Custom-made Online Communities, Bulletin Boards and Forums

An online market research community is a targeted group of people (for example, undergraduate students or potential postgraduates) who are recruited into a private online venue - a bit like a mini-version of 'Facebook' - to take part in research.

Once the community is recruited, there are endless possibilities for conducting exciting and innovative qualitative research, including bulletin boards and forums. The online research platform we use combines many of the latest social technologies on the Web today, including:

• Blogs
• Photo sharing
• Discussion forums
• Video uploads
• Profile pages.

The research activities in an online community usually take place over an extended period - anything from a week to several months, although three or four weeks is about average. Online communities are similar to focus groups in that they are qualitative and exploratory in nature, but they offer a number of advantages over focus groups, including:

• Size - Research communities are typically much larger than focus groups (sometimes including hundreds of members). This means they can be used to cover more target segments. In addition to the qualitative feedback they provide, the community can complete simple quantitative questionnaires - allowing for potential quantitative feedback on certain issues that arise during the research process. So, for example, an online community of 200 students could complete a quick survey to measure brand awareness, before going on to tell us their thoughts on those brands in detail, qualitatively.
• Depth - Given the longitudinal nature of research communities, it is possible to go much more deeply into a given topic than in a focus group.
• Understanding thought processes - The process of deciding which universities to apply to is just that - a process. It is the result of thought processes developed over weeks or months. Other research methods, such as focus groups or surveys, are 'snapshots' of a particular moment. It can be difficult to accurately recall an extended set of thought processes and very hard to capture this using 'snapshot' methods. Online communities occur over time and allow respondents to record and comment on their thoughts and feelings more accurately over a period of time.
• Breadth - Research communities allow you to cover a wide range of topics:
• New product development
• Website evaluations
• Concept testing
• Messaging evaluations
• Ad and copy testing
• Positioning evaluations
• Brand tracking
• Virtual ethnography.
• Speed - Having a targeted group at your disposal can cut the research cycle from four-six weeks to one week (or less).
• Cost Effectiveness - Over time, research communities can save thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) over focus groups alone.