01

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

03

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

More than ever, demonstrating impact is the name of the

game for professional marketing services agencies. From

our recent Market Research (MR) Impact study (2014), we

know that only 45% of insight professionals & marketers

believe research succeeds in changing the attitudes and

decision of marketers and only one in two projects leads to

change (Schillewaert et al, 2014). This lack of impact is not

a matter of budget. Rather than spending more, the critical

driver for impact is to maximize the value of spending (BCG

study, 2009). Based on 20+ in-depth interviews with MR

professionals from the client side, we have identified 11 unmet

needs related to the future of consumer insights. While ten

of those frictions relate to creating a positive business impact

with consumer stories, only one is about finding better insights

(Willems et al, 2015). So, the goal is to trigger meaningful

actions which turn insights into concrete ideas, stronger

brands and future-proof business concepts to deliver better

consumer experiences. The million dollar question is: How do

we trigger these meaningful actions across the organization

in order to create a positive business impact? And how can

the insight professional of tomorrow do this in an efficient yet

effective way?

INTRODUCTION

05

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

For people to take action on a consumer insight, they first

need to learn what the insight is about. In traditional MR,

only a limited group of people is involved in this knowledge

exchange by e.g. participating in the debrief workshop or

managing the research study themselves. This limited group

is then able to shape an insight platform by adding own

thoughts, observations and/or ideas. By involving a wider

group of employees, one better understands the consumer

and is able to make better consumer relevant decisions. Fur-

thermore, the theory of open innovation teaches us that the

one golden idea can come from anywhere in the organization,

not only marketing or innovation (Whelan, 2011). To increase

the impact, all employees across the organization need to

learn what the friction is in order to share related observations

and ideas. For example, by experiencing how consumers

are using their product today, employees see what can be

improved. When such an insight is replicated by employees

by adding own observations and ideas, it is shared with

various people across the organization and it triggers action,

the insight is called a meme (Dawkins, 1989). An illustration

GOING FROM INSIGHTS TO MEMES

06

of such a meme is what we did at ATAG, a leading supplier of kitchen

appliances. ATAG wanted to move away from a product-driven strategy

and introduce a consumer-driven approach (‘cook-centered thinking’).

In order to make this shift, they needed to create an internal belief for

their new strategy. We invited 400 internal stakeholders to discover the

consumer insights and experience themselves how strong the emotion

passion for cooking can be. The #welovecooks experience engaged

over 170 employees, who contributed 125 observations, and resulted

in 13 potential internal projects identified by the crowd. The new strat-

egy was shared among employees and turned into the #welovecooks

meme. To turn an insight into a meme, insight professionals need to

move away from the traditional research model and shift on three

levels to establish the Memefication of #MRX:

1. From reporting to involving #experience

While 92% of insight professionals believes their research generates

insight worth sharing with colleagues, only 65% extensively shares

them with their organization. Furthermore, only one in five researchers

organizes interactive workshops to discuss results (Schillewaert et al,

2014). All too often, MR takes such an individualistic approach where

executives need to identify their own actions when reading research

reports. However, to trigger meaningful actions, insight professionals

need to bring insights to life through interaction. Therefore, we have

identified four building blocks when marketing insights; harvesting,

seeding, activating and collaborating (see figure 1). Through

harvesting, we collect insights from internal stakeholders which are

already known. Secondly, seeding enables insights managers to

07

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

Figure 1. Four building

blocks of marketing insights within the

organization

spread insights via key ambassadors in a relevant way through the

organization. Activating triggers stakeholders to not only discover

but also interact with insights. Finally, collaborating connects stake-

holders to work together and turn insights into actions and new future

projects. At Unilever R&D the combination of building blocks lead to

640 involved employees of the 1,000 invitees, which triggered more

conversations about their consumers on the work floor, measured with

an increase from 12% to 55%.

