Second Life Market Research Panel Licensed to P&G

The Social Research Foundation has officially launched the First Opinions Panel in Second Life. First Opinions is a consumer research panel formed in Second Life to provide Fortune 500 companies with resident insight and feedback on new products, services and policies.  The panel is owned by SRF, but it is being exclusively licensed to and managed by MarketTools, a joint venture of P&G and General Mills.

MarketTools is a leading online consumer research service used by nearly all Fortune 500 companies and many leading universities such as Harvard, Columbia and John Hopkins.  They manage over 60 online communities for Microsoft, and have over 2 million people on real life panels who have access to the ears of industry leaders.

First Opinions is looking for resident panelists who will be willing to provide RL gender, age, income, geographic location, education, and interests as well as information specific to SL, such as land or business ownership and length of residency.  Residents will be invited to participate in specific panels based on the information they provide.  There is both a U.S. First Opinions panel and an international one.

SRF believes they are addressing a key issue.  Says Andy Mallon (Andy Evans in SL) in a recent chat, “How will consumer research in a 'virtual' environment offer advantages over web-based or other current methods? The key advantage is researchers will be able to view, measure and to some extent influence the peer interaction for decision making that is not possible through web-based surveys. So there is a social dynamic here. One of our goals is to put together an advisory  board who can help us study this.”

SRF plans to hold various special events to introduce residents to First Opinions Panel and they have developed a HUD (heads up display) to facilitate in-world registration for the panel.  Their launch event was held January 12th.

First Opinions is not the only market research company in Second Life. For example,  Market Truths and Reperes both established Second Life offices several months ago.  Market Truths recently released a study focused on the retail fashion industry in SL.

Market research in Second Life is a bit of a complicated landscape to navigate. There are some rather vocal groups who are against commercial research in SL, and these include not only the SL public, but educators and researchers, as well.  The success of these companies is dependant on how well they address three central issues related to their work in SL:  cross-cultural (SL/RL) learning and internal training; privacy protection; and standards of best practices.  More to come on how these can be accomplished.  Stay tuned.

To get more information on First Opinions Panel, join the in world group: The First Opinions Panel, IM Andy Evans or visit their web site.

January 22, 2007

Comments

[Alain Daehlie]

Linda, very interesting stuff. I counldn't find a reference to the international panel. You have more info?
Alain

[Linda Zimmer]

Alain, there is an international panel, open to anyone residing outside the U.S. If you search on "The First Opinion in Groups", you will see both groups - and there is a short description there, as well.

[Marilyn]

Interesting article- I think the resident panelist idea is key to accurate information online. I wonder about the informal polls you see on websites- as there is no gaurantee the demographic information is correct. How many people enter false information, worried that they may get spammed, or expose personal info on the internet.

[BestMark]

Online focus groups can cover more demographics than in person groups- many people confined at home, unable to participate out in public can finally get to voice their opinions, too.