1. CI28 What Is An Insight? : Guide
Overview
This document defines a consumer insight and its importance
to the corporation. The key messages here are:
A consumer insight is the distillation of consumer facts and
observations into profound understanding.
Insights lead to business advantage and growth.
A brand typically has one or two consumer insights at its core.
Insights are key drivers.
In this guide, you learn:
What is a consumer insight?
Why is a consumer insight important?
How to find consumer insights
What is a consumer insight?
A consumer insight is profound understanding of consumers
that leads to a business idea, which drives profitable growth.
A profound understanding of consumers
Consumer insights lie beyond the obvious interpretations of
facts and observations. Profundity means that you have
worked harder, looked further and used better tools and
techniques to arrive at a special understanding and a clear or
deep perception of consumer data.
To understand everything that might be relevant to the way in
which consumers choose the brand, use the brand, react to the
brand and think about the brand, we need to understand how
they live, how they work, how they feel, the various roles they
play in their lives, their hopes, aspirations, fears, values,
desires, motives, etc. We also need to understand their cultural
contexts and current societal changes, and link these to the
relevance that our brand can provide.

2. Example
Barbie’s continuous insight into American society ensures that the
new launches of Barbie dolls reflect the changing roles of
women in the society. When Mattel launched a line of WNBA
Barbie dolls it was seen as a sign of acceptance of women’s
sports. And a couple of years ago, when Mattel launched a
Day-to-Night Barbie representing the career woman with the
theme “We girls can do anything, right, Barbie”; it generated
huge publicity as it was seen as a remarkable change in
society. (Barbie’s portrayals were limited to very traditional
female portrayals before this). And, of course, Barbie
continues to be a brand that has dominated the world of little
girls since 1959.
Leads to a business idea that drives profitable growth
Insights need to be converted into business advantage – faster
top line growth and wider gross margins. We must establish a
clear line of development from the insight to the business idea.
For example, Starbucks has always been more about the
experience of coffee drinking than the coffee itself. But a deep
understanding of its consumers led Starbucks to the insight
that a large part of that experience is the music played in the
retail establishments. Hence, Starbucks launched its own
compilation CDs–an additional revenue stream that also
positively impacts the brand equity.
The insight team should aim to find consumer and marketplace
insights to drive business growth. These insights should then
be effectively applied to business actions. The measure of all
brand-building activities ultimately is profitable growth.
Insights drive brand equity, which, in turn, drives profitable
growth.
Bodyshop was launched when the World Wildlife Fund and other
NGOs had long been advertising the horrors of testing
cosmetics on animals. There were other bodies that talked
about environment preservation. And the total lack of
consumer response meant that no one really bothered.
Despite these obvious facts and observations, Anita Roddick
launched Bodyshop with a statement that its products were
not tested on animals; she promoted Bodyshop by pushing her

3. ideas about the environment. And suddenly it seemed that
consumers did bother. Where direct talk had failed, what
worked was an opportunity to express concern. The huge
response to Bodyshop is a testimony to a deeper consumer
insight that consumers are not mindless automatons but are
thinking and feeling human beings who respond to stimuli that
reach out beyond the obvious.
Why are consumer insights important?
Consumer insights are important because all marketing
processes begin after the insights are in place.
Consumer insight is a key driver.
Insights are the starting point for defining the domain strategy.
They are the key ingredients of the Brand Vision and Long-
term Equity Appreciation Plan (LEAP).
There are many facets of core insights that can drive execution
elements like advertising, promotions or direct marketing at
every consumer touch point.
Example
Nike has leveraged the insights of courage, determination,
competitive spirit and fun associated with sport to strike an
emotional chord with its consumers over the years through the
theme of ‘Just do it’. Nike has come to stand for performance.
It's not just about a pair of shoes, it's about athletic
performance and how people can use sports to make their lives
better and richer.
Every Nike campaign has been a call for excellence, urging
people to outdo themselves and to blaze trails like Nike’s many
glorious brand ambassadors. Be it the ad challenging 55-year
olds to jog or the one that encourages “good girls” to have
“killer legs”.
Product diversifications have been strictly in keeping with the
“Just do it” attitude. . After shoes and apparel, even the entry

4. into fitness came after serious contemplation. Sub-brands like
Air Jordan in basketball and Zoom in sprinting command cult
following in their individual sports and reiterate the Nike
ideology.
An important part of the brand’s legacy is its ambassadors.
From John McEnroe to Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Andre
Agassi, Nike has roped in the best of sporting talent. Besides
talent, Nike looks for certain personal traits that will ensure
that its ambassadors abide well with the brand. And Nike has
also done a great job of weaving the charisma of these
individual superstars into the greater tapestry of the brand –
be it McEnroe’s petulant individualism or Jordan’s flair or Lance
Armstrong’s resilience, they are all part of the Nike legend.
The logo has been immensely successful in conveying speed
and motion and forms the underlying theme in numerous logos
now.
Insights are the lifeblood of all marketing programs
As we have seen with the Nike example, deep consumer
insights are the bedrock of great brands. These insights are
universal but their manifestations are many. These
manifestations drive various marketing programs, be it product
innovation or brand equity development or annual marketing
plans or communication.
How to find consumer insights
The insight process is wholly about understanding consumers.
There are various ways to find insights:
Rigorous analysis of consumer data obtained through
traditional research sources. (This data is represented in
the VOC). Uncover insights by mining consumer data and
looking for not-so-apparent trends and/or anomalies.
Keeping a watch on large population trends is another way to
uncover consumer insights. These trends could be

5. societal, cultural or even driven by technology. These
trends are a great indicator of the unarticulated needs of
consumers.
Tap experts in various fields like anthropologists, psychologists,
doctors, sociologists, authors, feature writers to predict
future consumer environment. Also speak with experts
pertaining to your category/ domain.
Meet, observe, spend time and empathize with the consumer.
Use research agencies and train yourself to uncover
moments of truth with the consumers.
Use both formal and informal sources of information to
understand the consumer better. For detailed information on
how to find consumer insights, please refer How To Be An
Insight Detective: GUIDE and How To Look For insights:
TIPS.
Developing an insights-hungry culture
A single person cannot be everywhere at the same time to
successfully identify all insight opportunities ahead of
competition. Hence, it is imperative that the organization
develops a culture where all concerned—not just marketers,
salespeople, researchers, but also technologists, senior
management, etc—are encouraged to spot insight
opportunities. Widespread use of process tools like IWIK (I
wish I knew) and capturing insight opportunities by employees
across all functions creates an insight-hungry culture.
For more information refer to IWIK: Guide.
Example
At IBM, one of the key initial changes was to shift from a product-
centric view of its database to one where the customer was
the focus of how its data was organized. Changing the way the
data was organized was immensely time-consuming and
expensive. But it was necessary to act as the springboard for
the change in perception. ‘It’s not so much the software that’s
the leading edge here,’ says a spokesperson for IBM, ‘but the
thinking… through a management system that is consistent,
timely and accurate worldwide, while providing data at a local

6. level.’