Insights Unveiled - Uncovering Consumer Needs

In this episode, we look at the typical questions a business has about ‘consumer needs’. What do they ask vs what do they really want to know? It’s a big topic! But we discuss how to break it down with some helpful approaches and frameworks.  Our guest speaker is Emma Sant, founder of ‘Futureful’ Consulting. 

Transcript

Judith: 0:00

So, well, hello, Market Research and Insight friends, and welcome to the Insights Unveiled podcast. So podcast. We're trying to make sense of the typical sort of business issues that get thrown at the Market Research and Insights department. And it's really for anyone who wants a deeper insight into the real world of insights, what really goes on, rather than the sort of textbook version.

Mandy: 0:23

Follow

Judith: 0:24

us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you usually search for a podcast. So, who are we and what's this all about? Mandy.

Mandy: 0:32

Well, I'm Mandy. Hi there. I am a Consumer Insight Manager, so I work client side in market research and always have done. Thank you, Mandy. And

Judith: 0:41

Judith, I am Judith and I am an ex agency side researcher and now a supplier to the Insights industry. I'm an Insights storyteller through written word and video. we're coming at it from opposite sides of the fence and that's really kind of what we're trying to do here. We're trying to take a critical look at why market research projects don't always connect to great business decisions. and we're lifting the curtain on what really happens, which looks really different depending on your perspective. So whether you offer it on the client side, the agency side, or a supplier, and we're trying to understand from all of those different perspectives what gets lost in translation along the way and why what happens in reality isn't always the same as what's specified in the brief, proposed in the tender, or agreed in

Mandy: 1:23

the contract. Indeed. So to give it a bit of structure throughout the podcast series, we're following the logical arc from spotting an opportunity all the way through to the final marketing and selling of a product or service. So we started in our topic one in our previous podcast, looking at trends and foresight. So this is the second topic, looking at what consumers need. Just an important PS before we go on all these opinions are our own, so they do not reflect the opinions of who we work for currently or who we might have worked for in the past. And I guess that goes for you too, Judith, yeah? Yeah,

Judith: 2:00

absolutely. All, all, all the opinions are my own.

Mandy: 2:05

Fantastic. Should we get into it then? Let's get into it. Go for it. What, what consumers need? So, as I said, this is our second topic. And I think the first thing to know is it's really broad. We were chatting before that. Yeah, it's, it's a very broad topic. It is essentially what we do for our jobs, of course, but for the purposes of this podcast, and we want these podcasts to be nice and short and sharp. So 20 minutes to 30 minutes. So for the purpose of this, we are focusing on uncovering the sort of consumer needs that lead to new business ideas, products or services. That will drive growth. So that rather than the more generally to understand our world and our consumers, which, of course, is also very important. So what sort of things do we do we mean by that? So this is the work that typically gives us those foundational insights upon which we can build things like innovation briefs or innovation ideas brand positioning options, perhaps the insights that can lead to creative routes or business strategies. And I give you a recent example I had was around sustainability strategies. We wanted to understand what consumers thought in a very holistic way about sustainability, so that we could understand which strategies were relevant for our particular consumers and our particular business context.

Judith: 3:26

Okay, I think that's really helpful. So one of the ways we like to come at this is to think about, well, what are the questions around this topic that, that get put into the brief? So, you know, as an agency what you might see in the brief and, and what you're trying to answer versus what actually the stakeholder. in the client organization is actually expecting. So do you want to talk to that

Mandy: 3:50

a bit, Mandy? Yeah. Yeah. A typical question here could be, obviously, what are the. key needs of my consumers. What do they want that they don't already have? Another one could be, how do we add mutual value to our consumers and to our business? I always think that's a really nice way of looking at it. In reality, or in my experience, some of the ways that these have been put to me have been, give me an insight that no one else has ever thought of. So that I can find something truly unique to create to answer that, which of course is, is highly unrealistic very unlikely. Yeah,

Judith: 4:27

not only is that very unlikely, but that, that is not, that is not a brief that you can give an agency to then turn into a methodology and a project that actually delivers on that, because that's just not how, how it's possible to go about things. Indeed. But, you know, with an understanding that that's what the stakeholder actually wants at the end of the day, how do you

