I think that if firearms manufacturers were interested in gaining marketing research via forums then they'd be better served making an official forums than browsing fan forums.
I remember that the Walther forums used to have a marketing analyst who would browse the forums and even post in threads semi-regularly, but eventually he got another job working for another company and drifted away. Nobody ever replaced him, (not vocally, at least) but I'm really not surprised seeing how hyper-critical the average user is in regards to Walther and their products, most often going into the realms of outright bashing than constructive criticism, ergo the Walther forums are essentially worthless for marketing research when almost everyone there is against the company, favoring only the Walther of a bygone era with standards which admittedly wouldn't be economical/profitable today.
Granted that the Walther forums are an extreme example, but many other forums have userbases consisting largely of haters/trolls who do nothing but nitpick minor details and bash the company without ever offering any suggestions on how they could improve their business, and the moderators are either complacent or in agreement with such negative sentiments.
Imagine if this very forum hadn't enacted rules against bellyaching over keylocks? There would be out of control whining about it everywhere and if S&W ever came here for research, they really couldn't find any new or helpful information, just the same regurgitated criticism they've been getting for decades which they obviously have no intention of addressing.
Forums can potentially be a good source of marketing research, but only under ideal circumstances in which the forum has a dedicated userbase of fans who regularly provide in-depth information in regards to how they feel the company could improve and/or the products that they would like to see, as well as a staff who enforces strict rules against bashing, which sadly isn't too common.
So yeah, any firearms manufacturers who are interested in gaining meaningful marketing research from forums would be best served by hosting their own official forums, thus providing a controlled environment in which users would be most likely to provide useful information, and troublemakers would swiftly get the boot.
Some of them do anyway. 
Not in a million years. 
