Finding Gold Dust in Your Data How Real Time Consumer Insight Is Essential in Maximizing Marketing and Brand Reach

Proceedings of the International Conference on E-Business, Marketing and Branding
(IC17Hong Kong Conference) ISBN: 978-1-943579-97-6

Hong Kong-SAR. 20-22, January 2017. Paper ID: HKM701
Finding Gold Dust in Your Data: How Real-Time Consumer Insight

is Essential in Maximizing Marketing and Brand Reach
Petra Anna Crocker,

Multiply Ltd., Scotland.
E-mail: Petra@multiplyagency.com
Maktoba Omar,
School of Strategy and Leadership.
Coventry University, England.
E-mail: ac3371@coventry.ac.uk
Mark Fowlestone,
E-mail: markf@multiplyagency.com
Anna Gilfillan,
E-mail: anna.gilfillan@multiplyagency.com
___________________________________________________________________________
Abstract
The pace of change within marketing communications together with ever-evolving consumer
behaviours put the need for real-time consumer insights at the heart of every marketing
operation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current insight gaps within the wider
marketing and advertising industry in order to propose an innovative and agile means to truly
understand consumers needs, behaviours and feelings. Clients are progressively drowning in
data, reinforcing the need for agencies to find fresh, relevant and creative insight amongst the
sea of available information. This paper provides fascinating findings about the key issues the
industry is facing, in an environment where every idea has to be validated by robust data to
prove return on investment before being granted credibility. The research reveals new
opportunities for agencies to access fresh consumer insights, breaking the monopoly of global
advertising networks, who currently have exclusive access to the deep pockets of data within
the industry. The data collection method for this research was a mixed qualitative approach of
in-depth interviews and a practical comparability study of several insight tools on the market.
Given the relevance of big data today, the research findings are of significant importance to
both marketing client and agency side: emphasizing the need for new data collection methods
tailored towards clients business needs and ultimately enabling both parties to create powerful
impact with content and strategies that are based on real insights available in real time.
___________________________________________________________________________
Key Words: Consumer insight, consumer behavior, advertising industry, big data, data
collection, real-time
JEL Classification: C 81, M 31, M37, O 31,
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www.globalbizresearch.org
1. Introduction
Being able to understand a consumers way of thinking, behavior and triggers along the
consumer journey, is becoming more important than ever for any type of organization in todays
marketing environment, independent of their size or turnover (Kogan Page Editorial, 2016).
New technological developments allow consumers to increasingly engage with brands in real-
time therefore creating new opportunities for businesses to effectively reach their audiences
if executed in the right way (Cook and Buckley, 2008; Krajicek, 2016). However, to tailor
marketing content and communication strategies towards a bespoke audience, businesses need
to be able to access the minds and hearts of their consumers. Market research has become a
fundamental element within the marketing industry, providing brands with a multitude of
market reports, data sets and ongoing research projects, trying to help brands to get closer to
their consumers. With the rise of Big Data and the endless possibilities of collecting data
through both online, mobile, in store and digital facilities organizations can easily get lost
within this data maze leaving many of them unable to extract rich consumer insights to solve
the problems on hand (Fayyad and Uthurusamy, 1996; Stone et al., 2004). The consensus view
in the marketing world appears to be that interrogating Big Data will always uncover actionable
consumer insights (Erevelles et al., 2016). This paper challenges this modern-day practitioner
proposition.
In summary, this study aims to evaluate the current research and audience insight landscape
within the marketing industry across the United Kingdom to uncover gaps and challenges that
the wider industry is facing. The researcher utilizes its practitioner employer Multiply, as a case
study to explore and address these challenges. Based on the results, this study provides
recommendations for marketing agencies to develop a more competitive edge by embedding
consumer insight tools into their strategic planning process. The following sections discuss the
research background via a literature review and the research methodology applied for data
collection and analysis. The paper is concluded by a summary of the research findings and
recommendations for players within the marketing industry especially for the agency sector.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Defining Insight
According to Stone et al. (2004) there are two different forms of consumer insight: Insights
(plural) and Insight (singular). Insights (plural) is described as [] flashes of inspiration, or
penetrating discoveries that can lead to specific opportunities. (Stone et al., 2004, p. 1). Insight
(singular) on the other hand is much bigger than the above and absolutely vital for companies
today, as it provides [] a deep, embedded knowledge about our consumers and our markets
that helps structure our thinking and decision making (Stone et al., 2004, p. 2). The latter is
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usually generated from a variety of research projects, databases, financial data, market data,
competitor analysis, sales and customer service feedback, as well as customer complaints.
