Dc35922 vision critical_insight_text_46pp_a5_softproof

Copyright © 2014 Vision Critical. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
An introduction to
insight communities
CHAPTER 2
Key dimensions of
insight communities
CHAPTER 3
Short-term
versus long-term
CHAPTER 4
Small group or
representative crowd?
CHAPTER 5
International
and mobile communities
CHAPTER 6
Faster, cheaper,
better
CHAPTER 7
FAQ’s
5
10
18
22
26
40
62
DC35922_VisionCritical_Insight_Text_46pp_A5.pdf P.1

AN INTRODUCTION
TO INSIGHT
COMMUNITIES
Around the world, thousands of leading brands
and organisations are turning to private insight
communities to bring them closer to their customers,
consumers, and stakeholders.
This book highlights some companies that use
communities, explains what communities are,
illustrates why they are becoming so widely used, and
details the benefits they deliver.
Brands and organisations are taking part in a race to
be the most customer-centric player in their market.
According to the GRIT report1
, insight communities
are the fastest growing new tool amongst client-side
researchers in this race for insight.

6 THE GUIDE - INSIGHT COMMUNITIES
“Imagine every Monday morning that
a group of your customers were to
assemble in your offices, so that you
could hear what they were saying and
you could ask them any question you
wanted! That’s an insight community,
except with an insight community it is
every day, 24/7—not just Mondays!”
Adrian Chedore, ex CEO
Synovate

AN INTRODUCTION TO INSIGHT COMMUNITIES 7
Insights in
Action
Banana Republic
getting closer
to customers
The Gap’s upscale US clothing brand, Banana
Republic, wanted to stay on top of trends. To achieve
this, they wanted to connect with trendsetting
customers. Their solution was Banana Republic
Insiders, an online insight community of nearly 25,000
fashion savvy customers who help the brand set
fashion trends, rather than follow them.
Banana Republic engages members of the community
on an ongoing basis, not only using surveys but
also challenging community members to upload
photographs of themselves in different outfits. This
allows Banana Republic to look inside the wardrobes of
its customers, without visiting hundreds of homes.
Banana Republic’s insight community is a cost-efficient
way to get close to their customers, giving them
information that is fast and relevant.

Key
Dimensions
of Insight
Communities
Insight communities come in a variety of forms, including
small and large, short-term and ongoing, but they tend to
be private, branded, and online.
The following pages explore the key dimensions that
define insight communities:
• Private, branded, online communities
• Short-term versus long-term
• Small group or representative crowd

KEY DIMENSIONS OF INSIGHT COMMUNITIES 9
1. PRIVATE, BRANDED, ONLINE
COMMUNITIES
Most communities are private, branded,
online communities, purposed for the
creation of insight. This is well illustrated
by Discovery Communications, the owner
of over 100 worldwide channels, including
Discovery Channel, TLC and Animal Planet.
2.PRIVATE
Discovery Communications’ communities
are only available to them, making them
very different to access panels.
Access to the community is via a
login page, and the site is not visited
and shared by any other brand. The
Discovery communities are places
where Discovery can talk directly with
its viewers, to help shape the future of
their networks.

3.BRANDED
Discovery Communications’ communities are branded
as Discovery, utilizing the look and feel, and personalities
that viewers associate with them. An insight community
needs a shared purpose to be successful, and the best
way of achieving this is to create a branded community.
Members of the Discovery community know they are
talking to Discovery; they know their input is helping
to improve the channel, and they understand they will
be co-beneficiaries of improvements. This creates a
community of interest.
4.ONLINE COMMUNITY
The core of an insight community is an internet portal,
using the tools of social media, and increasingly, the
power of mobile devices.
Community members receive email invitations to take part
in new projects (for example discussions and surveys)
and they can also log into the website to access projects.
The website also provides its members with the latest
news and access to feedback from Discovery. Beyond
the website, the community uses a variety of tools to
keep in touch with members, including email, social
media, newsletters, and other forms of messaging.

