The market insights paradox

Large companies value the power of consumer insights and data.

In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by Market Logic Software and Insight Platforms, 9 out of 10 managers in product / innovation and marketing / brand teams are totally or very heavily reliant on consumer insights and data.

And yet, only 3 out of every 5 product or marketing decisions are currently informed by consumer data and insights — suggesting the remainder are made based on gut feel, historical precedent or the highest-paid person’s opinion.

The share of decisions that could be informed by consumer insights is at least 80% — a 20-point gap compared with today.

If this were achieved, product and marketing leaders are highly confident that it would improve commercial performance across six key business indicators: advertising impact, innovation volume, product launch success, market share, top-line revenue, and profitability.

So why is there a gap between the enthusiasm for consumer insights and the effective deployment of them? And how can this gap be closed? Let’s explore it in this piece.

Consumer insights are highly valued…

Consumer insights are a critical input for managers in marketing / brand and product / innovation teams.

In our survey, 94% said they were ‘very heavily’ or ‘totally’ reliant on insights for their work.

The importance of consumer insights is even greater for the very biggest companies. Among large enterprises, 38% say they are ‘totally reliant’, compared to 21% in mid-sized corporates.

1. Insights in brand and marketing teams

For brand and marketing teams, market insights infuse the full spectrum of decisions from strategic planning (market analysis, segmentation, and pricing) to tactical activities (content creation, campaign planning, and personalization).

What are the most important decisions you take that are informed by consumer research, data, and insights?

There is strong alignment between insights teams and stakeholders on some of the biggest use cases, in particular spotting trends faster, improved productivity and managing existing knowledge better.

Group strategy, offline and online communication, sales force priority; business trend, customer behavior analysis, customer needs based on market situations, all these insights are leveraged to bring insights to our sales force and set targeted actions.”

Marketing / brand, retail, mid-sized corporate, Europe / UK

New market opportunities (e.g. market size, revenue growth), we utilize trends to understand growth potential of existing businesses and inform commercial strategies; launch of new products, how well product performance is perceived in the market and the future potential to inform resources and investments.”

Marketing / brand, Healthcare / Pharma, large enterprise, US / Canada

2. Insights in product and innovation teams

For product management and innovation teams, insights are key to informing product development strategies, understanding consumer needs, and exploring user experiences.

What are the most important decisions you take that are informed by consumer research, data and insights?

Effectively all strategic and tactical decisions we make. Starting with long term product strategy and all the way down to very tactical decisions about bug fixes and minor features.”

Product / innovation, Software, mid-sized corporate, US / Canada

My product assortment decisions are guided by consumer insights; we use data to identify which products are in high demand and which ones need to be phased out or replaced.”

Product / innovation, Consumer Goods, large enterprise, Europe / UK

… But only 60% of decisions are informed by consumer insights & data

Despite the apparent dependence on consumer insights, only 60% of decisions taken in product / innovation and marketing / brand teams make use of insights.

This proportion drops even further in product / innovation teams to just 55%. Marketing / brand teams make a correspondingly higher share of insights-driven decisions at 67% — perhaps reflecting the relative maturity of consumer research and insights for marketing use cases such as market segmentation, advertising testing, and brand tracking.

Fragmented data, systems, and formats are the principal culprits of the evidence gap

The survey results tell a clear story: technology and process barriers are by far the biggest reasons behind the evidence gap:

The main barriers to greater use of consumer data and insights all relate to technology: the separation of data in multiple systems (54%), data residing in too many formats (48%), and a lack of integration of insights into the tools used by marketing and product teams (41%).

These barriers have knock-on implications for efficiency and budget: 49% say that it takes too long to find and access data, and 45% say that it is too costly to access the right data.

Centralized insights platforms help to narrow the evidence gap 

As survey findings suggests, organizations that successfully narrow the evidence gap share a common attribute: they implement systems to overcome the barriers of fragmented data. 

Integrated insights or knowledge management (KM) platforms help to unify disparate sources of data, democratize access to consumer knowledge, and empower product and marketing teams to use consumer insights quickly and easily in their day-to-day activities.

Those who use knowledge management platforms for consumer insights consistently demonstrate more frequent and more effective use of insights:

On average, users of these insights platforms make a significantly higher share of decisions based on evidence and data (65%) compared with those who do not (58%).

Read our recently published report, created with Insight Platforms, on hyperscaling insights for the full survey results — and learn how your organization can power up more decisions with insights and data.

Start generating and capitalizing on insights using AI. Learn more about how Market Logic can help you become an insights-driven enterprise. Contact us or email info@marketlogicsoftware.com to book a free consultation with a member of our team.