Obtaining varied and complex amounts of data allows marketers to build a fuller picture,
address any anomalies and apparent contradictions, and gives appropriate weighting to each of
the findings (Hamilton, 2016). Edwards (2013, p.3) a profound and experienced marketing
expert in the UK, developed her own definition of consumer insight, after failing to find a
suitable description in recent literature. She describes consumer insight as a revelatory
breakthrough in your understanding of peoples lives that directs you to new ways in which to
serve your customers better". She stresses that finding a revelatory breakthrough is vital, as
most research outcomes are often not more than just findings. However, revelations do not
happen all the time and tend to be rare in nature but when they do happen one experiences a
big surprising of course moment: having been blinded by a consumer trend, but then finally
finding something truly groundbreaking.
2.2 The Market Research Landscape
According to Chadwick (2006), the market research landscape already experienced a major
shift 10 years ago, due the introduction of Web 2.0 research platforms and the rise of social
media platforms. He emphasized that client expectations towards their research partners had
been changing drastically over the last couple of years: They were demanding more proactive
approaches to uncover audience insights; they were longing for research processes that
integrated data from various platforms; they wanted researchers to get more involved in
strategic planning; and they became more open to receive consulting services from insight
experts. Today, organizations can tap into a whole range of different consumer data sets, most
of which collected by digital means monitoring consumers' online journeys and footprints. With
the abundance of Big Data at everyones disposal, the challenge for organizations lies in the
analysis of the data and the extraction of rich and meaningful consumer insights by cutting
through the mass of information (Erevelles at al., 2016).
In a more recent research study undertaken by Krajicek (2016), he was investigating how
the approach of delivering consumer insights might further evolve in coming years. His results
highlighted that the common practice of market research continues to rapidly evolve, not only
due to continuous technological advancements, but also because consumers have never been as
involved in real-time activities as in recent years (Lawer and Knox, 2006). According to the
above-mentioned study, market researchers envision the biggest challenges within their
discipline to be the delivery of real-time consumer insights, based on robust methodologies to
fulfill clients urgent needs for insightful information. With this in mind, it would be interesting
to explore whether organizations tend to make more use of innovative insight tools and
methodologies to get access to impactful audience insights in this day and age, where many
global networks offer standardized research solutions (Kogan Page Editorial, 2016).
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2.3 Consumer Trends

Modern shoppers are defined by behavioral and technological demands, which have the
power to change the future of retail. Their expectations are to receive coherent experiences
across multiple devices and channels (Deloitte LLP, 2013). Consumers of today want to be able
to shop on the go, as well as from home and therefore want to see their favorite brands adapting
to new and evolving technologies in the market (Euromonitor International, 2014a). This trend
increases the pressures on marketing agencies to develop or source analytical tools in order to
understand consumers and how brands are influencing their buying behavior (Collins, 2015).
2.4 The Marketing Industry
Marketing budgets within the UK economy are still on the rise, with 88% of businesses
planning on increasing their marketing spend in 2016 (AFL Insight, 2015). Industry experts
estimate an advertising expenditure growth of 24.5% between 2015 and 2019 within the UK
(Key Not Limited, 2015). A report published by Advertising Pays in collaboration with Deloitte
reports that UK businesses spend 16b on advertising each year, which puts Britain on fourth
place within the global league tables (Deloitte LLP, 2012). The UK ranks on third place in the
world when considering their online ad spend, making online marketing the dominant form of
advertising within the UK (Euromonitor International, 2014b). Approximately 99% of
businesses are classified as small and medium sized (SME) businesses (<250 employees),
which contribute 40% to the UKs turnover. According to this industry report, SMEs are in fact
the engine room of the UKs economy. However, SMEs are often reluctant to invest
significantly into marketing, which is one of the primary reasons why a sector full of talent and
innovation is failing to maximize its potential to create revenues, jobs and growth (Savloschi et
al., 2011). Deloitte estimates that every 1 spend on marketing by an SME would have eight
times the effect on sales compared to 1 extra spent by large businesses. (Deloitte LLP, 2012).
