The need for context: why our clients use Digital Ethnography as an alternative to Market Research Online Communities
To quickly set the context for this article, over the past year, an increasing percentage of our clients are actively referring to and using Indeemo (and specifically Digital Ethnography) as an “Online Community” research solution.
SONY will be sharing their experiences at the MRS Digital Ethnography Summit on this specific topic. To coincide with this presentation, we decided to share some of our thoughts on the topic.
This is the first of a 2 post series on using Digital Ethnography as an alternative to Market Research Online Communities. In this post, we talk through the What and the Why.
In the second post related to this topic we share details on HOW you can use Digital Ethnography as an alternative to “Market Research Online Communities” (MROCs) to achieve continuous, context-rich connections with the people you need to understand.
Before getting into detail on this topic however, we feel it’s important to first zoom out and share some of our thoughts on the Digital Transformation that is leading to this evolution in online community research.
The disruption of Market Research brought about by Digital Transformation
Our thesis at Indeemo is that Digital Transformation will result in every business that is created from now being partially if not entirely digitally enabled. The convergence of Cloud, Open Source and Artificial Intelligence mean that it’s now cheaper and quicker than ever to start a digitally enabled business.
Even if you are not in the software space, platforms like Shopify, Stripe and Square mean that anyone can fire up an online store in hours, connect it to their bank account, collect payments in person AND tap into a global audience of digitally enabled consumers.
In this context it’s useful to think of Shopify, Stripe and Square as the LEGO of commerce. The number and type of businesses that can be launched with these LEGOs are infinite.
The insatiable demand for seamless, omni-channel Customer Experiences
Source : Economist
The consequence of Digital Transformation is that EVERY customer journey going forward will be omnichannel in nature.
You will stumble across something interesting on Instagram or TikTok, search it on Google (if ChatGPT does not disrupt search in the meantime), check reviews on any number of sites and purchase it with a tap of a finger using Apple and Google Pay.
The velocity at which consumers move from trigger to transaction is accelerating every day.
Compound this with the fact that Gen Z and Gen Alpha DEMAND seamless personalised experiences in every context and the pressure on brands has never been greater. Even the Economist is talking about it.
The critical need for Research to be more contextual
I stumbled across a post on LinkedIn a few weeks back. Deloitte and the NFL have been collaborating to address this exact need. In this video, Paul Bellew, Chief Data & Analytics Officer at the NFL has perfectly distilled into one sentence what I believe brands must make their North Star:
“We believe that great brands in a digital world see, know and engage their fans meaningfully in context.”
Paul has absolutely hit the bullseye of the challenge that Digital Transformation and omni-channel is posing to brands. His quote above is THE standard that brands must now live up to. Delivering on this is going to be hard however.
Peeling back the layers on Paul's statement, for brands to design and deliver seamless experiences in every context, they must first understand their customers in every context. Furthermore, with change becoming exponential, they need to surface and act on these contextual insights faster and continuously.
Customer Closeness research has to be a process of Continuous Discovery
This exponentiation in the rate of change is the driver behind the significant shift we are experiencing at Indeemo where UX Teams are leaning into Continuous Discovery and Market Research / Insights teams are investing heavily in Customer Closeness.
Historically, to achieve this ongoing connection with their customers, brands traditionally relied on Market Research Online Communities (aka MROCs). Go back 2-3 years and this was something that clients were requesting frequently in our Sales calls. However, two things have happened since.
First, the number of prospects asking for Community capability, specifically group engagement has gone steadily down. Secondly and inversely, some of our more innovative clients are explicitly moving away from desktop based, text heavy Market Research Online Communities - where respondents can engage in group discussions - and are instead adopting mobile first, multimedia Digital Ethnography where they can have private one-to-one engagements.
More intriguingly, they are explicitly selling in Indeemo (and Digital Ethnography) to their stakeholders and clients as a “Community” platform!
The decline in use of Market Research Online Communities
As you can imagine, this was something completely new and unexpected for us.
So, we did some digging and looked back over recent Greenbook GRIT reports to see if their annual must-have report on the Market Research industry reflected a similar trend.
Source : greenbook.com
The 2019 GreenBook GRIT report showed that more than 50% of all researchers sampled use market research online communities.
The 2022 GreenBook Grit Report noted however that only 28% of the sample reported using MROCs regularly (greenbook.com).
