Have you heard the term MROC? it stands for Market Research Online Communities. During my time as Digital Director at The Digital Edge I penned the following post about what they are and how they are used.

Essentially it is another way to gain insights from consumers in a much more collaborative and communicative environment. Rather than simply asking questions via surveys MROCS allow the researcher and participant to converse online in a very interactive format. Use of multimedia such as videos and photos can be integrated and participants can give feedback on products, services, packing or ads.

Up until now market research managers in-house would typically either outsource the process to larger research firms or develop up the software in-house which can be expensive and time-consuming.

Now Digital Democracy inconjuction with Bang the Table has a platform that is available for use by market researchers/insight mgrs on a project or retainer basis which makes the process cost-effective and the researcher stays in control of the questions and the process. Why pay for the research expertise when you already have it in-house?

Your Say Cafe – the online platform is now available.

Digital consumers have stronger relationships with brands than non-digital consumers. This was the finding from Millward Brown, who analysed WPP’s BrandZ database recently.

The report compared the brand relationships of digital consumers with those of non-digital consumers across all categories and countries. The findings: that digital consumers have  15% stronger relationship with a typical brand.

For some categories such as airlines they have a 93% stronger brand relationship while others such as soft drinks and fuel (items you don’t usually buy online) both recorded a 5% stronger brand relationship.

The chart below shows the categories and impact of digital on that category to consumers brand relationships.

So what is the BrandX definition of a digital consumer?  This is “someone who has either bought or researched that category online”

Digital consumers were reported to have have stronger relationships in all 24 countries examined.

Key Takeouts from the Report:

• Willward Brown discuss the ‘digital branding circle‘ where consumers are more interested in brands, research online increases brand knowledge, digital purchasing increases brand knowledge further.
• As more digital researching and purchasing takes place the brand relationship gap between digital and non-digital consumers widens
• Some consumers will be digital consumers in some categories and non-digital consumers in others
• Brand managers should examine if their category has a strong digital relationship, examine  their competitors digital relationships and integrate the research into a smarter digital marketing strategy.

(Report Background: The report was compiled using 2008 BrandZ data with a total of 100,000 consumer intervierws and over 8000 brand measurements. Interviews covered 24 countries and an average of 15 categories per country. The report pointed out that the digital relationship difference ” is not a measure of brand equity – it has no correlation with the absolute strength of the brand’s pyramid.)

How do you help build engaged digital consumers?

So how can you build a closer relationship with your consumer and make it easier for them to interact with your brand online?

(A) Search Marketing and Organic SEO can help you answer the ‘visibility’ question ie getting your brand found on the web. There has been much written about the fact that during recessionary times consumers are spending more time researching products and services online (lending more relevance to the ‘Digital Branding Circle’ theory discussed above.  

(B) Social Media Marketing. While search marketing might help you get found on the web social media marketing will help with the ‘engagement’ of those consumers. In fact a study released recently by The National Retail Federation’s Shop.org and Forrester Research found that:

• Amongst retailers that are reducing spending, 56 percent are cutting spending on search engine marketing, while only 24 percent will cut their social media marketing budget.
• Amongst retailers that are performing well (“beating expectations” according to the study), 12 of the 20 will increase spending in social media marketing.
• Further, amongst retailers that are increasing budgets, 80 percent will put more money into search, while 65 percent will put more into email marketing.

Tight economic climate right for building ‘digital consumers’

The recessionary climate where consumers are increasingly researching your products is the opportune time to start engaging with them online.   

How many times have you heard marketers or pr professionals say:

- “Social Media is so hard to get over the line’  and -’Its hard to demonstrate the ROI of Social Media’ or

-’The CEO is just not on board with the Social Media idea’

These comments typically come from individuals that do not have the full business picture in mind when they are talking with their client.

As marketers we often think of Social Media as part of our own personal toolkit – albiet a growing and quickly developing one. Via Social Media we have the capacity to reach consumers,  with some prs still aiming to get a few messages across  (yes very old school) and ideally raise the brand profile and ultimately sell the item that we are marketing.

So what is wrong with that notion? After working in traditional media, online pr, market research 2.0 and knowledge management it is clearly evident that we need to recognise that Social Media touches all the above disciplines within a business including R&D and CRM.  As individuals within those disciplines we need to step outside our own areas and look at how we deliver business value across many areas of the business  – a much more wholistic approach.

So how is this relevant to you as a marketer? First understand that the Twitter account that you are trying to sell in for pr purposes can also be used for CRM and that means working with those relevant internally to support customers if complaints arise.  That branded Online Community that you are thinking about will provide ROI for many elements of your business including innovation and R&D. It is not just about your big shiny idea or your pr/marketing silo, or for that matter (and this is positive) the marketing budget.

Finally social media strategies can be devised and initially implemented by agencies but collaborative maintenance must come from the company itself.   What is maintenance? after the initial burst of creative activity is the hard yakka of continuing the conversation with your consumers, listening to them and embracing what you learn. If your social media marketing agency is simply selling you a one-off campaign and not educating you along the way they are doing you a disservice. Sure campaigns such as World’s Best Job have a finite time period but most customer engagement strategies should be for the long-term.

Social Media has the power to transform a company,  break down internal silos, deliver excellent ROI, engage with consumers and deliver more relevant products to the marketplace but we need to first recognise its not all about us.

About the Author: Jenni Beattie is the Director of Digital Democracy a Sydney based Social Media Consultancy . Enjoy the article?please subscribe to the RSS Feed .

Update May 9 Mashable produced an excellent article using Twitter for customer service well worth a read!

In the first post (below) I discussed the recent Forrester study and how they described the Five Eras of the Social Web.

The five eras not only relate to social media marketing but also the discipline of market research.

Innovative market research companies have already tapped into the fact that market research methodologies need to change in a web 2.0 environment- become more online and more ‘social’.

The following are  a list of agencies that are currently using innovative approaches:

• The Digital Edge - the only Australian company to have facebook-style community software that enables a highly interactive online and highly ‘sociable‘ research experience – referred to as MROCs or market research online communities. (Era 1 & 2)
• Peanut Labs, runs  surveys across widgets on social networks. (Era 2)
• FreshNetworks build online communities for innovation and consumer advocacy – with the ability for insight collection (Era 5)
•  Australian online communities provider Resonate Solutions builds communities for organisations with potential for market research/insight gathering (Era 5)

 The Social Web touches many disciplines from knowledge management, to pr and marketing and market research. The agencies that innovate to recognise the change  and use it to drive their future methodologies will survive while those that don’t will become increasingly irrelevant.

In the middle of April this year in the middle of a recession I resigned my current role and started my own social media consultancy called Digital Democracy. 

Why? because with 20 years of media experience gathered in pr agencies, advertising agencies, media houses and market research agencies I believe I can support both agencies and companies that need assistance navigating the social media landscape.

As the year draws to a close I thought it was time to start my own blog. After contributing to many blogs since 2006 including FreshChat, Digital Ministry, The Digital Edge and Slice Media and leaving them behind when I moved jobs I decided the mature thing to do was simply start my own.

Digital Democracy reflects the current environment in which consumers have their say and in which brands and companies are all judged daily.

I hope you will also have your say on the blog in coming weeks.