What Is a Consumer Insight? Some Definitions.

Importantly, Why the Use of Insights Is Critical to Advertising Agency New Business.

Whatever you want to call it… a consumer insight, marketing insight, brand insight or research insight, the idea of developing Ah-Ha insights is a primary driver of brand and revenue growth. The Ah-Ha element is critical to creating a powerful consumer insight. This is true for advertising agency B2B new business gains as well. Opening a conversation with a prospective new client with an Ah-Ha insight will get their attention, will quickly begin to help them realize that you understand their market, create a marketing opportunity and that, yup, you are smart.

Appearing smart at the start of a new business conversation delivers the Holy Grail of prospective clients’ needs –  BIG word coming… confidence.

I will be writing in the coming about the wonderful world of insights and – importantly – the tools to get you there. However, I thought that it might make a bit of sense to provide a quick list of various definitions of just want a consumer insight is. As I move forward, I’ll give you examples of insights that have driven business growth (like the MAN). I’ll highlight how I think and actually know how a consumer insight can help an advertising agency win new business. Even win the pitch in the first minute.

9 Consumer Insight Definitions

Oxford Dictionary

“The capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing.”

Merriam Webster

1: The power or act of seeing into a situation: PENETRATION

2: The act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively

McKinsey

“Insights into consumers and how they think can help companies spark innovation, uncover the most promising (though not always most intuitive) sources of growth, and develop or maintain successful products and brands.

Generating customer insights through qualitative research. Qualitative research helps bring customers to life. It illuminates their needs, their decision-making processes, and their reactions to companies and brands.”

From Wikipedia

“Marketing Insights is a relatively new term to describe the activities that marketers or marketing analysts perform to look into the behavior of consumers and markets and/or any other marketing issues, in order to gain intelligence on how best to perform any aspect of the marketing management function.”

Johnathan Dalton CEO and Co-founder of THRIVE On The Consumer Insight

An unrecognized fundamental human truth that reveals the inner nature of things
A new way of viewing the world that causes us to reexamine existing conventions and challenge the status quo.
A penetrating observation about human behavior that results in seeing consumers from a fresh perspective.
A discovery about the underlying motivations that drive people’s actions.

Deloitte

“Insight Driven Organizations turn decision-making into a strategic advantage by uncovering insights their competitors lack.”

WPP

“It is the data-driven insight that enables our agencies to find that sweet spot that delivers a meaningful interaction between brands and their consumers.”

Harvard Business Review

“The most successful companies don’t just have good products and strong distribution systems—they have a deep understanding of customers. That naturally requires lots of marketing data, but the authors say it also takes an “insights engine”—a set of structures, people, and processes that can translate data into actionable strategy.”

Julian Cole – Watch His Strategic YouTube Channel

“Insights are key to writing briefs that unlock the way around the problem. It reveals a new part to the consumer, it changes their understanding of the problem, and our brand in the Dos Equis (beer) example. It was revealing the new information that it’s not the expensive watch that gets respect but an amazing story. It forces the consumer to look at the problem in a new way. It should inform and invoke a reaction. It was a revelation at the time but in hindsight, it feels like common sense.”

Levitan Side Note – Dos Equis Beer Commercial Consumer Insight Fuck Up

Why Did Dos Equis brand leave The Most Interesting Man In The World TV commercial series behind? 

There are few instances where a brand totally screwed its marketing by moving from a great series of commercials to a very lame series. Here is the full series of the MAN. By the way, can you remember any Dos Equis Commercials from last year? FYI – the account moved from Havas to Droga5. Parent company Heineken performed this insanity.