Broadening the scope of its marketing research objectives, a major US-based automotive manufacturer decided it was time to go global with their online community initiatives. Expanding beyond the Americas, they aimed to target their research across multiple countries, including the UK, Germany, and Australia.
Partnering with Gongos, they had a vision to extend the community’s cross-organizational impact to gain simultaneous insights from consumers in multiple markets, while at the same time ensuring cost-efficiencies, flexibility, and longevity.
Building upon the success of their existing online environment, we enhanced the platform to accommodate the volume of data from a larger respondent base with consumers from distinct markets. Integrating cultural nuances and customizing the language and discussions for each region, we recruited and engaged 5,000+ consumers to respond to dialogues, flash polls, surveys, news, and current affairs issues on an ongoing basis.
Targeting high response and completion rates—all the while ensuring member retention—we incentivized participation through universal, online reward points that could be redeemed for gift cards. In return, members offered insights on a multitude of automotive-related topics, while taking frequent online surveys that provided voluminous quantitative data.
Given our large sample, we also developed more intimate “spin-off communities” within the overall community that acted as exclusive portals for members to discuss niche topics of interest.
As an additional byproduct of this implementation, the global online community served as a catalyst for cohesion cross-functionally—with departments across the organization benefitting from the quick and efficient findings. Our dedicated team designed and executed research activities and consulted on and delivered high-level statistical analysis, while continually adding to the member experience and enhancing the platform infrastructure.
The CEO of the company at the time also hopped on the community bandwagon himself, requesting feedback from community members regarding a significant public media announcement. Upon this special request, we fielded his query on a Friday evening, enabling the insights team to deliver a full report on Monday morning. Now that’s turnaround!
Overall, the low-risk nature of the community enabled this manufacturer to continually push the envelope with respect to online research methodologies. From car enthusiasts to soccer moms, the members are engaged, aware, active, and have plenty to offer one of the largest car manufacturers in the world. Time and time again, community findings have proven successful in driving future research strategies and processes.