KEY DIMENSIONS OF INSIGHT COMMUNITIES 11
5. EXCEPTIONS
Although most insight communities are private,
branded, online communities, there are exceptions,
and these are highlighted in other parts of this book.
For example, in some cases a public engagement
community might be open for everybody to see, and
it is not uncommon for a community to be themed
based on a category (for example, cooking or pets)
rather than overtly branded.
However, the majority of insight communities are
private, branded, and online.

Short-term
vs
Long-term
Communities tend to be classed
as either short-term (just a few
weeks or months) or ongoing.

SHORT-TERM VERSUS LONG-TERM 13
SHORT-TERM communities tend to be commissioned
to tackle a specific research issue, including:
• Co-creating a new campaign or product.
• Investigating a customer satisfaction problem.
• Gaining insight into a specific aspect of
product usage.
• Focusing on a specific target audience for a short
period of time.
The key benefit is that it fits the traditional research
buyer/agency model. When used, it tends to be a
better answer to a typical research problem, not a
new way of engaging customers.
LONG-TERM communities reflect a commitment
to put customers at the heart of the organisation’s
decision making on an ongoing basis. Benefits
include:
• As trust develops between the brand and the
members, responses become richer and deeper.
• Because the community is always there, barriers to
consulting customers decline (eg: time, resources, cost).
• Learning is iterative, customers feed back at
every stage.
• Economies of scale result in lower costs per project.

In 2012, Cathay Pacific used a short-term community to
help review and fine tune a strategic move it was making.
The project was based in Hong Kong, ran for about four
weeks, in English and Chinese, as part of a strategic change
that took about three months to develop and implement.
The community was used because it was a better
alternative to other specific research solutions, such as
focus groups or a survey. The success of working with
its customers in a short-term community led to Cathay
creating an ongoing, long-term community in 2013,
institutionalising the process of being customer centric.
Insights in
Action
Cathay Pacific
fine tuning
strategy

Small Group or
Representative
Crowd?
Insight communities vary greatly in size. At one
extreme, a small community may consist of 20 people
for two weeks or 100 people for one year. At the
other extreme it might be an ongoing community with
over 25,000 members, such as the Banana Republic
community mentioned earlier.
Smaller communities are used for qualitative
purposes, whereas larger communities are used for a
mix of quantitative and qualitative projects.
SMALL GROUP OR REPRESENTATIVE CROWD? 15

SMALL AND
CO-CREATIONAL
Small communities are typically used for qualitative
approaches, such as discussions, co-creation, or
ethnography.
Vision Critical created a community of 25 mothers, to
research the phenomenon of ‘January Blues’. This was
a discussion forum lasting one week, which explored
post-Christmas/ New Year attitudes, and the role that
retailers could play in people’s lives.
The community had a clear focus, used qualitative
techniques, and produced both insight and
recommendations.
KEY
BENEFITS
OF SMALL
COMMUNITIES
Provide a rapid and cost effective solution
to a research problem.
Tap into the co-creational creativity of
customers.
Don’t require sophisticated community
management platforms, so there are
more choices.
The approval process is typically
restricted to a narrow group.

SMALL GROUP OR REPRESENTATIVE CROWD? 17
BIG IS
BEAUTIFUL
As organisations become familiar with communities, the
trend is towards larger groups (over 2,000 members,
often 5,000 plus and in many cases tens of thousands).
Larger communities represent a wider range of
customers allowing organisations to use a range of
quantitative and qualitative approaches and tools.
A large community can be used to create smaller
qualitative communities, either short-term or long-term.
These communities can be used in a wide range of ways:
• Test ideas and evaluate concepts and
communications.
• Explore trends and messages.
• Integrate with and help interpret big data.
• Segment into sub-groups; user types or categories.
• Select sub-groups to take part in qualitative
exercises, such as discussions and co-creation.
• Allow projects to move seamlessly between
qualitative and quantitative.

