7 Steps to Commercial Insight Graham Hall www.ambitiousbrands.com 12th June 2012 1
7 Steps to Insight This is what I call the SuBo moment. That first 2 minutes when an overweight, middle aged person with suspect social skills W h a t w e ’ l l s e e i n t h i s wanders onto the stage and you A real insight can seem like p r e s e n t a t i o n i s h o w say: ‘So impress me’... anarchy. It over turns the preconceptions define the shape establishment so why do we need of our insights. insights? Susan Boyle has a great voice but what made her special was the m i s s - m a t c h b e t we e n o u r To uncover really useful insights expectations and what came out that move your business along, of her mouth. you need to manage your preconceptions, expectations and prejudices. What’s an Before we start on the 7 Steps to insight? Which is why I often feel like Jack Insight, we’d better discuss what Nicholson in ‘A Few Good an insight is. There seems to be Men.’ (1992) when Tom Cruise plenty of different interpretations. says “I think we deserve Insights” and I say “You want insights? You can’t handle insights!” “A moment's insight is sometimes worth a lifetime's experience”. Oliver Wendell Holmes A lot of the time, business just That’s why business has a wants incremental improvements One of the Linkedin groups I’m a problem with insights. They - ideas that won’t rock the boat... member of called ‘Consumer change things - and just like Billy Insights’ has a discussion running Joel - business loves you just the which asks people to ‘define way you are... insight in one word’ ... When I last See how shareholders react when looked it was up to 1033 entries. you tell them: “Here’s your dividend - now we’re going to You can only tell an idea was a change everything” real insight by looking to see if it changed anything. My definition of an insight is an idea that changes behaviour. 2 www.ambitiousbrands.com
7 Steps to Insight Why look for insight if it might change things? Because the alternative is worse... If you’re not different you’re generic. If you’re generic, you’re a c o m m o d i t y. I f y o u ’r e a So that’s an insight - now Woody Allen in Annie Hall (1977) “A commodity, you’re all about price. follow the 7 Steps to Insights. relationship, I think, is like a shark. It has to If you’re all about price, you won’t (35 mins = 5 mins each!) constantly move forward or it dies. And I make any money. think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.” Same’s true in business So you’ve got to find a way to be different Take the card and fill in the line: Area of Insight: ‘I’d like to know Why we how I can.......” Virgin did it by putting 8 inch screens in the need them... b a c k o f headrests. Now you get As Nietzsche says: WiFi - and we “The tigers of wrath are wiser still complain! than the horses of instruction.” “Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.” Thomas Carlyle Are you willing to look for an insight that will change the way you do things? Small businesses are so frightened of being Marmite they end up being vanilla. The question is, are you willing to: But an insight will make you - climb out of that trench? different - in a good way. - take a risk on insight? - turn customers away in order to gain more loyalty and better margins? 3 www.ambitiousbrands.com
Assumptions shape Insights We’ve talked about this already 7 Steps to Insight with SuBo. I also like the Assumptions define the shape of example of Willy Wonka when the insight.... he first meets the children Bet you didn’t know women To get us of this rut we need to catch the biggest salmon! Why??? put ourselves where we don’t In ‘12 Angry Men’ (1957) the jury ‘Know it all’.... Read Step # 2 and are convinced of the defendent’s get out of your comfort zone. guilt because he owned an elaborately carved knife. Henry Fonda finds the same knife at a nearby store.... Write down some assumptions you hold about your ‘Area of Insight...’ Step # 1: Assume Assumptions get in the w ay o f t h e I n s i g h t Process... so try to keep nothing... an open mind. Like Lord We have a tendency to believe we Leveson as he examines are right. But this hubris so often the evidence. leads to ridiculous behaviour. But not like Scooby Do! Incurious since 1969... “Most of our assumptions have outlived their usefulness.” Marshall McLuhan Tulip Fever or Sub-Prime mortgages for Not saying you need to ditch all example ... or the fact there’s lots of of your assumptions but you water on the moon: something scientist s h o u l d k n o w w h a t y o u r put down to faulty instruments! prejudices are and be willing to question them. Black Swan Theory - also based on hubris... a belief that we know S o l i c i t o r s a n d all the parameters... accountants assume they “ A s e t o f c o n c l u s i o n s i s have to maintain a potentially undone once any of its professional image - at fundamental assumptions is the expense of being disproved” f r i e n d l y a n d approachable. Is this 4 true? www.ambitiousbrands.com
Powerpoint is the biggest insight 7 Steps to Insight We need to stop thinking in Powerpoint. killer. We frame things inside this little Disorientate ourselves - make ourselves box - because it looks professional uncomfortable... Now read Step # 3: Do the analysis! Powerpoint is a good example of how we reduce our lives: Where does all this lead? 3 x Kids you do all this work, but how do Sexual intercourse twice you then know what’s an insight monthly... and what’s just random ideas? Indian food on Fridays “Before criticising someone, first walk a mile in their How can you immerse yourself...? shoes. That way, when you do How are you going to get closer Step # 2: Immerse criticise them, you’ll be a mile to your customer? away - and you’ll be wearing their shoes!” Jack Handy We’ve got to overcome that resistance yourself... It’s the difference between buying a “A desk is a dangerous place from Spanish language course from which to view the world.” John le Carre WHSmiths - and surviving in an Peruvian village... Which is more So we find excuses not to get effect? closer to our customers... Do fieldwork / focus Be like Dustin Hoffman in groups / follow people ‘Tootsie’ (1982). He became an The idea that its expensive or around supermarkets! expert on being a woman... time consuming or you don’t Fear of being told things we don’t know what you’re doing are just want to hear... that would force us The objective isn’t to ‘own’ facts but excuses not to do it... to do things differently... to absorb the information that will FEAR OF CHANGE! change the way you see things. That’s What are you trying to avoid it? why it’s called In-Sight... How many of us include feedback forms on websites or 5 at point of purchase? www.ambitiousbrands.com
What we tend to forget is You’ve done the fieldwork and gathered the 7 Steps to Insight that Archimedes was a information - so where’s the insight? m a t h e m a t i c i a n a n d engineer and his eureka At the end of ‘Four Weddings and a moment came after years and if nothing comes to you, look Funeral’ (1994) Andie MacDowell of work... at the data again and apply the has an epiphany when she realises next 4 steps... she loves Hugh Grant... if only insights were like this! Is there anything you’ve noticed Insights don’t just happen... you but never connected before? This need to work with the data is the beginnings of an Insight. until the answer reveals itself... ...Just as quantitative research is used to check qualitative T wo types of analysis. insights... Step # 3: Scientific Method based on empirical Do the analysis... evidence and peer review = Prof. Brian Cox “Half of analysis is anal.” Marty Indik Once you’ve seen a pattern in the data and developed a hypothesis then Prof Cox and his pals can look for empirical evidence to ‘Origin of the Species’ came about prove it.... thanks to Grounded Theory Grounded Theory is more like Finches evolved their beaks to pattern recognition whereby you suit their food source - which, jump into the data and look in turn explained dinosaur around until you start see bones... (Which was not part of connections that gradually evolve Darwin’s brief so he suppressed into hypothesis and ultimately the evidence for 20 years) theories... 6 www.ambitiousbrands.com
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