Listen. I’ve been in the market research business for a long… time. Over 20 years to be exact. Most of which I’ve spent at The Sound (ya, I know, a true lifer). Which means, according to my official title (VP, Head of Analysis), it’s been my job to work with our teams to analyze data and find the most compelling consumer insights. To ensure what we deliver to clients is meaningful… and most importantly, impactful. So our clients walk away thinking to themselves, “those people are smart as f*ck and nothing they do is ever boring!” So ya, no pressure.
But I’m not sharing this with you to toot my own horn or to increase the chances that you may actually finish reading this blog. I am sharing this with you because… I have a secret. A deep, dark, mind-bending, heart-wretching, life-altering secret. A secret that literally puts into question my purpose, my whole reason for existing! A secret that I don’t even want to admit to myself.
So here it goes… come closer… a little closer…
[whisper] I don’t really know what a consumer insight is [whisper].
There, I said it! Phew! I have to say it feels good to finally get that off my chest. So, you’re probably asking yourself, why shoot myself in the proverbial foot like this? Because I think this is an important, if not critical, conversation to have, especially with the advent of generative AI.
Questioning what we know for certain, what we think we know, and what we sure as hell have no clue about, provides us with a big, beautiful opportunity… to reflect. To examine what the terms and concepts we use everyday (like “consumer insight”) actually mean to us, to our business, and to our clients. Otherwise, we’re feeling our way through the dark. Continuing to default to old ways of thinking just because it’s comfortable.
So let’s get a little uncomfortable, shall we?
What’s a Consumer Insight?
Well, that’s a great question, I’m glad you asked (as my blood pressure slowly rises). In fact, I literally can’t count the number of times someone has asked me that. Or the number of times colleagues have shared blogs, links, or white papers attempting to define it. Or the endless hours I’ve spent trying to design training material to “teach” others to find it for themselves. It’s been crazy making.
So maybe it’s best to start by defining what a consumer insight isn’t. Ya, let’s start there and see how that goes.
A consumer insight isn’t a hypothesis: A hypothesis is an educated guess as to what might be true out there in “the world”, that can either be supported or denied based on cold, hard data. But it’s not an insight.
It’s not a fact: A fact is something already known to be true based on highly robust, repeatedly proven, refereed journal article type stuff. Like the law of gravity, or something. In other words, it takes a lot for a piece of information to become widely acknowledged as fact. But it’s not an insight.
It’s not a finding: A finding is something we might glean from a data tab. Certainly something that may be interesting, or something we didn’t know before. Perhaps even something that could live proudly in the headline of a report. But still, not quite an insight.
And it sure as hell isn’t an observation: An observation is just what we can see or measure. For example, observing that people watch a lot of TV in the evening. Or that parents tend to give in to their kids more on the weekends than during the work week. Worth noticing, yes. But, consumer insight? Nope.
So what is a consumer insight then and why does it matter?
Well, according to Gemini Advanced, there doesn’t appear to be a single, universally agreed upon definition of a “consumer insight” (which, I have to say, is incredibly validating). But there are a few things consumer insights tend to have in common. A set of themes, if you will, for all you insight professionals out there.
- A consumer insight tends to be about… well, people: Ya, no shit Sherlock. But it’s still important to state, and here’s why. The participants we study are often referred to as ‘consumers’, or ‘clients’, or ‘customers’, or heaven forbid… ‘end users’… but we need to remember they’re people first. Yes, people. With jobs, and cats, and cars… but also hopes and dreams, and fears, and deep, deep insecurities. A true ‘consumer insight’ starts underneath all of that. It lives in the internal tensions people experience in everyday life. So before understanding someone’s relationship with a bar of soap, a cell phone or an energy drink… or Dove, or Apple, or Red Bull… people (and all of their peopleness) need to be the focus.
- It’s derived from data: Whether that be numbers, words, images, video, or a mix of any of the above, an insight needs to come from somewhere. Not from thin air. That would be more of an idea than an insight. It needs to come from the data we observe, collect, and measure (either qualitatively or quantitatively) out there in the world.
- It can’t be too obvious: The prerequisite of an insight is that it goes deeper than just a surface-level observation or finding, helping to explain the “why” behind what people do, how they think, and what they feel along the way. An insight tends to focus on aspects of the human condition like values, needs, motivations, insecurities, and desires. The really juicy stuff.
