Market Research Online Communities & Online Panels
Turn customer engagement into agile strategy. We build Insight Communities and Proprietary Online Panels that act as a true extension of your team—fully designed, recruited, and managed for you.
Technology needs the right people. Touchstone Research designs and manages Market Research Online Communities (MROCs) and Custom Online Panels that bridge the gap between software and strategy.
Unlike traditional sample vendors that just sell “completes,” we build proprietary assets dedicated exclusively to your brand. Whether you need a short-term Pop-Up Community for rapid feedback or a long-term Custom Panel for ongoing quantitative data, our team handles the entire lifecycle: recruitment, moderation, and engagement.
Custom Online Research Community Solutions
Every research initiative has unique requirements for scale and depth. We offer four distinct community models designed to fit your specific objectives, whether you need deep qualitative immersion, rapid quantitative validation, or a hybrid of both.
Insight Communities (MROCs)
Insight Communities (MROCs)
The Focus: Deep Qualitative Engagement.
The Model: A private insight community for market research with 50 to 500 members, designed for high interaction.
The Detail: These communities leverage ongoing discussions, photo/video tasks, and creative challenges to build deep consumer intimacy and long-term relationships with your brand.
Best for: Co-creation, diary studies, and longitudinal feedback.
Community Panels
Community Panels
The Focus: The Best of Both Worlds (Qual + Quant).
The Model: A flexible ecosystem combining a core qualitative community for depth with a larger proprietary panel for reach.
The Detail: This is a custom TSR offering that provides the agility of a large survey panel with a “nested” group of highly engaged participants for deep-dive qualitative follow-ups.
Best for: Brands that need both rapid survey validation and deep-dive discussions in one place.
Proprietary Research Panels
Proprietary Research Panels
The Focus: Quantitative Scale & Speed.
The Model: A large, custom database (1,000+ members) of your actual customers
. The Detail: By building a database exclusive to your organization, you eliminate reliance on third-party sample vendors and ensure every respondent is a verified customer or target prospect.
Best for: Rapid surveys, concept testing, pricing studies, and brand tracking.
Pop-Up Communities
Pop-Up Communities
The Focus: Sprint-Based Agility.
The Model: Short-term communities (3 days to 4 weeks) dedicated to a single specific project or launch.
The Detail: Ideal for rapid-response projects, these communities allow for intense immersion into a specific topic without the requirement of an annual commitment.
Best for: Campaign testing, pilot launches, or crisis response feedback.
End-to-End Market Research Online Community (MROCs) Management Services
Most platforms require you to do the heavy lifting. We are different. As a managed online research community partner, our team operates as an extension of yours. Our dedicated management team oversees the entire participant experience throughout the life of the program.
We handle all day-to-day operations, including participant communication, customer support, and incentive management, while keeping activities aligned with your research goals. This hands-on management ensures consistent participation, high data quality, and smooth execution from launch through reporting.
- Custom Recruitment and Multi-Layered Screening: Our in-house participant recruitment team handles the entire process of building your community or panel. We use a rigorous, multi-layered screening process to ensure every respondent is vetted, articulate, and highly qualified to participate in your research.
- Activity Development and Programming: We take the lead on designing your research roadmap. Our team handles the end-to-end development and technical programming of all community activities, ensuring they are optimized for both desktop and mobile engagement.
- Strategic Moderation and Management: Our senior researchers plan the activity calendar, post discussions, and probe for deeper answers. We manage the community daily to keep engagement high and attrition low while ensuring the data directly answers your research questions.
- Flexible Engagement Models: Clients can engage Touchstone for turnkey full service management or flexible support at specific stages of the research process. This allows us to adapt to your internal resources, whether you need us for the entire project or just for recruitment and programming.
- Analysis and Reporting: You get more than a data export. We synthesize thousands of interactions into clear, strategic reports and Video Highlight Reels that bring the consumer voice to the boardroom.
How We Build Your Ecosystem
Building a successful research community requires a structured approach that balances technical setup with human engagement. Our proven six step lifecycle ensures that your community is built on a solid strategic foundation and maintained with the highest standards of quality and participation.
Step 1: Strategy and Design
Step 2: Expert Technical Setup
Step 3: Participant Recruitment
Step 4: Launch and Onboarding
Step 5: Engagement and Moderation
Step 6: Analysis and Reporting
Strategy and Design
We align on your research objectives, stakeholder needs, and target audience. We define the community mission, size, and engagement strategy.
Custom Recruitment and Vetting
Our internal community member recruitment team executes a targeted recruitment campaign. We screen, vet, and validate every member to ensure you have a community of articulate, engaged participants.
Expert Technical Setup
We set up and configure your community using best in class technology. Our team handles the end to end technical implementation to ensure the platform is fully optimized for your specific research goals and audience requirements.
Launch and Onboarding
We roll out the red carpet. Through welcome activities, profile building, and initial ice breaker discussions, we set the tone for a vibrant culture.
Engagement and Moderation
This is where the magic happens. Our managers post activities, probe responses, manage incentives, and keep participation high so the community never goes stale.
