Must-Reads

 

Shock and Ah-ha!: Embracing the power of surprise to move people

Kat L.
5.20.2013
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Communispace uses various humanistic and collaborative methods to uncover the emotional drivers and motivations behind consumer behavior. Among the most powerful of these emotions is surprise. MORE…

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Customer GPS: How collaborative consumer engagement approaches can guide marketers

5.14.2013
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Mollie G.

Reporting from Brand Innovators Consumer Engagement summit, Mollie Garberg explains how consumers can guide us in this perplexing digital and social media landscape.MORE…

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Real Women, Real Collaboration: How Ladies’ Home Journal Transformed Print Media

Manila A.
4.30.2013
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The story of how Ladies’ Home Journal re-imagined, not just what the brand could be, but how print media itself could be co-created with readers.MORE…

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Consumer Collaboration Investment: The Communispace Client Index vs. the S&P 500

4.22.2013
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Bill A.

Introducing the Communispace Client Index – an index designed to track the stock market performance of our top 25 clients (i.e., those clients investing the most in consumer collaboration) against the S&P 500. MORE…

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Moving Customers, Moving Companies: The Need for Change Agents

Julie W.S.
4.10.2013
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What obstacles stand in an organization’s way as they try to act on customer insights? How can they advance from being reporters to change agents within their own companies?MORE…

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And the Google Consumer Survey Says…

4.2.2013
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Kat L.

Communispace Researcher examines the benefits and trade-offs of Google Consumer SurveysMORE…

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Maligned but Motivated: A Day in the Life of a Mobile Millennial

Julie W.S.
3.21.2013
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“Why do millennials have such a bad reputation?” a millennial plaintively asked in a recent mobile ethnography project that we ran on behalf of the Advertising Research Foundation for the Re:think 2013 conference just winding up. “I just read another …MORE…

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Will Businesses Wear Disney’s Big Data Bracelets?

2.19.2013
1 Comment
Daniel S.

The first roller coaster that turned and twisted me upside down was Ninja. Riding a roller coaster that disrespected gravity was a life accomplishment for 12-year-old me. But this life accomplishment also brought a life lesson: anything worth riding at …MORE…

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Feeling Better? How Emotional Insight Drives Innovation

Julie W.S.
1.24.2013
1 Comment

Flu season notwithstanding, we all know how to feel well. As human beings with limbic systems, we generate and manage an abundance of feelings during every waking moment and while we’re asleep. But as marketers and researchers, our challenge is …MORE…

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90 Days to Impact!

11.15.2012
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Elisa C.

The Communispace Index is a series of infographics—released bi-monthly—that explores the mindset of consumers around current events and trends. Based on proprietary and client-sanctioned original research conducted in our private online communities, the Communispace Index provides a window into the …MORE…

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Walls Fall Down: Opportunity and Risk in China

Kat L.
11.12.2012
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The vast Chinese market, like its culture, is marked by duality: a tempting blend of opportunity and risk. We feel this tension, not just in our own business, but across the market research space. Brands are looking to maximize engagement across a …MORE…

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Consumers and The New Summer [Infographic]

7.16.2012
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Chris O.

We spoke with hundreds of members in our proprietary private online communities to find out how their spending has changed, what kind of plans they are making for the summer, and what brands and feelings they associate with the season.MORE…

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Beyond Market Research: Building Intuition [Video]

James B.
Siobhan D.
6.26.2012
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In a recent meeting, the head of Client Services here at Communispace, Siobhan Dullea proposed an exciting vision for companies who are building-in long term engagement with their customers”.

“There is a real opportunity for companies who have successfully developed that on-going, deep and trusted relationship,” Siobhan said. “to take that relationship beyond the day to day market research activity and to start building intuition into their organization.”MORE…

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Dehyping Emerging Market Research: Communities, Social Media Analytics, Mobile, and Gamification [Video]

6.22.2012
1 Comment
Julie W.S.