With marketing budgets continuing an upwards trend, this is a key time for marketing agencies
to reevaluate their focus on solely big players in the market, considering the new power and
impact of SMEs across the UK.
On the client side, it has been reported that FMCGs (Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Organizations) are increasingly seeking the expertise from creative strategist, hence why they
want to work with marketing agencies who truly understand their clients business. Client
agency relationships are based on mutual trust, requiring agencies to fully immerse themselves
into the clients industry and business challenges. However, the internal clash between client
remuneration schemes and cost cutting procurement procedures is creating a very generic
industry environment, as marketing is losing its leading role in finalizing agency agreements to
procurement teams (Marketing Agencies Association, 2014). Marketing Week also reported a
shift over the past 10 years towards procurements involvement, particularly with growing
numbers of brands believing they are paying more than they should for agency work (Vizard,
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2014). One of the biggest challenges within the industry is that research budgets and allocated
human resources are constantly being squeezed, whilst clients increasingly push for evidence
from marketing agencies to proof that a campaign will create real commercial impact and return
their investment (AFL Insight, 2015; Krajicek, 2016).
The fierce competition in the UK marketing industry, with approximately 20,000 agencies,
forces marketing agencies to be more different. According to several research studies a trend
has been noticed that the majority of clients dont feel confident that marketing agencies can
deliver genuine audience insights, and therefore commission more of their strategic marketing
work internally (Marketing Agencies Association, 2014; AFL Insight, 2015). At the same time,
it has been reported that the value of creative services is decreasing, which encourages agencies
to develop their own intellectual property in order to add value to their clients business and
maximize credibility and ROI (i.e. Shopper Tools, Insight Tools, Research Tools). (Florin et
al., 2007; Marketing Agencies Association, 2014). In light of the above pressures, marketing
agencies find themselves in a transitional position, where proactivity is required to create a
competitive advantage for their business in order to get attention within the industry (Davcik
and Sharma, 2016).
Other external factors affecting the industry are regulations and governing bodies. The
Advertising Standards Authority outlined in their Annual Report 2015 the key steps they will
undertake to have more impact and be more proactive as part of their ambition to make every
UK ad a responsible ad. As a result of this ambitious aim, it comes as no surprise that UK
advertising regulatory systems and the requirements of the mandatory UK Advertising Codes
are further evolving each year and tend to become stricter in order to protect consumers and
their rights. Marketing agencies therefore experience increased pressures to ensure that their
campaigns are compliant with regulatory requirements, as ad withdrawals and sanctions are
cost intensive. (Advertising Standards Authority, 2015).
2.5 Types of Consumer Insight
The two renowned authors Day and Shoemaker (2006) established the importance of
recognizing and identifying 'weak signals' within consumer research early on in the 21st century.
They argue that powerful consumer insights can be uncovered from minorities and not only
from traditional market research or views of the majority. Their book goes into great detail on
how such weak signals are at the periphery of organizations and can therefore have the power
to either make or break a business. The emergence of a new generation, which is very much
influenced by social media, is opening up new opportunities for market research as consumers
are willingly volunteering their brand experiences through sharing content and reviews online
- with both friends and online communities alike. The rapidness of technological advancements
within the UK and across the borders offers plenty of new tools for researchers to grasp how
consumers truly think and feel about brands. (Cook and Buckley, 2008; Lawer and Knox, 2006)
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An American study undertaken in early 2000 on 'Influentials', uncovered that nine out of ten
consumers were influenced heavily by the remaining one consumer. The study found that these
minority Influentials had a major impact on other consumers day-to-day choices, such as
what brands to buy, where to shop and where to eat out (Keller and Berry, 2003). This research
study emphasized how rapidly the power of 'Influentials' has grown across the continent since
social communication channels had been established. This trend keeps continuing with an
exponential growth of online social network platforms. However, practical approaches to
effectively pin those influential consumers down are still being further developed - hence the
increasing number of social listening tools appearing on the marketing horizon (Probst et al.,
2013). The times of the media being the primary channel to communicate brand messages to
consumers are long behind us: Social media empowers consumers to share and communicate
their own brand stories and experiences with the world, therefore impacting brand equity more
than ever before. As a result of this paradigm shift, organizations are gradually losing control
over brand reputation. Therefore, organizations are forced to adapt their social media strategy
by listening and acting accordingly to fulfil consumers ever-evolving needs (Goodman et al.,
2011; Dunn, 2016).
