Web 3.0, is the company ready?

The cyber world is no longer a virtual reality independent of real life. Today's cyber world is a true reflection of the real world. This is something many companies do not realize. As the Internet moves toward the era of Web 3.0, the dividing line between online life and real life gradually disappears, and the Internet becomes more humane. People are accustomed to speaking freely on the Internet and presenting their true side. This platform is an online community in which people are motivated by a sense of community belonging, expressing their true feelings, sharing their personal experiences, and communicating with others.

As the Internet has evolved, consumer expectations for brands have also changed. Consumers are eager to interact online with brands, but they are becoming more sophisticated and cautious in choosing to listen and interact with them. For a brand to stand out from the competition, it is necessary to work hard to establish a relationship of mutual trust with consumers, listen to the voice of consumers, and allow consumers to truly participate in brand decisions. In fact, only those brands that have a close and accurate perception of consumers' lives can gain the trust of consumers.

So, how should brands use online communities to understand consumers? One way is to establish an official brand community, and then invest more time and energy to “heat up” the community and connect the community with consumers. Currently in China, some brands have established a truly online official community, such as the Lancome Rose Community. In these brand online communities, consumers can influence each other. Community administrators also participate in member interaction and listen to the opinions of consumers.

An active brand community like this can generate a lot of valuable information to help brands better understand their consumers. However, it is hard for companies to understand and digest all the mass information generated in the community. At this time, companies can find professional marketing consulting companies to complete the analysis work, tell the meaning of the information of the company and the brand, what are the problems described behind, and then help to develop an effective brand strategy for the future.

Other companies represented by Pfizer Inc. have adopted another, more advanced approach: Online Insight Communities, “living together” with their consumers, and then reaching out to learn about consumers from zero distances. . They effectively use the internal motivation of the online community, listen to the voices of consumers, participate in consumer discussions and ask questions to learn more about consumers.

In the Chinese market research industry, online research community is still a new research method, but it has very good development prospects in China. In China's online cultural environment, online research-based communities can play an amazing potential. It aims to create a micro-society in which members can express their opinions and ideas as naturally and easily as they can in everyday life and discuss topics of interest to them, unlike traditional forums where consumers are unnatural. In the environment, strangers talk passively about certain issues.

In our online parenting research community, fattening during pregnancy and feeding is a hot topic for moms, but sensitive topics such as these are not usually presented in traditional forums or face-to-face interviews. In our online diabetes community, patients share their experience of how to reuse *** injection needles. To save money, they will use needles to bluntly throw them. If it is replaced with traditional face-to-face interview mode, such a story is obviously hard to say.

In addition to being able to help companies more fully understand consumers' lives, online research communities can also change the way companies market research by engaging consumers in decision-making processes. Traditional qualitative market research methods require long time preparation before actual visits and are costly. In contrast, online research communities are long-term, continuous operations, and community members can answer questions and share experiences and ideas without the constraints of time and place. Therefore, questions raised in the research community can be immediately answered. Through an honest exchange of opinions and feedback between brands and consumers, online communities connect consumers and corporate brands closely.

In addition, the online research community is also suitable for inspiring the creativity of consumers, allowing consumers to help brands develop and innovate products.

The goal of the above online community is not to directly create brand engagement, but to gain an in-depth understanding of consumers, and then use this information to develop products that are more suitable for consumers and design brands that are more acceptable to consumers. Remember that on the other side of the equation of communication, brands do not unilaterally infuse information with consumers through the Internet. Instead, they listen to the voice of consumers and communicate with them reciprocally. Only in this way can a brand make full use of the Internet. The huge impact of consumer life. Only by knowing who their consumers are and what consumers really need, can brands create tailored products and services based on the lifestyles and needs of modern Chinese consumers. (Text / Katarina Olausson)