The role of consumer insight in strategy

Insight is one of the more prominent concepts in the world of advertising and marketing. What is insight and what is it not? How can one find good insights? Is an insight necessary to create a good campaign? Let’s try to answer these questions.

Insight is a concept that can pose difficulties even at the definition stage. Therefore, let’s start with the definition.

What is Consumer Insight?

Insight is a truth about human needs and motivations that usually remains at a deeper, often unconscious level. Mark Pollard uses the term “unspoken human truths” to describe these insights. These are truths that allow us to see ourselves and the world in a new way.

Insight contradicts stereotypical thinking. It’s a moment of sudden “aha!” An instance of surprise, like “I thought it was just me!” Julian Cole even used a stronger phrase: “The insight is a revelation.” A true, engaging insight is a gateway to the consumer’s emotions. It allows you to capture attention and prompt a new perspective on a problem.

What is insight not? An observation. Insight does not refer to what people do, but why they do it. It uses observation, fact analysis, and in-depth psychological knowledge to define the tensions and conflicts governing human behavior. Ultimately, it allows you to view a problem in a way that also benefits the brand. As Julian Cole notes, this can be done in two ways: by redefining the problem or bringing new, surprising solutions.

Types of Consumer Insights

In marketing practice, two types of consumer insights are distinguished: communication insights and strategic insights.

A communication insight can be the starting point for talking about the brand, serving as a foundation for advertising campaigns and brand communication. Strategic insight, on the other hand, forms the basis for creating new products and services that can meet previously unmet consumer needs (example: Knorr’s “Pomysł na…” as a response to the need for a daily meal idea for the family). Both types of insights fit into planning long-term and short-term marketing activities.

What Makes a Good Insight?

Insight creates a new context for talking about a product. The extent to which an insight is impactful serves as the starting point for evaluating the potential of a concept. Those based on strong insights have the chance to touch the minds and hearts of recipients.

So, what should a good insight be like? Radosław Kaczmarek pointed out five key aspects:

• Simplicity – An insight may (and even should) seem like a simple and obvious truth.
• Relevance – Only by touching on important issues for the consumer does the insight have the potential to elicit an emotional response.
• Emotionality – This translates into building a strong relationship with the brand and a desire to act.
• Universality – Refers to a broader target group.
• Authenticity – By being rooted in the real problems and experiences of the customer, the insight is perceived as true and credible.

Classical theory defines a good insight through the principle of the four R’s, according to which it should be rooted in reality (Reality), relevant to the problem (Relevance), resonating (Resonates), and prompting action (Reaction).

Insight in an Advertising Campaign

Everyone is familiar with the slogan “You’re not yourself when you’re hungry.” Precisely because it conveys a truth about human nature, it might happen that when someone is acting out of character, we tell them: eat [insert name of a popular candy bar with satisfying peanuts and caramel]. Creating an insight so strong that an element of the campaign can enter everyday speech is probably every marketer’s dream.

However, sometimes an insight derives from language. Everyone recognizes the saying “feeling off,” which existed in the language before being skillfully used by a supplement manufacturer.

Going further, the basis for creating consumer insight can be common beliefs shared by the target group, common category problems/flaws, consumer habits, new trends, established standards of excellence for a given category, or a difficult situation/problem the consumer faces. Thus, one could say that an insight can be found almost anywhere.

Referring back to the distinction that an insight helps to find a solution or redefine a problem – in the aforementioned candy bar campaign, the creators, based on a strong insight, introduced the product as the ideal answer to the conflict experienced by the consumer.

It would look somewhat different in the iconic Nike campaign “Find your greatness.” By delving into the frustrations and conflicts associated with sports for so-called “ordinary people,” the brand created the insight: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” This redefined the concept of greatness, showing that greatness is not reserved for professional athletes. A true insight allowed for the creation of a moving campaign and building desired emotions around the brand.

To create a good insight, it is essential to understand the world of the audience’s experiences, their problems, and behaviors, even (or perhaps especially) when the audience is a narrow group. An example of this is the campaign “Why Do You Need This?” implemented by Neon Shake for the Decathlon brand.

Our target group was climbers, mountaineers, and more broadly, people whose passion is the mountains. During interviews with representatives of the target group, a problem of misunderstanding from the public emerged, which they face daily. Accusations of taking unnecessary risks and a lack of understanding of their sporting passion. We decided to address this conflict.