The Web 2.0 provides a whole new range of research approaches, such as powerful online
communities based on voluntary membership and built on trust between members rather than
a research agency forcing to bring a community together with solely commercial objectives
(Habibi et al., 2014). This is just one example how the open source movement has created new
opportunities for insight generation, which facilitates a natural amalgamation of offline and
online, as well as qualitative and quantitative research approaches - resulting in richer and more
creative data sets and insights (Cook and Buckley, 2008).
Hastings (2011) and Aaker (2013) are also advocates for mixed research approaches and
emphasize in their books that particularly qualitative research is fundamental to gain access to
consumers' minds, via the collection of 'rich data' on their thoughts; behaviors; feelings; values;
barriers; motivations and social norms. Ethnography is a form of qualitative research that is
founded on an audience centered approach. It aims to provide insights into the experiences that
consumers have already lived (Longfield et al., 2006). This research method is becoming much
more relevant in the last few years, as face-to-face conversations and direct consumer
engagement aid organizations to improve the overall user experience and bring new powerful
innovations to light (Meyer et al., 2016).
Florin et al. (2007) emphasize in their paper that techniques to gather consumer insights
must develop above and beyond the traditional insight methods. This is to establish what their
target consumers think, how they feel and what their desires truly are. Their research suggests,
that insight approaches should focus on the "whys", "whens" and "hows" of human behavior to
access a deeper level of consumer insight.
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To make it easier to develop new approaches for insight, Duncan et al. (2012) developed the
following insight process as outlined in Figure 1 below, to ensure that stakeholders keep on
track and allocate sufficient resources towards each part of the insight generation process. The
focal point lies in taking the time to identify the problem on hand and spending sufficient time
undertaking desk research to collect all the information already available both on client side
and in the external environment. This process ensures that the richest and most relevant data is
collected, building a robust foundation that brings the gold dust of consumer insight within the
data to light. By identifying the real problems to be solved via the actions below, organizations
can create realistic opportunities for themselves to get access into consumers minds.
Figure 1: Customer Insights Process
Source: Duncan, 2012 (p. 6)
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3. Methodology
The methodological approach in this research paper followed a case study design utilizing
the researchers practitioner employer Multiply and its well-established industry network, to
evaluate the trends and challenges within the wider marketing industry with regards to
accessing audience insights (Yin, 2009). Multiply is a marketing communications agency based
in Edinburgh and London, with 3 core specialisms in brand, digital and shopper marketing. The
organization is of a small to medium size and is increasingly feeling the pressures whilst
competing against global marketing networks with unlimited access to Big Data. Multiply was
used at the center of this research study and as a result, was able to establish a bespoke consumer
insight process, equipping the agency with the appropriate tools to add a competitive edge to
their offering.
The principle research method adopted for this study was predominantly of qualitative
nature in the format of in-depth interviews and a practical comparability study of existing and
renowned consumer insight tools within the UK (Bradley, 2007). An inductive research
approach was implemented by linking data and theory, a method widely associated with
qualitative research (Bryman and Bell, 2015). One big advantage of applying an inductive
approach, is that it focuses on a more flexible structure to permit changes of the research
emphasis as the research progresses (Saunders et al., 2009). The research applied a thematic
analysis approach (Miles and Huberman, 1991) facilitating the exploration of rich themes from
textual data (Guest et al., 2012). The analysis of secondary data via a literature review
complements the research findings, as it allows data comparison and validates the suitability of
the primary research design to evaluate current practice within the advertising industry with
regards to audience insight generation (Blaxter et al., 2010).
3.1 Sampling and Data Collection
First of all, commercial trials for some of the most well-known consumer insight tools in
the UK could be secured. This built the basis for a robust comparability study as part of the
case study approach to identify best practice (Yin, 2009). As a result, the researcher was able
to build a knowledge foundation of the current insight offering within the market, which
ultimately informed the question guide for the in-depth interviews. In total, seven different
insight tools and research organizations with most relevance to the research goal were selected,
then formally tested and evaluated against the following criteria: research methodology,
number of industry sectors covered, usability, longevity, strengths and weaknesses.
