Uncovering Insights

ShanareeLaohapongphan
Chapter 4:
UNCOVERING INSIGHTS: The Basic for
Effective Creative Work

Step 1: State Your Questions
§ Before do a research à define the questions or
problems e.g.
‣  Prospect for the product, how to communicate,
consumer perception towards campaign, etc.
§ Be careful to define the question, avoid gathering
IRRELEVANT information & wasting time.

Step 2: Dig Through Secondary Source
Company Records
§ Annual Report à a staring point
‣  Financial date, annual report, corporate philosophy,
competition, and future goals.
§ Consumer Profiles à source of value information
‣  Product warranty card, sweepstake campaign, or
applied for credit card
»  Track personal information
»  How/why consumers select our brand.

Step 2: Dig Through Secondary Source … con’t
§ Technical Report
‣  Some technical facts e.g. active ingredient or innovation
can create the interesting for consumers.
§ Website
‣  The company website = great starting point
‣  Overview of the history of the organization, profile key
employees, highlight product lineup, and interactive
between consumers & company
‣  We can check how consumers saying about our brand via
google, blogs, social network, or comment to websites.

Trade Associations
§ Name a trade or area of interest, association, staffed
with knowledgeable people.
§ Advertising associations provide useful information for
its members:
‣  Account Planning Group, the American Association of
Advertising Agencies, etc.

Library Resources
§ The following are resources that provide important
background information about the client, industry,
and consumer. (see the list on page 74)

Syndicated Market Data
§ Research company offer paid subscribers a detailed
look at the lifestyles & shopping habits of various U.S.
markets. (see the list on page 74 – 75)

Step 3: Conduct Primary Research
§ Some primary research cannot answer all questions,
then, primary research can apply to discover.
Firsthand Experience
§ Try, taste, touch, hear, and smell … discover how
consumers perceive towards the product.
§ Try the competition ‘brand vs. competitors’ à
weakness or strengths.
§ Provide important insights à big idea

Step 3: Conduct Primary Research … con’t
Observation
§ Gathering information at store to monitor the brand
‣  Display: your brand vs. competitors
‣  How consumer react with the brand
»  e.g. time spend to read label, price, compare with
other brands.
‣  Or (if can) ask why they choose a particular brand …
how often you buy it, and how they use

Surveys
§ The most common primary-research ask:
current or prospect consumers.
‣  Product usage, awareness, attitude.
‣  Can implement via mail, telephone, or
personal interview.
‣  The structure of questions can give
different results

Surveys … con’t
§ Some common guideline to design a survey:
‣  Keep the survey short
‣  Use simple language
‣  Include complete instructions
‣  Put easy-to-answer questions first
‣  Ask general questions before detailed ones.
‣  Save potentially embarrassing questions e.g. income,
for the end.

Focus Groups
§ Some may call ‘Focus Group Discussion or FGD’
§ 5 – 10 respondents à ask their permission to record
the conversion & purposes.
§ Moderator à encourage everyone to speak & keep
discussion on track.
§ Incentive is the common practice for all respondents
§ The finding should be apply carefully.

Interview
§ One-on-one interview à 30mins – 2
hrs.
§ Cover important insight
§ Do little talking, but encouraging the
respondent to speak more.
§ Insight can be discovered from
different questions
‣  Why you like …
‣  Why you don’t like …

Ethnography
§ Observe people in natural setting e.g. home visit
§ Listen to their natural conversation.
§ Sometime, the researchers can come up with new
idea / everyday setting e.g.
‣  Shampoo à observe at salon
‣  Grocery à shopping with the client
‣  Or, spend daily life with them for a certain period.

Projective Techniques
§ Sometime, consumers may not tell the right & true
about the brand via interview or FGD
‣  They don’t want to offend you.
§ Instead of asking them towards specific brand, change
the question like
‣  Why you bought an expensive car?
»  Rational explanation: car’s safety & resale.

Projective Techniques … con’t
§ Ask respondents to
‣  sketch drawing,
‣  tell tales,
‣  finish sentence
‣  do word association,
‣  create collages
‣  match company with
animals, colors, places,
and types of music.
Understand
consumer’s

subconscious
a1tude

toward
products

Experiments
§ Compare the attitudes e.g.
‣  A1 see ad Vs. A2 not see ad
‣  Can study in terms of favorable impression or more
knowledgeable about the brand.
‣  Uncover opinion about product usage

Online Research
§ Fast & inexpensive
§ Can reach target group who not willing to travel to a
facility for a FGD or feel uncomfortable giving
responses about sensitive issue in person.
§ Some disadvantages:
‣  Fake profile
‣  Nonverbal: tone of voice, facial expression, and body
language.

Using Multiple Research Methods
§ Because each research method has
its own advantage & disadvantage.
§ Often use more than one approach
to find the answers to their
questions.

Step 4: Interpret the Data
§ Dig further if there are inconsistencies
among the data collected
§ Determine if information is relevant
to the consumer & the brand
§ Some research agency develops
interpretation tool e.g.
‣  a perceptional map
‣  Value / least quadrant

Future Steps on the Process
§ After gathered information à AE or strategic planner
will prepare creative brief.
§ Creative team will use this information as inspiration
to develop ideas or creative ideas.
§ Have to ensure that ideas are on strategy
§ Concept test = useful for new product ideas & new
approaches.

Common Mistakes in Research
§ Asking the wrong questions
§ Believing everything people tell you
§ Not testing to see if the date are relevant to your
client’s problem.
§ Biasing the results
§ Not studying someone typical of your audience.

Briefcase:
Icelandair and BWI take the travail out of travel

Icelandair’s ad challenge
§ Most airline ads look the same
§ Icelandair is a small company
§ Competitor SAS’s ad budget is 3 times bigger
§ SAS offers better flying time to Scandinavia

Agency insight
§ Competitor SAS flies out of Dulles, an airport that is a
hassle to use
§ Icelandair flies out of BWI, which is much more user
friendly
§ Target audience mainly Scandinavians who live in the
U.S.

Creative solution
§ Focus on the hassles of flying out of Dulles
§ Make the message authentic
§ Hired Swedish cartoonist to create a signature
character for Icelandair

Results
§ Icelandair was able to more than hold onto its market
share
§ Market share increased a few points despite SAS’s
larger ad budget

Questions for weekly workshop
§ How ‘consumer insight’ research helps advertisers to
promote branding, product feature, and promotional
campaign? Give some example/case study to support
your argument.
§  Remark:
‣  Page limit to 1 – 2 pages (Time New Roman, 12#, double space, or by
hand writing)
‣  Submission by printing before 11.50 @ library

Uncovering Insights

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