ONLINE FORUMS

The Japan mobile phone market has been notoriously tough for foreign makers who have tended to struggle in meeting the very specific demands of Japanese consumers. Within this context, our client wanted to better understand the functional needs of Japanese consumers for mobile phones and also explore a number of concepts for emotional positioning.

The first stage of this study involved a 3 day online forum study in which respondents outlined their mobile phone usage behaviour, purchase drivers, and most desired functions. Topics were posted each morning by a 3waves moderator and points of interest were probed throughout the day. With this base understanding, 4 focus groups were then conducted with selected blog respondents in which a number of concepts were tested for overall appeal.

With the findings of this study our client was able to take away several new ideas for future product development and identify the emotional territories most resonating with the tested segments.