There is the theory and there is the practice…..
In theory, MROCs are closed communities set up by brands or organisations (Easy Jet, Transport for London) specifically for research purposes. Many brands have online communities that can have other purposes – for example Hewlett Packard has one for technicians and developers, while Vogue has one to increase customer engagement. There is nothing to stop a brand that has a community for another purpose using it for research – if they are not members of the MRS. (Incentives for participating in research are often the clients’ products and this is forbidden by the MRS).
In a community the idea is that all the participants can talk to each other, can raise issues and questions as well as take part in surveys, qualitative interviews and product development exercises and so on. Unlike a panel, where all the communication is from the managers, communities facilitate communication every which way, and this is where the richness comes from.
This lovely infographic shows some of the skills needed to run one – and that’s before you even think about asking questions.
MROCs have some of the same issues as panels in terms of maintaining participant numbers and the interest and motivation of participants. (Apparently some Communities are in fact panels with a few bells and whistles).
Brand management love the idea of communities – in essence a resource of tame customers for new ideas and quick feedback in various forms. However making the ideal happen is not so easy. There are issues with community management and participation levels, while those who do stay in become more positive towards the brand. In order to receive you have to give, and some participants don’t feel rewarded or valued enough, or get cross when criticisms are ignored, or worse, deleted. So a number of communities, whether MROCs or otherwise, perform at sub-optimal levels. A report on the State of Online Branded Communities (Comblu 2011, which isn’t about MROCs but communities in general) declares that there is
an alarming lack of adoption of key best practices.
Tom de Ruyck Ben and Jerrys Case study
How online brand communities work – Mike Hall of Verve