We invited Maciej Stańczak – a mountaineer and mountain rescuer – to collaborate. A person associated with mountains for years. During an expedition to Makalu in 2011, Maciej suffered serious injuries. In a video shot in a mountainous setting, he answered the rhetorical question often heard by those heading into the mountains: Why do you need this? In a personal statement, he explained what the mountains truly give him and why, despite tragic experiences, they remain his passion.

We posed the same question – Why do you need this? – to all mountain enthusiasts in a contest, where the prize was mountain training with the campaign’s hero.

An important aspect of the campaign was also mountain safety. We produced two educational films on preventing hypothermia and how to prepare for a mountain expedition.

Accurately captured insight in this case allowed the brand to address the problem in two aspects: on the one hand, building a bridge between climbers and the rest of society. On the other hand, reminding that proper equipment and preparation are the basis of safety in the mountains and, in many cases, help avoid unnecessary risks.

It is also worth mentioning the campaign “Active Parent – Active Child,” implemented by Neon Shake for the Purella brand, producer of healthy bars for children, BeRAW Kids.

The brand, co-created by trainer Ewa Chodakowska, aimed to convince parents to care about their children’s activity and healthy diet. The reason: nowadays, children spend more and more time in front of screens and less on physical activity. As a result, more of them are struggling with being overweight.

In the course of strategic work, an insight emerged that presented the problem in a new context. Children do not engage in sports because… they take after their parents. Young children automatically copy adult behaviors, learn attitudes from them, and adopt their habits. To address the problem, we created the “Active Parent – Active Child” platform, where we encouraged parents and children to engage in joint activities through education and activations with rewards.

How to find Insight?

Defining insight requires multi-stage research, observation, analysis, and communication work. This process includes various methods, among which the most commonly mentioned are:

• Qualitative Research – in-depth interviews and observations conducted on a group of category users. Interviews are often conducted by marketing researchers or market research specialists.
• Data Analysis – using quantitative data such as reports or statistics. Seeking information on customer purchasing habits may also involve analyzing purchase data, such as transactional data or loyalty program data.
• Internet Research – delving into broadly understood User Generated Content. Particularly useful is analyzing product reviews, user opinions, social media content (especially on internet forums), or comments under articles. Internet research can also benefit from available market monitoring tools or even Google Trends.
• Observing Consumer Behavior in stores, points of sale, or while using products. A special type of behavior observation is participant observation, where the researcher enters a social environment and observes the community from within.
• Focus Groups – sessions in small groups where representatives of the target group can respond to questions, formulations, or ideas related to a product or service.
• Surveys, Polls, Quizzes – allowing data collection from a large number of customers quickly, without involving large budgets. They can be conducted in person, by phone, or by email.
• Neuromarketing Research – such as EEG studies or emotional response studies, which allow examining the brain’s reaction to marketing stimuli.
• AI – increasingly used in searching for insights. One technique for obtaining insights is, for example, querying the most common stereotypes associated with a product – and then turning them into advantages to gain a new perspective on a problem.

To obtain the best results, it is good to combine different research methods. Practitioners emphasize that this process requires thoroughness, patience, and readiness to “walk in the shoes” of the audience. And a good insight can be encountered at the most unexpected moment.

FAQ

What is consumer insight?

Answer: Consumer insight is a truth about human needs and motivations that usually remains at a deeper, often unconscious level. It allows us to see ourselves and the world in a new way.

How does insight differ from observation?

Answer: Insight does not refer to what people do, but why they do it. Observation focuses on facts and behaviors, while insight uses in-depth psychological knowledge to understand motivations and tensions.

What are the types of consumer insights?

Answer: There are two main types of consumer insights: communication insights, which are the basis for creating advertising campaigns, and strategic insights, which help in creating new products and services.

What qualities should a good insight have?

Answer: A good insight should be simple, relevant, emotional, universal, and authentic. It should also be rooted in reality, relevant to the problem, resonate with the audience, and prompt action.

What methods can be used to find an insight?

Answer: Various methods can be used, such as qualitative research, data analysis, internet research, observation of consumer behavior, focus groups, surveys, neuromarketing research, and AI.