Merchant Gourmet Gives A Voice To #Taste Buds

A few years ago if a company wanted consumer insight they would set up a focus group and provide some incentive to a small group of people to sit in a room for a few hours and answer questions about a product, service, or brand. However in a bids to expand their reach and really tap into the minds of the consumer,  Merchant Gourmet  have decided to turn this conventional function on its head by expanding their social networking community to develop a new online focus group.   Dubbed “Foodie friends”, it has been set up through the simple process of funnelling followers from Facebook and Twitter into a more intimate and structured online community. Developed with the aim of receiving impartial feedback about their products and engagement methods Merchant Gourmet  believe that this idea will steer away from manipulated conversation that is often associated with traditional focus groups, and encourage people to feel free to share their honest thoughts and opinions on any subject in the comfort of their own home.   With nearly an 86% increase in social media followers in the last 4 months, Harriett Gething Head of Marketing, outlined the need for further streamlining and fine-tuning of their existing methods.   “We have really grown our following over the last few months and as a result we quickly realised that we had a really active and vocal community that we could tap into. Conventionally, the way people talk on social media forums can be very different to how they talk in person and we believe that there are ways in which we can successfully amalgamate the two and retain the honesty of the online forum with the control and targeted responses often gained from focus groups.”   Like conventional focus groups the forum, will be using a series of questionnaires, moderated discussions, ratings and comments to gain some useful information which will then be used to inform future product development and gain feedback about existing products. Through this method members can also test out ideas and gain live feedback, drilling down into areas of interest.   With Foodie Friends having the potential to further develop other areas of the businesses Gething commented on its scope for growth. “One of the other benefits of converting ordinary Facebook followers into focus groups is that they can provide a wealth of real-time marketing information. Involving people in the product-development process makes them a network of ambassadors, who can really help us develop meaningful and relevant marketing initiatives. By asking the consumers how they would like to be spoken to, we believe that this will significantly increase the reach of our future efforts.”