In an era marked by digital transformation, the new currency has become information and shared knowledge. Both are fundamental for marketing and sales, research and development, and corporate communication. Why? Because they constitute the basis for strategic decisions regarding product development, brand communication, shopper activation, or lines of argument in business. But with available data now so abundant, defining the truly relevant insights isn’t always a simple matter. Yet another challenge involves the next step: converting such insights into specific, feasible strategies and measures The BESTVISO Insights Activation Workshop is ideally suited to this objective-translating business-relevant insights, across all divisions of an organization, into practical measures.
Prerequisites for an insights activation workshop: relevant insights and strategic knowledge management
A successful insights activation, at its core, will generate the insights so that they are positioned contribute meaningfully to the marketing or sales strategies right from the start. Ask yourself or your in-house clients:
- What use are the insights?
- For which activation do I need them?
- What do I really need to make the business customer and market oriented?
Once you answer these questions fully, insights become relevant. In addition, such insights must also be collected and evaluated with methodically valid, reliable forms of research. Moreover, it is advisable to combine essential consumer psychology research with market-based behavioral and financial data. For financial success will be achieved only if products and brands appeal emotionally and viscerally to consumers – in their motivational and value worlds.
Strategic application of the insights in all areas of the company necessitates targeted knowledge management. The next decisive step consists of making knowledge both continuously visible and usable across departments.
Vehicles for achieving this goal include shared databases, info-wikis or digital knowledge and process platforms. Beyond that, it is vital to furnish a qualified content classification of the findings. Ideally, representatives from all business-driving departments should be involved from an early stage. Doing so is the only sure-fire way to foster the personal exchange of ideas. A further benefit of including everyone is enhancement of the team members’ common identity – thereby placing achievement of the company’s goals squarely at the forefront.
Five tips for insights activation
As the process continues to unfold, the bundled insights are transformed into measures capable of ready implementation. For this purpose, we have found – through the experience of our practice involving companies from a wide range of sectors – that a successful insights activation workshop will incorporate the following steps:
- Roundtable: every participant is brought in – from marketing, sales, media and R&D. Depending on the topic and on the stage of the given project, media or communication agencies should also be invited to participate. For complex tasks, at least one or two days of preparation time should be allotted.
- Neutral moderation: workshops – whether conducted online or face-to-face – should be moderated by a neutral individual. Those most suitable for this task are trained, outside moderators who work in various institutes in corporate market research. Moderators of this kind will be able to guide participants through the process in a truly objective, unbiased manner, while maintaining a clear view of the insights and the ultimate goal.
- Equal knowledge for all: from the very outset of the workshop, all participants are brought up to speed so that they enjoy the same level of knowledge. Key findings are summarized and presented. This step will clarify all questions directly, ensuring a shared, harmonized understanding of the situation, both overall and pertaining to specific data.
- Definition of “golden nuggets” all participants will jointly select the most relevant, key insights for market activation.
- Action plan: brainstorming methods such as 635 or Round Robin will stimulate derivation of goals and measures. At the conclusion of the workshop, a specific, detailed action plan with deadlines will ensure implementation, allocated responsibilities, and monitoring of the measures’ implementation.
Insights activation workshop – versatile in use
The BESTVISO Insights Activation Workshop is a suitable instrument for many brand strategy topics, including: development of new product ideas, differentiation of brand positioning, communication strategies, and sales promotion measures. Furthermore, this workshop is particularly recommended for all fundamental and strategic studies, because such studies, with their frequently complex results and analyses, make it possible to derive a wide range of measures. Moreover, measures of this nature usually have long-term effects – thus ensuring return on investment, which can often be quite extensive. These studies and data include, among others
- brand image and brand driver analyses
- usage & attitude studies
- trends and social developments
- marketing modeling
- path-to-purchase and shopper studies
- media and communication analyses and surveys
A practical example
A chain store in the hair-care sector wanted to more differentiate more distinctly among its various salon brands. To this end, for each individual brand, a specific positioning was to be developed. We designed and directed a comprehensive, psychologically-based Usage & Attitude, Brand Positioning, and Brand Driver Study. After a wide-ranging call for tenders, we carried out this study in cooperation with a market research institute. Following presentation of the results, we conducted an Insights Activation Workshop lasting a day and a half, in which the marketing, sales, and internal communication departments all participated.
As the first step, we used presentation of the management summary to bring every participant up to the identical level of information. By so doing, we could clarify every remaining open question the participants had. The next step was to develop the brand positioning. Defining the true consumer insights of the specific target group segments proved a challenge for the participants. They achieved success through an in-depth working session, facilitated and guided by our moderation. Next, we dealt with the various driver and need-gap analyses for category usage and brand performance.
The participants converted these into real benefits, reasons to believe, and brand USPs. All things considered, these should be differentiated – not only from each other but also from the competition. This objective was successfully achieved using various scenario and brainstorming techniques, allowing specific, practicable ideas for the further implementation of the brand positioning to quickly bubble up from all participants.
Five advantages of the Insights Activation Workshop
All participants will:
- enjoy the same level of knowledge;
- develop a common understanding of the initial situation;
- bring their diverse perspectives and user interests, thus creating a holistic picture;
- develop a common and equal team identity, and
- derive specific measures and steps, both for themselves and their specialized department, clarifying for everyone the precise tasks at hand.
Conclusion:
Specific measures based on strong, valid insights are crucial for branding – because only the activation of insights achieves a convincing return on investment for research. To achieve this objective, we recommend three steps: generating valid insights, sharing insights across departments, and converting them into specific, quantifiable actions with team members.
Interested in turning your insights into promising activities? Please contact us for a free consultation.