By Kerry Juhl
Our job as Insights Professionals is to not only identify relevant and unique consumer insights but also to apply the information in a way that influences decisions and drives action, resulting in growth. But ensuring that valuable insights are heard, internalized, and acted upon can be a challenge. Personal opinions, competing priorities or lack of focus can muffle the voice of the consumer, and the insights professionals that are trying to share it.
So how do you ensure that the insights you uncover will land with impact and be an enabler for growth?
SIVO has an answer… Growth Frameworks. Along with great storytelling, visually interesting media, and activation workshops, SIVO employs Growth Frameworks to organize insights into an inspiring construct, offering teams easily digestible, business-relevant content and common language for client teams to rally around, so they can clearly see and prioritize a path to growth.
What is a Growth Framework?
A growth framework starts with a deep examination of consumers within a market or occasion, to identify relevant insights. Those insights are then organized into a framework that reveals all possible avenues or opportunities for growth. The opportunities within the framework offer a “where to play” roadmap for teams, allowing them to prioritize opportunities and define their strategy for growth.
Examples of Growth Frameworks
Consumer Jobs/Demand Space Map – Consumer Jobs Maps (a.k.a. Demand Space Maps) help explain why consumers make the choices they make. Consumers use products that help them achieve their goals and meet their needs. In other words, products do “jobs” for consumers. If your product does not effectively do the job, consumers are unlikely to hire it. A Jobs Map becomes a framework to help identify ‘where to play’ and it lives beyond a single initiative. It maps all the jobs that consumers have for a particular occasion. For example, a Snacking Jobs to be Done (JTBD) Map includes all the jobs that consumers have for the snacking occasion. A Financial Investment JTBD Map includes all the jobs that customers have for investing their money. It lives on in your organization as a place to continually go back to for inspiration and focus for innovation, renovation, communication, and brand building efforts.
Category Vision Framework – A category vision framework envisions the category of the future. Although no one can predict the future, SIVO, in collaboration with the client team, develops a vision for what the future state of the category will be 3 to 5 years from now. This involves segmenting the existing and new products within a category based on the primary benefit that the products are providing to consumers. Specific attention is focused on new or emerging product lines within the category, and emerging consumer and market trends that may impact the category to identify “signals” for what the future category may look like.
Customer Value Equation – A Customer Value Equation framework provides an understanding of what your customers value about your total brand experience by mapping the key drivers of value and the assets that support those drivers. This framework can guide team decisions on where to invest their next $1 to drive more consumer value or where to cut the next $1 in spending on product attributes that customers do not value. Knowing what drives customer value differentiates and enables companies to stay competitive.
Competitive SWOT – A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) framework is a strategic planning tool used by organizations to assess and analyze their current situation and help formulate future strategies. Oftentimes, a SWOT analysis is conducted in reaction to marketplace dynamics, or to proactively prepare for marketplace activities that could happen in the future. For instance, if a competitor acquires a third player in the category or conversely, goes out of business, organizations can develop a SWOT framework to better understand this new reality, and build strategies to respond in a future-focused way.
Benefits of a Growth Framework
Reach out to SIVO to learn more about Growth Frameworks
SIVO wants to help you and your organization elevate your insights into a growth framework that gives you consumer-centric focus, clarity of purpose and galvanizes your team to put you on the path to growth.
Reach out to the SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to discuss the growth framework that will be the right strategic fit for your team and your business.
Through the SIVO, Inc. “Modern Ways of Working” Mini Chat series, we spoke with a strategic consumer insights leader, Helen Kurtz, Chief Marketing Officer. In this conversation with Marilyn Weiss, Helen discusses her experience with SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution. She has hired SIVO’s fractional Insights talent in two different companies that she has led, with the intention of introducing consumer insights to the organization, working with the marketing team to prove out the value of insights. Watch this insightful video or read through the transcript below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDTSN-vB8jA
Video Transcript:
DOING MORE WITH FEWER PEOPLE:
I mean, for sure, budgets are getting squeezed and I think it's more and more the case that headcount is getting squeezed and there's a desire to do more with fewer people and to be really smart about what choices we're making on staffing.
BRING IT IN AND PROVE IT OUT:
I left General Mills and went to a sort of billion dollar company, Foster Farms and it was clear to me as I came in as CMO that we needed to absolutely elevate our sort of consumer touch points and I needed to get that consumer insight function established at the company but I didn't have the headcount to do that and so that's where I reached out to you Marilyn and we dreamed up this idea of this fractional support.
I left the company, I'm now CMO at another company, and very quickly brought Sevo in with me again for the same reason. It wasn't a function that was established in the company, again about a billion dollars in revenue. And so it was a real opportunity to bring in and prove out the capabilities of consumer insights at the same time knowing I was going to get a fantastic, no questions asked, I was going to get the best talent at the right time.
