A Research Community by Any Other Name Would Smell
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Sat, Aug 14, 2010
Matt Foley caught quite a few of us by surprise with his recent post PluggedIN introduces 120 Minute Research Communities. As he wrote:
Just kidding ;-) But now that I have your attention...
The title of this post refers to a recent request we received to build two 120 minute-long online research communities. By no means is this post a criticism of this individual and their request (they acknowledged they were in a pinch and had no time at all to research the methodology - their client had merely asked for a community). Of course, they were really looking for an online focus group [OLFG] so I suggested the names of a few vendors they could contact. However, the conversation got me thinking...
Are we all hyping communities to death?
Some days, certainly. The word community is so powerful and evocative that it can easily be applied where it shouldn’t. And 120 minutes is clearly too short to create a sense of community.
In an earlier post, Matt touched on the debate about whether to use the terms MROC or insight community to describe communities for research purposes. Some people prefer one or the other; some use them as synonyms. The important distinction that both terms make is that these are communities with the primary purpose of conducting market research and gathering customer insight.
Forum One’s new report on community platforms, Community Platform & Services Satisfaction 2010, instead focused on online communities used for marketing purposes, but such communities often use research tools. In fact, surveys and polls were the fourth most widely used feature of such platforms, after forums, blogs and groups.
This is a dangerous blurring of two distinct disciplines. While Michaela Mora says that researchers need to better understand marketing, here’s Annie Pettit making the case on why marketing and market research need to be treated separately:
Market researchers provide Sanctuary. Research participants know they can share their true feelings, whether hateful, loving or disinterested, and know there will be no backlash, negative consequences, loss of privacy, lack of respect or any other inappropriate interactions. They are safe to speak freely within our space.
Market researchers do not Sell and do not Market. There is no sanctuary if participants feel they will be targeted based on their opinions. Sugging (selling under the guise of research) and mugging (marketing under the guise of research) tear down the walls of the sanctuary. And once torn down, building them back up is a monstrous task.
These safeguards of guardianship, advocacy, and sanctuary have resulted in market researchers being given special legal rights to interact with consumers in ways no other professions can.
Advocacy communities provide a wonderful opportunity for viral marketing, but they are a distinct opportunity. As Kathryn Korostoff wrote back in November:
If dual-purpose communities are clearly disclosed as such during the recruitment process, fine. But even so, any “research” reported from these very skewed populations must be used very carefully, and not confused with more objective insights. It may simply be wiser to choose a single goal per community: one focused on research, another on marketing, and stop trying to mix the two.
By all means, call them market research online communities or insight communities as you prefer, but emphasize that they are distinct communities created primarily for research purposes.
Top 10 #MRX Links
Too busy to keep up with the market research blogosphere recently? Of the 347 unique links shared on #MRX this week, here are the top 10:
- The official end of the neverending qual vs quant debate by @Conversition
- How to Become a Top Influencer on LinkedIn by @TomHCAnderson
- The Twitter #MRX Daily, shared by @OleAndresen
- My two cents on MROC vs. Insight Community by @MattPluggedIN
- Not sure about sampling for social media research? by @Conversition
- Online to In-Person: Using Technology to Create Influence by @LongoMR
- Understanding Online Communities, shared by @soc_chick
- Market Research: Young People Neither 'Hate' Anything Nor 'Love' Anything, shared by @DimensionalR
- Does your brand have a cold wet nose?, shared by @berniemalinoff
- Online Community Platform & Services Satisfaction Research, shared by @richshaw