The research format of in-depth interviews was chosen, as a network of industry experts was
at the researchers disposal and it also aligned with an inductive and interpretivist research
approach (Easterby-Smith et al., 2001). Quota sampling, a type of purposive sampling, has been
applied to achieve a representative sample of experts within the UK marketing industry on both
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client and agency side (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). To be included in the expert interviews, it
was a prerequisite that participants had a vast experience within the marketing field, as well as
exposure to the disciplines of planning and insight (Hackley, 2003). Overall, nine in-depth
interviews were successfully completed with a cross section of FMCG clients, marketing
agencies and specialized consultancies both in Scotland and England. The methodology for the
interviews was based on semi-structured questions, allowing the researcher to probe
participants responses and to adjust the topic sequence according to the interview flow and any
arising trends (Bryman and Bell, 2015). Open questions were used to encourage interviewees
to supply extensive answers that might reveal attitudes or obtain some key facts (Saunders et
al., 2009). The purpose of the interviews was to establish the respondents understanding and
experience with different consumer insight tools, their current use of insight within their
organization, and their expectations of marketing agencies to use and ground their work on
consumer insights. The interviews also provided an opportunity to identify any gaps and needs
within the marketing industry.
The triangulation of the two research strands facilitated the development of a better
understanding of the UK industry setting with regards to consumer insights, as well as the
requirements within both SMEs and large organizations alike (Bradley, 2007).
4. Results and Discussion
This section discusses the trends and opportunities that became apparent throughout both
the comparability study and the in-depth interviews with industry experts. The results are linked
back to recent literature for validation purposes.
4.1 Importance of Consumer Insight
It became very evident throughout the interviews, that consumer insights play a crucial role
for all organizations on both the client and agency side, as insights underpin marketing
strategies, which were described as a basic requirement for both marketing and brand
building purposes. Organizations need to identify their target audiences and consumer
behaviors and rely heavily on trustworthy insights to make executive decisions for their brand
strategies. Similarly, clients rely on insights to present themselves and their products/services
confidently to potential retailers, supporting the trends uncovered by the Marketing Agencies
Association (2014). However, it was also mentioned that not every insight uncovered by
consumer research should necessarily be taken at face value, as these often only represent a
small sample of the whole market depending on the research method applied (Longfield et al.
2016, Stone et al., 2004).
A main theme uncovered from this research study is that human, cultural and consumer
insights are a great support for pitches for clients, as it provides them with evidence that the
proposed campaigns will help to optimize ROI, reflecting what recent studies suggest (Florin
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et al., 2007; Krajicek, 2016; Marketing Agencies Association, 2014). According to the majority
of interviewees, it is quite common that agencies generate ideas and the insights are then being
sought retrospectively to support and put credibility behind those ideas, whereas it is now being
recognized that perhaps it should be the other way around. On the other hand, it was highlighted
that access to too many insight tools can be counterproductive, as much of the information on
hand is not being used due to inundation of information, reemphasizing the trend identified
throughout the literature review (Erevelles at al., 2016; Fayyad and Uthurusamy, 1996; Stone
et al., 2004). Overall, the interviews results showcase that data and consumer insights play a
key role within the marketing environment on both the agency and client side.
4.2 Approaches used to Gather Insight
When clients and agencies were asked how they usually gather their consumer insights, the
responses were mainly a combination of different approaches. Larger clients tend to have
subscriptions to a range of established insight tools on the market such as: TGI, Neilson,
Experian, Kantar Services and Global Web Index. In addition, most clients commission
research agencies to undertake regular brand health tracking services for them and subscribe to
shopper marketing insight tools provided by well-established research organizations such as
Dunnhumby. Another very common approach for clients to get specific consumer insights on
a brand or specific brand campaign, is to commission their own research studies in collaboration
with specialized agencies. Its been highlighted by several research participants, that market
research agencies are being used within their organizations in order to get their hands on quick
& dirty consumer insights, to describe it in the words of the interview subjects. These market
research companies allow organizations to either commission over-night surveys, with a
specified target audience, or small research projects with quick turnaround times, making use
of mobile technologies.
Depending on the size of organizations and agencies, expensive subscriptions to market
leading insight tools are not always an option according to this research study. However, the
results highlighted that own desk research (i.e. LinkedIn, Trade Press, email, social media), as
well as internally run focus groups and surveys on a small scale, are a commonly used
alternative for expensive commissioned research amongst agencies. The marketing agencies
interviewed for this study stated that simple research executed internally can go a long way in
providing valuable insights for little to no cost.
