An introduction to consumer insight, what it is, how you can get insights and how it contributes to advertising/marketing communication

1. Karthik Jeganathan
PGDAM 2016-2017
karthik@purplemango.co.in

2. Definition of Consumer Insight
Research vs Insight: Is there a Difference?
Insights Begin with Information
Gaining Insight: The Process
Characteristics of Insight
A Case Study: How Insightful Campaigns are Built
Class Exercise: Dove
Conclusion

3. "A non-obvious understanding about your
customers, which if acted upon, has the potential to
change their behaviour for mutual benefit".
- Paul Laughlin

4. Insight is “non-obvious”, so it does not normally
come from just one source of information and
often does not come from just analysis or just
research; rather there is a need to converge
evidence to glean insights.
True insights need to be “action-able”;
hypotheses which stay theoretical and cannot be
tested in practice are not insights.

5. Insight are powerful. Discovering and benefitting
from consumer habit is not the same as insight.
Insight if acted upon can change behaviour
Fourth, to be sustainable, the goal of such
customer change must be for "mutual benefit".

6. An insight is an interpretation, a “reading” of a
given situation/ behaviour/ belief state that
explains the dynamics of that situation in a
different way, that allows marketing and
business to approach and influence the end-state
differently.
Insights invariably delivers a narrative. Research
delivers data that can be summarised and forms
the basis of a recommendation. But good
insights often start with proper research

7. Discover the value of personal interviews
Observe users in their natural environment
Watch how consumers buy your product
Attend an event or trade show
Gauge the competition

8. GATHER Information
ANALYZE Facts
ABSORB Knowledge
UNLOCK Understanding
And then hopefully…INSIGHT!!!

9. Bring the consumer to the heart of your thinking
Bring together research findings, understanding
of trends, unmet consumer needs, behaviour and
wider experience
Help identity opportunity and inspire innovation
Fuel the way brands foresee and respond to
consumer needs

10. The Problem
For a long time Always led the category around the world,
thanks to constant innovation and the superior
performance of its products. With time, though,
functional differentiation between brands narrowed.
Competitors also started to engage young women at a
more emotional level and to connect with them on social
media.

11. The Problem
The result was that Always lost relevance with the 16- to 24-
year-old age group. This was a big issue in a category
where, research shows, women tend to stay very loyal
once they find a brand they like. To reconnect with its
young consumer base Always had to stand for more.
Product communication simply would not do.

12. The Brief
The challenge was to build a fresh and more meaningful
way of connecting with the next generation of
consumers. Always briefed its agencies to create a
campaign that leveraged the brand’s legacy of supporting
girls as they make the transition from puberty to young
women, while reinforcing why the brand is “relevant to
me”

13. The Research
Always explored further and discovered that puberty is a
time affected by a real confidence crisis for girls, a girls’
self-esteem drops twice as much than boys’ during
puberty. Moreover, women never regain the pre-
puberty level of self-esteem. Understanding why this
happens was key.
Even reducing the drop a bit would mean allowing girls to
start the ‘journey into womanhood’ from a better place.

14. The Insight
Digging deeper into the causes of the drop-in confidence
Always realised that gender stereotypes have a big
impact on girls during puberty, as this is the time when
they learn what it means to be a girl, and young
womanhood comes to be defined by a set of rules, like
beauty and submissiveness.

15. The Insight
Society constantly dwells on gender differences, sending
out the message that leadership, power and strength are
for men, not for women. And that boys should be raised
not to be a girl, as if being female was ‘not good
enough’. These stereotypes inevitably crystallise into
girls’ self-perceptions and affect their behaviours.

16. The Idea
“We explored different factors that influence girls during
the vulnerable time of puberty. During this exploration,
someone taped a piece of paper to the board that read
‘like a girl’. That’s all it said. Among all the ideas and
pieces of paper in the room, we were instantly drawn to
it,” John explains. “The idea was explained as: ‘like a
girl’ has been around forever and is uses in derogatory
ways, let’s change the meaning of it. From that day on
we started to build on that idea.”

17. The Execution
The creative team set out to redefine confidence in a way
that was more relevant and remain true to the brand
turning the phrase ‘like a girl’ from insult it into a term of
empowerment.

18. The Execution

19. The Campaign
Once the film was shot, a campaign was then constructed
around it to spread the message and empower women
by showing that ’like a girl’ should be a meaningful and
powerful statement all women should embrace.
The hashtag #LikeAGirl was introduced as a rallying cry.
John adds: “The hashtag was essential in rallying
people to change the meaning of ‘like a girl’ by
showing the world that it can mean amazing things.”

25. Dove’s insight of “Women in all shapes, sizes,
look are still beautiful. Let’s stop idolizing the
fake and start living in the real world. Let’s be
happy with what we look like”. Women
connected with this insight because they already
felt that way, but were just glad someone was
finally saying it.