Insight communities: The secret weapon for growing relevant brands

This article is part of a year-long, 25th anniversary series that explores where insight communities have been, where they are today, and the market and customer trends that are shaping where C Space is taking insight communities next.

C Space launched its first online insight community 25 years ago.

The community was for a retail and media company. We launched it with the same entrepreneurial and experimental mindset that we embody today. What started out as an online space for employees to share ideas with each other evolved over a series of early pivots to become a community of the brand’s customers. In this space, we built a channel for two-way dialogue between customers and brand. A space where customers are empowered to drive the agenda and act as advisors and co-creators. A genuine community where people are on first-name terms with each other, the brand and us.

In that moment, a new superpower for insight teams was born as the community quickly became a goldmine of insight, exploration and innovation for our clients to grow their brands.

Since then, we’ve been leading the industry as the world’s foremost insight community, customer strategy and innovation experts, putting relationships at the heart of business to build mutual value between people and brands. And this is why, 25 years later, that same retail and media brand is still a client.

And yet, a lot has changed since we started that first online insight community.

We began in a pre-social media and smartphone era when the idea of brands having a two-way dialogue with their customers digitally was radical. Since then, we’ve seen and been a part of tech, social media and digital natives reshaping the way brands engage with their customers in an era marked by more complexity, more customer data, more channels to conquer and more competition.

Our society is seeing the rise of new generations, including Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Against this backdrop, there has been a scarceness of societal stability with global crises, including the great recession, the pandemic, a reckoning with inequity, inflation and climate change, to name a few, all contributing to distrust in corporations and governments.

Life for both brand and customer has become irrevocably more complicated and relationships between the two have become more fraught.

In this complexity, we believe with even more conviction that the brands that truly understand and advocate for their customers will prevail. Remember REI’s Opt-Outside campaign which tapped into their outdoorsy customers’ sense of dissatisfaction with our culture’s Black Friday traditions? Or Nike’s ability to zero in on and prioritize who they are for and make bold sponsorship decisions? How about TikTok’s focus to deeply understand people as tribes and find new opportunities for brands, exemplified by Unilever’s recent #cleantok tie in? These are brands that have been able to navigate the changing times because of their laser focus on customers and the role their customers play in growth. 

Insight communities continue to be radical in providing safe spaces for real conversations with real people that get you to deeper human truths. They are the antidote to tick-box research and the rise of synths and bots.

We are still running communities like this for the biggest global brands in over 100 markets and 17 languages every single day. And by layering in cutting-edge technology and specialized strategic consulting services, we’ve turned insight communities from a platform for feedback and ideas into a secret weapon for growing the world’s most relevant brands. These communities are more than just a collection of research and innovation projects, they are ongoing connection programs designed to ensure our clients are building with – not for – the customers they serve. Simply put, our communities are built on the philosophy that stronger relationships build stronger businesses.

And insight and brand leaders agree. Online communities continue to be a mainstay with 64% of insight professionals using them today, according to the 2024 GRIT report. Having an ongoing dialogue with customers remains key to driving relevance and building trust.

But given this ubiquity, how do we avoid becoming a commodity and instead thrive as the connective tissue that fuels the insight department and beyond in an-ever evolving consumer landscape?

Over the next year, we’ll be publishing a series of blog posts that examines where we’ve been, where we are and where C Space is taking insight communities next.

Insight communities continue to be radical in providing safe spaces for real conversations with real people that get you to deeper human truths. They are the antidote to tick-box research and the rise of synths and bots. They are a place to get creative with customers. And they provide fresh perspectives, insights and pathways to growth.

Finally, when used to their full potential, insight communities are the beating heart for the insight department to provide clarity on where to head next by integrating more fully with other customer data sources.

Practicing what we preach, we are celebrating C Space’s 25 ^th anniversary with a new edition of Customer Inside in partnership with the Market Research Society (MRS). It’s the buyer’s guide to online communities, based on in-depth primary research with our customers, insight and brand leaders, as well as secondary research and an existing knowledge audit from 25 years of practice. Customer Inside reflects what matters to insight leaders today and shares where C Space is placing its bets for the future of insight communities.

Whether you’re a seasoned insight community professional or new to the category, we hope this guide gives you inspiration on how to make the most of an ongoing connection with your customers. When done right, communities are so much more than a research tool. They are a program to drive change within your organization and champion the strategic imperative of building a truly customer-centric business.

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