Insight communities can add value in any market
where there are sufficient, relevant customers, who
are connected to the internet.
MOBILE ONLY ACCESS
In developed markets the driver for communities has
been the internet. In developing markets the trend is
increasingly towards including customers whose only
access is via mobile.
International
and
Mobile
Communities

INTERNATIONAL AND MOBILE COMMUNITIES 19
SINGLE COUNTRIES OR
INTERNATIONAL?
In general, having a community located within a single country
is best, because that is often the level at which there is a
community of interest. Even where languages are shared
and geography close, for example between Austria and
Germany, US and Canada, or Argentina and Chile; brands,
laws, and preferences tend to vary, making country specific
communities preferable.
However, there are occasions where the natural level of
community is international, for example, in some B2B markets,
such as computer engineers.
ENGLISH OR
LOCAL LANGUAGE?
In the early days of insight communities, it was common to see
an English only international community, even where English was
not the local language. This approach was because there were
often plenty of English speakers available, and the choice was
often English or nothing.
But, for the last few years, the trend has been to offer
communities in the members’ own languages, including the
traditionally more complex, double-byte languages, such as
Chinese and Japanese. The logic of this is very clear: if a brand
wants to show customers they are the brand’s number one
concern, then they should be speaking to them in the customers’
preferred language.

Insights in
Action
John Deere
around the world
John Deere, perhaps known best for their tractors,
has communities that span nearly every continent
where farming happens, putting them in touch with
the people who sell, buy and use their products. John
Deere operates their community in 10 countries and 5
different languages.

Insights in
Action
NASCAR
optimisesfor
mobile
Mobile is not only for ‘mobile only’ members,
it is for everybody. The research team at
NASCAR strives to get out of ‘research mode’
and into ‘conversation mode’ when designing
surveys. They optimise all of their surveys for
mobile and keep them short, simple, and to
the point.
Having the mobile option for their members
means they can complete surveys wherever
they are and are not limited to sitting down
in front of a computer. NASCAR wants their
members to have a positive and engaging
experience; it’s a win-win for everyone.

MULTIPLE
LANGUAGES?
Sometimes multiple languages are needed for a
specific insight community. This might be because
a project spans multiple countries, or because the
languages used within a single country require multiple
languages in the community (for example, Canada,
Belgium, India and the Special Administrative Region
of Hong Kong). With modern insight communities,
multiple languages are not a technical problem. Each
member can define their own language preference
when they join the community.
Where multiple languages are used, surveys,
newsletters, the portal, and discussions all need
to be translated or localised for each participant.
However, depending on how the community is run,
multiple languages can significanty impact the cost
and the speed of managing and using the community,
compared with using a single language.
Newsletters, fun polls, and simple surveys can
be readily translated to multiple languages, both
quickly and relatively inexpensively.

However, if the surveys include open-ended questions,
then the costs tend to escalate, as the responses
either have to be analysed by several people (to cover
the languages) or they have to be translated.
Discussions and other qualitative activities tend
to require a more intensive approach, and ideally
moderators can speak the language of the client
and the member. However, this is still more cost
effective than traditional multi-country, multi-language
research studies.
“The nimbleness and the quickness
with which we can get relevant
information, it’s just very, very powerful
information in terms of how we can
shape conversations”
Peggy Byrd, VP Integrated Marketing
One Solution

Insights
in Action
Avianca avoiding
costly mistakes
Two major Latin American airlines, Avianca and TACA,
began a merger in October 2009. By 2013, the airlines
operated under a single brand name, Avianca, with a
standard traveller experience.
Avianca explored a complete rebrand of their regional
airline as part of the merger. To ensure they were taking
their customers with them, Avianca reached out through
their insight community in Spanish and English and found
negative perceptions and confusion about the proposed
brand architecture.
Armed with this feedback they decided to keep the single
Avianca brand. Saving the considerable time and cost of
repainting planes and rebranding all the customer facing
elements of their business. Without customer feedback,
an expensive mistake could have been made.

