This is the fourth and last post in the short series of posts that I started about Challenges facing Qualitative research in China. As I have said in the posts before, the idea is not to castigate research agencies or trash the ways of some of the marketers. Instead the idea is to highlight the research & marketing issues plaguing various marketing and research systems & highlight that if we address these we can find a way to superior understanding of people in China and consequently do better marketing and market planning.
Insight is an oft-quoted word in the marketing circles. What is an insight? Where do we find it? Does the consumer say it? Does it come from a data table? What does it lead to? How do we know when we get it? Is it real or mythical?
I have always believed that the insight lives in interpretation of information, not the information itself. Insight is not a fact, a data point or a consumer quote – it is the unique way in which we interpret it that gives it meaning. It is about intuitive understanding of inner nature of things. For example Coffee is commonly believed to be a stimulating beverage that people like to drink to keep them awake. But most certainly it is also a way of socializing with others.
The way I interpret this is that coffee is not just a stimulating beverage in the physical sense. ‘It is an excuse to meet and talk’. It is a great way to get to know people over an engaging conversation. ‘Coffee stimulates socialization!’
All this sounds very obvious after I say it but respondents almost never say it this way in a research discussion. This is for us to interpret. This is the real insight. Like always it is hidden in the obvious. And yet by its very nature helps in creating a competitively advantageous idea. For example – premium coffee bars/cafes etc are just one business idea coming out of the insight about being ‘an excuse to meet and talk’ and ‘stimulates socialization’.
Just observe how the same product, that we were treating only as a stimulant just a few minutes back, has given us an opportunity to think about it in an entirely new way.
I therefore believe that if we need to derive real insights – we need to interpret information afresh. We cannot expect consumers to verbalize it, nor can we write it down and ask them to choose it or rate it. That is just not real. In a developing market like China, where consumers are not very articulate, nor are they very savvy about the products and services that they use, we cannot adopt a direct approach of deriving the insights. Giving people various statements as options is definitely not the best way of working. Instead – we need to tap into our collective experience and use personal judgment to interpret the information that we receive.
To explore the world we do not need to travel to new places, we need a fresh pair of eyes and new perspectives. That discovery is not out there, it is inside us, I wish we looked inside more.
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