Yesterday afternoon, GreenBook’s Leonard Murphy and I sat down with some colleagues to discuss “what’s hot, what’s not, and what’s just talk” in the world of emerging market research tools and techniques. It was the very first Communispace UNwebinar, meaning that instead of a forty-slide Powerpoint deck and predetermined talk track, we polled the audience about their thoughts on emerging consumer insights techniques and used field data to kickstart an open conversation. The result was a lively – and at times – provocative discussion that explored new market research methods from online communities and social media analytics to mobile and gamification.MORE…

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Airlines can avoid customer anger from new fees

Chris O.
6.12.2012
1 Comment

Charging for “premium” (read: everything but the middle) seats is the latest tactic legacy airlines and low-cost carriers are implementing to boost revenue,

Delta, American Airlines, US Airways, Spirit, Frontier, and Allegiant are among the carriers identified in a CNN article last week as charging customers more money for “desirable” seats. Airlines are marketing the new fees as providing “greater choice and flexibility” and “enabling more passengers to travel in their seat of choice.”

But even a cursory glance at online comments on the article shows that flyers aren’t buying the marketing message.MORE…

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Invested: Engaging hearts and minds through Prediction Markets

5.24.2012
1 Comment
Julie W.S.

It’s not surprising that companies engaged in new product development feel the need to test the likely success of an idea before fully investing in its development and rollout. Hence the ongoing popularity of concept test and purchase intent surveys. But as any victim of a telephone or online survey can testify, answering numerous questions about your likelihood to do or buy something is not only tedious, but questionably accurate, even when responding in all good faith.

That’s why at Communispace, we have been actively exploring ways to incorporate some principles of “gamification” into the concept development, refinement, and testing that’s done in our private, online communities.MORE…

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Note to automakers: Cars aren’t just about driving [infographic]

Chris O.
5.10.2012
5 Comments

Watch nearly any car commercial and you’ll see SUVs gliding through city streets, sedans drifting and sliding through deserts as they kick up epic sand clouds in their stead, gleaming aerodynamic surfaces slowly revealed by spotlights. Cars – not surprisingly – are sold to drivers.

But when we asked over three-hundred drivers to weigh in on the auto experience and tell us what their dream cars would feature, we noticed a surprising disconnect: drivers equated being in their cars to almost everything but driving, referring to their cars as a “second-home,” “mobile office,” and “outlet” box.MORE…

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How to engage anyone, anywhere in a world of internet ubiquity

5.3.2012
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James B.
Manila A.

In her latest article, for Quirks Magazine, Manila Austin, Ph.D. comments that with internet penetration exceeding over two billion globally, “it is technically possible, or will be soon, to engage anyone, anywhere, anytime.” However, she also warns “just because the technology is in place doesn’t make engagement a given”

I sat down with the author to get her point of view on what it takes to really engage people online—beyond the technology and ease of access—and find out what drives people to actively participate in branded communities. (Or a branded online experience?)MORE…

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Micro is the New Macro [Video]

Julie W.S.
4.26.2012
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In the past year or so, we’ve been witnessing the convergence of several trends – a shift in online behavior, where users of social media tend to be gravitating toward micro-social networks and smaller, more socially curated sites; the rise of micro-lending, micro-giving, and localism; the growth and innovation occurring in qualitative market research; the higher levels of participation and quality in smaller-scale forms of research; the pruning of “friends” in social networks and tightening of privacy controls, and other phenomena. While disparate in their form, they are all manifestations of a few basic principles:MORE…

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Great clients, great results.

4.24.2012
2 Comments
Bill A.

Results. They’re what you stand by. They define you. They’re the outcome of all your hard work and they represent the value for which you get paid. They are no small things.

At Communispace, results – i.e., business impact – are the things we’re most proud of. And with 115 different clients, results come in all shapes and sizes.

What all the results share – and all the insights underneath them and all the stories underneath those – are great clients.MORE…

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Introducing Character Counts: Research on online and mobile surveys

Rebecca M.
3.26.2012
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Last year, Gongos research did a study comparing character counts from mobile vs. online surveys that surprised us. Contrary to what we would have expected based on our experience, they found that the average character counts for open-ended questions were similar between online and mobile surveys taken on smart phones, with the latter actually yielding slightly longer responses. Our hunch was these findings were explained not by the fact that people are eloquent in their mobile survey responses, but rather, that we are accustomed to seeing much longer online survey responses than are typically derived from a panel.MORE…

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Understanding consumer emotions with Emotion Centric [Video]

3.22.2012
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Ed C.

We all agree that emotions are powerful drivers of consumer behavior and decisions. But researchers need tools to measure consumers’ emotional state, and an analysis framework to make results usable and actionable.

