Finding Insights … keys to consumer satisfaction.

New products often fail for one of two primary reasons having to do with Insights:

– They are not based on a key consumer Insight
– The Insight, even when identified, is not properly delivered

Either way, success or failure for new products is tied directly to Insight. An effective new product effort always begins and ends with the consumer.

Many marketing managers and public relations executives readily admit they don’t have a strong grasp of what an Insight is ˜ and are much less be able to define it ˜ but they’re pretty sure they know one when they see it.

So what is an Insight? An Insight is simply a revelation concerning a category need, providing an unmet category solution. Thus, by definition an Insight is unique in its approach and relevant to the consumer. Anything short of that is not truly an Insight. With that in mind, the first step in any successful new product effort is proper identification of the consumer need. Most needs can be best found by identifying a key consumer Insight into the category.

Insights can be uncovered in many ways, although some approaches are more effective than others ˜ among them:

Personal Discussions: Most new product managers try to identify Insights via some form of contact with their core category users. One-on-one discussions can be useful, although time consuming and often hit-or-miss. Insights can also come up in conversations with family members or friends ˜ usually referred to as “kitchen research” ˜ but taking your spouse’s opinion as breakthrough Insight can be worse than trusting your gut.

Ethnographics: One client company researcher recently swore that the only effective way to pinpoint a valid Insight is through ethnographics. Watching consumers use a product in their natural environment can be very useful – companies are often surprised to find their products are applied in ways that hadn’t occurred to them. But not all product categories lend themselves to observational research. Nor are consumers likely to behave naturally when they know they are being observed.

Focus Groups: Most companies simply fall back on this old and in many cases tired approach. Unfortunately, most consumers are not creative thinkers and can relate only to issues they have personally experienced. In other words, they cannot see the big picture ˜ through no fault of their own. The focus group is too often a hit-or-miss solution. The key to success with a focus group is to put into play an exceptional moderator who understands the marketing implications of what consumers are saying.

Insight Groups: This is an alternative approach, but effective. AcuPOLL Research Inc. works with a select handful of agencies that have developed systems for selectively identifying the appropriate consumers and running them through a series of exercises to draw out Insights, rather than merely discussing problems. This approach generates more ideas and higher quality Insights because it channels consumer thinking to actually identify and solve problems.
Note: It’s important to remember during this first phase of new product investigation that the mission is to identify possible Insights to pursue, as opposed to deciding right away which Insights are key. First find Insights and then quantify the need in a second step using scientific research.

By Jack Gordon
Jack Gordon is president of AcuPOLL Research Inc., a new product, public relations, branding, advertising and packaging research company. Contact Jack at 1-800 AcuPOLL or ja**@*****ll.com.