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Real Research in Virtual Worlds
The online virtual community called Second Life (www.secondlife.com) has a population of 8.3 million registered users. Residents can buy and sell virtual real estate, build homes online and start business. There are even financial transactions conducted in this virtual community. And now more than ever, marketers are conducting “real” market research with Second Life members – a medium unavailable even just a few years ago.
Silly fun for tech geeks, or serious business opportunity?
Consider this: By the end of 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users (and Fortune 500 enterprises) will have a “second life” online, many with Second Life, according to a recent Gartner report. And over the last year, numerous real life companies such as IBM, Nissan and Starwood Hotels have developed a presence in Second Life for various purposes. IBM conducts business meetings at a conference center that can handle large-scale meetings with employees located around the world. Starwood Hotels test marketed a new hotel chain in Second Life. Their efforts have been rewarded with valuable suggestions from Second Life residents.
As Second Life matures into a legitimate place to conduct business, disciplines like marketing research take on a new spin – and new opportunity. In fact, many research and academics say that online personas allow people to respond more truthfully in a virtual focus group than they would in a live group.
How to Choose a Qualitative Research Supplier
Finding a great qualitative researcher goes beyond industry experience and personal chemistry. A great supplier has excellent analytical skills, the ability to drive deep into consumer opinions and psyche, and is a quick study. This includes understanding the buyer’s needs and how to link them via research paths to consumer opinions, perceptions, behaviors and needs. Great suppliers go beyond moderating – they consult to improve their clients’ situations.
But too often, the process of finding a qualitative researcher is rushed because of time commitments, and reliant upon referrals from others who may not understand precisely what the buyer needs and wants. As a source, the Internet is very limited. For example, can you really access experience and the particular style that a qualitative researcher can contribute based on their web site?
Since qualitative research plays such a key role in understanding consumer attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that shape marketing campaigns, selecting the right research partner requires a simple, but more thoughtful approach. The QRCA recently conducted an extensive, in-depth qualitative study of buyers that provided interesting insights that are available to the media. We can provide QRCA spokespeople as well as comment from the QRCA members who conducted the research on behalf of the organization.
‘Immersive Research’ Takes Advantage of Technology
Another major advantage of technology like blogs and cell phones is that researchers and their clients can now become “immersed” in the actual day to day behaviors and emotions of targeted customers.
The emerging discipline called “immersive research” goes far beyond online research tools like bulletin boards and chat room focus groups. It allows researchers to capture experiences, behaviors and emotions in context, as they occur, and completed on the participant’s timeframe.
Immersive research can help marketers get a leg up on the competition by gaining better knowledge quicker. QRCA has several examples of successful immersive research programs and access to members who specialize in this discipline.
Ethnography Enjoying Resurgence as Important Qualitative Tactic
More and more companies are mandating that the marketing, research and R&D staff get to know their consumers “up close and personal” on a regular basis. Ethnography – qualitative research that studies people in their own natural habitat – is enjoying resurgence among marketers because it provides that real life, first-hand observation of experiences.
Ethnography differs from laboratory-based research (focus groups) because it allows the interviewer the opportunity to observe and study the subject in their own surroundings around family and friends if applicable. Describing how someone cleans his or her floor and actually watching how it is done is a completely different experience. In a Q&A format, participants may be reluctant to “spill the beans” on how much they rely on convenience food, that their kids eat sugared cereal, or that they love to eat chocolate while watching TV in the afternoon. In their homes, however, you see what is in their cupboards and refrigerator.
Some other examples of ethnographic qualitative research:
- Moms at home making dinner for the household.
- Men at breakfast to observe what they eat and why.
- Shopping with people at supermarkets and retail stores to observe how they shop and how they make brand decision choices.
- “Hanging out” with teen girls as they shop and socialize in the mall.
- Walking with seniors in their walking groups and listening to them discuss their hopes, fears, worries, health and family/friends.
- Watching people use a product they have been given days ago to use to find out how it fit into their routine (test product or a competitive product).
- The “before and after” someone takes a medication and how it makes or does not make a difference in their life.
QRCA has access to a Unilever executive who used ethnography to help launch the Bertolli Frozen Meals product line. Contact Steve Richardson for more information.
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