CONCENTRATED EFFORT & TEAM INTEGRATION:
I think what you're getting with this fractional talent, because SIVO is the best at weeding it out. You guys are the experts themselves. It's like you’re going to a great college. You've already been filtered through. You're picking out the best talent.
I think there's also a little bit of a mindset of a fractional talent that's really important that who we've brought in doesn't need to be pitching in front of the C -suite.
They can, but they don't need that recognition. They they're not gunning for promotions within. They're really just there to do a job. They integrate really well with my team. But again, there I can have them sort of play in the background or bring them to the forefront. It's just a much lower lift for me and my team. I would say they're really there to do the job. And in many cases to educate my team on what consumer insights excellence looks like because that was not a function that was in either of the two companies.
So I guess, again, to be more succinct, this combination of excellence and expertise in their field, as well as this ability to work very seamlessly with the team and again, not being in it to win it for promotions. They're really there to do the job. So it's just sort of very concentrated effort.
CONSUMER-CENTRIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP:
I think it's just thought leadership first and foremost. I think most companies are, if not there already, are wising up to consumer-first and consumer-led and that's sort of like in their DNA. So if you have a declaration like that happening in your company, it's like well, what do I do with that? and who helps me execute that? So I think you know both of the individuals I've worked with have really brought that to the fore helping educate on what that looks like. How to get close to the consumer, driving education, training, and facilitating.
Again, it's not just like executing the research, but interrogating:
THE ECONOMICS ARE FANTASTIC:
Like just the economics have been really fantastic. I didn't hire a full -time person. I use a fractional person at 30 hours a week. So like, that's worked out really well. I have no turnover because this person is here and they're very committed to us. I don't have to worry about them leaving. I've got a great backup from SIVO in that, you know, the resources are there. The thought leadership is there behind my individual. I know that she consults with SIVO on questions that are beyond her scope.
Then, just this sort of seamlessness of having someone who works well with a team. You filter out for people who are really exceptional at what they do and are used to an experience with working on a team. When you're out there interviewing, you don't really know what you're gonna get. So it's just like, it's almost like a stamp of approval, I think, coming from SIVO. I have found that through and through.
TALENT CURATION & INSIGHTS EXPERTISE:
I think the biggest compliment to SIVO is that my team doesn't really know about SIVO. Like they just know Jill. They know the person with whom they work. I am the behind the scenes working with SIVO and I've found that to be extraordinarily easy. I think that the team at SIVO like really listens to what I need. When I start a project or when I moved companies, they were quick to sort of like curate who would be a good match. They get to know me as a client and what my demands are.
My team would say it's a godsend. I think my team loves in both places, loves working with this talent, and would sacrifice a lot of other things before they would give up this talent, which happily we didn't have to do.
by Heather Niemczycki
Some changes in the market are obvious, such as, inflation, changing employment rates, and the macro effects of the pandemic. But what about those subtle, not-so-obvious changes that can also have a lasting impact on your brand? Tapping into market intelligence can help you to anticipate changing consumer behaviors, before they impact the health of your brand.
Initiating consumer research is a typical starting point for understanding changing consumer attitudes and behavior. However, you can actually super-charge your research with an informed view of market dynamics before you engage with consumers!
SIVO utilizes advanced cultural context analysis tools that combine data collection from the public web (news, blogs, social media, reviews, etc.) with statistical modeling, to uncover insights into existing market dynamics.
Keep reading to understand it in practice…
Example Output Using SIVO’s Web Analytics Tools:
Inflation Impacts + Grocery Shopping = Changing Consumer Sentiment and Values
Gaining market intelligence like this, BEFORE deep dives into qualitative or quantitative research drives better inquiry and ultimately, adds depth to the research results by delivering consumer insights in the context of the broader marketplace dynamics.
To Super-Charge your consumer research with SIVO’s Market Intelligence toolkit, contact us today at contact@SIVOinsights.com.
In partnership with METAMETRIX, SIVO Insights leverages the METAMETRIX advantage to guide clients in finding better insights, exploring bigger opportunities, and making business decisions that drive greater change by connecting them to broader consumer trends.
METAMETRIX is the first and only platform to analyze any unstructured text data in real-time, revealing the motivating values and emotions buried in the data.
by Cindy Blackstock
Have you had a conversation with your consumer?
It is an enlightening and humbling experience to really get to know who they are, what they think, how they experience your product or service, and what they need from that experience. It can be very beneficial to be face to face, having conversations with consumers to build your intuition and empathy. However, often it is more valuable to leave the interviewing to expert moderators, allowing you to focus on the answers, rather than how to pose the questions.