- It needs to be actionable: It needs to inspire you to DO something. To make a decision, to change your mind, or to take an even bigger risk. It forces you to look at a situation from a new perspective and see a path of action you never would have noticed before. You know, that light bulb moment… but the light bulb in this case has a big flashing arrow on it pointing you in the direction you need to go in.
- It needs to be meaningful to a brand: And what is meaningful to a brand depends on the brand’s history, its current equity, its internal politics, its future trajectory… all of the complicated, and at times controversial, context that lives around the brand that as consultants we don’t always get to see. Which is why those hard conversations with clients (the kind of conversations that can make your stomach turn) are important to have, right from the beginning. Questions like: Why are you doing this work in the first place? What are you afraid of? What is the biggest threat to your brand? What internal politics could get in the way of your brand growing? Uncomfortable yes, but good.
Ok, still not getting it! How is a consumer insight different from a data point, finding, or observation?
Maybe we’re looking at it the wrong way. Maybe a consumer insight isn’t something that can be defined or put in a tidy, little box. Maybe it’s a feeling. Here, let me explain.
Think back to a time when you were in a brainstorm with your team or you were listening to a debrief… and someone said something that gave you that feeling, where…
Your eyes light up.
You lean in on your chair.
You get goosebumps running down your forearms.
A pit of excitement quickly forms in your stomach.
Your mouth gets dry and you begin to stutter.
You feel an immediate desire to make eye contact with every person in the room.
And you say, “That’s it!”
“That makes perfect sense!”
“That is the answer!”
That’s a consumer insight. It’s a piece of information that quite literally moves you. To think differently. To feel differently. To do differently.
Now, are you going to get that feeling from everything you hear in a brainstorm session or a debrief? Hell no. And that’s ok, you’re not supposed to. But the trick is to notice it when you do.
So, how do you spot a good consumer insight when you see one?
An insight isn’t something you find. It reveals itself. You just need to make sure all of the right conditions are there.
Think of it like a recipe of sorts (and I’m no cook, but bear with me).
A consumer insight is:
1 part attention: In order to reveal an insight, you need to be paying attention. Very close attention to ALL of the little things you hear, see, feel and sense. Not only in field – like the subtle expression on a person’s face as you ask them a question, or the pictures they have hanging on their bedroom wall, or how they interact with their cat. But also in the raw data – the specific words people choose to describe their lives, their thoughts, their feelings, their fears. All these things tell you something about how they perceive a category or a brand, even the bits they purposefully leave out. All are important clues to the deeper stuff going on, underneath the surface. It means reading between the lines and paying attention to the stuff that may go unnoticed. Which requires one thing: Giving enough of a shit to be curious and really listen for it.
1 part intuition: In order to reveal insight, you need to be ok with feeling like you’ve heard it all before. I know this sounds counterintuitive, but insights often feel almost too relatable. Like deja vu. Novel but oddly familiar at the same time. This is often when a less experienced insight professional goes “Holy shit! I’ve found nothing here! I am doomed!”. They begin to question whether something feels “new” enough and might threaten to throw it all away! But it’s a trick. A consumer insight should make sense. This a good thing. This means you’ve touched on something deeply meaningful and human.
2 part guts: This is a biggie, so listen closely. A consumer insight needs to have guts. A whole lot of guts! And by this I mean it needs to be bold. It needs to shake people out of any bias, or assumption, or erroneous hypothesis that continues to hold them captive. This means the person delivering it shouldn’t mince words. They need to use language that will cut through the noise and wake people up. Ultimately, a consumer insight should be driven by what a brand team needs to hear, not necessarily what they want to hear.
1 part glue: Finally, a consumer insight has to be, what I call, “sticky”. This means that the actual language used to communicate the insight is so compelling that even the person hiding in the back of the room on their cellphone can’t ignore it. So compelling that people listening are inspired to share stories about how they can relate to the insight. So compelling that a client will come back to you ten years down the road and say, “We are still referencing your work!” (true story). At The Sound, we like these insights so much we put them on their very own slides.
Hmmm, now that I think of it… I might actually know a thing or two about what a consumer insight is ; )
If you’re looking for meaningful consumer insights to amplify your marketing efforts, drive empathy, come up with something new, or inspire creative, give us a shout. We’re here to help!
Written By:
Brynn Harris
As a founding member of the Sound, Brynn has played an integral role in shaping what The Sound is today. She works closely with all our teams, uncovering powerful narratives that move people and brands. She is the mastermind of our Sound Track process and ensures that our work is always exceptional.
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