Mandy: 4:45

handle that? Well we try and break it down. So obviously we would go back and try and understand why do you need to what exactly do you want this insight for? What business process are you about to go into? It might look different, for example, if it's, it's underpinning something like innovation versus a new creative or a new piece of communication. But, but it's, it is quite interesting how, Sometimes there's this perception that there are things that no one else has ever uncovered. And if we could just uncover that one thing that's going to change the fortunes of a brand, for example, actually, usually what it means is going a little bit deeper than we've gone before. So it might not be a completely new insight, but it might just be something a little bit deeper and a bit more relevant to our particular brand or our particular part of the business than the more generalized insight that might already be out there. Another, another way it's been asked of me in the past is tell me the most important things I need to know about my consumer. And generally they're looking for one page that covers everything they've ever going to need to know about the consumer. That's an interesting challenge as well, because Most consumers are a bit more complicated than that, a bit more complex than that. But again, you can see how They want this as something foundational that they can come back to and make sure that their ideas and services are really rooted in consumer understanding. And another interesting question which I've often come up against probably because of the markets I work in and the type of companies I've worked for is how we can add value in a mature market. It's very difficult to grow in mature markets. So trying to understand consumers more deeply, trying to understand new insights, new ways that consumers behave. can sometimes unlock those sources of growth So yeah, some, some really interesting business questions get raised around this topic. Oh, and one more, my favorite one, my favorite one, because it is. The one that's never spoken off, but is probably the most typical is we've got this new piece of technology or we've got this new manufacturing process. How can we dress this up with some insights so that it looks like it's based on consumer understanding and so that when we go to our customers, our retailers, they're gonna, they're gonna buy that. I'm saying it flippantly, but this is. a very legitimate way of using consumer insight. Of course, you know, you have got new technology and you've got new processes they do need to be married together with, with a genuine need to add value to consumers as well.

Judith: 7:13

But I think there's there's a difference between we have a new technology. Let's go and crowbar some, put some user needs into it to make it look like it's going to meet those needs versus we have a new technology, let's with an open heart and an open mind, go out to the consumer and try and understand from mapping their needs and wants and desires where actually this might fit in. And I think they're two very, very different ways of going about it. And I think that quite often, it's, it's the first rather than the second, which, which is only going to backfire further down

Mandy: 7:53

the line, isn't it? But back to a point that I know you bring in all the time, Judith, it's very important, I think, that an agency that's being given this brief really understands if that's at the heart of the brief. There's nothing worse than perhaps asking them for new insights when really what we know is that we're very much constrained. By how those insights can be made relevant to the business. So we really do have to be open with people. I think the

Judith: 8:22

problem often is, is that you don't know that as an agency. it often doesn't come through in the brief. And, and, again, this goes back to the point that we made last time. And I think we're probably going to make it in every, time is that, you know, by the time this business need has been translated from end stakeholder through the insights department to the agency and, and then back out to the consumer, it's, it's lost a lot of its. real intent. And so, you know, as an agency, you have to almost sort of take at face value what you're given, which is why, you know, we always question the brief, question the brief, question the brief. But if the person who's commissioning research hasn't been privy to that conversation on the client side, then there's no way that that information is going to transmit itself to you. And so, some of the time you feel like you're doing, you're doing this work and you're finding out great stuff, but it's, there's no point in the end because it just isn't going to go anywhere because it's not what was actually needed in the first place.

Mandy: 9:17

A really important point, really important point.

Judith: 9:20

So, okay. So you are the. Insights Manager, and You have a stakeholder come to you and, and ask you, go out and find out about consumer needs. So how do you start?

Mandy: 9:35

So obviously. It's a massive, it's a huge very daunting question. I used to dread that question because I would always think, oh, how do I start? I actually love it now. Because It really showcases what consumer research can do. There are so many needs, some are obvious and some are not so obvious. As we will often mention, the most important thing is to nail the brief, however, and really start with the end in mind. So really understand what your stakeholder is asking for, and also what your stakeholder's expectations will be at the end. When you deliver that final report, is it really going to be something that's useful for their business needs or, or not.