08

2. From teams to the organization #reach

In traditional MR, consumer stories and insights are often discov-

ered and owned by the MR department. However, in order to trigger

meaningful actions, the insight needs to be co-owned by all employees

(figure 2). First of all, we want extend the MR reach from executives

to management to enable higher management to take long-term

decisions with a consumer context in mind. Secondly, we involve the

front-line employees, who are in almost daily contact with consumers,

to shape their consumer feeling and ultimately improve their perfor-

mance. Finally, involving all other employees that have a rather indirect

relationship with the consumer creates a better understanding of the

consumer context of the business, making them more motivated as an

employee in general. The extension of MR reach calls for a layered ap-

proach, as we did for the Belgian bus company De Lijn which involved

their whole organization with consumer insights about their Gen Y pas-

senger. We seeded the top 10 insights during an internal conference

with 200 top managers, we organized a speed date for executives to

meet their consumers and finally we activated all stakeholders to play

the Gen Y passenger quiz to interact with the key insights.

RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSUMERS

LEV

EL

IN T

HE

OR

GA

NIZ

ATIO

N

EXECUTIVES

FRONTLINE

Direct

Low

Hig

h

Indirect

MANAGEMENT

STAFF

Figure 2. Extend the internal reach of mr

09

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

3. From projects to habit creation #structural

For most employees, working with consumer insights is not a routine.

If you wish to trigger meaningful actions and enable employees to

turn the insight into a meme, it is of great importance that consumer

relevant inspirations are integrated into their daily jobs. By identifying

the employees’ motivations and behaviours, we can better trigger when

and how to use consumer insights on a regular basis. If we learn to

shift towards habits, we will be more successful in triggering meaningful

actions and increase the impact of consumer insights on the business.

For Unilever R&D, we immersed 1,000 employees with their consumer

in six weeks’ time by testing their consumer knowledge through mini-

quizzes and organizing collaboration sessions to close their knowledge

gaps. As a result of integrating these consumer insight routines, we not

only improved their gut feeling but also shaped their consumer feeling

with a relative increase of 81% (De Ruyck et al, 2012).

11

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

We strongly believe that consumer insights have not reached

their full potential in terms of ROI. Based on our interviews

with clients, the MR Impact Study and the projects we did with

Unilever R&D, ATAG and De Lijn, we’ve identified a recipe for

success to create a positive business impact with consumer

insights. To enable the insight professional of tomorrow to do

this in an efficient yet effective way, we developed a mobile

collaboration platform, called the Insight Activation Studio. This

is a scalable solution for insight managers so they can establish

the memefication of research in their organizations and create

engaging experiences, across the organization in a structural

way. How does it work? The Studio connects and empowers

internal stakeholders to share inspiring observations and take

action together. This mobile application (figure 3), which is fully

responsive, consists of several Inspiration Walls, where each

wall starts from an insight platform that uncovers a consumer

friction, emotion or unmet need. Employees are prompted

to add their own Inspiration Tiles of these walls through

observations and ideas by posting photos, videos and stories.

They interact and shape the Inspiration Tiles of their colleagues

through comments and likes (figure 4).

BUILDING A MOBILE INSIGHT ACTIVATION STUDIO

12

This mobile platform helps the insight professional to combine the four

building blocks of marketing insights in an efficient way (figure 1). By

challenging employees to share their inspirations, we harvest their

consumer knowledge. By opening an Inspiration Wall, we seed new

consumer insights with the relevant team(s). By activating employees

to share observations and ideas on the go, we prompt them to interact

with insights. Finally, by sharing enabling commenting and feedback,

we enable them to collaborate and work together to shape outcomes.

Figure 3. The Insight Activation Studio

Figure 4. Impressions of the Insight Activation Studio: The inspiration wall, an inspiration tile & add tile option

13

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

What does it bring? Just like any technology, the Consumer

Activation Studio brings automational, informational and

transformational value for the insight professional (Day 1994).

1. Automational - Faster sharing of insights. There is a reduction

of manual efforts in spreading & seeding insights with more,

relevant stakeholders, leading to more and faster decision

making at the same or lower level of costs.

