How to solve the insights conundrum?

The insights industry faces a conundrum. There is a critical need to react faster to constantly changing market and category dynamics. On the other hand, there is a need to stay true to the meaning of insights, which is a deep understanding of a problem or question. Can we solve this conundrum? We probably can, but it requires a fundamental re-evaluation of how insights should be generated and subsequently applied.

Firstly, speed is not the answer. Just because you can get access to data in a day compared to months, does not mean that the insights you generate are more effective than before. Secondly, if we do not fundamentally change the way insights are used, getting them quicker does not make any difference. Finally, the most critical factor is visibility and timing, which are independent of the form and nature of insights.

An insights team in any organisation, whether small, medium or large, is taxed with a singular objective – getting the voice of the consumer into the brand-building process. The attitude of different organisations towards insights differs, which impacts the functionality and role of an insights team. Many organisations provide lip service to the voice of the consumer, while for many it is the core around which their brands are built. Regardless of the attitude, an insights team exists because there is a need for it.

A fundamental re-evaluation of the generation and application of insights needs to start at the definition itself. For an insights team to increase the effectiveness of their work, it needs to know two aspects upfront:

• the magnitude of change they are expected to bring in
• how these changes ladder up to the overall organisational or corporate strategy

When an insights team knows the answers to the above two questions, they are more prepared and attuned towards generating insights that are effective. In the majority of instances, the work an insights team is engaged in would be purely measurement and reporting. Innovation work requires exploratory research and so does creative development. But at the end of the day, everything needs to come together as a whole. For example, insights work on optimising a brand portfolio cannot be isolated into separate workstreams or different projects being done by different agencies.

Bringing about change is hard, and bringing it quickly is almost impossible. In all honesty, to drive change, insights teams do not need more tools, but a prioritisation matrix. Re-tooling essentially involves using prioritisation as a guiding factor to streamline time, energy, and financial as well as non-financial resources. To get insights deeper into brand building, the re-tooling can work in the following ways:

• Commit time and energy to projects that have medium or long-term change as core objectives (e.g. exploring a brand’s capability to stretch into a potentially lucrative adjacent category)
• Reinvigorate the learning process of understanding a brand portfolio, and without doing any form of research
• Utilise in-place measurement systems to keep a check on the brand’s pulse and major strategy initiatives but never as a panacea for future brand direction
• Actively look for opportunities to work as multi-functional teams on different aspects of brand building (e.g. working together with sales, trade, category management, finance and marketing)

Re-tooling an insights team is no longer an experiment in adding more dashboards, DIY survey tools, or data visualisation platforms to an individual’s kitty. It is all about a mindset change to understand and go deep into the application of an insight in the brand building process (and not getting fixated about how it was generated).