Why Use Experts Qualitative Research Moderators
Expert qualitative research Moderators are skilled at conducting qualitative research to uncover the “why” behind the “what” of consumer behavior and preferences. Experienced Moderators apply a range of specific research techniques, with nuance and finesse, to get beyond consumers’ top-of-mind thoughts. This allows them to identify the underlying needs and motivations that drive behaviors and choices.
Specifically, Moderators can help teams across four key learning dimensions:
Moderation Techniques Enable Insights to Surface
With certifications from organizations such as, RIVA, QRCA, and the Insights Association, great Moderators have a broad toolkit, employing specific qualitative research techniques to achieve their research objectives. These research techniques include:
Open-Ended Questions: Starting with open-ended questions that encourage participants to provide detailed responses. These questions typically begin with phrases like “Can you describe…” or “Tell me about…”
Comparative Questions: Asking participants to compare or contrast different aspects of their experiences or opinions. For example, “How does this compare to your previous experience in a similar situation?”
Timeline and Sequencing: Exploring the chronological aspects of experiences by asking participants to recount events in a specific order. This can help create a detailed narrative.
Sensory Exploration: Encouraging participants to describe sensory aspects of their experiences, such as what they saw, heard, felt, or smelled during a particular event.
Metaphorical or Analogical Questions: Asking participants to describe their experiences using metaphors or analogies. This can help participants express complex concepts more vividly. For example, “If this brand was a shoe, what kind of shoe would it be and why?”
Projective Techniques: Using projective techniques like storytelling, drawings, or role-playing to access participants’ subconscious thoughts and feelings.
Whether it is through in-depth interviews, in-context missions, ethnographic research or through online community bulletin boards, great Moderators will employ these techniques to discover underlying insights about the consumer that they could not otherwise articulate through simple conversations.
Trust SIVO with your Qualitative Research
Contact SIVO, Inc. at Contact@SIVOInsights.com to discuss how SIVO can provide you with the insights you need, via our team of expert Moderators to lead your qualitative research projects. Also, check out SIVO’s On Demand Talent Profiles to learn more about how a fractional Qualitative Research Strategist/Expert Moderator can be an asset to you and your team.
How listening to customers can benefit the bottom line
By Kerry Juhl
42% of companies don’t listen to their customers (Hubspot)
85% of products fail when companies don’t talk to consumers (Forbes)
Up to 73% of company data goes unused for analytics (Inc.)
Do you see a pattern here? When companies don’t take the time to understand people and what drives their behavior, they miss out on the very thing that could fuel business growth and innovation. According to Rob Holland, CEO of research technology platform Feedback Loop, companies are not speaking with consumers regularly enough because “they don’t have researchers or they don’t have resources to gather and speak with a group of targeted consumers quickly.” The solution to this problem can be found in three words: Fractional Insights Professionals.
What are Fractional Insights Professionals?
A fractional employee is part of an emerging employment model where an individual offers a niche or advanced experience to an employer and is hired for a fraction of the work week, month or year. Fractional Insights Professionals are temporary employees that specialize in designing and executing market research and identifying and applying consumer/customer insights to guide business decisions and identify opportunities for growth.
Knowledge is Power
When companies neglect to take time to understand the wants and needs of their customers, it is like driving a car with a blindfold on. It can be challenging to stay on course, and you can easily swerve in the wrong direction. The art and science of obtaining consumer insights can provide businesses with an in-depth look at how consumers think, feel, behave, and make choices. Having this valuable knowledge can steer companies on how to improve their businesses, better engage with customers and stay ahead of the competition. According to Microsoft, organizations that leverage their customer behaviors to generate insights outperform their competitors by 85% in sales growth.
Fractional Insights Professionals to the Rescue
When departments do not have market researchers on staff or when employees do not have the time or expertise to execute market research projects and apply the learning to the business, fractional insights professionals can be the solution to ensure your business is not driving blind.
SIVO Fractional Research Capabilities
SIVO On Demand Talent team includes an extensive pool of Fractional Insights Professionals with years of experience and expertise across an array of industries such as CPG, healthcare, finance, technology, apparel and retail. You can rely on SIVO’s team of experts to collect high-quality data, provide an accurate interpretation of that data, and offer guidance on how to best utilize the insights learned. From managing a portion of a research project to full-service research design through insight application, SIVO helps clients make data-driven decisions and identify opportunities for growth.
We’d love to talk to you about how partnering with SIVO can eliminate guesswork and help your company drive positive results. Please contact us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com or request a discovery call from our website at SIVOInsights.com.
SIVO Insights brings together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence. Have a business challenge? Let's talk!
We bring together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence
