Thursday, November 02, 2006
Networking
Hope that you are looking forward to the weekend. I am sure that you were also relieved that my last Blog entry entitled X and Y was not a review of Coldplay. I will never do that, well at least you wouldn't stick around to read it anyway....
This entry is about the power (and chains) of the network effect. As any technology matures be it CDMA, 3G, the internet, mains power or yes even the on-line panel a general consensus appears about how it should look, feel and be experienced. Interesting isn't it that in an era of differentiated offers to an unprecedented degree we actually have a tendency working in the opposite direction....
The network effect is good, because as always we reach a common currency. However as always you have to look deeper and ask fundamental questions which are critical to us as marketers and as researchers:
- so why does anyone actually want to join and stay on a panel?
Yes, do we really think about this? Are we providing nails or making a hole? Are we providing rewards or some deeper experience of storytelling and expression in a world where most of us feel that expression is becoming more at a premium. With such a discourse does our networked panel begin to take on a different form, if not function?
I read recently that successful brands (read panels) create sensory experiences. How do we create taste, touch, feeling and interaction on these platforms? Yes engagement.
Is that what the network is designed to do?
This entry is about the power (and chains) of the network effect. As any technology matures be it CDMA, 3G, the internet, mains power or yes even the on-line panel a general consensus appears about how it should look, feel and be experienced. Interesting isn't it that in an era of differentiated offers to an unprecedented degree we actually have a tendency working in the opposite direction....
The network effect is good, because as always we reach a common currency. However as always you have to look deeper and ask fundamental questions which are critical to us as marketers and as researchers:
- so why does anyone actually want to join and stay on a panel?
Yes, do we really think about this? Are we providing nails or making a hole? Are we providing rewards or some deeper experience of storytelling and expression in a world where most of us feel that expression is becoming more at a premium. With such a discourse does our networked panel begin to take on a different form, if not function?
I read recently that successful brands (read panels) create sensory experiences. How do we create taste, touch, feeling and interaction on these platforms? Yes engagement.
Is that what the network is designed to do?
Comments:
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Hi Jon,
This article points at a very important contradiction. Engagement requires a unique "sensory" experience, and still researchers expect panels to be "representative" of the "general population". Yes, personality results in sample bias. No, you cannot engage and remain neutral all at the same time. If you have a voice, you are different. If you don't have a voice, you are bland and no one will join your panel or stay.
This is why all panels have inherent bias in the way that they recruit or maintain their membership, and why it is a good thing. This is why I believe that it will become increasingly essential to dynamically aggregate sample from different strong online communities instead of trying to artificially create the holy grail of "representative and engaged" online communities which cannot exist.
Olivier
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This article points at a very important contradiction. Engagement requires a unique "sensory" experience, and still researchers expect panels to be "representative" of the "general population". Yes, personality results in sample bias. No, you cannot engage and remain neutral all at the same time. If you have a voice, you are different. If you don't have a voice, you are bland and no one will join your panel or stay.
This is why all panels have inherent bias in the way that they recruit or maintain their membership, and why it is a good thing. This is why I believe that it will become increasingly essential to dynamically aggregate sample from different strong online communities instead of trying to artificially create the holy grail of "representative and engaged" online communities which cannot exist.
Olivier
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