Judith: 10:15

Yeah, so I was going to ask and as we, as we said last time as well in, in podcast one that defining your terms is really very important as well. And I wonder if that comes into this as well. Do you think sort of defining your terms and scoping your project is important at this stage?

Mandy: 10:31

Yes, I do. And really being clear, whether it's a conscious need or if it's a subconscious need as well. And I'd say one of my top tips is we always have to remind the organization and remind ourselves that people don't sit around. thinking that they can't possibly get on with their life without some solution from us. Nor do they sit around thinking about our brands or, or our organization as well. It really is about fitting in with their lives. Typically people are looking. Looking for things that are making their lives a bit easier, a little bit better in a way that doesn't cost them too much, whether that cost is is time or money or emotion, for example. there's one theory that that's quite popular, which is the jobs to be done theory, essentially it says that, people don't have a need for a product, they have a need for a solution. So our job in uncovering consumer needs is to look at how we can make the that they call it the journey of progress little bit easy through the solution that we can provide. So you're looking at their life in the whole, you're not looking at one specific, well, I've got a problem, I've got an issue, how do I solve for it?

Judith: 11:34

The jobs to be done theory, it is very popular. And it's, you know, in some ways it sort of harks back to the very, very beginning of marketing, really like with marketing myopia. And, the fact that people don't want, a one inch drill bit, they want a one inch hole to picture up or whatever. It's sort of, you know, almost goes back to, to that really

Mandy: 11:56

And then another really good tip is to deconstruct the question. So as with any question that feels daunting and big. It's worth chopping it up into smaller parts. So approaching it in chapters rather than all at once. And there are many different ways to do this. And obviously needs to be in a way that fits your personal style, as well as the question that's being asked by your business. But A couple of ways I tend to do it. One is from the broad to the narrow. So I look at general needs then broad category needs and then maybe specific category needs. And then your target consumer, if you have on what their needs are, so you can really start to build a picture of that. That needs scope, if you like or another way of doing it is following the consumer journey. I really like doing this because then you really are taking that consumer lens. So you think of a consumer in the home what's going on around them in the home and where might these needs come up planning their purchase. In store or online on a web page using the product, disposing of the product, post use, et cetera. And splitting up my consumer journey and thinking off the needs, be they conscious or subconscious along that journey also really helps to sort of take that very broad question and look at it in different chapters in different ways. And then finally, once you've, you've chopped it up it's good to reflect on where you already have got good information and just maybe need to synthesize that. Versus where you might need new data and there for a good agency brief. Most of us work in organizations. I think we, we haven't come to consumer insight as a completely new thing. usually there are reports or there's been consumer research done in the past, and it is always best practice to go back to that because quite often consumer insights don't change that much. So quick bit of synthesis is always good, but generally there's room for new insights or a new perspective or. you know, trying to keep track of how things might be changing the consumer landscape. And that's when a good agency brief really comes into its own.

Judith: 13:56

I think that's a really important point, isn't it? Because I think yeah, as you say, fundamental sort of human needs don't change all that much over time. And I know it can be really difficult in organisations to really know what you already know. So can you talk to that a little bit about how you, how you do that process of sort of understanding where it's a new need?

Mandy: 14:17

Absolutely. Well, again, it comes back to really decent briefing. I think when briefing an agency, you have to really invest the time to, to either synthesize what you, what you know already or to make it clear that you want the agency to do that synthesis work. So just be really open about what you, you do already know what you have already got, but also don't be afraid to be, quite specific about what you expect to see coming back at the end and what you don't expect to see. And yes, you know, we share previous work. They usually charge a little bit more to do that synthesis, but sometimes it can be the best way for the agency to really get their heads around what is known and what isn't known and give you that fresh perspective.

Judith: 14:57

Yeah. And I think that you've made some really good points in there, like number one, that you're actually willing to pay the agency a bit more to do that synthesis and get into, that in the, in the beginning rather than just sort of chucking some stuff at them and, and, and expecting them to, to just absorb it and come up with something,

Mandy: 15:14

So Judith, I was going to ask you for your reflection on that same situation. Have you ever been in a situation where you've gone in and presented or someone you know in an agency has gone in and presented and clearly despite doing a superb job it's not been what the client has expected because stakeholders have either been frosty or they've you know, that you can tell that it's not what they've been expecting to hear.

