– Delphine, you're co-chair of Adetem's innovation club, but you're also a marketing research expert after a career in research institutes (Millward Brown) and with advertisers (Thomson, Newell Rubbermaid). These days, no one is a research director: we're talking about Consumer Insight Managerof marketing intelligence... Why the change?
- Research is one way of gathering information, data and knowledge about customers and markets. This exciting research profession is evolving and needs to reinvent itself: its added value lies not only in auditing internal 'knowledge' requirements and managing partners and suppliers to gather this data/information, but in the ability to give meaning to this knowledge, to transform it into 'insights' to feed strategy.
Le consumer insight just like the marketing intelligence or the knowledge management is a term that is difficult to translate, but it has the strategic dimension of moving from raw information/data to useful, intelligent knowledge, directly linked to marketing recommendations with a business impact. This is known asinsights into action.
However, it would be useful for the profession to find a "universal" job title, as the proliferation of job titles may not help to clarify our mission and our role in organisations, which in these times of change are sometimes called into question.
- In the past, the market research department had the best information on the consumer. big dataHow should it reposition itself on social media?
- The business needs to reposition itself around the interpretation of multi-source customer knowledge (and not just through research-related data collection).
Its added value lies in the integration of different sources, combined above all with the intelligence conferred by this knowledge of consumers and markets, at the service of business transformation and corporate strategy.
The research department is a true partner and strategic consultant to the company's other functions, particularly marketing, but also R&D, Innovation, IT, Digital, Sales, etc. It is therefore at the interface and works in cross-functional project mode. They are the real guarantors of customer knowledge and the 'neutral' link between internal and external departments. Their role must be active, even pro-active, and no longer merely supportive. One option is for the function to become independent of the BUs and therefore of marketing.
- Innovation often comes from R&D and engineers: how should research fit into this picture and how can we ensure that the consumer's voice is heard?
Innovation can no longer be based purely on technology and R&D. If it is to find a market, its added value must be not only economic but also societal. A successful innovation is one that is derived from use, and therefore from the consumer. Moreover, it is most often "service-based". Innovation has become vital for many companies, and is associated with "customer centricity" or "customer culture".
The position of insights in relation to innovation is therefore crucial:
-> Upstream: as a trend hunter, particularly in terms of social trends, a guarantor of consumer needs and expectations, and a real "itching tool" for inspiring, shaking up or even breaking down barriers and generating new ideas.
-> Downstream: to ensure that the innovation brings real consumer benefits and therefore responds to a potential market when it is launched.
Today, therefore, marketing is necessarily at the heart of innovation. insights must be integrated into the innovation process where it exists. The "design thinking" approach to innovation therefore starts from the insights. In reality, the involvement of insights in the innovation process depends on the context and culture of the company and the type of innovation. They also involve a definite investment of resources and time.
Incremental innovation can be based on a marketer's intuition alone, even in a large group. If it's more of a breakthrough innovation with a new territory (such as the blue ocean), understanding uses and lifestyles often generates the best ideas at the origin of innovations...
Moreover, the two functions insights and innovation are increasingly working together, and are even intimately linked in many large group organisations, as is the case at Newell.
To go further on this subject, in 2015 I took part in the TNS/Accenture/Adetem study on innovation and the voice of the customer for advertisers (a summary is available on the TNS website).
- The most innovative start-ups often neglect research: is it always so necessary?
In a start-up, the idea most often comes from use and from the consumer, and therefore from a "product". insight with technology and digital. The factors of time and resources mentioned above are therefore key in this context, because they are limited from the outset: the right timing of the launch takes precedence over the risk involved. As a result, the idea does not necessarily come from consumer research as such, but the consumer is often directly involved in the development of the products or services themselves: the 'test and learn' approach is then adopted and can work perfectly well.
The insights consumers remain at the heart of the business.
– Marketing has had trouble integrating the new behaviours of Generation Y (constant zapping, constant chatting, personal life spilling over into professional life, etc.); now Generation Z is arriving: how can we prepare to offer them innovative but relevant products?
Generations Y and Z are overturning the reference points of our generations, who are still often at the head of marketing departments. Their relationship with space, time, mobility, community, money and so on revolves around use, experience and benefit. Observing people's lifestyles and behaviour, listening to them and talking to them is already a key to entering their world. It also means reinventing traditional data collection methods and integrating many new ways of doing this, many of which can be based on digital technology.
Rejuvenating management teams by increasingly integrating these generations is also a key success factor (e.g. Accor and its shadow comex).
Working with these new ways of thinking and approaching business will help us to innovate, by responding better to the expectations of these generations, whose expectations are also constantly changing and evolving. Visit Real Time is therefore also a real lever for successful adaptation and innovation.
The versatility of these generations is undoubtedly what characterises them, making them complex to understand, but not impossible or even exciting!
