Insights: Gateways to Critical Decisions, Key Messages and Future Successes
Research and public relations professionals often use the word ‘insight’. They refer to a perceptive discovery that goes beyond basic data or observations to inform a key message, strategic communications plan or marketing campaign.
Insights are basically meaningful, relevant understandings of underlying motivations, patterns of behavior or deep-seated viewpoints. They can be gateways to future opportunities for a brand, technology or political viewpoint.
Insights are usually gleaned from qualitative research such as focus groups and executive interviews. Insights also can come from one-on-one conversations with customers, employees or impacted parties.
Trend analysis can provide insights, though trends aren’t endless and can fail to reckon with sharp changes in public or consumer attitudes.
Because insights involve judgment, they can be subject to bias – either by the researcher or the user. The “hear what you want to hear” syndrome can undermine the value of genuine insight. Professional researchers are skilled at capturing reliable insights rather than prevalent hearsay or preconceived ideas.
OregonSaves Insight
Perhaps CFM’s best example of capturing and employing insight came with our work on launching OregonSaves, the now highly popular state-sponsored retirement savings plan. State officials who won approval to create the plan feared the greatest stumbling block to employee participation would be automatic payroll deductions.
The three focus groups we conducted revealed potential savers liked the consistency of automatic payroll deposits. What they wanted was assurance they controlled their own savings accounts, not banks. Our subsequent OregonSaves marketing campaign zeroed in on that insight. The rest is history.
The lesson is that what you think you know may not be what your target audience wants.
Other Powerful Insights
A surge in antibiotic-resistant bacteria prompted research that the cause of resistance was from overuse of antibiotics. With that insight, public health campaigns promoted targeted antibiotic treatments along with alternatives such as better hygiene. As a result, antibiotic resistance rates declined.
Educators became concerned with a growing number of diverse learners who were falling behind their classmates in school. Conversations with educators with success in teaching diverse learners led to the insight of differentiated instruction techniques that matched different learning styles and successfully engaged students.
Political campaigns rely on insights to identify uncommitted, up-for-grab voters. In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump’s campaign discovered issues and avenues to attract young male voters who provided him crucial support in swing states.
Actionable Insights
Cision, which provides PR firms with analytics, media monitoring, social media listening and outreach, describes actionable insights as “pieces of data that indicate a clear action to address an issue or maximize an opportunity.”
Searchbug says, “Actionable data is information that can be directly used to take action. It’s specific, relevant and unambiguous. Actionable data stands out because it directly informs next steps and decision-making processes.” Actionable data also is timely.
Examples of successful use of actionable data include the use of patient medical records to track the efficacy of treatments and bank transaction records to improve financial products and detect fraud.
“In retail, actionable data includes customer purchase history, peak shopping times and popular products,” according to Searchbug. “This information helps in inventory management, marketing and sales strategies. Retailers can stock more popular items and plan promotions during peak times.”
The Value of Insight
The value of insight is in identifying key metrics that make a difference. For marketers, it can be conversion rates. For teachers, it can be student participation and attendance. For OregonSaves, it was convincing employees their savings would be safe.
Insights are valuable because they provide deeper understanding that, in turn, enables better decision-making, problem-solving and innovation.
Sometimes a decision boils down to a choice between raw data or human anecdotes. “The thing I have noticed is when anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right,” says Jeff Bezos, executive chairman of Amazon.
The benefit of research-based insights is that it blends data with anecdotes. It’s a way to let the voices of consumers speak through the data.