At Communispace, our communities encourage a safe and trusting environment for our members, however, we have begun to leverage Emotion Centric Explorer to uncover community members’ emotional reactions to a study subject.MORE…

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Engaging BRIC Consumers Online for Market Research (Webinar)

Manila A.
2.23.2012
3 Comments

BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are evolving at a fast and furious pace, transforming the digital landscape. In fact, BRIC consumers are taking the lead when it comes to using the social web: their behavior is more diverse and also more mobile than peoples’ from westernized countries; they are more likely to blog and to maintain social network profiles, and thus share content on the Web; and they represent the greatest potential for growth, as Internet penetration is still below 50% in all four countries.MORE…

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Vote for Verbatim: Best Marketing & Advertising Blog in Boston

2.7.2012
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Devon J.
Chris O.

Verbatim is in the running to be named best Marketing & Advertising Blog by the good folks at BostInnovation, thanks to your nominations. We’re up against some stiff competition.

Each week, we work hard to bring you new research, consumer insights best practices, social media observations, and hopefully some laughs.

All we need is your votes – it’s easy! Just head over to the BostInno Insider Awards, and select Verbatim from under the Marketing & Advertising: Company blog category.MORE…

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4 Steps to Engaging Mobile Consumers

Chris O.
1.26.2012
1 Comment

As mobile devices are embraced by a wider audience of consumers, a new mobile class has emerged.

The freedom and control that connected consumers get from their smartphones and tablets carries new sets of challenges and opportunities for brands and retailers trying to keep in step with consumers’ needs and expectations and for market researchers …MORE…

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Webinar: 4 ways MROCs reveal your customers’ mindsets

1.20.2012
1 Comment
Julie W.S.

In the field of marketing research, there is a simmering debate between those who believe neuroscience-based tools will make self-reporting obsolete, and those who have kept faith with humans’ ability to consciously understand and explain their own actions. But I say: Why choose?MORE…

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Listen to Me: A primer on active listening with social media monitoring tools

Nick I.
1.11.2012
3 Comments

When having a face-to-face conversation with someone, we’ve been conditioned to maintain eye contact or to ask relevant questions to demonstrate that we’re really engaged—this is called “active listening.” While having a conversation online may add a layer of complexity, active listening online is still possible.MORE…

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Market Research in 2012: Big Picture Trends and Predictions

12.15.2011
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Chris O.

2012 is right around the corner, and this is the time when the market research industry is rife with prognostications about where we’re all headed.

We asked a few Communispacers about what they thought the biggest trends and opportunities for 2012 would be, and while they all protested oracle-status, what emerged is nonetheless an interesting look at the big picture of market research.MORE…

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What Makes Market Research Valid?

Manila A.
12.9.2011
1 Comment

One of the common questions I hear from clients is whether or not research results from our private, branded, online communities are valid: Are the findings biased? Can we generalize what we learn from community members to other groups? Are the differences observed significant?MORE…

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5 Market Research Online Community Case Studies (Webinar Download)

12.7.2011
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Chris O.

In 2012, according to Greenbook Research Industry Trends’ Fall 2011 Report, Market Research Online Communities (or MROCs) will see “massive” adoption by research buyers. As traditional sources of insight (focus groups, consumer panels) suffer problems with recruiting, attrition, decreased relevance, and respondent fatigue, more brands are turning to market research online communities to build more intimate relationship with consumers.
MORE…

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“Don’t Buy This Jacket” is a Big Brand Moment for Patagonia: Consumer Responses to Patagonia’s Black Friday Campaign

Chris O.
12.2.2011
3 Comments

Last week, Patagonia took out this full-page ad in The New York Times:

The message was delivered in the wake of a CBS 60 Minutes segment which revealed that a staggering 25% of American children live in poverty, a national recession, unprecedented consensus about environmental peril, and raging political division.MORE…

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Does Competition Equal Gamification? And Is It Good for Market Research?

11.14.2011
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Julie W.S.

The “gamification of market research” is a hot topic these days. Contests, badges, clues, and prizes are filling (or dare I say “littering”) the online research landscape, so the thoughtful and nuanced presentation by Peter Harrison at the recent ESOMAR 3D conference came as a refreshing frenzy-buster.
MORE…

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Two Silos, One Person: The impact of consumer and shopper insights on retailers and brands

Julie W.S.
10.19.2011
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In our latest webinar today I presented some examples of how consumer and shopper insights are driving growth for retailers and brands such as Walmart, GlaxoSmithKline and Kraft. These organizations are realizing the power of insights to build better relationships with retail partners, build new knowledge of the shopper’s mindset and attitudes, and improve in-store marketing communications.
MORE…

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Community Co-Creation: Making the Front End of Innovation less “Fuzzy”

10.17.2011
1 Comment
Mike J.

