Why insights is like a fried egg.

I’ve been trying to find an analogy to conceptualise how data analytics and market research work together. 

They deliver different types of information, and play different roles, in the marketing or business strategy process.

I’ve settled on a fried egg.

Data analytics is the yolk.

The shiny, yummy yellow bit wobbling on top. It surfaces "insights" related to performance metrics. It tells us “what is happening” in the here and now, compared to the past, and, at least within the context of a sales transaction, give us some structural direction into why.

Although data analytics usually refers to the internal data of an organisation – sales data, CRM behavioural data and so on – I'd put brand health trackers and NPS surveys in this category too. Information about the business – in the context of the sales funnel and brand equity.

This data tells us a lot about the what, and some about the who, but very little about the underlying why or the how. This data is excellent for giving us “insights” into the problems we have to solve.

We should mine it for all its worth, track what matters and look for opportunities to improve our performance. But it is all data about us.

Insight work is the albumin.

The solid white bit that sits around and under the yolk, supporting it, giving it structure and a platform on which to rest.

Insight work is about human empathy, customer understanding and context. It's the foundation on which brands are built, long-term ideas are seeded, and real value is created. It's the heart of meaningful marketing — the creation of long term, reliable value for customers (and therefore the business). And it's essential to strategy and planning that actually hits the mark, because it reveals the why.

Insight work is data about them – our end users, target market, customers.

When we know and understand our customers, we have a lens through which we can interpret the data we get from our analytics. And it gives us customer relevant ideas about how we might go about achieving our business goals.

You don’t need to do customer understanding work all the time. But you do need a good, reliable foundation of knowledge that you can refer to into the future.

What about test and learn insights?

There is another category of insights – the test and learn category. It doesn’t fit well into my analogy because this is a different sort of work. Less related to strategy, and more to ensuring the actions we take are landing right before we go hell for leather down a particular pathway.

But if you want to get this right more often than not, start by building the foundation of customer understanding first, rather than saving up all your research spend for testing.

Despite the shiny promise of data analytics to surface insights, the rise of AI as both an analysis and collection tool, and the prevalence of A/B testing, I'm more convinced than ever about the value of good, old-fashioned - talk to your target market - insight work.

Because without the albumin, the yolk just runs everywhere.

Let Leap Insight help you build your foundation, or fill in the gaps. Contact Sharlene on sharlene@leapinsight.com.au