Any organization, be it at a nascent stage or global, needs consumer insights to be relevant. Consumer insights are integral for businesses in order to gain an understanding of their products and services amongst their audience.
Analyzing data and feedback from your consumers helps an organization understand the needs and wants of its target audience. Long gone are the days where a consumer's deciding factors were price and durability.
In a day and age, where consumers and the general public is looking at a bigger picture, the FMCG brands need to step up their game. A proper consumer insight research shall show that packaging, trends, and even sustainability play a deciding factor.
Why do we need consumer insights?
Technology has changed the human sphere in every aspect. From education, travel to production and disposal. Technology is the very reason why consumer insights have become an annual necessity. Fashion and consumer goods witness trends regularly. If one does not take initiative to analyze and predict, they might face undesirable consequences.
Businesses cannot manufacture what they want, they have to manufacture what their audience or potential audience want. Any organization cannot take their high ranks as a reason for constant sales and growth. They cannot take consumer insights for granted. Not anymore. Consumer is the king, and the businesses know it.
Consumer insight helps in improving the company-customer relationship with the existing audience and potential ones.
How to analyze and harness consumer data
Data is a commodity available for everyone, but only a few can make use of it. Thanks to social media and technology, collecting data is now easier than ever. Here, we shall provide a few tips as to how one can analyze and harness data for one's organization.
Social Media- Social Media platforms allow consumer data to be collected easily and at a low cost. Users share their reviews, likes, dislikes, and purchases on these platforms. Businesses can do simple polls, surveys, and Q&A here, hence collecting first-hand data. These sites are great to identify the areas of improvement. Top-rated or most liked comments of criticism are useful.
Database marketing- Database marketing refers to a marketing strategy using a consumer database to generate customized communication. Using this strategy, data can be collected set or segment-wise. It is an integral element for collecting consumer insights.
Identify market segment- Organizations need to create a market segment in order to conduct a successful data collection drive. Market segmentation creates subsets of a market based on demographics, needs, priorities, common interests, and other psychographic or behavioral criteria used to better understand the target audience.
A dedicated research team- In order to analyze the data, businesses must have a dedicated research team. Data analyses cannot be a part-time job or an add on. For it to be utilized, time and effort are needed.
Take action- Often there can be times when the consumer behavior is not positive towards an organizations' products. No matter how much effort has been put in, actions are to be taken based on consumer insights. After all, if you don't have a target audience who wants your product or service, there is no use of the products in the first place.
Case Study
Time and again it has been heavily emphasized that consumers have become more health conscious and opt for natural attributes rather than chemical ones. According to Nielsen, gluten all natural, high protein, high fiber top the list of health attributes considered important.
HaloTop
Consumer insights have always been a key to new products in market. It was due to these insights that HaloTop, an American no-sugar, low calorie ice-cream managed to shock giants like Unilever and Nestle. These insights can lead to something new. Named as one of the top inventions of 2017, Halo Top’s key to success was its product. They targeted a niche audience who were not being considered as a key consumer as a whole.
Halo Top is not without its fair share of competitors. Arctic Zoo, Enlightened Ice Cream, Pinkberry, and Red Mango have been in the market for quite some time.
But what differentiated Halo Top?
A huge factor which played in favor of this Ice Cream sensation was their ability of effectively reading the market. They further offered products that were not offered by any ice cream maker, and were milk based unlike its competitors. The consumers have become more health conscious in nature, and Halo Top just utilized this nature.
Wholesome Foods
Another factor which attracts consumers and buyers is personalized products. Wholesome Foods are client-centric and look at their requirements and cater to same. They offer healthy, convenient, and authentic food all over the world. They understood the importance of an Indian home cooked meal. Therefore, the idea of Wholesome Foods was born. Wholesome Foods aim at providing healthy, tasty food to consumers who do not have sufficient time for cooking.
They offer a wide range of frozen fruits, vegetables, pastas, and other ready to cook meals. To provide good frozen products, they use the IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) technique.Keeping in mind the safety standards required, they design as per latest food safety regulations followed in US, UK, and Japanlike GMP, BRC, and USFDA
ERP
