Operating without having consumer insights is a bad idea for building your brand. In the contemporary market, you must first understand your customer and then proceed. Consumer insights allow you to understand customer expectations. They reveal their behavior towards your decisions that affect them. Most important of all, they help you understand the stage of readiness of consumers to buy. As a result, you get to know what the hurdle is for them in reaching that stage.
The classical approach and its limitations
The traditional or classical approach is the use of a focused group or interview to gather insights. It has a major deficiency. It does not allow you to gather the practical side of the consumers’ actions. With the help of a focused group, in the end, one is only able to collect the intention of a buyer.
Classical methods only yield psychographic behavior of people. Quantitative surveys and focused groups just give an idea of consumers ‘reactions to certain stimuli. Or it could be cause and effect factors. In simple terms, their normal perceptions and reactions to brands are available. Classical methods give the pain points of a customer in using the product.
These are great for basing decisions from a neutral or planned base for a marketer. However, the game involves more. The modern marketplace has switched to digital mediums. In both marketing and selling products consumers now maintain control to the in the buying process. As a result, marketers’ effectiveness depends on the customer’s decisions. Not just that, but also on the practical features of the channel through which this relationship is built.
That means that marketers need insights into pain points in not just using, but also, reaching the product.
The need for digital consumer insights
The practical aspects of digital mediums affect the decision of the buyer. Therefore, to just operate with the psychographic insights is to avail only half the real opportunity.
A potential buyer on your website hovering over the buy button is a much stronger opportunity to get. Compare this to a random customer who is only aimlessly navigating from page to page. These digital insights are stronger than psychographic insights. They relate to the practical side of the buying process and can highlight unanticipated pain points.
Key elements in digital insights include:
- Web traffic on brands
- Visibility of the action buttons
- Website attractiveness
- Accessibility
- Channel access
- Searching habits
Digital insights on social media reveal the current talking points among people. Psychographic insights deliver static feelings about your brand. These may also be biased as interaction with brand personnel affects responses. In contrast to that social tools give insights that are much more genuine, reliable and workable.
The right approach
The key is to not rely completely on one source or method. Psychographic insights are useful, but one has to ensure that practical aspects of customer behavior are well known. Digital insights in addition to psychographic insights are of great help. They help you avail the unrealized opportunities and enable you to form stronger tactics than your competitors.