Insight communities, especially the larger, continuous
sort, are always on, always ready to help, and already
organised. Using communities can be much faster
and cheaper than using more traditional methods of
gathering insight.
Because insight communities are designed around
your organisation’s needs, and because engaged
community members are co-creating the outputs, the
insight they provide can be much richer and more
relevant than insight gathered in more traditional ways.
FASTER, CHEAPER, BETTER 25
Faster,
Cheaper,
Better

1. FASTER
Traditional methods of accessing consumers, such as
market research and ‘meet the customer’ sessions,
have tended to be too slow to be integrated into the
day-to-day management of organisations.
This probably helps explain why 40% of senior
business executives say they make key decisions
using their ‘gut’ rather than evidence,2
and perhaps
helps explain why about 95% of new product
launches fail.3
If the voice of the customer is going to help shape
decisions, it needs to provide insight at the speed of
business, not at the speed of traditional research.
Because insight communities are always on,
they can be used rapidly. Because they are
used frequently, developing insight iteratively,
surveys and discussions tend to be shorter and
more targeted.

Radio One, Inc. is an urban-oriented multimedia company
operating over 50 broadcast stations throughout the US.
It is the largest media company targeting the African-
American community. Through Vision Critical it established
its ‘One Community’ of 10,000 participants in 2010.
When the opportunity to meet with a major drugstore chain
arose, Radio One was able to provide information on the
African-American audience’s perspectives on pharmacies
within just two days. These insights gave the drugstore
chain unique understanding, providing almost real-time
intelligence that they wouldn’t have found anywhere else.
This ensured the meeting’s success and assured them
that advertising with Radio One was the right option.
Insights
in Action
Radio One
shows the agility of
communities

ALWAYS
ON
People who sign up to communities are doing so
because they want to be involved. Members of
communities respond quickly to requests for input,
especially when they can choose whether to use
their phone, tablet, or PC to respond. If you have a
community you don’t need to commission somebody,
find the sample, choose a survey package; everything
is there and ready to run. Being ‘always on’ changes
the relationship between decision making and evidence.
SHORT, QUICK
AND RELEVANT
A community is profiled, which means the owner already
knows their demographics, segmentation variables, and
answers to key questions. This means it is not necessary
to ask the same questions over and over, making
surveys faster, and less annoying.
Because people are being contacted more often, and
because so much is already known about members, the
studies tend to be shorter; i.e. quicker to create, quicker
to complete, and easier to analyse.
This short and quick approach delivers results in days
instead of weeks, and sometimes hours instead of days.

Insights in
Action
NASCAR
triples volume and
cuts costs
Since its inception, the Official NASCAR Fan Council,
NASCAR’s insight community, has helped NASCAR
triple the volume of research projects while cutting
costs by 80%. The Official NASCAR Fan Council has
been a game changer, helping open the door for the
industry to accept the idea of having a meaningful
dialogue with fans. Through their community,
NASCAR fans have a seat at the boardroom table as
one of the sources of input in key decisions made in
this US national sport.

2.CHEAPER
It is widely accepted that insight communities can
generate at least three times as much learning for the
same amount of money as commissioning traditional
market research.4
Some estimates are higher. For example NASCAR
has estimated that “research volume has tripled while
research costs have decreased by 80%”.5
Insight communities generate savings, and achieve
ROI, in a different way to traditional research cost
saving approaches.
Most market research uses a ‘pay per study’ approach;
each project is priced and charged, separately.
Efficiencies such as shorter surveys, smaller sample
sizes, or reduced reporting, can trim the costs of a
specific project but they usually come at the cost of
reducing the benefits. You pay less, and you get less.
Insight communities make their savings via efficiencies of
standardisation and scale. Standardisation comes from
having the people, survey and discussion tools in place;
and through standardising the briefing, analysing and
reporting processes.
Economies of scale come from the long-term nature of
the community. The cost of creating and managing the
community is fixed, and is spread over time. Each project
only has to cover its marginal costs, which are lower
than a traditional research project. The more projects
conducted, the bigger the savings.