Overall, organizations with big marketing budgets are likely to subscribe to a range of
insight tools available on the market (i.e. health brand tracking, shopper marketing and
consumer insight), whereas smaller organizations and marketing agencies predominantly rely
on free online research and on calling in favors from friends to get access to the data they need.
The feedback from interviews highlights the need for a more affordable consumer insight tool,
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tailored towards requirements of both SMEs, as well as large organizations (Savloschi and
Robu, 2011; Taljard, 2015).
4.3 Organizational Support
When interviewees were asked to describe their organizational structures to support the
gathering and distilling of consumer insights within their organizations, it became apparent that
large FMCG clients are dedicating a considerable amount of resources towards data analysis
and insight generation. All large-scale clients interviewed have brand and category insight
teams in place to manage the research process and to support Brand Managers throughout their
decision making. Smaller clients, with less resources, rely heavily on bespoke research projects
that they commission with external researchers with no dedicated research or insight role in
house. The majority of marketing agencies interviewed have planning departments in place,
which commission their own research such as focus groups. However, more often than not
Account Teams would undertake their own desk research in preparation for pitches and new
business opportunities where required. For SME marketing agencies, it is rare to invest a lot of
funds into insight generation, when much information on consumer trends etc. can be accessed
online for free.
4.4 Relevance & Reliability
During the interviews, it was also investigated how reliable and relevant the data is, that
these companies currently subscribe to. The bigger clients collect real-time retail data, as they
get access to the retailers systems (Stone et al., 2004). YouGov is another research tool
mentioned by one of the bigger FMCG clients, which was described as a quick research tool,
used as an initial barometer for consumer trends and behaviors. It became very apparent from
the interviews that real-time tools such as YouGov and Toluna are becoming increasingly
popular within the industry, taking market share away from big players such as TGI, which
focus on historic rather than real-time data. Clients are always looking for more recent data, but
it depends on the product category and whether they are looking for indicative or seasonal
trends.
The majority of respondents expressed how much they would value consumer observations
and ethnographic research approaches going into a pub or supermarket and observing how
consumers behave and interact with one another and the product (Longfield et al., 2016). It was
highlighted, that a combination of mixed research methods can be very evocative, especially
when it involves getting up close to consumers via focus groups and consumer closeness
programmes. In contrary to the consensus view, simply getting close to even just a few
information-rich consumers can uncover significant opportunities for clients and agencies.
In reality, practitioners are not looking for statistical significance, they are looking for rich
insights that give them competitive advantage (Day and Shoemaker, 2006). Respondents
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emphasized, that more of this type of research should be utilized within marketing in future to
support innovation and new product developments (Meyer et al., 2016).
4.5 Opportunities and Niche Markets
When the research participants where asked where they see opportunities and gaps in the
current market with regards to consumer insight, the following suggestions have been made:
4.5.1 Regionality
The majority of interviewees highlighted that the current insight tools on the market show a
weakness in their representation in smaller markets within the UK, such as Scotland, Northern
Ireland and Wales. Big Data collection methods tend to be skewed towards population centers,
resulting in the overrepresentation of highly populated areas. The comparability study verified
this, as most of the tools have impressive sample sizes for England, but offer disappointing
coverage when it comes to the rest of the UK. Brexit is a prime example of how Big Data in
the format of public opinion polls has failed to predict the recent outcome of the UK deciding
to leave the European Union (Highbarger, 2016). Particularly clients and marketing agencies
operating outside England would welcome a tool that specializes in regional consumer data and
trends.
4.5.2 Small to Medium Sized Businesses
The data points and the corresponding consumer profile panels, as the foundation for a
bespoke insight tool could be developed towards Scottish FMCG clients, as well as SME
businesses and marketing agencies to make the knowledge accessible across the industry. SMEs
require access to actionable audience insights even more than bigger organizations do, as they
often operate on tight margins, have limited funds and credit available and cant afford to
misunderstand or fail to act on current consumer and industry trends. Getting access to real-
time consumer insights to inform their marketing strategy is becoming a vital element for SMEs
(Reijonen and Laukkanen, 2010; Taljard, 2015)
4.5.3 Innovative Technologies
It was emphasized within the interviews that innovative technologies were underused within
consumer research, highlighting opportunities for marketing agencies to develop their own
bespoke consumer research tools utilizing their in-house digital skills sets (Cook and Buckley,
2008; Marketing Agencies Association, 2014). The comparability study has shown, that
established tools such as TGI are still relying on traditional research methods, whereas
relatively new players in the market such as Toluna Mobile are focusing their efforts on
embedding mobile technologies into their research methodology.