The correlation between what our clients are doing and the downward trend recorded in the GRIT reports got us thinking: could Digital Ethnography be an alternative to Market Research Online Communities?
The impact of social and mobile on Market Research Online Communities
Before jumping into this topic, it’s worth looking back at the evolution of technology since 2000 and the impact that this is having on the Market Research and UX Research industry and specifically the evolution of MROCs. Why are we going back as far as 2000? This was the year that the pioneer in MROCs, Communispace, launched the first ever Market Research Online Community.
Looking back: the move from Desktop text to Smartphone Video
When Communispace launched the first MROC 20 years ago, desktop was the main medium by which we humans engaged with technology. Given the fact that some of us were still dialling up to the internet - yes Gen Z readers, that was a thing :) - woeful internet speeds meant that text was the main medium by which we communicated online.
This was all pre Facebook and even MySpace; a time when text based chat rooms accessed on Desktop Computers was the main means of social interaction online.
Using this novel form of human connection for research was pioneering and, unsurprisingly, the concept of the Market Research Online Community was born. Since then, a myriad of companies have launched MROCs. Just do a quick Google and you will see all the main players.
The majority of MROCS relied on this desktop browser + text medium of engagement and interaction. As internet speeds and computer CPUs improved, these online research communities evolved slowly to add images.
The impact of Facebook and the iPhone on MROCs.
That was until Web 2.0 exploded in 2004 with the arrival of “The Facebook”. Facebook itself was extremely successful on Desktop and grew like a weed in its nascent years.
When Steve Jobs walked out on stage in 2008 with the first 3G enabled iPhone however, everything changed.
After initially dismissing (or missing) the potential of mobile, Mark Zuckerberg quickly recognised the power of 3G enabled smartphones offered to connect every person on the planet, in-the-moment, regardless of where they were and, (apart from Andy Grove’s pivot of Intel from memory to CPUs) pulled off the 2nd biggest pivot in corporate history. In 6 months, he pivoted Facebook from a desktop first offer into a smartphone enabled, mobile first social network.
3G meant that it was easier, cheaper and faster to send images over mobile. As a result Instagram exploded.
The beginning of the end for text based desktop interaction
3G quickly ushered in the use of images and photos as a means of communication and social networking. And when it comes to text based social networking in desktop chat rooms, this quickly got replaced by mobile first WhatsApp groups.
Fast forward several years and the emergence of cheap data and 4G led to an explosion in the use of video over mobile. YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and laterally TikTok have made video THE main medium of both communication and content consumption.
If you have teenagers, check their screen time. Chances are the top 3 apps will be YouTube / TikTok / Snapchat followed by Instagram and after that it tails off. This is a multimedia generation and when I say multimedia, I mean video.
Looking forward: why mobile video is the future of Market Research
With Ericsson predicting that 95% of the world’s population will have 3/4G by 2028 (and 85% will have 5G) and Statista projecting that there will be over 6 billion smartphones in the same period, we’re entering an era where every consumer on the planet will be contactable (or reachable) via video.
Source : 5G network coverage outlook
Video is how we communicate and consume content now. It has the power to transport you into any context (home, store, online, mobile) any time with any one.
So why still does the majority of Market Research Online Communities still rely on long form text based data that is most comfortably captured via Laptop or Desktop on a proper keyboard?
If you are new to MROCs and Digital Ethnography, the following few paragraphs will be relevant. If you are familiar with these research methods, skip ahead to the section titled “Why you should consider Digital Ethnography as an alternative to Market Research Online Communities”
What is a Market Research Online Community (MROC)?
Market Research Online Communities (MROCs), aka Online Communities are virtual communities established to facilitate a variety of market research objectives. Primarily, MROCs are used to collect data and insights from a known panel of consumers on an ongoing basis. A good definition of MROCs is the following:
“A market research online community (MROC) is generally made up of a targeted group of stakeholders, usually customers, who are recruited into a private online environment to participate in a company’s or brand’s research-related activities on an ongoing basis”
One potential reason for decline in the popularity of MROCs may be due to the increasing need for customer closeness, where brands are looking for a more authentic form of consumer insights in which engagement with customers is in the moment and authentic.
Notwithstanding the decline noted in the GRIT reports, there still remains a number of benefits as a result of MROC methods.
What are the benefits of MROCs?
