Closed online forums new research frontier for Intage

Closed online forums new research frontier for Intage

Surveying consumer opinions in a closed online community will help business entrepreneurs better understand their customers, says Intage (Thailand) Co, a marketing research company.

The company's newest marketing research tool, Digiwise, will enable consumers to comfortably share their opinions and make suggestions in a closed online community.

``The tool will help us reach more consumers and the information collection will be more reliable than the open research system,'' said Dangjaithawin Anantachai, chief operating officer of Intage (Thailand).

Digiwise is a marketing research method in which only invited consumers will be allowed to participate in online discussions and activities. After information is obtained, the research team will analyse it and present the results to the clients.

The consumer insights will benefit brand owners, marketers and advertising agencies when they plan marketing strategies to promote products and services.

``We work as the community administrator on web boards, helping to make topics interesting for consumers so they will share their opinions. When we receive messages, images and video clips, some of them could be interesting ideas for new topics,'' she said.

Ms Dangjaithawin said the community is encouraged to relax and speak out as if they were among friends. This enables the researchers to unearth details they never would have known.

In this environment, consumers act naturally and their online charts are real-time, so the research team can closely observe consumer spending, buying decisions and influential factors. Digiwise should save on travelling expenses for both researchers and clients.

Intage spent two years developing and testing Digiwise, and now clients are very upbeat about the tool, said Ms Dangjaithawin.

Kanita Tungworapojwitan, corporate planning director at Intage (Thailand), said the research team could conduct online marketing research for three to five communities at the same time. Each community should have no more than 50 members, and opinions can be shared for a maximum of six weeks.

For example, if company A introduces a new facial cream and uses Digiwise to collect consumer feedback, the sample group will try the product and share their opinions in the online community over four to six weeks.

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