Why A Finding Is Not An Insight...

by Keith Browning

Nailing a consumer insight can have a profound effect on a business - but real consumer insights are much rarer than many of us might think. What is not rare is the number of advertising agencies, market researchers or product developers who describe basic 'findings' as insights. A finding is not the same as a true insight.

A real consumer insight might be described as a 'non-obvious understanding' about your customers or a 'revelatory breakthrough' in your understanding of your customers' lives. This new insight would direct you to new ways to serve your customers and has the potential to change their behavior. Since true insights are non-obvious or "revelatory", they tend not to happen everyday and therefore anything below this might better be described as a finding.

Take the case of P&G, who together with Walmart, developed an insight which led to an increase in sales of 30%. P&G and Walmart discovered that during winter time when people are most likely to pick up colds, they don't always have enough products at home to deal with this e.g. Kleenex or Vicks. So when they get a cold, they would tend to take a trip to their local pharmacy or corner shop to pick up the products they need, rather than have to find parking spaces and queue up at the larger retailers like Walmart.

Based on this insight Walmart and P&G built a marketing campaign around 'preparedness', which encouraged customers to stock up on their cold products while they were in for their bigger shop. The insight was a particularly strong one. It ended up running for years and Walmart's spend on cold products increased by a whopping 30%.

Or take the example of the Pampers brand. P&G discovered that babies with healthy, dry skin are happier – and so better able to play, learn and develop. Now the fact that babies are happier when they have healthy, dry skin as opposed to nappy rash is not that surprising. In fact, this might best be described a ‘finding’. But the much deeper, emotional significance of this was uncovered by P&G. This is not so obvious and would better be described as an insight.

As we can see from the examples above, real insights are revelatory and not obvious. They are not mere findings. They have the power to change behavior and ultimately lead to a significant increase in business.