TRADITIONAL INSIGHT COMMUNITY
PRE-RESEARCH
BRIEFS/TENDERS
PROPOSALS
SETUP
RESEARCH DESIGN
SCRIPTING, TESTING
FIELD TIME
SAMPLING + FIELDING
POST FIELD
DATA MERGE
+ ANALYSIS
RESULTS
REPORTING
PRE-RESEARCH
BRIEFS/TENDERS
PROPOSALS
SETUP
RESEARCH DESIGN
SCRIPTING, TESTING
FIELD TIME
SAMPLING + FIELDING
POST FIELD
DATA MERGE
+ ANALYSIS
RESULTS
REPORTING
$$ $$
$$ $$
$
$
$
$
$
$$ $$$
$$ $
$$ $
$$ $$

Insights
in Action
Kaiser
Permanente saves
time & cost
Using its insight community has resulted in spending a third
of the cost and time compared to traditional research, for
Kaiser Permanente.
Tasked to evaluate members’ perceptions of behavioural
health and cancer care at KP, researchers sent two surveys to
community members. Response rates and the speed of the
project exceeded expectations, producing insights earlier than
anticipated. The results are being used to improve the quality of
behavioural health and cancer care provided to members.
A similar, earlier, online survey conducted using a third-party
vendor had a budget in excess of US $30,000 and required
six months lead time. Using the community, the cost of
conducting both surveys was reduced to less than US
$10,000 and total time from initial request to insight delivery
was two months.

Insights
inAction
CBSOutdoor
revenueup,
costsdown
Not only has CBS Outdoor seen significant ROI in
terms of research cost savings, they have also created
an increase in advertising revenue with their insight
community ‘work.shop.play’, in the UK.
CBSO have also improved their knowledge and
understanding of their clients, audiences and customers.
As a result, they have been able to talk with authority and
credibility to their clients about what their audience is
thinking, feeling and doing at a particular time and advise
them on how best to use CBSO.
Within product categories, for example
alcohol, film & entertainment, and consumer goods, they
have been able to demonstrate year-on-year advertising
revenue increases as a
result of enhanced audience insight from
‘work.shop.play’.

3. BETTER
Traditional methods of gaining insights from customers,
such as market research, have tended to skim the
surface rather than generate real insights. Approaches
that do generate depth, such as immersion sessions with
customers, have tended to be too time consuming to use
on a regular basis. For example, many boards hold their
‘meet the customer’ sessions just once a year.
An insight community is an ongoing conversation, a
relationship between the organisation and its customers.
Traditional research is the insights equivalent of a one
night stand, where everything has to be learned in a single
exercise. In a community the learning is iterative, allowing
organisations to access deeper truths.
Insights build over time as the brand and the customers take
part in a journey. The design of the community means there
is access to the profiled information, to the answers to every
question ever asked, and the transcripts of every conversation
As users learn more about the people in their community,
questions become more precise and targeted, and the depth
of the insights generated becomes richer. The members of
an insight community develop a shared purpose with the
organisation. As the members see their thoughts, ideas, and
suggestions being acted on, they become more engaged
and more honest. The analysis becomes longitudinal rather
than episodic; iterative rather than one-off.

INTERPRETING
BIG DATA
Many organisations are being deluged with ever larger
amounts of information about consumer behaviour,
for example data from customer databases and
transactional records. The key problem with the flood
of this ‘big data’ is that it needs putting in context
and the ‘why?’ behind it needs to be addressed.
Communities are being increasingly linked to big
data processes, to provide a prism for organisation
and interpretation.
“Businesses only have two sources
of competitive advantage:
1) The ability to learn more about their
customers faster than the competition
2) The ability to turn that learning into
action faster than the competition”
Jack Welch, Former CEO
General Electric

A short book like this cannot
answer all the questions about
insight communities, but here
are answers to some of the most
commonly asked questions.
?
Frequently asked
Questions

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS 37
1. WHO JOINS INSIGHT
COMMUNITIES?
The short answer is, people who want to be
heard. The people in communities include fans,
angry customers, people who have chosen to be
customers, and people who have not chosen to be
customers (for example users of a local, monopoly,
electricity supplier).
In most cases, an insight community includes every
type of customer, other than those who have nothing
to say.
2.WHAT TYPES OF ORGANISATION
USE INSIGHT COMMUNITIES?
It is hard to think of any types of organisation that
aren’t using communities.
The most high profile communities are probably those
run by consumer facing companies, such as retailers,
banks, consumer packaged goods, media and travel.
But there are also farmers, engineers, and
healthcare professionals engaged in B2B
communities, and employees and voters engaged in
consultative communities.

