-   Are You Calculating Enough To Be Commercial?

-   Thinking It Through

-   Autumn courses

Welcome to the latest edition of 5-Minute Insights, the e-mail newsletter from Steve Wills and Sally Webb at Customer Insight Solutions (CI Solutions). We hope that in the few short minutes that it takes to scan the key messages, you will find snippets that are both informative and stimulating. If you want to find out more, we have provided links to longer articles for some of the insights.

INSIGHT IN PRACTICE

ARE CLIENT INSIGHT FUNCTIONS FIGHTING FOR THEIR LIFE?

If you get the chance, try and read a fascinating article by Michael Harvey in the current issue of ‘Market Leader’. Harvey explores the threats to client insight functions posed by the recession.

He uses a football analogy to demonstrate how insight teams now need to be midfield players, passing the right balls to strikers so that they can score goals. He points out that traditional researchers played a valuable but reactive goal keeper role, and were not really up front and involved in winning the game.

He makes some powerful points in his article. These include:

• The need to ensure that insights are connected to commercial success and that they inspire big creative marketing ideas that will help the brand to grow.
  
• Those companies that will grow stronger despite the recession are those that realise that consumer insights become even more important during a downturn.
  
• The insight function needs to adapt to the new environment – and to work to a shorter timescale. Companies need to gain a rapid understanding of the effects of the recession on consumers and then link this information to their strategies and activities.

Harvey concludes that any insight function that had a positive impact on the quality of a company’s marketing ideas during the good times will be needed more than ever during difficult times.  

To explore Harvey’s ideas in more detail, please click here.

 

GETTING THE 'WRITE' RESULTS

Simple techniques can sometimes be very powerful. For example, learn to write down your goals as soon as you’ve set them. This helps your sub-conscious brain to take ownership of what you’ve written: it will start working on it in the background. But how can this be applied to insight?

• Writing something down suggests an active commitment – which in turn means that you are more likely to carry out your aim.
  
• Insight teams often have debriefs followed by a discussion, and the insight leader then writes up the agreed actions (and their owners). A more effective alternative might be to get the stakeholders to write down their actions for themselves.
  
• Likewise, within a workshop situation, the facilitator may capture any proposed actions on a flip chart. However, these actions are more likely to take place if the owners get up and write them down themselves.

So, whenever you think about your individual and team goals, make sure that you write them down as well!

For more information on how to turn words into action, please click here.

TAKE A NEW LOOK AT INSIGHT: THINK LIKE AN.......ARCHITECT

This series investigates how other professions can teach us some valuable lessons.

An architects dream?

The intricate details and skills involved in architecture aren’t always fully appreciated by the client. Most clients are just interested in how the final building looks. The same basic principles can also be applied to insight:

• Insight teams might spend a lot of time on the details of a project, making sure that their findings are robust and will stand up to scrutiny.
  
• However, customers may be unaware of all this hard work and are more likely to make a judgment about the final results based on how they feel about them.
  
• This means that aesthetics should always be considered when selling results to customers. We need to find powerful and visual ways to present them, including:
     o The use of imaginative images or videos to get the message across
     o The use of flattery, or appealing to someone’s pet likes
     o If there’s a hidden agenda, addressing these needs in the presentation

Ultimately, people will respond more positively to your results if the solution you’re proposing makes them feel good. To find out more, please click here.