Recently, I’ve been having conversations with clients who know they want to start up their own market research online communities (MROCs) and know what they want to learn through this kind of research, but they are overwhelmed with where to start. For a lot of market researchers who are dipping their toes into using private communities for research, this is a common pain. Anxiety can easily creep into the MROC ramp-up process when it comes to vendor selection, recruiting, research planning, and reporting – to name a few. And, although many vendors and conferences provide case studies on how MROCs have delivered amazing results, it’s hard to find client case studies around the do’s and don’ts of building one successfully.

I’ve presented and written around this very topic in the past, but for Forrester’s Marketing Forum in LA this April, I wanted our audience to hear from the ”frontlines” of companies who have actually been through this process themselves. If you are trying to navigate the ins and outs of community research, please join me in LA on April 23 for a panel discussion, entitled “Elevating Market Research Through Real-Time Community Insights.” I’ll be leading the conversation with three well-known brands as they talk about their challenges and successes with integrating MROCs into their insights processes. Each of the panelists uses different vendors and they come from distinct company cultures, so I anticipate a very informative 45 minutes.  

As the theme for this year’s event is Adaptive Marketing, MROCs are one very current example of how market research can be adaptable and flexible in terms of the kinds of research that can be done, and the speed with which results are turned around. Along with this session, we have a whole track designed specifically for market researchers. To learn more about what we have in store, please click here.

Looking forward to seeing you in LA!