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.

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.