2. Informational - Higher ROI of consumer insights. The Studio

enables internal stakeholders to spot, share and shape

inspirations on the go. The more inspirations are posted on

an Inspiration Wall, and the more feedback an inspiration will

receive, the richer the insight will be. Furthermore, all these

interactions also create a deeper understanding of the insight.

In turn, the company has access to richer, more relevant,

authentic ideas which are closer to the reality of the business

world, encouraging employees to take action to make better

decisions.

3. Transformational - Consumer-activated culture. By

connecting the whole organization with the consumer, the

Studio influences employees’ day-to-day behavior, helps to

collect ideas from the whole organization and transforms the

organization towards an innovation and consumer-centric

culture.

15

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

After two successful pilot Studio’s for Dorel Juvenile in Europe

and Dannon in the United States the Studio was launched in

2015. The technology, which recently received 2 awards, is

currently embedded

in more than 10 organizations. We identify five use cases:

1. Harvest the collective mind

It is in the nature of organizations, especially those larger

in size, that knowledge and information is fragmented

around people and departments. The Studio allows to

harvest the minds of colleagues and partners bringing

together all learnings and assumptions on a topic and

identifying the knowledge gaps.

2. Live updates from the field

When collecting insights from the field, inspiring stories

are far too often only shared at the end of a project flow.

The Studio can serve as the ideal mean to share the

latest consumer observation live and directly from the

field serving as teaser material for the final insight report.

MEASURING THE IMPACT OF MEMES

16

3. Project collaboration

The Studio allows to easily collaborate in an insight driven way

during the whole project phase with all project stakeholders. At the

start of the project insights can be harvested from various studies,

where after new observations and ideas can be added allowing to

grow existing and new insights as the project evolves.

4. Immersion experience

Whether it is a new target group, key market, new trend or

customer journey you want to explore. The Studio allows to

easily collect inspiration about a topic over time, creating a true

immersion experience.

17

5. Archive of insights

Data is key, yet it easily results in data overload where finding data

back when needed becomes challenging and time consuming. The

Studio can serve as your insights database where you can easily

search consumer stories, brand examples and consumer insights

from previous research studies.

19

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

THE INSIGHT UNIVERSE

Impact is the name of the game for the insight professional

of tomorrow, and we need to increase our ROI in order to

be successful. Illustrated by the case studies we did for

Unilever R&D, ATAG and De Lijn, and now proven by pilot

studies at Dorel and Dannon, the success of consumer

insights is rated by the interactions, feedback and actions it

triggers. By mapping all these insights and related actions, an

insight universe is created and measures which insight was

leveraged successfully and became a meme. For the future,

this insight universe will be the reference for the insight

professional and will make our #mrx impact finally tangible,

once and for all!

20

REFERENCES

Boston Consulting Group Study, 2009, The consumer’s voice - can

your company hear it? Retrieved from www on Feb. 10, 2015,

http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf

Dawkins, R., 1989, The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press,

p. 192, ISBN 0-19-286092-5,

Day, G., 1994, The capabilities of market driven organizations.

Journal of Marketing, 58, 4 (October), pp. 37–52.

De Ruyck, T., Schillewaert, N., and Knoops, S., 2012,

Engage, Inspire Act! Esomar Congress paper

Schillewaert, N., Pallini, K. 2014, What do clients think about MR

impact. Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, http://www.greenbook-

blog.org/2014/11/20/what-do-clients-think-about-mr-impact/

Whelan, E., Parise, S., Valk, de J. and Aalbers, R., 2011, Creating

Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation. Harvard Business

Review Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, https://hbr.org/product/

creating-employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/

SMR399-PDF-ENG

Willems, A. and De Ruyck T., 2015, How To Market, Research?

MIE conference presentation, Feb. 5th 2015.

21

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

22

THE AUTHORS

Tom De Ruyck

Managing Partner

InSites Consulting

Tom@insites-consulting.com

Anouk Willems

Head of Insight Activation Studios

InSites Consulting,

Anouk.Willems@insites-consulting.com

23

I N S I T E S C O N S U L T I N G

24

www.insites-consulting.com