3. WHICH IS BEST, A SHORT-TERM
OR LONG-TERM COMMUNITY?
If you have a specific research problem to solve, and
a suitable budget, then an ad hoc solution, which
includes a short-term community, is often the answer.
A long-term community is relevant when you want to
a) make a commitment to bringing customers into the
heart of everything you do, and b) where you want a
program of research that is fast, deep, and provides
great ROI.
4.HOW BIG SHOULD
A COMMUNITY BE?
There are two parameters that govern how big
you’d like a community to be, and two practical
considerations that also play a major role.
PARAMETERS
The community needs to be large enough to cover
all your key groups, and for each group you need
enough people for the different sorts of projects you
want to conduct. If you want to run discussions, you
need, reliably, to have between 20 and 75 people
per group taking part. If you want to run surveys, you

need to, reliably, have a minimum of 100 completes
per group, which includes splitting the data by issues
such as gender and age.
The community needs to be small enough for you to
be able to provide all your members with engaging
activities. If there are some types of customers you
only want to speak to once or twice a year, they
probably should not be in a community.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
The maximum size of the community may be
governed by the cost of recruiting members, or of the
platform. 100,000 people cost more than 1,000, in
most cases.
This is why most large communities have between
3,000 and 20,000 members. If members are recruited
from client lists, the costs will be much lower than if
sources have to be purchased, which often permits a
larger community.
If the community is 100% qualitative, then the
maximum size will be determined by how many
contributions can be moderated and analysed,
in many cases this might be 50 for a short-term
community or 150 for a longer term community.

5. DO COMMUNITIES PROVIDE
BIASED RESULTS?
Managed properly, a community can be as reliable
as any other form of research, and better than many.
All research is biased. The two key tasks, with any
research method, are to identify the bias and to keep
it constant.
In a community the best way to identify the bias is to
occasionally compare the results with external studies
and external data. Good community management,
including managing the flow of new community
members is the secret to holding the bias constant.
6. HOW DO I DECIDE BETWEEN
BRANDED AND BLIND?
Insight communities can be branded (client named) or
blind (client not named). It is important to weigh your
options, as undertaking a blind community is typically
more expensive and more challenging to manage than
a branded one.
In most cases communities are branded. There needs
to be a sense of community and common purpose or
identity. The members and moderators should share
an interest in the outcomes. Consider naming the
sponsor in a light way, for example: “brought to you by
Brand X” instead of including the brand name in the
title of the community.

7. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN
ACCESS PANEL AND COMMUNITY?
The key feature of an access panel is that it is used by
many different brands and organisations, so that any
relationship developed is between the panel company
and the members, not between a brand and its customers.
An insight community is a direct relationship between
the organisation and its customers that grows over time.
Because the community belongs to the brand, rather
than to a third party, the community can be linked to
wider data, helping interpret so-called ‘big data’.
A branded community is not always the right answer:
When the community represents several brands (if an
organisation has multiple brands).
When creating a wider context makes for greater
interest. If the brand provides ingredients for meals, a
kitchen or cooking community may be more engaging.
If the brand does not have a direct relationship with
the members. The CBS Outdoor community is not
based on CBS Outdoor, but on urban living.
If the organisation wants to have non-customers in the
community and compare them with customers.
Finally, if you’re considering a blind community,
then it’s a good idea to compare your anticipated
research volume against the cost of recruiting and
incentivising. Sometimes, an ad hoc solution will be
right; sometimes a community is right.

8.WHY NOT JUST USE
AD HOC RESEARCH?
Every time you speak to one of your customers
you should be learning more about them; that is
what happens with an insight community. With ad
hoc research, you normally don’t know who the
participants really are. You have to ask them even the
most basic of questions, and you don’t develop your
relationship with them.
Ad hoc studies are the right answer to some
problems, but an insight community, will be faster,
cheaper, and better for your overall research needs.
Furthermore, research communities turn contact with
customers into a positive brand experience.
9. AREN’T ONLINE AD HOC TOOLS
A CHEAPER OPTION?
Yes, just as walking is a cheaper option than driving
a car, ad hoc tools are cheaper but different. The
key to an insight community includes: the way it is
recruited, the way it is managed, and the blend of
surveys, discussions, and feedback. You also gain
insights over time, have deep and rich profiles on the
members, and build brand engagement over time. Ad
hoc survey tools don’t offer that, but they are cheap.

