Five case studies are presented that demonstrate how MROC (moderated online research community) saved time, money or improved entire projects for clients. The case studies show how MROC was used for: 1) A charity study exploring attitudes through discussion; 2) An ethnographic study on cheese consumption habits through photos; 3) A concept testing project that combined quantitative and qualitative methods; 4) A mobile search app study where participants provided feedback while using the app; 5) An ongoing consultancy project for a dairy brand testing ideas over 6 months. MROC provided benefits like asynchronous participation, depth of discussion, observation of daily lives, and mix of quantitative and qualitative methods.

1. MROC is here to save…
Five MROC cases that saved time, money or entire project

2. Sometimes running a MROC is
the best option

3. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Agenda
Reflect please! A case on charity where respondents had an opportunity to think a lot and
back&forth with their fellow participants about a complex topic.
Unforced ethnography. A case on cheese where observation of consumer daily lives
results in actionable segmentation based on consumption occasions.
Q+Q=? A case on co-creation which started with a routine quant test, continued with lively
qual enhancement stage and ended-up with quant validation again.
Web is the best place to study web. A case on mobile search app where the respondents
were giving their feedback about the app while using it in their daily lives.
On-going consultancy board. A case on 6 month long consultancy community run by a
major dairy products manufacturer.

4. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Reflect please!
MROC is asynchronous: a respondent has time to think on the research topic; discuss
it in-depth with friends, family or fellow participants; fall into memories.
MROC is good for:
• Understanding of complex, abstract, controversial concepts (such as “kindness”,
“happiness”, “charity” etc.)
• Need to test very similar ideas, concepts
• Want participants to self-interpret and explain their actions

5. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Reflect please!
Case №1: Charity, non-for-profit study
Client: a charitable foundation.
Objectives: explore attitudes to charity, charity organisations and
funds, methods and forms of transferring donations.
Design: two parallel online communities with group discussions, 30
participants each, 10 days.
Target group: men and women, 25-45 y.o., Russia (3 major cities).
Results: identified barriers and triggers to participate in charity,
explored new formats of transferring donations. As a result the
Client developed an enhanced marketing communication strategy.
154 pages of transcripts, 78 photos.

6. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Unforced ethnography
MROC is perfect to collect ethnographic data: pictures, videos, comments on real
world (rather than focus room) life of your respondents.
MROC is good for:
- Portraiting your target audience in terms of lifestyle and habits
- Detailed understanding of purchase and consumption occasions
- Longitudinal observations

7. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Unforced ethnography
Case №2: Processed cheese
Client: a cheese brand.
Objectives: consumer segmentation based on their needs and
consumption occasions, competitors review.
Design: two parallel online communities 25 participants each, 7
days, group discussions and photo blogs.
Target group: women 25-45 y.o., Russia (10 major cities).
Results: business significant cheese consumer segments
revealed, huge amount of ethnography information (cheese
purchase, storage and consumption) collected.
263 pages of transcripts, 123 photos, 3 videos

8. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Q+Q= ?
MROC allows to combine quant and qual approaches in one project. The mix-mode
approach allows to achieve actionable business significant results at the same time
cutting both time and money budgets.
Hard numbers from the quant stage «come alive» during the qual. As the result we get
a detailed picture of those who stand behind the numbers, and of cause we can
quantify those people.

9. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Q+Q= ?
Case №3: New service promo concepts
Client: a major consumer electronics retailer.
Objectives: 1) test 13 new promo ideas, 2) enhance them, 3) co-
create new ideas.
Design: 1) Quant: a sequential concept test; 2) Qual: a moderated
bulletin board discussion; 3) Quant: same as step 1, but with fresh
respondents (validation step).
Target group: M/W, 20-45 y.o., cities 1М+.
Result: the Client not only got the initial concepts ranked, but also
enhanced them and developed entirely new ready to use
concepts via the co-creation process.
Quant Qual Quant

10. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Studying web in the web
Participating in a MROC is like using habitual Facebook or Instagram, but with the
research purpose in mind. If your research topic is in the web itself (you are studying
web, digital, mobile experience) using digital research tools is your top choice as gives
your respondents unbeatably natural experience.
MROC is good for:
- Web or multiscreen behavioral studies
- Web/mobile/gadget usage studies
- Mock-up, banner, pre-roll tests

11. © 2014 Tiburon Research
Studying web in the web
Case №4: Mobile search
Client: an internet company.
Objectives: drivers and barriers to mobile search usage.
Design: 2 parallel communities, 30 participants each (men and
women separately).
Target group: 18-54 y.o., Moscow, smartphones and mobile
internet users.
Result: the drivers of mobile search were determined and grouped;
several ideas of useful apps for mobile search were developed.
1230 posts, 300 comments, 250 photos

12. © 2014 Tiburon Research
On-going consultancy board
On-going MROCs are perfect in cases where there are many recurrent tasks (big or
small) for the same target audience. Being a longitudinal (months or even years) study
a customer consultancy board allows to build stronger relations with and between the
participants thus ensuring unparalleled engagement.
On-going MROC advantages:
- Low per project/task costs
- Quick project turnaround
- High level of engagement, group dynamics
- Huge amount of ethnographic data
- Deep immersion of participants into research process
- No need to warm participants up again for each project

13. © 2014 Tiburon Research
On-going consultancy board
Case №5: Yogurts
Client: a dairy products producer.
Objectives: recurrent idea, concept, claim, ad tests and co-creation
activities.
Design: on-going community, 60 participants, 180 days.
Target group: women, 25-45 y.o., Moscow, Krasnodar,
Chelyabinsk, heavy-users of the brand.
Over 50 new product/tastes/packs ideas tested. Over 30
videos, sketches, POS materials tested. Over 10 creative
tasks and 2 product placements completed.

14. Before running MROC check-list
• Think motivation twice. Incentivisation is the must, but don’t forget about inspiration to
get engagement and results.
• Align your moderation style to one that is close to your target audience. Make it feel
natural and relaxed.
• Afford geography coverage. Thanks online it doesn’t cost extra to add more regions.
• Choose right software platform for your community. Pay attention to it’s look and feel
(is it as good as Facebook or Instagram?) Don’t pay for features you don’t need, but
make sure you have everything you need onboard before you start the project
• Be brave to experiment :).

15. Have doubts?
Contact me: valeriya@soqual.co