The term co-creation is so hot right now. I think it really caught on when Vitamin Water and Mountain Dew had their Facebook fans develop new flavors for the beverage behemoths. However, new product developers are tasked with more than coming up with new flavors, packaging and names for line extensions.MORE…

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Why Memoir Matters to Market Research

Julie W.S.
10.3.2011
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Some fiction writers wring their hands about it, retailers like Amazon and Barnes and Noble celebrate it, but nobody denies it: Memoirs are hot. As a percentage of books and in absolute numbers, more memoirs than ever are being published and sold.

Beyond the lurid allure of reading about abusive clergy, transgendered parents, extreme poverty, extreme wealth, or celebrity eating disorders, I think readers flock to even quiet, non-sensational memoir for one fundamental reason: MORE…

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Connecting with Connected Consumers: Webinar

9.23.2011
1 Comment
Nate F.

With the extreme adoption rates of Smartphones and the growing number of tablet owners, marketers and market researchers are faced with the challenge of connecting to a new brand of consumer. Understanding how these consumers think, act and consume information is critical to fostering successful interactions.MORE…

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Customizing Your Retail Calendar to Your Consumer

Amanda F.
9.8.2011
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Is it me or is it pretty transparent and predictable when retail sales will hit the calendar?

As a consumer I’ve been trained to ‘hold out’ on making a purchase until I know I can expect a sale. As a marketer, I’m disappointed when I see trite, overused attempts at making a “standard” sales event somehow interesting or fun.MORE…

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Real Consumer Insights Have Arrived in Australia: Webinar

9.1.2011
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Anne M.

Here at Communispace, we’ve been working really hard to bring companies like Qantas Frequent Flyer, Frucor, Taste Living, and ANZ National Bank (NZ) unique and sometimes surprising or unexpected insights about their customers. Listening to and gaining trust with customers is so critical for companies today, as it informs every aspect of the business.MORE…

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Let’s Get Appy!

Jen R.
Micah D.
8.19.2011
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This year we set out to do something different. We wanted to develop an entirely new brand experience that would allow Communispace’s sales force, employees, clients, and agency partners to tell the Communispace story – easily and effectively.

Communispace is a unique offering. If you’ve worked with us, you understand what we do. But that very uniqueness makes it a difficult story for many to retell. There are all kinds of situations where this might apply. For example, an agency partner may be including a Communispace community as a part of a recommendation to their client—and we’re not there to explain. Or maybe an existing client is planning on sharing a big insight with a larger internal team—who isn’t aware of the community or the activities within it. Without the right tools, that story can easily be a complex one to tell.MORE…

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Reality in Advertising: A powerful path to connecting with customers

8.3.2011
1 Comment
Chris O.

Truth and fantasy are battling for your customers hearts …

… and it’s a battle that’s happening in advertising and marketing departments everywhere.MORE…

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Mobile Ethnography—the Fast, Non-Creepy Path to Consumer Insight

Julie W.S.
7.7.2011
1 Comment

At its best, commercial and corporate ethnography provides insights into the particulars of daily life. What are peoples’ rituals, their frustrations, their habits, the disrupters to habits? These are the insights that can drive the success and minimize the adoption problems associated with new products and services.
MORE…

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Consumers Debate Technology: The good, the bad, the inevitable …

6.22.2011
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Manila A.

Last week we launched our newest research paper, Tech Fast Forward: Plug in to See the Brighter Side of Life. Conducted in partnership with Ogilvy Chicago, our premise was that “tech fast forward” kids and their parents—those consumers who tend to adopt and use more sophisticated technology than the average person—could serve as a leading indicator of where all Americans are eventually headed as a society; a crystal ball to reveal—or at least give us a hint about—how our values, aspirations, and behaviours are evolving. MORE…

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It’s Not About the Technology

Diane H.
6.17.2011
8 Comments

In the last week, I think I’ve seen at least 20 new articles on “How To Use Twitter” or “The Pitfalls of Technology” in light of the latest Weinergate scandal. The Huffington Post suggests that politicians (and others) just cancel their accounts and today’s New York Times gives some obvious advice, such as not DMing anything we wouldn’t want public.

