image : cencedev.org
I was speaking on the Future of the Industry at the ESOMAR Panel Research 08 conference in Dublin last week, an international market research conference. Over the two days of the conference, a lot was said about social media and online communities (see previous posts on lessons we can learn from the team at MomConnection). Speaking in the last session on the last day is always more difficult, and I wanted to leave the people at the conference with something to think about. So I spoke about two issues we have seen develop FreshNetworks.
Firstly I spoke about how online communities, and more importantly the ability for consumers and brands to talk directly with each other using social media, is changing the client-agency relationship in research and other marketing services. Whereas previous agencies played the role of standing between the consumer and the brand (or the client and respondent in market research terms), now their role is more to facilitate these two groups interacting directly with each other. This sounds like an easy change but really it isn’t. It shifts both the role of the agency (from intermediary and translator to facilitator and advisor) and it throws up it’s own problems. In the research industry, for example, the agency, standing between brand and consumer, has an important role to play ensuring that any research is conducted in an honest manner, designed and carried out to make sure that the results are meaningful and that business decisions can be made on them. With the role of the agency and client changing, there is a need to change processes and techniques. The first step is to recognise that the role has changed.
here is the rest of the article!!
Posted by: Loïc LAMY
Posted on: levidepoches.fr/contagiousideas
Source: slow movement.com