Online Communities are well-known for generating engagement and discussion amongst the community members. Through MROCs, dialogue can be generated and the thoughts and perspectives from different cohorts of participants create the opportunity for follow up questions and further probing.
The extent of an MROC can span from weeks to months, and in some cases, years and the data retrieved from an MROC can yield valuable qualitative insights. Long form text from dialogues generated by your research participants means that golden nuggets of information can surface across the duration of an MROC.
Like other traditional market research methods, MROCs afford customers the opportunity to reflect on past experiences, often coming together to share opinions and perceptions of various aspects of a brand or brands they have interacted with.
Group interaction can surface diverging opinions which underpin the importance of having many varied voices of the customer. This allows brands to both uncover and understand emerging customer personas and consumer segments.
What are the challenges of MROCs?
Of course, like all market research methods MROCs also have their challenges.
Firstly, the activities in an MROC are rarely in-the-moment. Although there is merit in having community members write thoughtful, long form text responses or engage in collaborative discussions, the retrospective nature of this approach means that - apart from video Q&A type activities - the insights captured are typically reflective. Without seeing what customers are doing in-the-moment, researchers must rely on claimed behaviour.
They are single-context solutions: because they typically rely on desktop browsers - especially for long form text activities or stimulus markups - they do not allow brands to see the everyday context of their consumers' lives. This makes it impossible to get a full picture of your target audience and hence the insights gained via Communities can lack the nuance and impact that context plays in the myriad of decisions we all make as consumers every day.
Finally, because MROCs are typically browser-based, members of the community need to continuously login to participate. Unlike native app based platforms, if your MROC is browser based, the instant your respondent does another google search or opens another website in their browser, your battle as a moderator / Research Ops professional is to get them to log back in and as a result, churn can be high and engagement can slow down quickly.
Why Digital Ethnography apps are being used as an alternative to Desktop based MROCs
To overcome some of these challenges and to achieve a strong understanding of omnichannel experiences, many Brands and Research Consultancies are turning to alternative approaches.
Native Digital Ethnography apps are one such alternative. Primarily, because they are apps, one the Respondent logs in, they are logged in constantly. Secondly, all communications or reminders are sent as push notifications and hence get stronger engagement compared to emails that end up in Spam folders.
Finally, because we’re all addicted to our smartphones, no matter where respondents are located, they always have your Digital Ethnography app with them. This enables in-the-moment and omni-context research to be done longitudinally and this, we believe, is why Digital Ethnography is emerging as a genuine alternatives to market research online communities.
What is Digital Ethnography?
Digital Ethnography, often referred to as Mobile Ethnography, Virtual Ethnography or even Online Ethnography is a form of research that has evolved from the digital evolution of traditional ethnographic research. Instead of being physically present to observer respondents, Digital Ethnography leverages smartphone apps, photos, videos and screen recordings to allow Respondents to capture what they are doing, thinking or feeling, in-the-moment in any context.
Think of Digital Ethnography platforms as a combination of a private, one-to-one social networking style app with a Pinterest Style Researcher dashboard. Tasks, questions or activities can be completed anywhere, anytime in text, video or images and instantly shared with the Researcher.
What is the difference between Digital Ethnography and MROCs?
The primary difference between Digital Ethnography and MROCs is that the former is delivered as a native mobile app that leverages the multimedia capabilities of smartphones.
Additionally, Digital Ethnography can be deployed for any research requirement that requires rich and meaningful contextual insights. It is also increasingly being used for iterative research where brands are looking for agile ways to keep up with the pace of digital transformation.
Whilst MROCs primarily sit in the market research space, Digital Ethnography is used across all research professions such as UX Design / Experience Research, Pharma / Healthcare Research, and Qualitative / Market Research - often facilitating the convergence of all three.
What are the benefits of Digital Ethnography compared to MROCs?
Digital Ethnography is brilliant at capturing contextual insights. Because this is a mobile first methodology, it is an easier way for brands to engage with their customers in any context. Unlike the browser-based format of MROCs, Digital Ethnography apps allow respondents to receive tasks and reminders through push notifications. As a result, retention and engagement is usually strong.
Digital ethnography is an in-the-moment research method: With mobile as a key driver for Digital Ethnography, it is no surprise that the data resulting from this agile, contextual research method provide a wealth of rich in-the-moment insights. It uses photo, video and mobile screen recordings to get you into the everyday lives of your customers.