Here’s my take: it’s not about the technology. It’s about us.MORE…

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Social Media Market Research: More than just “listening”

6.8.2011
4 Comments
Chris O.

When Communispace first started building private online communities, using social media for market research was far from an inevitability. The connections that social tools have demonstrated the power to forge—bridging a digital chasm to link people from all corners of the globe and all mindsets—and the power they give people to create and share, have since become instrumental in businesses’ understanding of their customers … and their prospective customers.MORE…

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Why is Smaller Often Better When it Comes to Online Communities?

Manila A.
5.12.2011
1 Comment

If you have been gauging the value of your online community by the size of its membership, or trying to grow your community in the hope of increasing the number insights, then you might want to reconsider your strategy and the assumptions that are driving it.MORE…

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13-to-1: Talking to Listening

5.11.2011
2 Comments
Bill A.

With a little back-of-the-envelope math, companies spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 13x more on advertising than they do on market research. If we broadly defined market research as “listening” and advertising as “talking” we could say companies spend 13x more talking than they do listening. MORE…

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The 64% Rule: What Real Customer Engagement Looks Like

Julie W.S.
4.26.2011
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When a company’s goal is insight and co-creation with customers, active participation is a crucial measure of not only the quality, but the cost-effectiveness, of its investment in social media.

That’s why in 2007, Communispace analyzed participation data from 66 of our private, recruited online communities. In the course of that research, we found that our average monthly participation and contribution rates were significantly higher, and our average monthly “lurker” rate significantly lower …MORE…

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Emotion and Brand Involvement: Ekman’s Error (with apologies to Antonio Damasio)

4.15.2011
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Julie W.S.

Julie Wittes Schlack explores the intersection of neuroscience and market research, shedding light on how feelings affect product and brand involvement.

Take a look at this:
MORE…

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How Customers Can Transform Companies: 8 Case Studies in 30 Minutes

Chris O.
3.24.2011
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The transformation companies experience when incorporating the voice of the customer can be as transformative as the effects of email and the Web. The ROI and business impact of customer insights and next-generation market research can, therefore, be enormous.

Yesterday, Communispace’s Vice President of Business Strategy, Bill Alberti, presented a whirlwind tour of eight case studies of Communispace communities, all packed neatly into a digestible, sharable 30-minute webinette.MORE…

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All in a Day’s Work: Associate Community Manager (Creating Insights Behind the Scenes Part II)

3.21.2011
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Nora T.

As you may recall, fellow blogger Amanda Fraga recently let you inside the world of a Community Manager (or CM) here at Communispace (complete with some pretty awesome 80s references). Now it’s my turn to invite you inside a day in the life of an Associate Community Manager (or ACM), like myself. Like Amanda, I think it may be helpful to outline my role in layman’s terms, but this time we’re moving to one of my favorite decades: the 90s.MORE…

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‘Like’ Me: New Branded Social Media Marketing Research

Mike J.
3.18.2011
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Communispace Senior Researcher Mike Jennings introduces our new research on corporate social media marketing, which compares engagement on public, branded websites with participation in private, branded online communities.

I’m getting old. I started working at Communispace in 2006, which feels like a lifetime, in social media years. Back then I had a MySpace page, Facebook was for college students and apparently people were looking for me on Classmates. MORE…

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All in a Day’s Work: Community Manager (Creating Insight Behind the Scenes, Part I)

3.14.2011
1 Comment
Amanda F.

A few weeks ago fellow blogger, Nora Tickell, introduced a series of posts about how Communispace works (and how explaining what it is that we do here can sometimes leave the listener with a blank stare of confusion) and what goes on behind the scenes. So here goes: a day in the life of a Communispace Community Manager, in layman’s ‘80s terms. Why? Why not – it’s only the best decade ever.MORE…

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Communispace Clients Among World’s Most Innovative Companies

Chris O.
3.11.2011
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This month, Fast Company published their list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, as well as their top ten most innovative companies by industry. If you work at one of the awesome organizations on the list, congratulations. We were thrilled and excited to see a number of Communispace clients recognized as innovation leaders. Here’s a small selection from our customers that made the list:MORE…

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The NGMR Top-5-Hot vs. Top-5-Not: Communispace’s take

3.8.2011
3 Comments
Julie W.S.

