With the growing impact of vaccination campaigns in some regions and markets re-opening in Europe and the US, we ask Alex Hunt, CEO of Behaviorally (formerly PRS) and Mark Langsfeld, Insight250 Chair, and CEO of mTab how this is affecting the projects that clients are commissioning.
The past year has been demanding for consumers and companies alike. Mark Langsfeld notes that consumers have been forced to change and adapt their purchasing habits and behaviours due to restrictions, isolation and short-supply inventories. As communities relax their restrictions and markets re-shift, brands are finding it challenging to understand consumer preferences and anticipate their behaviours. “For example, with the increased adoption of online engagements like grocery shopping and banking, many consumers will continue to prefer these digital options, and this poses a significant challenge to brands with staffing, investments, promotions and innovations.”
He anticipates that the opportunity within this challenge is significant. “Companies that invest in insights and ethnographic data, which often exists across their technology platforms, will gain a holistic understanding of their customers’ changed behaviours. This can become a sustainable competitive advantage that can drive customer affinity and loyalty when engagements are aligned to deliver exceptional experiences.”
Better understanding
Alex Hunt (CEO, Behaviorally) notes that consumer behaviour was already trending digital before the pandemic. “Moreover, all the growth will come from online shopping channels so understanding that will be ever more important and is central to Behaviorally’s strategy. The most interesting part is the digital grocery arena which is growing from 45 to 55% per annum, catching up with physical shopping.” His company has built its strategy around digital collection and the vast majority of the data it collects is online data.
In helping companies navigate rapid change, Hunt believes that the majority of his company’s work for the next 18 to 24 months will come from answering digital shopper questions. “Clients want to have greater understanding in two areas. One is in the online shopping environment and the digital e-commerce shelf where they want us to help them define which activations work or don’t work. There is a real leadership opportunity for insights here as a lot of work has been done using text analytics to assess platform compliance on product display pages and there is also a lot of quantitative data about what shoppers are doing but little insight about why people are making certain choices at the digital shelf.”
He adds that the second big growth area is about shoppers’ choices and their online vs offline journey. “The overlap is growing so clients want to understand that grey area of the purchase. Technology is challenging business models in all sorts of sectors and categories including toothpaste and soup where you wouldn’t traditionally expect to see such growth in e-commerce sales. The growth of digital shopping is also irrespective of the type of customer noting that senior shoppers have now learned about click and collect.”
New models?
According to Hunt, as the pandemic has forced such huge changes in terms of GDP and consumer behaviour, a lot of the conventional wisdom the research industry had in place no longer applies, which presents a challenge. He adds “If we in insights don’t change at the same speed as consumers’ behaviour, how can we hope to fulfil our raison d’etre which boils down to explaining why people do what they do? On the other hand, there are huge opportunities for those companies and client-side functions that can adapt and change as quickly as consumer behaviour.”
Does this mean that longstanding theories about consumer behaviour are being broken open? “I think that certain elements of human behaviour are consistent and it’s important to have a consistent framework for how we think about human behaviour. Behaviorally has been built around behavioural science research since our founding in 1972 so we have a clear body of work about the barriers and benefits that drive people to make decisions and their psychological motivations. That’s our anchor point in a sea of change. But with the rapid change in context and the range of inputs modifying that behavioural model, it’s going to be a blend of the two that best provides understanding of the post pandemic consumer.”
Does this vary per region or market? “Many truths about human behaviours are based on cultural norms and the pace of change differs per category, cohort and country. For instance, in parts of Asia where the pandemic was generally responded to better by governments and societies, structures for e-commerce were already in place before COVID. Many digital shopping paths emerged in China as a result of the SARS pandemic so there is a different degree of change. But fundamentally the world will be much more digital and insights professionals need to understand those changes.”
Diverse datasets
Meanwhile, Langsfeld is observing significant changes within the business. “Our customers are now seeking an expanded list of data sources and want to integrate these diverse datasets to gain a comprehensive view of their customers. Traditionally, our clients use these insights to set strategy and drive innovation. Customers are looking to become more forward-thinking and customer-centric with insights that drive major product developments and investments that will carry the company into the next decade.”
He adds that mTab is also adding customers from new markets, like digital streaming and entertainment. As consumer consumption and spending changes, customers want to be able to anticipate market shifts for their short- and long-term strategies to drive success.
“In turn, we are evolving our business with enhanced data management, visualisation capabilities and access to content from top providers around the world, across a spectrum of markets. We are also working to empower brands with new self-service capabilities to expand access across their organisations and further democratise these insights. This will help us play a stronger role in how companies understand and motivate their customers, as well as influence and shape markets.”
New habits
Despite the market challenges over the past year, Langsfeld says the company has seen a number of positives. “Team communication has strengthened with frequent virtual meetings that have increased trust across the organisation which includes operations across 40 countries. A number of initiatives adopted over this past year are here to stay in terms of internal communication.
“Furthermore, this period has also ignited numerous product innovations for the company which
won the MRS ‘Best Data Solution’ award in 2020. We help our clients become customer-centric with our solutions, but we enhanced our own customer-centricity in order to understand the evolving challenges and pain-points our clients are facing.”
mTab also wanted to play a role in elevating the industry and celebrating the sector’s successes. So it launched the Insight250 spotlighting 250 leaders from around the world to celebrate the leaders and innovators across market research, data insights and data-driven marketing and is planning to expand the Insight250 and making it a mainstay.
Back to the office?
Meanwhile, with restrictions easing on working from home, which options is Alex Hunt exploring with regard to his team? “We believe in the magic of interpersonal interaction but also that five days a week in the office is a thing of the past so we have already actioned a hybrid model. We were implementing this before the pandemic and have accelerated it.
“We believe in people and teams having autonomy in how they want to approach any given engagement. Meanwhile, staff feedback shows consistently that our team members value both flexibility and, most all, the option for togetherness, in the way their work. Sure, we have the best job in the world, understanding why people make the choices they do and we’re passionate about helping our clients with our mission to drive shopper growth, but it’s working together as a team and the team itself that makes Behaviorally a great place!”
