Copy of User-Centered Research as the Foundation of Customer Acquisition for Online Chat Platforms

INTRO

This past fall, I consulted for a Santa Monica startup that had developed an innovative technology product. Their online messenger was built on blockchain, and integrated proprietary crypto-currency that allowed users to both converse and exchange money securely. The messenger was decentralized, unlike other available platforms, and provided an unmatched level of anonymity. But while our client was confident in their product’s functional value, they were struggling to validate how several target markets interpreted this value, specifically South Korea, the Philippines, crypto-currency communities, and social influencer communities. As the startup anticipated early-majority adoption of its platform, my consulting team and I were asked to validate customer preference and behavior within these audiences, and to clarify the product’s differentiated market position.

Current research supports user-centered market research as a method for orienting innovative technology products toward consumer preferences and behavior. This article explores three relevant peer-reviewed publications: From Market Driven to Market Driving, Drucker’s Insights on Market Orientation and Innovation, and Facebook: Public Space, or Private Spaces, which together provide an empirical basis for the market-fit approach my team and I implemented for our client.

FROM MARKET-DRIVEN TO MARKET-DRIVING

In From Market Driven to Market Driving: An Alternate Paradigm for Marketing in High Technology Industries, Hill and Sarin argue that high-technology communication companies are faced with unique challenges in acquiring new customers. Chief among these are the shifting sands of customer preference, market competition pressure, and the uncertainty of technological capabilities. But the article contends that technology companies can approach customer acquisition through the lens of research, to discover current customer behaviors, and effectively position their products to address common tendencies (Hills and Sarin, 2003, p. 13). The authors consider this necessary research as “the process to acquire and disseminate customer and competitor information throughout the organization,” thereby unearthing latent consumer and market needs that will inform product value-articulation. (Hills and Sarin, 2003, p. 14).

But the authors encourage taking this research a step further towards customer acquisition, positing that innovative technology firms must not only develop consumer behavioral insights, but also leverage those insights to lead customers in a new direction. The authors indicate that “market driving firms don’t just engage in educating customers about product attributes and benefits, but their activities extend to creating fundamental shifts in attitudes…” (Hills and Sarin, 2003, p. 15). This notion was particularly relevant for our client, as their messenger product provided innovative functionality in both its ability to monetize online chat and provide privacy through decentralization. Our research into customer perspectives provided our client not only with a foundation for orienting their messenger platform towards consumer-priorities, but also for developing marketing messaging that aligned audience’s attitudes with their product’s differentiated value.

IMPLICATIONS FOR INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS

Drucker’s Insights on Market Orientation and Innovation: Implications for Emerging Areas in High-Technology Marketing further reinforces the concept that a firsthand understanding of consumer needs provides communication technology firms with a strategic advantage in the marketplace. The article terms its recommended approach to marketing strategy as “customer co-creation,” a consultative process in which firms communicate directly with consumers to understand the value of their products. This communication can take the form of surveys, focus groups, and interviews that elicit latent customer needs, and allows companies to “define (their) business, not in terms of existing…. products or markets, but in terms of what needs are being satisfied (by the new product)”(Mohr and Sarin, 2008, p. 90).

The article also cites research data showing market-orienting research leads to improved customer acquisition performance. A 2006 meta-analysis of fifty-six studies conducted in twenty-eight countries showed that this type of research correlated with improved firm performance, on average, at a statistically significant r-value of 0.26. Similar studies confirmed that direct customer research was positively correlated with performance of new communication technology products and companies’ ability to exploit new markets (Mohr and Sarin, 2008, p. 87).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES FOR SOCIAL PLATFORMS

But as effective as market-oriented research has been proven to be, the question remains: which audiences and methodologies provide the best insights for online communication platforms? Facebook: Public Space or Private Space helps to answer this question, as it relates to internet chat platforms like our client’s messenger product. In its examination of whether online social spaces are private or public destinations, the study executes a customer-centric process to understand users’ relevant beliefs, attitudes and behaviors towards internet privacy. The study acknowledges that, though technology providers like Facebook may advertise a high degree of user privacy, “the question of whether or to what degree online social spaces are private spaces can really only be answered by the digital citizens who populate them” (Burkell, Fortier, Wong and Simpson, 2014, p. 977). 

Because online communication is such a personal experience, the study indicates that relevant individual attitudes are most effectively gleaned from unstructured interviews and focus groups. In these contexts, researchers can go into depth to uncover user expectations and potential practices for communication technologies. 

For our consulting client, developing a market-orientation from which to promote their product was an exercise in exploring individuals’ habits and inclinations towards communication and monetization in online chat forums. Peer-reviewed articles demonstrated the efficacy of consumer-insight research in the targeting new markets for customer acquisition. Further, they described how, for online communication technology, personalized research methods like unstructured interviews and focus groups provide the best feedback for companies.

REFERENCES & FURTHER READING

Burkell, J., Fortier A., Wong, L.Y.C., Simpson, J.L. (2014) Facebook: Public Space, or Private Space? Information, Communication & Society, 17:8, 974-985, DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2013.870591

Hills, S. B., Sarin S. (2003). From Market Driven to Market Driving: An Alternate Paradigm for Marketing in High Technology Industries. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 11:3, 13-24, DOI: 10.1080/10696679.2003.11658498

Mohr, J.J., Sarin, S., (2007). Drucker’s Insights on Market Orientation and Innovation: Implications for Emerging Areas in High Technology Marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37, 85-95, DOI: 10.1007/s11747-008-0101-5