12.

2: CONSUMER INSIGHTING BASICS

*Insights – fundamental truths about the consumer wants and needs
- not just on the surface
- problems that affect their decision-making
- most powerful motivation of the consumer
- what you derive from the consumer

*Marketing becomes meaningful and successful only to the extent that it connects with a real, live
human being: the consumer

Key Insight
- key insight is “seeing below the surface”/seeing inside the consumer
- insight expresses the totality of all that we know from seeing inside the consumer (i.e. extensive
research is necessary)
- single aspect of this that we use gain competitive advantage
- not just for the sake of knowing it, but also so it could be used as comp. adv.
- By identifying a specific way:
o that the brand can either solve a problem or
o create an opportunity for the consumer
- e.g. DOVE: Soap leaves my skin feeling dry and tight (opportunity  /something the others
don’t have/ or problem)
- it will require two separate thoughts to be related to each other in a new and fresh way
you have 2 entities everytime you embark on something
o brand insight (product)
o consumer insight (consumer)
- often the process will lead to several insights
- several truths that you will uncover
- choose the right insight: most powerful (will generally be enduring)
- not time-bound because it’s a TRUTH
- will take a while to change the reality
- something a brand can constantly deliver
- the one to use is the one that offers the source of greatest competitive advantage
o doesn’t exist to just be a usable truth; has to be usable in a competitive advantage
o will form some kind of differentiation
- no need for insight to change if you have identified the higher-order needs of consumers
- have a deep-stake knowledge of the consumer
- keep asking why to find the real need behind the obvious insight
- remember, the insight is always the basis for a brand’s positioning
- there’s no substitute for consumer knowledge

How to find one? (Qualitative)

o What are the ways in which the category/brand can improve someone’s life?
o What are the conflicting needs that people face and that the brand can solve?
o How important is it that the product delivers? Who will notice?
o What is the standard of excellence in the category?
o With every answer you get, you need to probe deeper: “Why is that?”
- destined to understand something deeper: quantitative driving qualitative

CONSUMER INSIGHTING
– allows marketers to use consumer knowledge that can lead to effective creative ideas that sell
brands
– enables marketers to “read” consumers and respect them for what they are and to speak to
them with genuine understanding
– what they need, what they feed, what they think, what they believe
 – many times we think that we know more than them

Standard minimum: 1000 respondents (differs on the design of the tool)

Demands that marketers go beyond knowing who their consumers are:

o understanding
o respect
o empathy

UNDERSTANDING
- most basic – result of a previous effort of research
Discovering the richest consumer insight is critical to engaging them
How do we do it?
o By understanding how consumers view and relate to the brand and what inspires and motivates
them to act
o Brands that tap into people’s deepest desires make strong lasting connections with those
people.
o Deep desires most often come from a feeling of lack but can also result from seeking a place of
safety, peace, or comfort.

The following are some of the deep desires in which brands continue to be linked:
- to be liked - attractive - unique - sovereign, free or
- to be smart - sexy - make a difference independent
- accomplished - admired - belong - noticed
- have high status - accepted - in control - have purpose
- power over others

 how a brand addresses a desire

 find out what’s behind that: they don’t really talk about it but you have to discover it
 Any brand that can make people feel as though they have a little bit more of, if they interact with the
brand will connect with those pople on a deeply emotional level
e.g. beer: the need to belong
clothing: brands tap into the need to be sexy or attractive
tobacco: masculine affirmation
mobile plan: need for connectivity

hp  in a digital world
immediate: capturing moments; sharing moments
deeper: need to preserve experience

 Brand Insight – precedes the other elements; drawn from the intrinsics of the brand (properties,
heritage) – what it can deliver; positioning can draw from this

RESPECT
o Organizations should strive to treat everyone of its customers as it would of a beloved friend or
family member, with that same level of caring and respect
o Branding strategy insider
o Many marketers fall into this kind of behavior (e.g. politicans  they’re brands and products)
o The moment somebody complains, you have to pull it out

Respecting Consumer Behavior

o Never assume that you know your consumer enough
 o Limiting your people definitive to psychographics, attitudes, and usage habits may not always
be sufficient
o Having a clear understanding of each type of mindset (predispositions) and behavior that
characterizes the target consumer is imperative
o Your target segment profile description is more actionable if you can visualize evidence of their
profile with a specific behavior (observable)

Respecting Consumer Emotional Needs

o Determine precisely how the target consumer … feels about a … product, and even more critical,
coming up with an insight that identifies what she/he yearns for that is the highest relational,
expressive-to-self beenfit that transcends product use.
o How a product impacts a person’s life goes back to the consumer’s desires

EMPATHY
o Empathy is a powerful tool for gaining richer insight into your customer’s brand or product
experience
o Gaining deeper knowledge into what influences and drives customer behavior requires one to
walk a mile in the customer’s shoes
o You can’t build empathy with your customers sitting behind the glass in a focus group, or
putting them through long complex surveys

Live the Customer

o How you get to know your customer, from insight building, to how you communicate with them
in media and how you engage with them in post-purchase – are all touch points for engaging
customers with greater empathy.
o Empathy must be a core value of the promise your brand values.
o Through conversation, there is a genuine desire to share experience and build relationship