What is an insight in market research?
The word insight has no equivalent in the Spanish language, and depending on the context it is translated by words such as discovery, perspicacity, intuition, knowledge... they are all related, but they do not mean the same thing.
In the context of marketing and market research , an insight is a new finding, based on research, that reveals unknown aspects about the motivations or needs of consumers that can be used to improve a brand's performance. To make things clearer, let's break down this definition of insight into the four characteristics it must have:
It is based on consumer or user observation. It is not a hunch or an idea, but rather based on quantitative or qualitative data that helps us better understand the real reasons that move the consumer.
It is a discovery. A new point of view. Something that we did not know or that we had not been able to quantify or demonstrate and that is now based on objective data.
It tells us something about the hidden motivations of consumers and users. By seeing it, we have had the “aha!” moment and been able to say “now I get it.”
It generates a business opportunity. An insight is useful for growth. It is “activatable” and can be used to take action to improve the way our brand connects with its audience.
Finding a good insight is very valuable, because it can give greater meaning to your brand, your campaign or your media planning and can align marketing and other departments such as product or CX behind the same idea.
What is not an insight?
The term insight is used very frequently, and it can sometimes be confused with other concepts that are not exactly the same. Let's now look at what an insight is not.
It is not a fact. All insights are based on data, but not all data is insight. If it does not provide anything new, or if it does not help us explain the internal nature of the needs or motivations of consumers or users, we will have a fact, with all the value it can provide, but not an insight.
It is not something we already knew. An insight has to be a new understanding, something we did not know before and something that opens up new possibilities for improving our product or our communication. Or something that allows us to access new segments or new use cases that had previously gone unnoticed.
It's not obvious. It's not enough for it to be a description of a behavior. It has to help us understand something that motivates the consumer but is beneath the surface.
It's not "nice to know." An insight is not something that is merely interesting to know and that we don't know what to do with, but rather something that we can use to boost our proposition to the market.
Examples of insights
Insights are often harder to explain than to recognize, but if the phrase “you’ll know it when you see it” isn’t enough for you, here are some examples of insights we liked.
Hidden motivations: The ASICS team understood that a good part of people who run do so to clear their minds, to leave worries behind, and although it may seem paradoxical, to rest. This consumer need is not usually present in most sports product campaigns, where meeting goals, achieving better results or improving gambling data japan phone number your physical form are more common messages. That is why the ASICS “run to stop” campaign connects with a hidden, more intimate need, less present in conversations and at the same time absolutely relevant to all people who run.
New moments of consumption: one of the objectives of Philadelphia's brand communication is to associate itself with everyday moments of consumption, which help to expand the brand towards more frequent moments where established habits are of great importance. And what moment is more frequent than breakfast? If the brand manages to gain a bigger place in the breakfast market, it will be able to grow and become essential in the daily routine of many people. That is why Philadelphia has launched many communication campaigns over time, one of them being the Philadelphia Breakfast campaign in 2018 .
New targets. Generation Z doesn't want to be like their parents and the idea of opening an account in a traditional bank may seem out of this world to them. But they need to pay, so they're going to need a solution. That's the idea behind Imagin, Caixabank's brand aimed at young people. Imagin's campaign leaves no doubt that it wants to break away from the image of a traditional bank and position itself as an alternative to meet the needs of a young audience.
Category entry points. What are the triggers that can make you decide to change your insurance company? Knowing what they are allows you to position a brand as the alternative when they appear. This has been the focus of Mutua Madrileña's communication, which has carried out many campaigns to associate itself with them. There is an execution for each case, such as when they raise your car insurance despite not having filed a claim or when you are forced to go to a garage that is not of your choice .
Before launching a campaign, all brands work with data that supports their strategies and helps agencies plan their creatives, so insights have undoubtedly played a role in all of them.
How to create good insights?
Getting good insights requires covering several stages:
Hypothesis formulation. Before collecting data, it is necessary to imagine what information could be useful for triggering insights, and this requires marketing experts to get involved in imagining scenarios and possibilities to contrast.
Gathering information. Market research provides multiple tools for creating the data on which to base insights, whether through quantitative online market research , qualitative research that provides deeper understanding, or online communities .
Creating the insight. As we have said before, an insight is much more than a piece of data. It is a story that relies on data to show us new business potential. This is where research and marketing experts will provide the greatest value in turning research results into the stories and proposals that the management committee will be interested in hearing and supporting.
Market research and insights
Collecting the information you need to create your own insights is easy with the right tools. At We are testers we have a very versatile platform so you can combine different quantitative and qualitative methodologies to get a better understanding of the consumer and the user. If you need help choosing the methodology or designing your questionnaires , we have a team of research experts who will be happy to help you do so. With the automation of the research platform you can get your data quickly and spend more time thinking about how to present the results to create the maximum impact on your organization. Contact us for all the details!