Today I’m pleased to join dozens, maybe even hundreds, of other Next Generation Market Research (NGMR) bloggers in a simultaneous post of our individual predictions about what will and won’t matter most to the market research industry in the next couple of years. So with no further ado:

What matters (or will, very soon)MORE…

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Are Online Community Members Biased?

Manila A.
2.18.2011
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The potentially biased responses of members in private online communities can be a concern for businesses hoping to use these platforms for insight and co-creation. In my role as Director of Research, I am frequently asked to explain the ins and outs of what makes online communities tick and how to best use them to explore research questions. It occurred to me that, although I usually do this for our clients, others out there might have similar questionsMORE…

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Beyond the Hype: E-commerce technology must solve retailer pains

2.16.2011
2 Comments
Chris O.

Online retail is an industry in nearly constant flux, and 2011 will be a year of disruption. The rise of group-buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial, flash-sales merchants Gilt Group and Jetsetter and location-based services like shopkick easily attest to that.

From dynamic personalization to location-based tie-ins to mobile and social integration, technology providers are racing to compete for retailers’ budgets, and there is no shortage of “this is the marketers’ Holy Grail” talk. MORE…

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Is the Social Network Bubble About to Burst?

Richard W.
1.31.2011
8 Comments

It seems like once a month I’m invited to a hip, new social network, poised as the anti-Facebook. Out of curiosity, I tend to join (ironically, about half the time, logging in through Facebook Connect). Each one of these networks has its own niche. There’s Ping for music, Path for photos and Quora for questions. But what additional value does each of these networks bring? When will the fragmentation become so great that the market begins to reject the idea of new social networks?MORE…

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Member-Centric Community Design

1.26.2011
1 Comment
Bill A.

“If you build it, they will come,” says the voice from the cornfield. While the voice might be right when it comes to building a baseball field in Iowa, the directive doesn’t hold up when it comes to creating a community.

It seems everyone is trying to build some type of community – online or off – for their company or their cause. After all, the idea of community is a compelling one: it brings people together and gets them working toward a common goal. But it’s not as simple as carving out a space and getting people to come. They might show up, but they’re not likely to engage.MORE…

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It’s Not Consumer Schizophrenia … Just a Little Conscious Recklessness

Manila A.
1.6.2011
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Okay. I admit it. I went a little overboard in December. And it looks like I am not the only one. Online holiday shopping reached an all-time high and sales for apparel and high-end restaurants, food stores and other retailers were also up year after year. So I guess I am in good company.MORE…

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5 Things I Love About Working at Communispace: A one-month retrospective

12.2.2010
5 Comments
Chris O.

Yesterday morning, Communispacers congregated in our largest meeting space to welcome our 300th employee (an addition to our U.K. team). We were joined remotely by team members from around the world. One month ago, I stood in the same place alongside new recruits, an open-armed welcome being my first impression of my new company.

I’m a big believer in first impressions. When working with a new hire, I always try to uncover them early. Once you’re fully embedded, it’s easy to accept those things which earlier seemed quirky, ineffective or just flat out stupid. For that reason fresh new reactions – even when threatening to the status quo – are invaluable.MORE…

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The Customer Isn’t Boss

Bill A.
11.17.2010
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With apologies to Sam Walton, the customer isn’t boss. Think of the relationship you have with your boss. Is that the relationship you want with your customer? I hope not.*

If you could create the ideal relationship with your customer, it probably would look more like the relationships you have with your best friend, your husband, wife, mother or father. It would be a relationship built on mutual understanding, respect and empathy — not one set in the context of annual reviews and the ever-present threat of being fired.MORE…

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Holiday Flair

10.26.2010
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Katie A.

For the past several years, the IdeaSpace team has partnered with Bain & Company, a global business consulting firm, to generate qualitative fodder for their Retail Holiday Newsletters. Using the perspectives shared by members in the IdeaSpace communities (Men’s Space, Women’s Space and Our Space), Bain is able bring to life consumers’ feelings and attitudes toward holiday shopping year to year, and provide a colorful dimension to holiday spending stats.

We wanted to share this year’s first installment, which is sent to all of Bain’s retail clients. Happy retail-reading!MORE…

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What Do You Know?

