An Australian marketing research software company is hoping to change the way brands conduct research into online behaviour through the emerging field of internet ethnography, or ‘netnography’.

Australian customer-insight start-up Beehaviour launched in the local market today claiming that its proprietary software will allow market researchers and organisations to gather information about online consumer behaviour “like never before”.

Beehaviour is the brainchild of 30 year-old Sydney-based market researcher Jordan Thomas, who along with two other founding partners, have been developing and refining the software since 2013.

The company says that the key differentiator of its patented technology is its ability to trigger pre-programmed questions before, during and after participants browse the web from home or elsewhere. These pre-programmed questions allow researchers and clients alike to understand how and why specific metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), consideration and awareness may change because of online behaviour.

The software also allows researchers to understand where the target audience browses, when they browse and for how long.

The concept works similarly to the TV ratings system, in that it starts by recruiting a panel of identifiable respondents based on a target market or stakeholder group (it can also include internal groups such as employees) who activate a web browser extension each time they want to record a browsing session.

The software then enables researchers to program and trigger specific questions to be asked of the participants relating to their behaviour and online choices before, during and after browsing.

The company says this will allow researchers to form a deeper understanding of key motivational drivers for online behaviour and provide organisations with direct ‘voice of the customer’ feedback that can be used for things like web design, product pricing and new product development.

Beehaviour has already been working with Tesco, which has utilised the platform to obtain insights into the behaviour of students who are seeking jobs with the organisation. By utilising the ‘voice of the graduate’ in the design of its Early Careers homepage, Tesco was able to garner direct feedback on the design of the site that was used to greatly simplify the homepage before the commencement of 2016 enrolments.

‘Netnography‘ was first coined in 2009 and refers to ethnography that uses internet marketing research techniques to analyse the free behaviour of people on the internet.