Judith: 15:39

there have certainly been occasions where, you you work with the. insights client through the project. You've never met the stakeholders. you've pushed back on the brief as much as you can to the limit of the knowledge of that insight client. And so you go out, you find out what the consumer needs, and perhaps some of it is you know, very exciting and new to you because you're not necessarily immersed in either that category or that particular market. So, you have found out lots of new and insightful things. However, they're not necessarily new and insightful to the end stakeholders who are in that briefing. You're meeting them for the first time in that room. They have an agenda that they've not necessarily revealed to your client. And yeah, that sort of frosting over of like, well, when are we getting to the real stuff? You know, this, we, we know all this, when are you going to tell us what this brand new insight that no one's ever heard of before that will revolutionize our new our new product development for the next 10 years?

Mandy: 16:48

Indeed. Should we go to our guest? Let's go to our guest.

16:55

So we have our guest for today. Um, Emma, Emma, would you like to introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your experience on researching consumer needs? Hi Mandy, I have worked with Consumer Needs for probably about 25 years now. So my background is, started out in Insights, but then moved into brand consultancy that uses Insights a lot. And a lot of the work I do has been around brand strategy and innovation. So things like looking for white spaces for brands to move into. So you need to understand needs for that. Um, understanding how to organize portfolios or market maturity. So you know how brands move across markets in terms of market development. And again, needs essential to that. And it might also be around brands and brand positioning or making brands relevant as well. And the kind of work or structure that I use To understand needs is, I'm a massive fan of 5W's approach and needs is part of that. So who, what, why, where, when. Um, but fundamentally needs is really important to a lot of the work I do. Fantastic. And can you, can you share with us an example of a project that you've done or you've, you've seen someone else do, um, in the, in this space? What was interesting about it? Sure. Yeah, so, um, probably when I was quite young in my career, so probably in my 20s, I worked on Sherwood's, um, with their parent company as well. And, and it was about Sherwood's positioning. But what was really interesting from a needs perspective from that was they also needed to consider Lloyd Grossman and they needed to consider Home Pride. So we're talking about jarred sources that help people with Cooking and we needed to think about the portfolio and fundamentally, these things are the same format, but the different brands meet different needs on different occasions. And so we needed to be really mindful of where Sharwoods could play and who it was targeting and what the Sharwoods customers needs were. And that was all around kind of an exotic culinary adventure that was relatively safe, but still took you to New cuisines, new ways of cooking and kind of made your dinner times more exciting versus. a Lloyd Grossman consumer and their needs were much more around culinary ingredients, but probably a lazy or a quick or a cozy night in when you don't want to think about cooking, and those people can really cook well, versus Home Pride, which is an essential cooking aid, maybe for those people that are less adventurous or less knowledgeable in their cooking. So, I found that really interesting because it was fundamentally the same product, but for different people addressing different needs on different occasions. Yeah. Really interesting. I was just thinking about which one am I. Get sucked into that. Um, one of the things that. our listeners are really interested in is what can go wrong in the process. So from your perspective, what can go wrong, particularly when, um, trying to understand consumer needs? When did a client not get what they were really looking for? Um, I think two things. spring to mind for me. The first is obviously miscommunication in the briefing, so different stakeholders with different objectives being not very clear on what they mean by consumer needs, and that can often lead to you working really hard on something. I can't think of a specific example for that, but I can think of a specific example, um, which might be a bit better, actually, for landing. needs and insights at the right level for, um, clients. So often in an example, often in sustainability, for example, that people talk about the context of the world, our world and my world. And I think you can use the same construct for needs as well in some respects. So I remember working on some trends work for, um, a brand and the trends were then going to be anchored into needs to then think about what innovation opportunities they could go after, um, to, to grow the business. And where we got to with that was we were so busy focusing on all the big things that were going on with Gen Z and what their needs were and how frustrated they were with life and the world of work and that the economy wasn't strong enough and all this kind of stuff and so interested in what was going on in the future of health etc that they became too high level for the client to