Innovation, agility, context and consumer closeness
Editor's note: Pippa Bailey is the SVP of strategy and innovation of CSS/Datatelligence.
A recent series of client interviews conducted by CSS/Datatelligence across a diverse array of consumer packaged goods categories revealed key insights into the industry's current state, opportunities and the evolving role of research and insights within organizations.
Wanted: Industry insiders: Agency partners who can provide broader knowledge and context are in the greatest demand. Clients need to stay on top of the constantly evolving competitor landscape and consumer trends. Agencies that can bring this understanding to their clients elevate their role from just a provider of research to a true partner.
Desire for storytelling: The desire for good storytelling remains a constant but with that comes the need for researchers to provide a more consultative layer. Agency-side researchers have a huge knowledge base, drawn across numerous categories, countries and research learnings which could be employed more explicitly in guiding clients.
Consumer closeness: The interviews revealed a powerful desire for greater consumer closeness, which was lost during COVID-19. Clients expressed the need to conduct more research set in real-life contexts, spend more time on front-end innovation (FEI) and explore new ways to identify disruptive opportunities. Iterative and agile testing continues to be a key interest, providing not only cost and time efficiencies but also greater consumer closeness and context.
Innovation: There is an openness towards innovation around research approaches and technologies which could be important for gaining more valid insights now and in the future. However, clear evidence is needed of the value they bring over existing methods. FEI was consistently brought up as an area of research that warrants more focus and time. Categories are being disrupted by new entrants, changing consumer needs/wants or trends from other categories and markets infiltrating the traditional category space. FEI done well can inspire brand and R&D teams to commit more to research.
Augmented intelligence: AI’s impact on the research and insights sector is not underestimated and is increasingly of interest to research buyers. However, there is healthy skepticism and interest in certain applications, mostly on the analysis of unstructured data. Many research buyers are still at the start of their AI journey, with many companies focused on driving greater efficiencies internally. The overarching view is that the best solutions will come from augmented intelligence, where humans and machines work together.
Back to basics
Beyond additional and specific insights to help inform better decisions, the interviews highlighted several key attributes that clients value in their research partners. These include:
- Honesty and transparency: Clients appreciate when agencies are clear about what can and cannot be delivered within a project. Transparency is crucial, especially when things don’t go to plan, as it helps build trust and allows clients to be involved in deciding the best route forward.
- Flexibility and responsiveness: Being responsive to client requests, considering different options to address client needs while being mindful of timing and budgets is of key importance.
- Expertise: True research category expertise in the research being undertaken is essential. Clients value agency partners who can appropriately challenge assumptions and bring a distinct perspective.
- Assurance on sample profile and quality: Ensuring that the research includes target consumers as defined in the brief is vital. Sample quality is one of the biggest challenges in the market research industry today, particularly for online research. Trust in the sample equals trust in the insights.
Summing up
As we move into an ever more connected world, we have access to more data by the very nature of the digital breadcrumbs that we as humans leave behind in everything we do. However, this has not negated the need to understand the “why” of those choices and behaviors. In fact, in this time of complexity and constant change, it can be argued that there is a greater need to get close to and understand people within their everyday routines.
As pressures on budgets continue, delivering insights at-speed is crucial. There is also a focus on what research is done and getting more from each project, with sprints and blended research approaches becoming the norm. The role that agency partners should play in providing wider context and bringing a more consultative mind-set to the delivery of insights is emphasized. AI is going to be disruptive but it will be augmented intelligence (human + machine) that will win out.
To find out how CSS/Datatelligence is addressing these and other evolving research and insight needs, please get in touch.