Video provides proof of what customers actually experience in their everyday lives. They can record their behaviours and experiences in-the-moment regardless of where they are: in-store, at home, or at a restaurant. Unlike MROCs, because experiences are recorded in context and in the moment, you can instantly trust the insights that surface
Lastly, Digital Ethnography has the added benefit of flexibility. Customer Closeness relies heavily on the ability to have continuous engagement with customers in a way that allows them to provide feedback and insights quickly. Because sharing experiences using Digital Ethnography tools is as familiar as posting to Instagram, respondents can capture moments, instantly share them and get on with their day.
What are the challenges of Digital Ethnography compared to MROCs?
MROCs are better for long form text research. First, with relevance to data, MROCs provide an abundance of richness through long form text. Blogging and group discussion boards are seen as key drivers in successful MROC projects. They produce content for research teams to dive into and investigate meaning and unearth insights. However, for Digital Ethnography, because it is predominantly smartphone enabled, it is not ideally suited to long form text based research.
Digital Ethnography is not suited to studies that rely heavily on stimulus mark ups. Concept testing is a good example here. An MROC works quite well for concept testing, and even better when it is collaborative. The MROC community will usually react to concepts and bounce ideas and perceptions off one another.
Digital Ethnography does not have group interaction. It is typically a 1-1 engagement between researchers and respondents. If you require group discussion, MROCs are a preferable medium.
Why our clients are investing in Digital Ethnography as an alternative to Market Research Online Communities
The following points summarise the common themes of feedback we have received from the clients who have moved to Indeemo from MROCs.
It captures the unfiltered version of real life
We all have different personas online. The persona we portray on LinkedIn is a different version of our perfect-life selves on Instagram which is a different version of our unfiltered selves on BeReal.
Digital Ethnography captures the unfiltered version of everyday life. There’s literally no one else in the “room”. As a result the moments that people share are less curated, less edited. The insights surfaced in the research projects undertaken using Digital Ethnography are, according to our clients, so much richer than what they have ever captured using MROCs.
Richness yields deeper insights than group discussion
The main benefit of MROCs is the ability for different respondents to engage in group discussions via comment threads. The clients we deal with however tell us that the level of discussion in MROCs can be quite shallow and engagement can be poor. When we pushed a few of them to quantify this, they estimated that the number of activities in the communities they previously used which had meaningful group exchanges was less than 33%.
This simply did not give them the depth of insight they needed.
This we believe is one of the main reasons for our clients churning from MROCs and moving to mobile first, digital ethnography as a research community alternative.
Our clients tell us that a private, trusted, multimedia connection with a single consumer can yield more depth than a noisy, text based, group discussion on an MROC.
Because you can more quickly build trust and because the insights captured are contextual, in-the-moment and multimedia in nature, the insight density of moments captured privately using Digital Ethnography yield more insight than group discussions among strangers.
It brings your target audience to life and builds empathy
Furthermore, the multimedia nature of the data capture means that when you are presenting your findings, you can trim key moments from the videos that Respondents share with you and turn these into videos that impactfuly tell the story of your findings and accelerate the pace at which organisations act on the insights learned.
These multimedia insights are also transformative at bringing your customers to life and at building empathy across your entire organisation.
It gives everyone an equal voice
Of course, this post has to be framed as an Apples to Oranges comparison.
When we set out to build Indeemo, our north star always was, and always will be, to help Brands and Consumers, Healthcare Provider and Patients, Product Managers and Users connect privately in a safe space where they can share the wonderful unfiltered realities of everyday life.
We value private over public, video over text, in-the-moment over memory and proof over claims. Our mission is to provide a safe space for brands to meaningfully connect with their customers and have an open and honest exchange of information.
It is this sense of safety and trust that allows the magic to happen. Your respondents in a Digital Ethnography project KNOW that you are really listening.
Why? Because you are investing time and attention to engage with them one to one and, if we have learned anything over the past few years, everyone wants to be heard.
Not only does this capture better insights, it builds bulletproof brand loyalty.
Let us support your next Market Research Online Community project.
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We have been supporting clients in their migration from MROCs to Digital Ethnography for over 2 years now. We know what works and how to build a continuous connection that keeps you constantly closer to your customers and users.
Get in contact now and we will set up a quick, no commitment call with one of our Strategists who can talk through your research requirements and explain how we can help you build continuous context into your research programs.
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