Consumer Insights definition

Consumer insights is “An in-depth understanding of customer behavior that is more qualitative than quantitative. It describes the role played by the brand in question in the life of its consumers – and their general stance towards it, including the way they acquire information about the category or the brand, the importance attached to generic and specific values, attitudes, expectations, as well as the choice-making process.”, as defined by the American Marketing Association (AMA)

Consumer Insights Advantage

1. Predict Customer Pattern/Behavior:

Consumer data, when converted into useful insights, goes a long way in predicting customers’ future choices. By collecting and analyzing customer data, marketers get to know where to focus their time and effort to deliver an extraordinary customer experience. With the help of consumer insights, marketers focus on building marketing strategies, discounts, promotions, and social media messaging.  

2. Design Marketing Campaigns:

Customer insights enable companies to target the needs of their customers and thereby build high-performing marketing campaigns. Consumer-insights-driven marketing campaigns make use of the customer data to convert it into insights that can be used to improve and optimize performance. 

3. Gain Competitive Advantage: 

To stay afloat in this ever increasingly competitive landscape, companies have to get creative by understanding their customers. Brands have discovered methods to beat their competition, and have emerged as kings in their industries by using consumer insights. Brands are using consumer insights to differentiate themselves from competitors by creating an emotional connection between the customer and the brand. 

Consumer Insights Example

A great example of actionable consumer insights was Heineken’s “Cities of the World” campaign. 

When Heineken noticed that one of its crucial customer segments, comprising of young beer consumers, was becoming more inclined towards local craft beers, they set about collecting some consumer data. While they understood that beer consumption was an essential aspect of their consumer’s social life, Heineken’s consumer research also found people using social media, and online conversations to find out what was “the rage” in a particular area.

Heineken identified a pattern signifying that this desire to find what was hot in a field was driven by a fear of missing out (FOMO). Using this valuable consumer insight, gleaned from customer data, Heineken launched the “Cities of the World,” with a Twitter-based service called @wherenext to increase social conversations. They wanted to bring the classic brand closer to their modern customers. The campaign led to a growth of 5% (in terms of volume) in the top twenty markets of Heineken.