Step 6: Analysis and Reporting
We turn chatter into clarity. Our team synthesizes thousands of interactions into periodic strategic reports, newsletters, and Video Highlight Reels.
Integrated Research Activities
Our communities blend the depth of qualitative research with the speed of quantitative validation. We offer a comprehensive suite of tools to capture the consumer voice at every touchpoint.
- Discussion Boards: Moderated forums for deep dive conversations on trends, pain points, and ideation.
- Surveys and Quick Polls: Rapid quantitative pulse checks to validate hypotheses in hours instead of weeks.
- Mobile Diaries: In the moment video and photo uploads capturing real world product usage.
- Live Video Interviews: Seamlessly recruit community members for real time focus groups or in-depth interviews.
- Concept and Ad Testing: Secure environments to test sensitive creative assets and prototypes before launch.
- UX and Usability Tasks: Directing members to test websites or apps and report on friction points.
- Co-Creation Labs: Collaborative workshopping where customers help build the next feature or product.
Targeted Audiences for Every Research Objective
From household decision makers to niche professional groups, we build communities that reflect your actual consumer base. Our expertise lies in identifying and engaging the specific segments that drive your brand forward.
- Youth and Family: We are industry leaders in building safe, engaging, and compliant communities for kids, teens, and parents.
- Consumers and Fans: We engage your most loyal brand advocates, early adopters, and media super fans to help you refine products and messaging.
- B2B and Professional Audiences: Our team recruits and manages panels of decision makers, specialized professionals, and hard to reach experts.
- Niche Segments: We specialize in finding the “needle in the haystack” respondents by leveraging custom recruitment strategies for specific behaviors or demographics.
Global Reach and Multi-Market Communities
Insights do not stop at the border. We design and manage international research communities and panels that allow you to capture consumer feedback across multiple countries and languages simultaneously.
Our team handles the complexities of global research, ensuring that your community is culturally relevant and technically optimized for every market. We provide a centralized management approach that gives you a unified view of your global consumer while accounting for local nuances.
- Multi-Country Management: We coordinate research across North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America, providing a single point of contact for your entire global program.
- Localization and Translation: Our process includes professional translation and cultural adaptation of all activities to ensure the research resonates with local participants.
- Global Quality Standards: We apply our rigorous screening and data quality checks across every market, ensuring that your international data is as reliable as your domestic insights.
- Centralized Reporting: Even with multiple markets, you receive synthesized reports that highlight both global trends and specific regional differences.
Specialized Expertise Across Key Industries
A community is only as effective as the strategy behind it. We bring decades of experience across diverse sectors, ensuring your community engagement is tailored to the specific nuances and regulations of your industry.
Insight Communities & Online Panels in Action
Real-world examples of how Touchstone Research builds always-on environments for continuous learning and agile decision-making.
Building an Agile Community for Audio Streaming (Media & Entertainment)
- The Challenge: A major streaming platform required a flexible solution to gather continuous feedback from both subscribers and non-subscribers to support evolving product needs.
- The Solution: We designed an always-on insight community supporting continuous qualitative research and ad-hoc virtual sessions to capture rapid, longitudinal feedback.
- The Outcome: The community drove specific roadmap pivots, such as differentiating discovery features for acquisition vs. retention, while significantly reducing research turnaround time.
Capturing Emerging Youth Culture Trends (Kids & Family)
- The Challenge: A leading media brand needed a continuous, agile line of communication to understand the rapidly shifting cultural conversations of Youth & Family audiences.
- The Solution: We established and managed an always-on online insight community of 100 tweens across the United States to monitor trends in gaming, music, and social media.
- The Outcome: Eliminated recruitment lag time for urgent research, providing a direct feedback loop that allowed the brand to anticipate cultural shifts and inform programming decisions in real-time.
Building a Multi-Market Agile Community (Global Research & Technology)
- The Challenge: A global technology brand required a centralized, flexible environment for market research for technology to capture continuous feedback across multiple international territories.
- The Solution: Developed and managed a multi-market online insight community consisting of thousands of tech users across the U.S. and Europe to support iterative testing.
- The Outcome: Streamlined global research workflows, providing stakeholders with real-time access to cross-market UX research and consumer insights to inform product roadmaps.
Insight Community & Online Panel FAQs
To dive deeper, read our article on why brands rely on Market Research Online Communities (MROCs) for smarter insights,
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What Clients Say About Our Insight Community & Online Panel Services
Uncompromising Insight Community Data Quality: Touchstone’s Gold Standard
Touchstone’s rigorous, multi-layered quality control ensures the highest level of data accuracy and reliability. Our expert team and cutting-edge tools consistently safeguard against emerging threats, providing trusted data for critical decisions.
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Global Reach with US Based Expertise
While our headquarters is located in the Northeast, our research team operates as a distributed workforce across the United States. This structure ensures our clients receive dedicated support from senior community managers who operate in your time zone. We provide high touch project management and strategic consulting regardless of where your team or your community members are located.
Touchstone Research combines the reach of a global firm with the agility and personal attention of a dedicated US based partner. Our managers are available for real time collaboration to ensure your community stays aligned with your evolving business goals.