Toby Bloomberg over at the Diva Marketing Blog has a great interview with Bill Neal, the “Godfather of Marketing Research.” Mr. Neal has some interesting points of views on using consumer generated media (CGM) as part of market research. He concedes that the large number of forum posts, blog posts, videos, animations and other CGM creates an opportunity to listen and learn about what consumers are saying about a brand or product. He also strongly makes the point that this needs to be viewed with skepticism. I think this quote is a good summary of this view:

“I have some real problems with consumer generated media as a source of credible and reliable information. In many ways it combines the worst elements of non-scientific research - self selection and advocacy - both positive and negative.”

While I agree that it may take someone that is ultra pleased or ultra disappointed to motivate the creation of a complex piece of CGM like a spoof video or a flash animation, There still is value in tracking the conversation because it doesn’t take some one who is ultra motivated to add a comment to a CGM. The CGM is the “Dvorak comment” (John Dvorak is very popular in the tech world for saying statements just to create controversy and start conversations). From there you will have individuals that support the creators point of view and individuals who argue against it.

I also believe this only holds true to complex CGM. Simple CGM like forum and blog posts are not necessarily driven by self selection and advocacy. When I stand at the proverbial water cooler and talk about the new cell phone I just bought, I’m not necessarily trying to advocate any view point on it (except maybe trying to justify the purchase in my head - topic for a whole other post). Posting on a forum or blog is just as casual as this water cooler conversation.

I’m not sure this is counter to Mr. Neal’s points and I do agree you should always be skeptical but as a member of the CGM movement, in my opinion there are very valuable conversations happening in consumer generated media.

Technorati : AMA, CGM, Consumer Generated Media, Market Research, Research, Social Networking

This entry was posted by Josh Kenzer on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Blog, Marketing, Relationships, Word of Mouth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.