This paper gives insight into B2B-specific business requirements and how the application of innovative, consumer-centric research methods like Netnography can be applied to strengthen the competitive situation of strategic suppliers within the B2B2C eco system of the food market. This paper demonstrates how listening to social media with Netnography has generated real competitive advantages. Insights and inspiration for the successful use and implementation of social media research for B2B companies are also provided. Two food case studies on natural and healthy nutrition as well as on the next generation of citrus beverages demonstrate the application of Netnography.
This presentation provides insight into the open innovation and co-creation idea and describes a human-centred innovation approach with respect to the changing roles of market research and product design. The increased importance of strong interdisciplinary (internal) collaboration of researchers and designers for being successful in open innovation is emphasized. Only the combination of external co-creation and internal collaboration make open innovation programs successful. Embracing a human-centered innovation approach means also to intervene in existing structures of power within the company which are built upon hierarchy.
Online conversations in web forums, blogs and other 'user generated content' platforms are a valuable source for gaining unobtrusive Consumer Insights. A new method to analyze this user generated content is Netnography. The Netnography method [interNET & ethNOGRAPHY] is an observant research approach of online conversations in web forums, blogs and other 'user generated content' platforms in the internet. In contrast to quantitative, IT-driven counting of keywords and phrases through web monitoring solutions, Netnography is a qualitative research approach to analyze conversations in order to gain deep Consumer Insights and transfer them into product solutions. The presentation gives an overview of the method as well as the business benefits of the Netnography approach for generating Consumer Insights. The proceeding of a Netnography project will be shown in a case study HYVE conducted together with NIVEA (Beiersdorf) on the topic of sunless tanning.