Consumer Insight: How to Use Data and Market Research to Get Closer to Your Customer

At one point, the authors of Consumer Insight cite L.P. English: “Businesses fail when management focuses too much attention on today's immediate needs, such as quarterly profits, at the expense of solving tomorrow's problem, such as discovering and satisfying consumers' emerging requirements.” (p.142) This epitomizes why consumer insight is important, and this guidebook provides a very comprehensive journey through the how of consumer insight.

Written by a team of research professionals and academics, this latest offering in the Market Research in Practice Series is rich in practical guidelines and examples from the international business world. Each chapter offers a complete, stand‐alone seminar focused on one topic related to the complexities of consumer insight. One only misses the opportunity to ask questions, although, given the book's thorough examination of the issues and research techniques, not many questions go unanswered.

In the Introduction, the authors offer their opinion that “Insight is considered by some companies just a new name for market research, perhaps enhanced by information from a customer database, or the other way around.” (p. 1) Their own definition of “insight” goes much deeper into consumers' needs and desires as they urge marketers to look beyond the typical market research goals of measuring demographics and other quantitative classics, what the authors call “head” measures. They argue that these measurements should be “replaced, or at least balanced, by measures relating to what the business or organization aims to do for its customers” (p. 9) – the “halo” measures.

This lofty premise underpins the book's presentation of the issues going forward. As the authors write, “You have a choice about how to use consumer insight. You can use it just to get slightly better at what you do know, or you can use it to transform your marketing and customer service. This book shows you how to do both, but we prefer it if you took the transformational option and learnt from the getting‐slightly‐better one” (p. 16).

Chapter 1 begins with detailed exploration of the discipline of database marketing, including how it works, how to plan the activities, and their applications. This is a comprehensive review of such practicalities as sources of data, types of information to include in a database, and data quality and maintenance. The author also includes a discussion of the pros and cons of outsourcing database management.

More detailed applications of database marketing comprise Chapter 2. The authors describe consumer applications (direct mail, response handling and fulfillment, telemarketing, club or user group marketing, consumer promotions, targeted branding, etc.), managerial applications (campaign and relationship planning, coordination and monitoring), and consumer dialogue applications. They also present database marketing in various industry perspectives, providing snapshots of utilities, telecommunications, financial services, leisure and travel services, non‐profit and public institutions, marketers of physical products, retailers, and mail‐order houses.

Chapter 3 introduces the concept of “customer care” and explains how database marketing uses consumer insight. Customer care focuses on “consumers as individuals, throughout the cycle from need to use of the product, with the aim of developing and using insights into how they felt about the product and associated service” (p. 60). The chapter discusses the uses, advantages, and disadvantages of direct mail, telemarketing, broadcast, media, e‐mail, and other ways to contact consumers; and it includes useful case studies. This chapter is described by the authors as “a prelude to the more comprehensive view advocated in customer relationship management (CRM)” (p. 60).

Here, in Chapter 4, is the transformational option the authors hope marketing professionals take when they aspire to establish consumer insight cultures in their organizations. The tools and techniques described in this chapter could help achieve these goals. The authors offer the following definition of CRM:

CRM is how we:• find you,• get to know you,• keep in touch with you,• try to ensure that you get what you want from us in every aspect of our dealings with you;• check that you are getting what we promised you (p. 89).

Chapters 5 and 6 are technical discussions of tools and techniques for market researchers and IT professionals. The authors urge researchers to “consider their role in the organization and the need for someone to pull all the consumer research together to see the bigger picture, maximize insight and disseminate this throughout the organization” (p. 131). The “Calls to Action” are sets of intriguing questions for practitioners to ask themselves as they approach any research engagement that addresses CRM or consumer insight. The authors also present the technical infrastructure that's needed for optimal consumer insight. There are descriptions of analyses and data mining techniques.

The varied backgrounds of the book's authors are apparent in Chapter 7 (“Using Consumer Insight”). A series of case studies illustrate how consumer insight was used, with varying degrees of success, to achieve specific business objectives such as up‐selling, cross‐selling, customer retention and loyalty.

Take a look in your wallet (as the Capital One TV advertisements direct). It is not a question of whether you possess a customer loyalty program card, but of how many. These loyalty schemes are introduced and delineated in Chapter 8. The authors share their thoughts on the thorny issue of sharing consumer insight and discuss mutually beneficial relationships with information partners. They also describe all the managerial aspects of loyalty schemes so that the reader can be well informed before jumping onto the loyalty bandwagon.

Ethics come up again in Chapter 9's treatment of “good” and “bad” consumers. The authors set up possible parameters for classification, and they briefly touch upon the social, political and legal ramifications. They offer guidelines and “good practices” for consideration.

Chapter 10 describes new technologies for consumer insight along with case studies and suggestions for specific software solutions. And finally, Chapter 11 uses more case studies to illustrate the “main jobs done by those who work in database marketing and consumer insight” (p. 248). There are job descriptions, a list of required skills and capabilities, and suggested selection criteria for external suppliers. The Appendix is the Market Research Society Code of Conduct as a reference.

The Market Research in Practice series (according to its web site) strives to help practitioners to:

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  develop core skills;

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  learn from the experts;

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  understand and apply market research effectively; and

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  make market research a vital business tool.