The Insight250 spotlights and celebrates 250 of the world’s premier leaders and innovators in market research, consumer insights and data-driven marketing. The inaugural list was revealed this April and created renewed excitement across the industry whilst strengthening the connectivity of the market research community.
With so many exceptional professionals named to the Insight250 it seems fitting to tap into their expertise and unique perspectives across an array of topics. This new weekly series will focus on doing just that; inquiring about the expert perspectives of many of these individuals in a series of short topical features.
This edition features two exceptional experts who deliver data insights for two of the world’s premier brands – Justine Clements is a Consumer Insights Manager for Samsung Australia and Shirley Ng, General Motors Research Principal for the Asia Pacific, Europe and Russia markets.
Sir Martin Sorrell is on record as saying that clients want agencies to provide things “better, faster, cheaper.” On a livestream broadcast last week by Behaviorally, Stan Sthanunathan, Executive Vice President of CMI at Unilever suggested that until recently clients had to pick two of these three but now with technology, they could have all three. In the same series, Eric Salama, described “Time” as a new currency, and something that had to be seen as a deliverable. Boots CMO, Peter Markey also talked about speed and agility. With this challenge being repeatedly raised I thought I’d explore these themes with these two leading global clients and Winners of the Insight250 and get their perspective on this topical issue.
Crispin: What do you currently see as the most significant challenge facing the effective delivery of insights in today’s markets?
Justine: “I think the challenge we are already facing is that our focus seems to be more on managing large volumes of data, and less on thinking about insights. Some of this work is supported by the available technology, but not enough of it at present. The challenge is balancing the role that technology can play in capturing and managing large volumes of data, with the need for a person to create a model or framework to guide the task of analysis or interpretation, and in particular, having a person to help use to solve complex problems.”
Shirley: “Trust is one key growing challenge facing brands and is a major factor in the evolving importance of data and why it should drive internal informed decision making. The variety and velocity of data that is openly searchable online is too often simply quoted and not as carefully scrutinized as it should be. This results in weak evidence for decisions which can lead to credibility issues for brands.”
Crispin: What is the most effective way you see in addressing and overcoming this challenge?
Shirley: “It’s so important to spend more time identifying the applicability of the evidence that is uncovered. Check the publication source and dates; verify the findings against other sources including contrarian arguments and assess the accuracy of the evidence in front of you.”
Justine: “I work in the tech industry, so to me, the natural solution is to leverage technology better. Build smarter tools to capture and manage data more effectively so there is time and space to think, create and solve problems with genuine insight. Like most things in life, it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it that matters, and the same goes for data. People get so excited about the volume of data, but they are often no wiser in their decision making despite having so much data. It still takes time and creativity to use it to support decision making and solve problems and I think people greatly underestimate the need for deep thinking and creativity in this industry.”
Crispin: With the market evolving quickly and consumers becoming increasingly sophisticated, how do you balance the need for speed and quality of data insights?
Justine: “With the availability of faster research methodologies, more stakeholders expect faster outcomes. However, good research, research that answers complex questions, those that need deep understanding and analysis, and quality recommendations, still takes time. I believe rubbish in, rubbish out, so quality of data collection is essential, cutting corners here is almost always a bad idea. Analysis can be sped up with better tools, processes and of course highly experienced researchers who can cut through data quickly to get to what’s important. Spending time creating charts that show what has been uncovered rather than the meaning of the discovery is something we should definitely spend less time doing. Achieving balance is a matter of knowing where and what can be traded off to ensure results are delivered quickly and accurately, and that the insights are quality ones.”
Shirley: “New technology can take care of speed in many ways. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a great technology that can save time and provide data visualization very quickly in the form of charts, as long as the data sets are available to the tool being used. Technology can retrieve data from massive archives that allows us to visualize information much faster than manual extractions. However, this should not be the end of the analysis. The human brain has the capability of re-experiencing events from lingering memories. So when we see a data point that reminds us of a past similar event, this memory can trigger a cascade and allows related experiences to echo. This is something we call insights. AI as an emerging technology allows for quick data visualization, but it is the human brain that re-experiences and re-combines information through creative imagination to determine the applicability to the specific analysis. The strength of the resulting evidence eliminates unnecessary mistakes that wastes money and time.”
Crispin: If you had to pick one, which is more important: speed or quality of insights and why?
Shirley: “Velocity is driving the evolving importance of evidence. This becomes a focus simply by the wider array of information available to us now – online blogs, social groups, research publications widely searchable on the web as a few examples. We look for clues (evidence), but need to determine the applicability of the information to the specific analysis. Due to the increasing volume of data available to us, the predictive function of marketing research requires us to be more cautious of evidence put in front of us. This sorting and evaluating credibility of available evidence on hand becomes much more important than the past. It also requires an extra layer of work in the evaluation process of what evidence we can and cannot use for well-informed decision making. Since decision making is largely driven by velocity (speed) of response from a company to its customers’ changing tastes and fast moving trends, evidence is becoming increasingly crucial. Velocity of change (much of which is due to COVID-19) is driving the marketplace demanding faster decisions.
Justine: “Quality for me wins almost every time. Obviously there are time critical decisions that have to be made and you either have insight to support rapid decision making or you have to rely on your experience. Those are rare cases, businesses move quickly, technology more than most but business questions are pretty predictable. On an ongoing basis, we track what is important so we can provide timely insights and we anticipate the research needs of the business through effective planning and understanding the bigger business objectives. Having said that, I actually love it when someone comes to me with a question I haven’t anticipated, something that really makes me think and look at things differently, and challenges me.”
In conclusion, it seems to me that enterprises do indeed want everything “better, faster and cheaper” and with the advent of technologies such as AI they can finally achieve this goal. As consumers become increasingly savvy and their decisions become more dynamic, the importance of relying on human intelligence to develop the initial hypothesis and apply business nous and commercial acumen to findings is even more critical. This ensures that findings are evidence based and both relevant and deliverable for the organisation. If we do that we can harness the power of new technologies to help deliver meaningful and reliable insights “better, faster, cheaper.”
Top tip
Shirley: “AI is powerful as a quick data visualization tool, but human intelligence to re-experience and recombine information through creative imagination delivers powerful insights.”
Justine: “We need to build smarter tools to capture and manage data more effectively so there is time and space to think, create and solve problems with genuine insight.”
Next week I’m looking forward to interviewing Insight250 Winners Babita Earle, James Endersby and Jennifer Perry about the important issue of Mental Wellbeing and its importance for leaders and its impact on innovation
