Netnography: The unique method to understand consumers

We have been discussing the importance and challenges big data analytics can bring for small and medium businesses. The actual process of collecting data from consumers and transforming it into useful and meaningful insights is complex and fruitful if contextualised and interpreted according to the company's objectives. Big data is a concept related to the word precision, where mathematical and logical knowledge is highly demanded as awareness in each step of it. Based on the same fundamentals of the ethnography research of extracting information of communities and societies through participant and non-participant approaches, netnography focus on the participant research in a digital community. (Devault, 2018) In this blog post, we are going to be discussing how this novel market research can influence business actions.

Based on the same philosophical backgrounds, this method involves descriptive methods, using a variety of tactics, adjusting them to multiple scenarios, and requires an immersive approach from the researcher. It was designed with the intention of opposing the quantitative methods of analysing social media data and behaviours. Rather than quantifying and working with big data analytics, netnography uses qualitative methods to gather and generate insights from online communities, mostly concentrated on social media platforms. (Kothari, 2018) Thinking of that, Robert Kozinets (1995) brought a new way of doing market research called netnography. 

Credit: Gian Cescon (Unsplash)

The ethnography research through the internet can directly connect companies to consumers, reading and listening to what are their customer's pains and barriers regards not only to their products but to a whole market segment. A clear example is the use of social media analysis by the social media intelligence specialists in the Nestlé group. (Brandwatch, no date) To keep their insights up-to-date and actions aligned with their target audience, the team combines netnography approaches identifying trends in conversations, posts and reviews towards their brand and competitors. Combining an arrange of variables (for example, matching qualitative data with the number of sales) to analyse the perception of customers may aid marketing managers to understand what is the length of the product life in the hands of customer, for instance, driving them to insights and decisions across the whole company.

Starbucks is another company we can mention in the use of the method to understand its customers' difficulties and gains with their brand and products as well. In the research made by NetBase Quid, they were able to identify positive and negative impacts of the multinational in a variety of Facebook posts by consumers. It was possible to identify where and when the Starbucks brand was being welcome or not. (Nguyen, 2012) This could help a growing company, for instance, whether they want to expand their franchise or launch a new product in different countries and communities.

Netnography is the analysis of digital impressions of people on the internet (social media is the biggest focus), where marketing researchers go through qualitative information regards a company or products, generating useful information to make future decisions. Specifically, it involves researchers going into social media and actively analysing and participating in digital communities and describing their perceptions, habits and behaviours. Companies are already benefiting from it, either using only the qualitative results available or combining them with quantitative data analytics too, depending on how they want to connect with their consumers and develop new gain creators and pain relievers.

Author: Sergio Augusto

#Netnography #DataAnalytics #SocialMediaInsights #ConnecttoConsumers #PerceptionsofConsumers #MarketResearch

References

'Nestlé | Brandwatch' (no date). Available at https://www.brandwatch.com/case-studies/nestle/view/ (Accessed: 08 April 2021)

Gigi Devault (2018) Netnography: Obtaining Social Media Insight - www.thebalancesmb.com, The Balance Small Business. Available at: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/investigate-social-media-like-an-anthropologist-2297153 (Accessed: 08 April 2021).

Abhishek Kothari (2018) Netnography: Humans of the Web - abhishekkothari.medium.com, Abhishek Kothari - Medium. Available at: https://abhishekkothari.medium.com/humans-of-the-web-25d72e3226d5 (Accessed: 06 April 2021).

Hope Nguyen (2018) Starbucks Netnography - netbasequid.com, NetBase Quid. Available at: https://netbasequid.com/blog/starbucks-netnography/ (Accessed: 08 April 2021).