Rebecca M.
10.14.2010
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My role requires me to spend a good deal of time thinking about what I don’t know, which is more fun than it may sound. I investigate new tools which have the potential to be used with our communities to uncover members’ insights in new ways. This exposes me to a world of innovative developers, apps and ideas that are constantly changing to keep up with the increasingly technology-centric consumer, which I think is pretty damn cool.

Learning to think about problems and potential solutions in entirely new ways has been both exciting and humbling. Our innovative process has made me more and more aware of what I don’t know—converting “unknown unknowns” into “known unknowns.”MORE…

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Ford and Social Co-Creation: Why idea sites are not enough

10.4.2010
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Debi K.

Social Co-creation is a big buzzword now; it’s sort of crowdsourcing, evolved. Using customers to help you throughout the new product (or service) development process is an exciting opportunity that’s been made vastly easier by social technologies.

Most of the case studies in this area talk a lot about idea sites or e-suggestion boxes. What these platforms do is allow for companies to publicly collect ideas from their customers or employees through a community-like environment. The companies that have done a good job with this have a process for vetting these ideas and building on the good ones to help them innovate. Doug Williams, an analyst with Forrester, recently wrote a great case study on Ford’s ideas site, “Your Ideas.”MORE…

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An Open Letter to Our Non-Clients

Bill A.
9.22.2010
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As our CEO, Diane Hessan, is fond of saying, “If you like our client list, you should see our non-client list.” With names on our roster such as Kraft Foods, Bank of America, Microsoft and about 100 more great brands, our clients are only a handful of the companies who would benefit from having their customers at their fingertips. Consider the following companies who are our non-clients:

  • Approximately 462 of the FORTUNE 500
  • Approximately 83 of Interbrand’s list of the top 100 Best Global Brands
  • And not one of the Big Three, four or five automakers

MORE…

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3 Stories Proving the Power of Community

9.17.2010
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Debi K.

Yesterday I held another webinette (it’s a mini-webinar in case you’re wondering). For this session, I focused on three great case stories from our amazing clients – Godiva, InterContinental Hotels Group/Chase Card Services and ConAgra Foods – that showcased the power of using private online communities for insight. All these stories have one important thing in common: they used their most important customers to help them grow their business.

You can listen to the recording of the webinette below. In it, I give some very specific examples of how we were able to use the community to be really creative with how we learned from customers and the details around how it actually works. I hope it’s helpful for you. Let me know, will you?MORE…

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The 30,000 Foot View: How KLM stays “in-touch” with customers

Jennifer A.
8.17.2010
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I have always loved flying. Now, I don’t mean just the hurtling through space in a comfortable cabin with movies, wine and dinner at my discretion. I mean everything about it—from the preflight wandering of airport bookstores and people-watching—to the in-flight blissfully out-of-time, disconnected from the world, “me time” with no chiming BlackBerry or demanding email—to my ultimate safe arrival somewhere across the globe that always has me marveling things like: “Seven hours ago I was in London, now I am in New York—that is crazy!”MORE…

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Would You Want to Know Your Competitor’s Strategy?

8.2.2010
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Bill A.

A story surfaced today on TechCrunch.com claiming that a Facebook employee boasted the company “has obtained copies of proprietary Google documents outlining their social strategy.” Besides being way uncool to yammer on about at a cocktail party, it poses an interesting question: Would you even want to know your competitors’ plans?MORE…

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You Are Now Leaving Your Comfort Zone: 21st Century Market Research

Julie W.S.
6.7.2010
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Tell a traditional market-research audience that you propose to talk with the same group of 300–500 “respondents” on a weekly, even daily, basis over the course of many months, and half the group will react in horror, voicing legitimate concerns about bias, practice effect, and unblinded studies and posing the inevitable question: “Is it qual or is it quant?”MORE…

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Transformations in Next-Generation Research

3.23.2010
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Diane H.

One of the best parts of my job is that I get to spend significant time with Communispace clients. My goal is to meet with at least 50 clients in the course of a year, and when I see them, I often ask these questions: What have you learned since we last met? What is changing in your field? What did you used to think was true that no longer is?

The answers are always fascinating—and recently, we synthesized comments from 100 insights professionals about their “New Normal.” The result is a list of 8 New Rules for Listening to Customers. As follow-up, we’ve gotten reactions from another 200 people, and we are currently getting additional responses from attendees at the recent ARF Re:think Conference in NYC where I’ll be presenting these to a large audience for the first time.MORE…

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