There’s the beef

Editor's note: Scott Koenig is CEO of Consumer’s Eye View, an Arlington, Texas, research firm. Wendy Neuman is director, market research at National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Centennial, Colo.

Some of the greatness of hockey star Wayne Gretzky was attributed to his style of play. Gretzky, observers noted, had the uncanny ability to skate to where the puck was going to be, not where it had been, allowing him an open shot or an easy pass to a better-situated teammate.

His foresight has applications to market research. In a rapidly changing environment, we must develop methodologies and approaches to research that place us where the market is going to be, not where it was. If we don’t, we may find ourselves trying to catch up and watching someone else net the game-winning goal.

It was this proactive, predictive approach that we took last year in conducting qualitative research for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The NCBA was interested in understanding beef consumption habits of Millennials (those between the ages of 13 and 30).

Given the nature of our research questions and the behavior of the respondents we were targeting, we chose to go away from a standard online qualitative platform. While we had a good relationship with an online qualitative supplier, and while we were confident they could come through in executing this project, we decided to go with a non-traditional research tool: Facebook.

While we wanted to study these Millennials in their natural environment, we felt that conducting ethnographies nationwide would not be the best use of our resources and that Facebook presented a better way. With 75 percent of Millennials having created some sort of a social network profile (Pew Research, 2010) and with Facebook being the leading social networking site, we were confident we could engage this group in a setting in which they were comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with us and with other Millennials.

A group of respondents were recruited who not only met the age criteria to be considered a Millennial but who also met certain demographic and psychographic screening criteria specific to this study: eat beef at least twice a month; have some level of involvement in meal planning and/or prep; use Facebook regularly (at least twice a week) and have at least 25 friends on Facebook; can answer a series of attitudinal questions about current and future and current life plans; and be part of a representative mix of gender, age, and marital status.

Visit a Facebook page

Participants were recruited the same way they would for any other online focus group or IDI – with one exception. After qualifying and agreeing to take part in the study, participants were asked to visit a Facebook page we set up for the group, become our Friend and then return to the survey and answer some additional questions to verify that they had indeed visited the site. The latter measure was added to ensure that they were comfortable navigating on Facebook.

One of the concerns with using Facebook as the platform was a general lack of security associated with using an open social networking site. To remedy this, once the group was fully recruited, we simply changed the settings of the page to the highest level of privacy (by invite only, not shown on the participant’s own Facebook wall and not able to be found through searches.)

Participants would need to be engaged in this discussion for six weeks. We knew that a study of that length could lead to participant burnout so we initiated processes to minimize the impact on them:

  • We posted a new topic about two to three times per week. This would reduce the need for the participants to come to the group every day and let us avoid inundating them with daily messages.
  • The moderator of the discussion was a Millennial himself who understood the principles of moderating and knew how to engage the group in a fun and non-intimidating way. After all, he was basically talking to his peers on Facebook, something he does regularly anyway. (Being from an older generation ourselves, we viewed our Millennial moderator as a bit non-traditional in the way he posed his queries – which sometimes caused us to cringe when we read a question. But those cringes turned to smiles when we saw how his “Millennial way” really resonated with the participants.)
  • The moderator validated the opinions of the participants. He added his commentary to their responses and occasionally would try out a new idea that was developed based on their answers. These Millennials knew they were being listened to because the discussion was built around what they had told us previously. While it is important in moderating to validate the comments of participants – regardless of their age – past research on the Millennials indicated that, perhaps more than the generation before them, Millennials are craving for their voice to be heard.
  • Random prize drawings were held throughout the six weeks of the discussion. In addition to the honorarium they received for taking part in the discussion, participants would occasionally be offered a chance to win a gift card for giving the best idea, sharing recipes and cooking ideas or just being selected at random among those who participated that day.

Drop-off expected

The aim was to have 60 Millennials fully participate in the discussion. Some drop-off was expected, particularly given the length of time and the season in which this session was conducted (it began mid-November and ran right up to the week of Christmas). A total of 227 Millennials qualified and agreed to take part in the group. Of this, 119 became our Friends (52 percent) and, of those, 66 were actively engaged (55 percent).

There were 27 topics posted, with 1,545 total responses by the participants. This equates to about 57 responses per topic and about 22 responses per participant.

While we can’t talk much about specific insights we came away with, we can say that we emerged with a much deeper understanding of behaviors and attitudes of Millennials. We had quantitative data on behaviors of Millennials but the results from this study added more meat (pun intended) and depth to that data. New insights were gained into how the NCBA could improve packaging, distribution, in-store promotions and social media marketing. We learned not only that we needed to motivate and educate the Millennials toward a desired behavior but also critical insights into how to do so.

Additionally, the NCBA, which had used more traditional market research methods, realized the benefits of using social media – not only in its communication efforts but also in market research as a means to continuously study the consumer and understand their otherwise unarticulated needs. This inaugural Facebook study allowed NCBA to venture into uncharted territory. As a result, the organization has subsequently used, and will continue to use, Facebook and other non-traditional research methods to reach out to consumers in their environment.

Dynamic dialogue

This method allowed for a rich, colorful and dynamic dialogue between participants and the moderator, so much so that the moderator had only to pose the daily question and watch the conversation progress from there.

Almost everything that can be done on a traditional qualitative platform can be done on Facebook: messaging, uploading and viewing images and videos and chatting – just to name a few – are built in to Facebook. Facebook’s discussion feature is not as robust as traditional qualitative research platforms and this took away from the ability to have a threaded discussion. However, because of who this group is – they enjoyed talking to each other and found the topic relevant to them – they would typically go through and read what their friends had to say about a topic and reply as appropriate.

The analysis tools found in some traditional platforms are not included in Facebook and this required a little more concentration and focus on the back end. While there was some additional time associated with that back-end analysis, the costs were minimal and besides, who doesn’t need an excuse to concentrate and focus a little more on analysis?

A return to old-school research

This study was an exercise in using 21st century technology to reach Millennials. Yet, in many ways, it was a return to old-school market research: go where the people are, observe them and talk to them in their own natural setting where they feel most comfortable.

Using Facebook did not compromise sound market research principles. The insights we were able to bring to the surface were equal to – and in some ways surpassed – those that would have been gained using other platforms.

While Facebook may not be the ideal platform for all qualitative research – even among Millennials – it has potential to be a powerful qualitative research tool. As market researchers we should look to it, and other forms social media, as one way to go where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.