The shift to digital research
Over the last 18 months, we’ve had to reimagine the way we interact with other people, whether that’s celebrating birthdays with relatives overseas, collaborating with our colleagues on the other side of the city, or even interacting with our local bank or retailer down the road. Where we would normally interact face to face with these people, we’ve had to shift our conversations online with little warning.
Within big brand organizations, marketing and insights professionals have also made this leap. Customer expectations have evolved, fuelled not only by physical restrictions, but also by a greater awareness of health, wealth, and sustainability. It’s only natural to fear such rapid and vast change, in a world where customer interaction and loyalty are closely linked to ‘the human touch’. Despite this, many brands have successfully shifted their customer engagement and insight touchpoints online, revealing that digital research can in fact facilitate deeper engagement, and garner even richer insights.
Getting ‘up close and digital’ through an online insight community
Over the last four months, we’ve shared four inspiring stories of brands in Asia that have got ‘Up Close and Digital’ with customers by utilizing the latest technology – with an online insight community at the core – to generate customer insights. Before we recap those stories, let’s address the elephant in the room: what is an online insight community?
An online insight community is a platform where people connect to participate in brand research. It is supervised by a dedicated moderator and has flexible parameters such as duration and focus. While online insight communities originally served one ‘purpose’, either qualitative exploration or quantitative validation, today many platforms facilitate both types of research, which is called hybrid. As such, we can offer a 360-degree view on consumer needs, frictions and aspirations.
Choosing the right online insight community for your research needs
So, back to our inspiring stories. By identifying the research needs of a brand, we can recommend the right community type for each. Here is what our digital event series ‘Up Close and Digital’ uncovered about some of our trusted brand partners: