In the mid-90’s, new product development teams took a leap forward in innovation efforts by breaking free of focus group rooms to learn from consumers in their home or store environment. Today, we are taking another innovation leap by getting closer to consumers’ by participating in their social media environments. To learn more about how social media approaches will impact proprietary NPD work, I commissioned University of Wisconsin-Madison MBA students Gail Casey and Dan Sarbacker to participate in and document the benefits and obstacles of using Secret Facebook Groups for product and service innovation. Below is a summary of their report, including the benefits of Secret Facebook Groups in the development of new product and service platforms.
What are Secret Facebook Groups?
Secret Facebook Groups are private Facebook groups created by organizations. Participants are Facebook users who signed up for the group over the course of 2 to 6 weeks. Companies can recruit participants from existing customer databases or using outside recruiting databases. In their white paper, the students outline two case studies on Secret Facebook Groups, one for an appliance company looking to create an innovative brand loyalty program, and one for a CPG company looking to develop new food products.
How are they different from traditional research techniques?
Several key differences were noted in the approach to this research vs. traditional focus groups or ethnography.
- Participants recorded and shared their daily activities through diaries/photos over a period of weeks; a technique typically cost prohibitive with other approaches.
- Participants viewed each other’s posts and photos and provided feedback, ideas, and questions in real time. Similar to bulletin board groups, this is more collaborative than ethnography and more in-depth and self-directed than a focus group.
- Discussion and observation was able to evolve over time as we reviewed their postings. This allows companies to engage in co-creation activities where consumer could react and build on the defined problem or product development platform.
What were the key benefits?
Across the two case studies, the following benefits emerged:
1. SEGMENTATION: You can interact with a larger number of people than in traditional focus groups or ethnography. You can easily create separate groups based on customer segments, which might be difficult to recruit in a single market.
2. INCLUSIVENESS: No travel is required; Participants can be located anywhere, and clients can observe the research from anywhere with internet access. This allows for a more inclusive NPD process.
3. MORE CONTEXT: You can monitor each participant’s wall to gain context on his or her day-to-day life outside of the Secret Facebook group. More in-depth demographic and personal information on the various segments of the participants can also be obtained via their profile, wall posts, etc. This gives better grounding of how your product or service fits into the large context of personal interests, activities and social norms.
4. REAL TIME ACCURACY: Participants capture real situations as they come up rather than reflecting on the past or forcing a situation at a time you can observe. Overall, more occasions get captured per household, and less frequent occasion get captured more accurately allowing a more complete picture of consumer needs.
5. CO-CREATION: Social aspect of site allowed participants to share thoughts and ideas with each other, reacting ideas or problems that arise. Companies could also seek feedback on possible solutions or ideas that might be the basis for a new product platform.
6. MORE FLEXIBILITY: Photos and videos posted to site provided real life uses of product and occasions. Other tools like an on-line survey were easily conducted by posting it as a task to the Facebook groups.
We also found strengths in pairing secret Facebook groups with traditional focus groups and ethnographic approaches based on differences in consumer targets or information needs. We’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback as we all continue to innovate NPD methods!
To review the student’s complete whitepaper and learn more about the two case studies, the benefits, pitfalls, and recommendations, use the link below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13369430/Using%20Secret%20Facebook%20Groups.pdf
Tags: innovation methods, netnography, secret facebook groups
Monika Wingate is the owner of Fountainhead Brand Consulting and V.P. of Membership for the Wisconsin Product Development and Manufacturing Association (PDMA). She has helped a variety of companies develop new products and growth strategies including CUNA Mutual, Hormel Foods, U.S. Bank, and Kohler.