10.HOW ARE MEMBERS OF
COMMUNITIES RECRUITED?
The size and the duration of the community has an
impact on how communities are recruited; short-term
and/or qualitative ones are typically a bit easier to recruit.
However, the general principals are the same.
The key methods are:
From customer lists. This is the best option, especially
if the invitation is directly from the client to the potential
member. It typically recruits the right sort of people, is
fast, and can be very inexpensive.
Purchased recruitment. This is used where a client does
not have a customer database with emails, or where it can’t
be accessed, or where non-customers are being recruited.
The purchased recruit might be from an online access
panel or from a list broker.
Via advertising. This includes online, postal, press,
in-store etc. This route is particularly relevant to
media organisations.
Member-find-member. This is typically used to increase
the size of a community and is a system where people
are rewarded for recruiting people from their contacts.
Social media. If a brand has an active social media presence
(for example a Facebook page or Twitter account with a large
number of followers) then this can be used to recruit members.
Most people adopting this route report only modest success.

ABOUT
VISION CRITICAL
?

Vision Critical is the world’s leading provider of
insight communities, currently supporting over 650
brands worldwide. We build software and provide
comprehensive services that empower organizations
to engage groups of customers and stakeholders
on a continuous basis for the express purpose of
extracting and managing insight to drive better, faster
decisions. Learn more about the fastest-growing
solution in market intelligence, meet our global
partners and view our client stories at
www.visioncritical.com
Follow us on Twitter @visioncritical
For more information, please visit :
www.visioncritical.com
or contact us: info@visioncritical.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RAY POYNTER, VISION CRITICAL
Ray is the Director of Vision Critical
University; Vision Critical’s centre for
knowledge, learning, and training. Ray
has over thirty years’ experience in market
research and is one of the best known
speakers, writers, and workshop leaders
on the international circuit. Recent appearances include:
Amsterdam, London, Stockholm, Moscow, Milan, Melbourne,
Sydney, Mexico, Miami, Chicago, New York, Toronto, and
Singapore. Ray is regularly cited by Research-Live as one
of the most influential researchers in social media, you can
follow him @RayPoynter.
Ray is the author of “The Handbook of Online and Social
Media Research” (published by Wiley in 2010 and by GMO
Japan Market Intelligence in Japanese in 2011). Ray is
also the founder of NewMR.org, author of modules for the
University of Georgia’s Principles of Marketing Research
course, and the independent expert producing the last three
ESOMAR Global Pricing studies.

REFERENCES
1. GreenBook. Research Industry Trends Report. Spring 2012.
[Cited 2013 10 July]. Available from:
www.greenbook.org/PDFs/GRIT-S12-Full.pdf.
2. Accenture. Most U.S. Companies Say Business Analytics
Still Future Goal, Not Present Reality. 2008 [cited 2013 10
July]. Available from: http://newsroom.accenture.com/article_
display.cfm?article_id=4777.
3. Nobel, C. Clay Christensen’s Milkshake Marketing. 2011
[cited 2013 10 July].
4. Poynter, R., The Handbook of Online and Social Media
Research. 2010, UK: Wiley.
5. Grenville, A. and E. Hutton. The Value of Insight
Communities. 2013. [Cited 10 July 2013].

SPECIAL THANKS
A very special thank you to the following companies for
supplying case studies or artwork:
• Avianca, Colombia with operations in Latin America
• Banana Republic, US
• Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong, and the research agency
ABN Impact, also based in Hong Kong
• CBS Outdoor, UK
• Diageo, Australia
• Discovery Communications, US and UK
• John Deere, US
• Kaiser Permanente, US
• NASCAR, US
• Radio One, US

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