Netnography: The Marketer’s useful tool for developing innovative ideas.

As Start-ups in today's competitive world require an advantage, we need to be aware of the basic tools for your marketing strategy, let’s start defining what is netnography and how we can utilize it.

 

Customers are becoming more active online these days, and valuable information about their behaviours, opinions and experiences can be obtained from a variety of online platforms. This information opens new paths to personalized high-quality service.

 

“Understanding customers is a key aim of service marketing research and an important requirement for successful service business practice” (Gummesson et al., 2014).

 

Netnography is recognized as a valuable research tool for gathering and analysing online customer data developed in response to customers' increasing internet use (Kozinets, 1997), It is based on an ethnographic research approach to studying and understanding consumption-related aspects of customers' lives online and it is more relevant than ever in today's digitalization environment

 

As the number of internet users increased around the world and more aspects of people's lives began to be conducted online, the popularity of netnography grew rapidly among both researchers and practitioners (Kozinets, 2015). 

 

The larger question is how we can use this information and understanding to sort out various motivations as well as interaction and response patterns.

 

Social Media Space

We are all part of a new social online world. The number of internet users worldwide is expected to reach 4.9 billion in 2021, up from 4.6 billion the previous year. 

Consumers are sharing a wide range of emotions and information about a dizzying range of products, retailers, and brands with one another.

 

When applied to business and marketing needs, netnography generates deep consumer insights that provide: 

• Comprehensive market descriptions: segments, product groups, attribute sets 
• Accurate understanding of online communication: categories, trends, symbols, and images 
• Natural views of brand meaning: decoding authentic consumer language and terms, as well as visual and audiovisual analysis 
• Embedded discoveries of consumer innovation: based on lead user, inno-tribe, and prosumer creativity

Management and Netnography 

A comprehensive, detailed netnographic study can reveal a great deal about consumer behaviours, opinions, tastes, impressions, and interactions. Netnography, like face-to-face ethnography, provides a window into the lives of consumer groups as they go about their business. 

We learn about the local language, history, actors, practices and rituals, and the enculturation and education of cultural members. More importantly, we discover where consumers congregate, what they share, and how they communicate. We gain deep insights into who our consumers are, where and how they find sources of community, who the most influential voices in those consumer communities are, what these communities' meanings, rituals, and traditions are, and so on. We discover the variety of forms and patterns within how and why they consume through analysis and interpretation.

 

 

5 Steps plan to help you:

1. Definition of Research Question, Social Sites or Topics to Investigate 
2. Community Identification and Selection
3. Participant-Observation (engagement, immersion) in the Community and Data Collection (Ensure Ethical Procedures) 
4. Iterative Data Analysis and Findings Interpretation
5. Research Findings

Step 1: Definition of Research Question, design, and focus. 

It is suggested that broad questions be asked, such as an investigation of a specific phenomenon. Broad questions can help you better understand the phenomenon, and keep in mind that you are collecting data from an entire community rather than asking individuals for their opinions. You can narrow down your questions later if you want to become more focused. So, when formulating questions, start with what or how and use exploratory verbs like “discover”, “comprehend”, “define”, and “review”.

 

Step 2: Community Identification and Selection.

When suitable online communities have been identified, the researcher can evaluate them using criteria tailored to the investigation. 

 

In general, online communities with a more focused and research question-relevant segment, topic, or group should be preferred; - higher "traffic" of postings; - more discrete message posters; - more detailed or descriptively rich data; and - more between-member interactions of the type required by the research question. 

“Netnography, when used wisely, can be used to build bridges and open doors between managers and online communities. Those connections should last longer than individual responses to individual postings. They should ideally be long-lasting and meaningful to both parties.” (Kozinets 2010).

 

Step 3: Participant-Observation. 

Data collection is linked to netnographic participation, which means that the netnographer should be visible and active to other members of the community. 

Netnography data collection refers to communication with members of the online community. Whatever form of communication it takes, it must include relevant involvement, engagement, interaction, and contact with community members. In general, the researcher must interact and participate in the online community. You can decide how interactive you want to be. 

 

Are you going to interact in a limited way? such as informing people that you're there and asking them relevant questions over time? Or are you going to interact as an active member of the online community, becoming a valued member who is constantly contributing?

 

Tip: If you want to be a part of the community, you should first investigate the topic to understand and then post relevant information. Tell people what you're doing and ask them questions once you have made ties.

                                                  

                                      

Step 4: Iterative Data Analysis and Findings Interpretation. 

Data analysis is the process of examining, inferring, writing, presenting, and reporting research findings and/or theoretical and/or policy implications. To begin, code the data. This entails categorizing or assigning codes to data derived from field notes. Making a mental note of important details in the data's margins is referred to as noting. Abstracting and comparing entails shifting data to identify similar phrases, patterns, relationships, or distinct differences. The first stage, checking and refinement, focuses on isolating and checking specific patterns to understand them, while the second stage, generalising, focuses on which aims to explain the consistency of the data. The final step is to theorize, which is the process of developing a theory in conjunction with the data you have. 

Step 5: Research Findings and/or Theoretical and/or Policy Implications should be written, presented and reported. 

The final step is to theorize, which is the process of developing a theory in conjunction with the data you have.

 

 

This article was written by Noemi Najera

References 

Catterall, M. and Maclaran, P. (2002), “Researching consumers in virtual worlds: a cyberspace odyssey”, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 228-237.

 

Gummesson, E., Kuusela, H. and N rv nen, E. (2014), “Reinventing marketing strategy by recasting supplier/customer roles”, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 228-240.

 

Masevic, I., 2021. Netnography Research.

 

Kozinets, R.V. (2010) Netnography: The Marketer’s Secret Weapon

Kozinets, R.V. (2010). HOW TO INTEGRATE NETNOGRAPHY INTO MARKETING RESEARCH. Journal of Advertising Research, 50(3), 241–242.

Kozinets, R.V. (2015), Netnography: Redefined, 2nd Ed., Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.