Hallmark, the Kansas City-based greeting card company, has employed online consumer research for three years now. Based on a comparison of the results with those of traditional research (i.e., focus groups), the online efforts are now a regular part of the company’s research effort. In a Marketing Sherpa interview,  Tom Brailsford, Manager of Advancing Capabilities, notes:

“You can do three focus groups and hear from about 24 consumers and it’ll cost you two or three weeks and $10,000. We can hear regularly from 150 consumers in 36 hours on a particular issue. We have evidence from linguistic analyses that suggests that the content we get from the communities is far richer than what comes from a focus group. We’re trying to get faster, better, and cheaper.”

“Faster, better, cheaper” is only one of the benefits Hallmark is accruing from its online “Idea Exchange.” Others include:

• The improved ability to probe for deeper understanding
• Better understanding of consumers and their lifestyles
• The ability to learn consumers’ language and jargon

The article includes three examples of how Hallmark has tapped into the Idea Exchange, including one in which the research team asked Idea Exchange participants to take pictures of their Christmas trees and offer up a story about it. “We learned a lot about Christmas ornaments and decorating from those photos,” Brailsford says.

Thanks to Common Craft for the lead on this story.