Overview

This document defines a consumer insight and its importance to the corporation. The key messages here are:

In this guide, you learn:

What is a consumer insight?

A consumer insight is profound understanding of consumers that leads to a business idea, which drives profitable growth.

A profound understanding of consumers

Consumer insights lie beyond the obvious interpretations of facts and observations. Profundity means that you have worked harder, looked further and used better tools and techniques to arrive at a special understanding and a clear or deep perception of consumer data.

To understand everything that might be relevant to the way in which consumers choose the brand, use the brand, react to the brand and think about the brand, we need to understand how they live, how they work, how they feel, the various roles they play in their lives, their hopes, aspirations, fears, values, desires, motives, etc. We also need to understand their cultural contexts and current societal changes, and link these to the relevance that our brand can provide.

Example
Barbie’s continuous insight into American society ensures that the new launches of Barbie dolls reflect the changing roles of women in the society. When Mattel launched a line of WNBA Barbie dolls it was seen as a sign of acceptance of women’s sports. And a couple of years ago, when Mattel launched a Day-to-Night Barbie representing the career woman with the theme “We girls can do anything, right, Barbie”; it generated huge publicity as it was seen as a remarkable change in society. (Barbie’s portrayals were limited to very traditional female portrayals before this). And, of course, Barbie continues to be a brand that has dominated the world of little girls since 1959.

Leads to a business idea that drives profitable growth

Insights need to be converted into business advantage – faster top line growth and wider gross margins. We must establish a clear line of development from the insight to the business idea. For example, Starbucks has always been more about the experience of coffee drinking than the coffee itself. But a deep understanding of its consumers led Starbucks to the insight that a large part of that experience is the music played in the retail establishments. Hence, Starbucks launched its own compilation CDs–an additional revenue stream that also positively impacts the brand equity.

The insight team should aim to find consumer and marketplace insights to drive business growth. These insights should then be effectively applied to business actions. The measure of all brand-building activities ultimately is profitable growth. Insights drive brand equity, which, in turn, drives profitable growth.

Bodyshop was launched when the World Wildlife Fund and other NGOs had long been advertising the horrors of testing cosmetics on animals. There were other bodies that talked about environment preservation. And the total lack of consumer response meant that no one really bothered. Despite these obvious facts and observations, Anita Roddick launched Bodyshop with a statement that its products were not tested on animals; she promoted Bodyshop by pushing her ideas about the environment. And suddenly it seemed that consumers did bother. Where direct talk had failed, what worked was an opportunity to express concern. The huge response to Bodyshop is a testimony to a deeper consumer insight that consumers are not mindless automatons but are thinking and feeling human beings who respond to stimuli that reach out beyond the obvious.

Why are consumer insights important?

Consumer insights are important because all marketing processes begin after the insights are in place.

Consumer insight is a key driver.

Insights are the starting point for defining the domain strategy. They are the key ingredients of the Brand Vision and Long-term Equity Appreciation Plan (LEAP).

There are many facets of core insights that can drive execution elements like advertising, promotions or direct marketing at every consumer touch point.

Example

Nike has leveraged the insights of courage, determination, competitive spirit and fun associated with sport to strike an emotional chord with its consumers over the years through the theme of ‘Just do it’. Nike has come to stand for performance. It's not just about a pair of shoes, it's about athletic performance and how people can use sports to make their lives better and richer.

Every Nike campaign has been a call for excellence, urging people to outdo themselves and to blaze trails like Nike’s many glorious brand ambassadors. Be it the ad challenging 55-year olds to jog or the one that encourages “good girls” to have “killer legs”.

Product diversifications have been strictly in keeping with the “Just do it” attitude. . After shoes and apparel, even the entry into fitness came after serious contemplation. Sub-brands like Air Jordan in basketball and Zoom in sprinting command cult following in their individual sports and reiterate the Nike ideology.

An important part of the brand’s legacy is its ambassadors. From John McEnroe to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Andre Agassi, Nike has roped in the best of sporting talent. Besides talent, Nike looks for certain personal traits that will ensure that its ambassadors abide well with the brand. And Nike has also done a great job of weaving the charisma of these individual superstars into the greater tapestry of the brand – be it McEnroe’s petulant individualism or Jordan’s flair or Lance Armstrong’s resilience, they are all part of the Nike legend.

The logo has been immensely successful in conveying speed and motion and forms the underlying theme in numerous logos now.

Insights are the lifeblood of all marketing programs

As we have seen with the Nike example, deep consumer insights are the bedrock of great brands. These insights are universal but their manifestations are many. These manifestations drive various marketing programs, be it product innovation or brand equity development or annual marketing plans or communication.

How to find consumer insights

The insight process is wholly about understanding consumers. There are various ways to find insights:

• Rigorous analysis of consumer data obtained through traditional research sources. (This data is represented in the VOC). Uncover insights by mining consumer data and looking for not-so-apparent trends and/or anomalies.
• Keeping a watch on large population trends is another way to uncover consumer insights. These trends could be societal, cultural or even driven by technology. These trends are a great indicator of the unarticulated needs of consumers.
• Tap experts in various fields like anthropologists, psychologists, doctors, sociologists, authors, feature writers to predict future consumer environment. Also speak with experts pertaining to your category/ domain.
• Meet, observe, spend time and empathize with the consumer. Use research agencies and train yourself to uncover moments of truth with the consumers.

Use both formal and informal sources of information to understand the consumer better. For detailed information on how to find consumer insights, please refer How To Be An Insight Detective: GUIDE and How To Look For insights: TIPS.

Developing an insights-hungry culture

A single person cannot be everywhere at the same time to successfully identify all insight opportunities ahead of competition. Hence, it is imperative that the organization develops a culture where all concerned—not just marketers, salespeople, researchers, but also technologists, senior management, etc—are encouraged to spot insight opportunities. Widespread use of process tools like IWIK (I wish I knew) and capturing insight opportunities by employees across all functions creates an insight-hungry culture.

For more information refer to IWIK: Guide.

Example
At IBM, one of the key initial changes was to shift from a product-centric view of its database to one where the customer was the focus of how its data was organized. Changing the way the data was organized was immensely time-consuming and expensive. But it was necessary to act as the springboard for the change in perception. ‘It’s not so much the software that’s the leading edge here,’ says a spokesperson for IBM, ‘but the thinking… through a management system that is consistent, timely and accurate worldwide, while providing data at a local level.’