Four community types
Based on our expertise in consumer-brand collaborations, we identified four prevalent research needs. First, there are situations where users are looking for a quick and agile solution to gather consumer feedback. A second need is to get a more profound, in-depth understanding of a specific consumer cohort or topic. A third one is the need to fuel research into a specific marketing domain project such as Customer Experience (CX), innovation, or branding & communication. And finally, a fourth need revolves around having an all-round, one-stop capability that allows for agile capturing of consumer feedback as well as going in-depth to get a more profound understanding. It’s the need for an efficient and versatile solution to gather the right consumer insights at the right time.
Based on these needs, we formulated four types of insight communities: (1) Flash communities, (2), Deepdive communities, (3) Program communities, and (4) Research hubs. Yet, an organization’s research needs are not fixed, and as they change, one might benefit from moving from one community type to another.
All four types use the Square, our proprietary consumer insight platform for running insight communities. It’s a closed space that supports hybrid research with a group of people that are interested in the community’s topic(s) as well as interesting for brands to listen to. Depending on the research scope, our Square platform can support samples from 50 to up to 30,000 research participants, and its scope can range from a single- to a multi-country approach.