Closed shops and blogs make a strange mix for Migros
Adrian McDermott
October 28th, 2008
Sometimes living in Switzerland can be a little puzzling for foreigners like me. Familiar things are done just that little bit differently. This example gave me a real surprise, for example - Migros, Switzerland’s biggest supermarket and retail chain and one of its biggest companies, decided to use Web 2.0 tools to involve the public in redefining its product range, as reported by Barnaby Skinner for the country’s Sonntagszeitung newspaper. Fine, so far, but in order to keep any new ideas to itself, the company decided to restrict the blog’s four sections - ‘wellness’, cosmetics, household products and Migros employees - to a community of 50 users each (calling the policy ‘first at the pool’). Very productive bloggers will get SFr. 100 each.
So what is strange about this? Well, it’s basically another customer focus group but with a different vehicle. Using a closed version of Web 2.0 in a social network for this seems a bit, well, pointless really. Comments from Jorg Dietz of Nielsen Netratings to that effect made me smile:
Allerdings befürchtet er, dass in einer Community von bezahlten Bloggern ein verzerrtes Marktbild entstehe. Ein richtiges Anreizsystem sei ausschlaggebend für gute Inhalte, ansonsten würden Vielschreiber nur ihr Sackgeld aufbessern wollen.
Das grösste Problem ist jedoch die Abgeschlossenheit. Web-2.0-Gemeinschaften wie Wikipedia oder Myspace leben vom freien Informationsaustausch und -zugang… Er vergleicht diese Marktforschungsmethode mit jemandem, der gewaschen werden will, ohne dabei nass zu werden.
To paraphrase, Dietz thinks Migros hasn’t quite got it, and that paying people regardless of content encourages them to write anything for a bit more pocket money. Dietz also says that a closed community undermines the whole ethos of Web 2.0 networks that live and die by information exchange. He likens the venture to trying to wash yourself without getting wet. It’s not a highly original saying (in German), but one I’m fond of. I couldn’t agree more.