think about how do I translate this into I need in terms of what my brands can do to meet those people's needs. And so we needed, we had some quite difficult conversations about bringing, bringing the insights down to their category. So from the world to a common world between customers and, and brands and what that then meant for what the brand could do to activate against it. So I guess a ladder, kind of a ladder of needs and that not every brand is always going to be about, you know, self actualization, but equally it's not always just going to be about survival and it's often somewhere in the middle, whether it's about utility or whether it's about making people feel better about who they are and their choices. So it's working out. where you sit on that level and what the client wants. Was the client clear in that case? You mentioned the brief, um, at the start, and this is something obviously Judith and I were talking about earlier in the episode, the need to make that brief really clear. Was it clear in this case? Trying to remember. I don't think the brief was particularly clear. Because what we'd sold was an exciting process to them. So they were excited about zooming outside of their category and thinking about how that might then fuel needs that could fuel innovation. So alongside doing all the lovely consumer insight work that you could do to unpick needs and what's going on right now, there was a bit more of a futures piece involved in how you translate that futures piece into this everyday piece. And I think, as is often the way, goalposts kind of shift as you go through a project and perhaps what was missing there was some check ins to say, OK, we can do it at this level or this level or this level. What's most appropriate for you? Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you. That's a really, that's a really clear example. And finally, if you had one piece of advice for our listeners on developing successful, consumer needs work. What would it be? I have a couple of bits of advice. The first is I talked at the beginning about I'm a big fan of five W's and that's because it gives you a structure to thinking. So who am I? targeting on what occasion, why would they be interested in it, when are they consuming it, what kind of format is, is useful to them. And I think having a structured approach to your thinking when you're looking at needs is, is really, really helpful, um, to work out what matters to people and why, and, and to clarify that narrative back to your client as to, um, the robustness of your thinking. The other thing is, Something that was taught to me a long time ago was use lenses of analysis when you're thinking about a client problem. And what I mean by that is don't just think about it as a big problem, but think about the ways you can chunk it down into different ways you're going to look at it. So when it comes to a consumer needs type brief, what are the different angles you're going to look at that consumer needs type brief? Problem or opportunity through and be clear about that and get sign off on that. Um, because then you're all aligned and it will give you the insights that you want. And then just a final thing when things go wrong for me. Historically, there might have been a tendency to stick my head in the sand and try and make it go away. But actually what I've learned over time is that by solving the problem, being upfront about it, you often build stronger and better relationships with your clients by working things through together. So it's not, it's not the end of the world and it's always eminently possible to solve the problems. Fantastic. Thanks so much, Emma. Thank you. My pleasure. Okay. Well, that was absolutely brilliant. What a great interview with Emma. How, how, how interesting. And, um, I think there's just so much of value for us to take away, from that. and, um, yeah, I think she sort of reiterated, a lot of the, the things that we would say about, just really trying to figure out what's really needed, before you, before you get into it. Just trying to really deeply understand all of that. Um, and, a really good way of doing it. Her, her top tick was, that framework. about ways to think about things. So she gave us the five W's framework, which I think is a super helpful way of thinking about consumer needs. And actually, sometimes it's the five W's and an H as well, it gets called because there's a how in there, you can apply as well. And, um, you know, also I think the idea about kind of laddering up needs was very, very helpful as well. and another very good sort of framework to think about needs. And, you know, as she said, not every brand is, is, is out there meeting survival needs. And not everyone is at the top of the ladder with the self actualization. You know, there's an, there's an awful lot. in the middle as well. So, you know, take that sort of lens on it and look at all of those levels as well. I think that's what I took out of that really. And I think particularly as we spoke at the start of the episode about this being a really big topic, the idea she gave really wanting to land it at the right level was absolutely resonating with me as well. I agree. So yeah, lots of, lots of very, very helpful stuff. Remember in that. So that brings us to the end of our consumer needs podcast. We hope you've enjoyed it. Thank you for listening and look out for our next one coming soon. Thank you all.