Provoke - The Insights Issue
Why an Insights Issue?
Insights are often talked about as hidden treasures that, once found, will lead us to new futures and fortunes. It’s as if unlocking an insight is a transformative experience that propels something from a static state to a new and dynamic one. However, "insight" is used so frequently that it can hardly be considered precious. Perhaps there’s a big difference in how clients and agencies see insight. For clients, part of this is because "insight" has replaced the term "market research"—a discipline that once sought to discover insights, but now, the end goal has become the discipline's title. The latest issue of Provoke explores the contemporary world of insight and the industry and discipline surrounding it.
From Joe Burns- insights come in different flavors- from human truths to levers on the cultural zeitgeist. Joe’s deck highlights eleven (sources of ) insight.
Growth Enabled by Deep Consumer Understanding
A graphic from Diageo showing the connection between deep consumer understanding and company growth. The core components of this are a “Foresight “System” and a framework for understanding consumer choice beyond category- “Consumer Choice Framework.” - developed in 2017 - now being rolled out globally.
From a presentation to capital markets in 2023.
Democratization of Insight
Corporations want to unleash their market research/insight across the organization and also into their ecosystem to share insight with partners.
Heineken uses a centralized system that gives everyone in the organization access. “We want insight in the hands of everybody in the company. And that's not to take away the job of our insights people. The more we democratize insight, the more we free up our time to work on more strategic projects and foresight work. We're doing more interesting work that our people love doing and spending less time just digging through research.”
Ikea’s founder believed in-home visits as one of the main methods of consumer understanding, so this research is ingrained in the company’s DNA. Every Ikea store is mandated to conduct at least 20 home visits a year. On each home visit, they ask 4 consistent questions- their favorite spots, frustrations, most loved items, and dreams. The company has now evolved this discipline to create the “Open Home” which allows the company to manage and share insights from the home visits.
From an interview by Kantar with Kirti Singh, Chief Analytics, Insights and Media Officer, P&G….. good example of how P&G uncovers, defines and uses insight….”in the UK (we) went to consumers' homes to figure out what was happening, and discovered that the gold standard for freshness in the UK is drying clothes outdoors on a sunny day. But as you know, Martin, that doesn't happen very often. Consumers struggled with that, so it led us to redesign products that work in that context and bring it alive in our communication and content strategy. Whether it's packaging or advertising, it brings alive the ability of Lenor to provide outdoor freshness to clothes even when drying indoors.”
More from P&G
The insights that won ARF awards.
Old Spice
For Old Spice- ethnographic research revealed that black men were using women’s body wash because they assumed it was superior to men’s offerings.
Cascade
Despite 75 percent of households having dishwashers, many people were only running them twice a week. Why? It was guilt! Consumers didn’t want to appear lazy and believed handwashing used less water.
Ingrid Enriquez-Donissaint highlights how Gary Klein identifies the six obstructions organizations can roadblock insights in a post. These barriers include- hierarchies,, process, and risk-aversion.
Insights are teachable and IDEO U runs a course that it describes as helping people to “better understand the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of your customers. The course will help you to “develop ideas for innovative products and services by keeping your customer needs at the center of the development process. Uncover deeper insights by planning and conducting great customer interviews. Inspire others through a well-crafted narrative about the insights you surfaced.”
Break The Broadcasting Genre Mold with AI
This work for the BBC uncovers how consumers define genres, format, and form for themselves vs. the category/industry conventions. This paper will presented at the ESOMAR Congress in Greece this September.
Rural America comes loaded with stereotypes. This research project by Zeus Jones for Land O’Lakes set out to explore and identify a new narrative for rural America.
“Our research uncovered a new narrative that Land O’Lakes could champion—one that broadens our mental models of "rural" and celebrates the unique assets that exist in America’s rural places. We translated our six core themes into storytelling implications and a comprehensive report that would help leaders at Land O’Lakes engage with and advocate for rural communities in a more authentic way. We helped orient the organization to the new content through internal workshops and activation brainstorming.”
The Responsibilities of Consumer Insights Professionals
Looking at job postings for recent consumer insights positions at Nike, Chobani, and Tapestry revealed some of the expectations companies demand from this role.
“Through objective investigation, the Consumer Insights team identifies consumers’ most crucial and relevant needs and communicates them back to the organization in a commercially relevant way.” Chobani
“Champion consumer insights across the organization” Tapestry
“Developing high-impact business cases to support investment in consumer-back trends and innovations.” Tapestry
“You will also manage external agencies and services to further build a comprehensive view of the market; focused on category, consumer, brand, and competition. And, with your strong analytical and communication skills, you will synthesize learnings and deliver key insights to catalyze action across Nike”
Advancing the Insights Function
A panel during the Insights On Conference Yale in May 2024 featured insights execs from PepsiCo, Unilever, Beam Suntory, and Mondelez. Key topics discussed- fighting to prove that they and their insights matter to their organizations, the definition of an insight- “An insight should unlock a door; if it doesn't lead to action, it's not really an insight." Nick Graham, Mondelez, the opportunity with AI to free up time to do more “creative” work, critical collaboration with data analytics, two types of insight talent “There are business insightful leaders who understand how to influence and shape the organization, and there are deep methodological experts who advance our models. We need both." Nick Graham, Mondelez
Improving the World of Insights
The Insights Association recently asked insights leaders on what they wish they could change to improve the discipline, here are three of the many responses they received to the question.
“I wish I could change the silo’s that exist in big corporates between Human Intelligence/Insights functions because we are so busy serving our target/function client groups that we rarely stop and connect the dots with each other, missing the opportunity to collectively build Insights capabilities across the hubs.”
Nic Umana, Global Agile Innovation Human Intelligence Director, Mars, UK
“I wish I could change the way Insights are used (and therefore, not abused). In this context I paraphrase David Ogilvy: (not to) use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, (but) for illumination. And, therefore, I’d like to elevate its stature and for it to have a seat at the table in all organisations.”
Ritanbara Mundrey, Global Head of Innovation & Insights, Nestle, Switzerland
“I wish the profession would have more self-confidence about the importance of what we do and stop trying to pretend to be management consultants or tech companies. We do need to work much harder on ensuring insights are delivered simply and succinctly - but that doesn’t mean taking for granted the fundamental importance of understanding data quality - especially in a world of AI and synthetic respondents.”
Ben Page, Chief Executive Office, IPSOS, France
Misc
Inari - a tool that puts all customer feedback into one place and uses AI to derive insight and new product ideas.