4.5.4 Affordable Finance & Licensing Model
Participants highlighted that to enter the crowded market with a bespoke new insight, the
tool would have to be based on an affordable finance & licensing model. That way it would be
attractive to clients of all sizes, as well as SME agencies.
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Allowing smaller organizations as well as start-up companies to access trustworthy, reliable,

creative insightful and real-time information on consumer behavior, will empower them to
strengthen their competitive positioning (Davcik and Sharma, 2016; Deloitte LLP, 2012).
4.5.5 Mixed Research Methods
Several research approaches and methodologies were discussed within the interviews. The
most pertinent approach mentioned by respondents was ethnography (Meyer et al., 2016).
Interviewees highlighted the value of observing consumer journeys through the eyes of the
consumer through innovative approaches. The industry is longing for insight tools that apply a
mixture of both quantitative, solid and robust data statistics and qualitative rich consumer
statements to support the statistical findings (Aaker, 2013; Hastings, 2011). Therefore, a robust
audience insight tool that brings segmentation, consumer behavior and specialist research
together in one solution, is needed within the industry. Ideally, the insights uncovered will be
actionable in order to inform decisions along the consumer journey including the 4Ps within
marketing: product, price, promotion and place (Longfield et al., 2016). In addition, research
suggests that rich insights as described above, will have a huge impact on branding, audience
segmentation and concept developments for marketing campaigns and events ultimately
engaging the target consumers (Maibach et al., 2008).
5. Conclusions and Recommendations
In summary, this research study has provided evidence that clients are more and more
relying on credible evidence for ROI, when choosing the creative agencies they want to work
with. The research study uncovered that the majority of FMCG clients already have numerous
commercial subscriptions with established consumer research providers on the market such as
TGI, Mintel, Neilson, Experian. However, smaller SME clients do not have large research and
marketing budgets on hand to invest thousands of pounds per year into insight generation. The
challenge and opportunity for marketing agencies, is to create bespoke, but affordable insight
tools that give SME clients and start-up organizations access to real-time consumer insights. It
also offers big clients a unique service too, which adds value to their business.
One way of delivering a service to both major and SME clients would be to develop a tool
that helps generate robust and reliable consumer insights with regionality as a focal point, as
none of the established tools evaluated in the comparability study are delivering strong results
within regional markets. The importance of real-time insights came across strongly throughout
the interviews with both clients and agencies, being able to run quick surveys with a sample of
specific target audiences. A mixed research approach for consumer insight provision should be
considered, being able to run ad-hoc quantitative surveys with consumers, as well as being able
to observe consumers at the point of purchase or consumption of a product/service via
qualitative research approaches (i.e. ethnography). Both research strands would deliver real-
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time consumer insights: the quantitative approach focuses on statistics to uncover trends and
the qualitative approach explores the whys and hows of consumer behavior and trends.
Overall, each tool evaluated within the comparability study has its own strengths, but it
seems that none of the tools serve all the needs of clients and agencies combined. This
emphasizes the importance of developing new bespoke tools either through tapping into
existing tools and embedding additional research from within marketing agencies; or
alternatively through developing internal, independent insight tools in-house.
All the trends uncovered create a very challenging environment for marketing agencies in
the UK, but if recognized early enough it can open up huge opportunities for agencies to equip
themselves with the right tools, in order to become trusted strategic partners for their clients.
Multiply, the agency at the center of this research study, have addressed the challenges
identified and developed a bespoke consumer insight tool, based on the recommendations
above. Being able to base ideas and campaigns on rich data insights in real-time, gives them a
clear competitive edge in the market place. In this digital age with the abundance of data, it is
becoming more important than ever for organizations to get into the mind of the ever-evolving
consumer ultimately by identifying insight opportunities in real time is where the gold dust
of consumer research exists.
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Finding Gold Dust in Your Data: How Real-Time Consumer Insight

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2.3 Consumer Trends

Figure 1: Customer Insights Process

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