Web 2.0 & Community Research Symposium: More for Less: Leveraging Research Communities to Maximize Your Budget
More for Less: Using ResearchCommunities to Stretch Your BudgetChristi Walters, Gongos ResearchKristin Lozon, Domino's Pizza
Updated: Video from the presenters below
Domino's research investment and how it's paid off. A lot of research has come of this online community.
Domino's research community was created by Gongos. Not a typical web community, it's for qualitative and quantative data. They've divided it into different research segments.
Domino's Research department is very small. Two people have just joined the team. Many demands for information, as the economy worsened, there were more needs for information. They needed information to make decisions on a timely basis. They needed a timely pulse on their customer. How were the external factors influencing the buying behavior of the customers? What was the role of pizza and food? Was it an everyday purpose or a special occasion in the economic climate? All of these were things they were trying to understand?
They use a forum to understand what's going on from their consumers. They have discussions and the Domino's research team monitors it. There are 300 members in this group.
Pizza community is unbranded. The members are asked pizza questions, lifestyle questions. Half way through the community process, it's revealed that the company behind the community is Domino's.
Pizza Hut beat Domino's to the pasta market. They used the community to ask quantitative questions to find out about the competitive product. They could evaluate the pizza hut offering to find out the strengths and weaknesses, then used those lead them to individualized servings, greater variety consumers couldn't make at home, and that there were doubts about quality.
An example of how the research community was used is with the bread bowls. The target for the pasta bowls is for families, however initial pitch did not work. . They used the community to test out the commercial, and found out that this commercial highlight the bread bowls was inappropriate. They made the spot acceptable to launch with advice of research community, and were able to change scenes and voiceovers to make commercial better for the public. They community also wanted more breadsticks so they put the pasta in a bread bowl to meet the community's needs. Domino's saved $534,600 using their online research community.
To create an online community:
-Make sure you have the correct partner to do the research with
-Surprise value is something you can get from your community. They've changed over the years. They can allow companies to be creative, and they go beyond traditional research, as well as create a dynamic environment.
-Responses from consumers are better, they're the off the top of their head answers as opposed to the calculated answers that could come from other areas.
Future Domino's projects with their community include logo design and filming members ordering process
The Domino's research community is screened. The incentive structure for the research community is varied. They earn points for sponsored activity, and the activity has $10 Amazon.com gift card at the end of the month. The community is a great value for the customers and the researchers. They asked for the incentive ideas from their consumers.