The Planning Salon. Pink Air: What is an insight? Planners are often asked to deliver insights. Some even say that "finding insights" is what planners are for and what defines planning. But now, after years of pretending to be a planner, I'm finally prepared to admit that I've never really understood what an insight is. My impression is that people are asking for a new piece of information about the way an audience interacts with a brand, product or category. I imagine the gold standard for this kind of insight is something like, "Hip German mothers are meeting on particular subway lines in the middle of night for impromptu diaper changing parties.
" Is it novelty that transmutes plain old information into insight? Maybe an insight isn't a new piece of information, but a new way of interpreting existing information. I'm not sure. Why is a Good Insight Like a Refrigerator? Here is an Insight: "Product satisfaction arises less from inherent construction and performance than from consumers' internalised perceptions of personal utility. " You may have found it faintly familiar; and - when you finally worked out what it meant - more than faintly obvious.
What you won't have found it to be is exhilarating, inspiring, memorable, actionable, evocative. You will not have been tempted to repeat it to colleagues or include it in your next internal newsletter. Certainly, it contains a truth - and an important truth at that; but it just sits there. Between 40 and 50 years ago, Professor Theodore Levitt famously told his Harvard Business School students: "People don't want quarter-inch drills. "Product satisfaction arises less from inherent construction and performance than from consumers' internalised perceptions of personal utility. " His diligent students would have noted it down; but it would never have been quoted and it would have enlightened nobody. Bold hypothesis. Campaign Planning: Understanding Insights.
The Account Planners group on LinkedIn has a nice discussion going about When is an insight an insight? A good conversation surrounding insights is always interesting because they remain a bit of a mystery... What is the importance of insights? What are insights, really? And how do you go about finding them? Looking for a definition of insights is difficult but Simon had some good thinking. As a noun an insight is 'a deep and intuitive understanding of a person or thing'. An insight is a penetrating observation about consumer behavior that can be applied to unlock growth. If that's how it's defined than an insight is pretty important. Sometimes new or previously unused motivating facts can serve as useful insights. Sometimes an insight is a new way of looking at existing information.
Often an insight comes after getting close to consumers and seeing fresh or niche uses of the product or service. And looking at milk consumption in a new way led to "Aaron Burr" and all the great got milk? Another Planning Blog… » Blog Archive » Insights – something of a presentation… I had to talk to our account management department this morning on Insights. Agreed to do it a long time ago and then suddenly realised that the time was upon me a few days ago. What a mistake. I thought it would be interesting to do because I don’t know if I agree with Insights overall. I think they exist and can be useful, but I think that they are misused way too often. We talk about insights too easily. And, the reality is, that insights are really hard to find – and, they’re not the ONLY way to write a good brief. I started weakly by admitting that I’d cobbled it all together at the last moment – don’t think that went brilliantly – next time I’ll try something more confident!
From here on in, I’ll paste in the notes I wrote to myself – and try to augment where they’re particularly weak… Start with a good rant about misused words and the abundance of buzzwords in marketing – usually to the obfuscation of any real meaning. At least, not that I’ve seen to date. Yet more words! And this!