Solving the problems facing consumer insights

According to a new book, consumer insights is facing cross-roads that could make or break its future as a profession.

In fact, authors Tim Hoskins and Brett Townsend of Quester Strategy and Insights, say the profession must “pull itself out of its academic and clinical past, focus on what really matters”. It must also change the industry culture so that it can “deliver consumer-centric insights that truly impact organizations, bring about change and significantly contribute to companies’ bottom lines”.

For those on the front-line, this problem statement is likely to sound familiar.
To find out more, CX Network caught up with Brett Townsend (pictured below) to find out what impact these challenges are having on business performance, and which consumer behaviors CX practitioners need to be ahead on.

CX Network: Your book, Insights on the brink, begins by stating that as a profession consumer insights, analytics and market research are at a crossroads: under-appreciated by management and the first to be cut when tough times arrive. What impact does this have on business performance?

Brett Townsend: We see the impact in the headlines every week about a new innovation, business strategy or marketing campaign that goes terribly wrong. Many of these failed initiatives are not thoroughly researched and vetted with the consumers who are impacted by these executive decisions.

I have seen the quote many times in these articles where they blame “unexpected consumer behavior” as the reason for the failure. Unexpected by whom? The senior leaders whose ideas these were, the product development team that just went through the motions on creating the new product, the company who didn’t gain the needed in-depth consumer understanding or has the necessary consumer empathy?

“Unexpected consumer behavior” is usually code for “the consumer didn’t act the way we wanted them to” and “we probably didn’t do the best job understanding current consumer needs and behavior.”

When insights are really cultivated and utilized to their full potential, there are very few surprises and almost always, insights positively impact business performance.

Granted, some of these executives haven’t seen the strategic direction or game-changing insights their consumer insights teams have, so they use other means to make decisions. But to them I would say, if you’re not seeing the type of impact you demand from your insights departments, don’t cut them or marginalize them Instead, due the deep due diligence and bring in insights leaders who will work with you to transform your business.

CX Network: As described in the book, consumer insight is a study of human behavior. What are some of the most surprising customer behavior trends to emerge over recent years?

Brett Townsend: Some of the most impactful trends over recent years are the amount of online shopping that is done to the tune of causing major disruption for the brick-and-mortar retail industry, consumer demand for corporate transparency, the way foreign foods and flavors have seen meteoric success, the desire for experiences instead of accumulating more things, and the rise of social media influencers in brand/product marketing, just to name a few.

There are so many more and everyone has their favorites, however, I wouldn’t say many of these trends are surprising because they are things we saw happening before they took off. Even when you factor in the Covid-19 pandemic, all it did was accelerate trends that were already happening, it didn’t create new trends.

CX Network: When we researched the Global State of CX in 2024, our network of practitioners told us the top customer behavior trends influencing their role the most were demand for convenience and expectation for instant service/ delivery. Why do you believe customers are so focused on speed?

Brett Townsend: It all started with Amazon and everyone has slowly and sometimes begrudgingly followed along. We can get practically anything at any time of day in any normal-sized town, so much so that it has now become an expectation, not a value add-on.

Think about the last time an online vendor tried to charge you for shipping or said it would take a week or longer for you to get your order; were you outraged? Or think about a time when it took longer than 30 minutes to get food delivered.

Humans have always been driven by self-interest but this obsession with speed is because of market disruption by a number of companies where speed is now table stakes.

I’ve joked that we have become a Veruca Salt culture: “I want it now!” Just like the Willie Wonka character was spoiled by her father, we have been spoiled by companies who have made consumer convenience their top priority.

I don’t say that as a bad thing because those companies saw a consumer need, even if it was an unspoken need by many, and they delivered it to us. You could say the same for many needs that were delivered by great brands—great tasting healthy foods, well-fitting clothing that are also comfortable, and enhanced in-home entertainment options.

CX Network: What are some of your golden rules for effective customer sentiment and insights monitoring?

Brett Townsend: The first rule is you cannot effectively understand the consumer through surveys. In most cases surveys only give you data, not insights.

The second rule is to get out from behind your desk and away from your computer. One of my favorite quotes is from Jim Stengel, former CMO of Procter and Gamble: “If you want to know how a lion hunts, don’t go to the zoo, go to the jungle.”

“Going to the zoo” could be classified as conducting focus groups, doing “desk research,” fielding yet another quantitative survey, or even relying on AI to analyze results and do research for you. None of these ways provide an avenue to empathy because you don’t spend time with consumers, see their frustrations, understand their challenges, hear their struggles, and develop empathy for them that translates to great insights.

My third golden rule is to tap into the power of social narratives. These are different to social analytics or social listening, neither of which give you the true narratives that are explaining consumer belief and behaviors.

Cyberspace is the largest, unfiltered and unmonitored focus group happening every second of every day. Monitoring these narratives as they play out in long-form discussions people are having all the time, can help identify new trends before they become big; accurately explain the depth of the observed beliefs and behaviors; give you a clear picture of how people really feel about your brand beyond awareness and consideration; and give you ideas for new innovation.

Everyone is controlled by narratives and understanding them is the key to the future of consumer insights.

CX Network: The book begins with the ultimate problem statement, but with so much technology on the market, what is the future of customer insights as you see it?

Brett Townsend: AI is already a commodity in the insights industry. Most agencies now provide an AI data collection solution. It has quickly become the same as the Internet in the late 1990s when data collection started shifting from telephone and written surveys to online. Many of the mundane data collection and analytics can now be done by AI. So, if that’s how insights professionals view their jobs, then they should worry.

The future of insights is dependent on the things AI and data cannot do: have consumer empathy, understand human emotion, develop breakthrough innovation and tell great stories. That should have always been our focus as an industry but it hasn’t.

The brands who succeed will be the ones whose insights are rooted in developing solutions that solve consumer problems, telling emotional and actionable stories, and building great relationships with consumers because they share and reflect their values. All because they have deep consumer empathy and a consumer-centric culture that is everyone’s responsibility, not just consumer insights.

Insights on the Brink, by Brett Townsend and Tim Hoskins, is available now

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