they were hiding another problem.

 

Transparency - charge what you want, make or don't make any promises you think will entice your customer - just be honest and upfront about it. That's the new reality.

 

For further thoughts on this issue, check out the article on SC Johnson's dialogue with the 1 percenters at www.mediapost.com .

 

New Products - McCormick Recipe Inspirations
 
 
march 2010 cartoon 
McCormick has come out with Recipe Inspirations that are pre-measured spices and recipe cards for when you are in the store, need an idea for dinner and don't know if you have the right spices at home. (If you are like us you have eight bottles of oregano!) 
 
However, our office is split. Is this a great idea or a waste of blister packaging? We would love to hear what you think.
 
 
For more information and to see all the recipes, check out the McCormick website. Look in Products and then What's New.

In case you couldn't tell, we're pretty keen about online research around here. Give us a call with any questions or comments. We'd love to talk to you!

 
Until next month,
 
Missy
New Directions Consulting, Inc.