User-generated content (UGC) — any kind of text, audio, image or
video content created by consumers and uploaded on a variety of online media
platforms — has emerged as another source of valuable information about
consumers. Social media is the big wave. Facebook fan pages, such as the
Coca-Cola page, which was created by a couple of Coke fans, generate huge
volume of on-page engagement. Conversations of this nature on the net provide a
rich source of content about consumers’ perceptions, feelings and thoughts.
UGC has many
applications in marketing. It aids ideation during new product development and
provides an understanding of brand imagery. Consumers’ advocacy of a brand
reveals their feelings about it, giving us an inkling of the equity of the
brand. There are undoubtedly many ways that we may use UGC for research purposes; and as the applications continue to
grow, some clarity on the extent to which we may rely on this new media for
accurate insights on our brands is desirable. We need to understand the ways it
can support, complement or displace conventional quantitative and qualitative
research.
