For businesses today, staying relevant is tough. We live in a fast-paced world, and culture and the internet move so quickly that knowing how to keep your head above water can feel impossible. New trends throw you off course. Competitors are even more competitive. Consumers are demanding more. To stay relevant, brands need to evolve and adapt to the world around them and meet their consumers’ expectations. Enter consumer insights.
What are Consumer Insights?
Consumer insight is an interpretation used by a business to understand its audience better. Insights are usually gathered from analytics and consumer research. While market research gives you the ‘what’ of markets and consumers, consumer insights give you the ‘why’ behind consumer behaviour, like their frustrations, motivations, and preferences.
How Are Insights Gathered?
There are various ways you can gather consumer insights. These include:
- Customer Reviews
- Behavioural Data, like social media analytics
- Social Listening
- Chatbot Data
How Do They Keep a Brand Relevant?
Insights indicate consumer interests, and the research they’re generated from is at the heart of maintaining relevance and competitiveness in the market. With insights, businesses can test and improve campaigns, predict future trends, adapt quickly to change, and compare their efforts with their competitors.
Insight-driven marketing has helped many brands and businesses stay relevant and succeed. For example, the brand ‘Always’ realised it was losing its relevancy after its research suggested that not many consumers were willing to engage with them. As a result, they created their own #LikeAGirl campaign, which helped position them as the leading brand for encouraging female empowerment and change.
Gathering insights through data takes a lot of time and patience. It’s hard work, but it’s essential to do if you want to stay ahead of the game. However, some businesses find they lack time to focus on other areas of their work, or maybe they’re struggling to understand what insights are and how to leverage them effectively. If this is you, why not explore using a consumer insights company?
What’s A Consumer Insights Company?
If you’re overwhelmed or perhaps utterly disinterested by the thought of gathering insights, it’s worth having a chat with a consumer insights company. A consumer insights company can analyse and measure insights from all angles and give you the guidance you need to make the best marketing decisions for your brand.
Most companies don’t focus exclusively on current customers either; with their data and insight, you can also focus on potential customer’s behaviour, so you can learn the best ways to stay relevant and appeal to their needs. Harmonising data takes time, and a consumer insights company can save you time and effort whilst helping you to build your brand.
Some Ground Rules for Maintaining Relevance
To stay relevant in an oversaturated market, gaining insight is essential. It shouldn’t be the only thing you do, though. To keep your brand alive and kicking, you should also:
Be Innovative
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box and push your own limits. Consumers favour unique brands with their own personalities.
Prioritise Experience
To succeed, you need to know your audience. You also need to understand how they experience your brand. We’re not just talking about snazzy websites or improving a few products; are you emotive? Does your brand really get to the heart of your audience? Being personal is essential, and consumers value brands that are truthful and authentic.
All Eyes On Your Consumers
Everything about your brand should be seamlessly designed to suit the needs and expectations of your audience. Use insights to track their purchasing patterns, and you can get to the core of what they really want from you.
Our Final Thoughts
Insights don’t just benefit your brand; they benefit your consumers too. When you’re gathering insights, you need to focus on a range of different data points. Your consumers will be interacting with your brands in all sorts of ways. Whether they’re making a purchase, watching an advert, browsing through your store, or checking out your social media, you need to learn how to analyse their interactions. By gaining insight, you’ll develop the tools you need to stay relevant and create an edge that makes you stand out from your competitors.
