How to Find Consumer Insights in 8 Easy Steps

Consumer insights is a well-discussed topic amongst marketers and business owners. 

Knowing your customers requires extensive research. It becomes crucial when you want to make large-scale changes in your products and marketing strategies. Today, we will uncover the mystery behind consumer insights and how to find them. 

What are consumer Insights?

Consumer insights refer to the knowledge gained about consumers’ behaviour, needs, preferences, and motivations through various research methods. 

These insights also uncover the underlying reasons behind consumers’ actions, allowing businesses to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and overall business operations.

To effectively gather consumer insights, one must know about the types of consumer insights:

 

1. Behavioural Insights: Understanding what consumers do, like what they buy and how often they buy it.

2. Psychographic Insights: Understanding consumers' lifestyles and interests, like what they enjoy doing and what matters to them.

3. Segmentation Insights: Sorting consumers into groups based on similarities, like age or interests, to tailor products and marketing to them better.

4. Customer Journey Insights: Understanding the steps consumers take when buying something, like researching online or asking friends.

5. Cross-Cultural Insights: Recognizing how different cultures influence what consumers like and how they buy, is especially important for businesses selling globally.

 

These are the common types of consumer insights that give a brief picture of the current scenario. Each type is interconnected to each other, and finding consumer insights can become even more tricky at a point. But fret not, because there is also a standard way to find out how consumer insights can be gathered without being lost. 

Also Read: The Future of Market Research: AI & Advanced Analytics

How to find consumer insights in 8 steps?

Finding consumer insights involves a systematic approach that combines various research methods and data analysis techniques. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to find consumer insights:

 

1. Define Your Objectives: Clearly outline what you want to achieve with your consumer insights research. Whether it's understanding consumer preferences, identifying market trends, or improving product features, having specific objectives will guide your research efforts.

2. Conduct Market Research: Utilize both qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather data about your target audience. This may include surveys, focus groups, interviews, observation studies, and social media listening. These methods help you gather valuable information about consumer behaviours, attitudes, and preferences.

3. Analyze Existing Data: Explore existing data sources such as customer databases, sales records, website analytics, and social media metrics. Analyzing this data can reveal patterns, trends, and correlations that provide insights into consumer behaviour and preferences.

4. Identify Patterns and Trends: Look for patterns and trends within the data that highlight consumer preferences, emerging behaviours, and market dynamics. Pay attention to factors such as demographics, psychographics, purchasing habits, and consumer feedback.

5. Segment Your Audience: Divide your target audience into segments based on shared characteristics and behaviours. This segmentation allows you to tailor your marketing strategies and product offerings to better meet the needs of specific consumer groups.

6. Use Data Visualization Tools: Visualize your data using charts, graphs, and other visualization tools to identify patterns and insights more effectively. Visualization can help you uncover hidden trends and communicate your findings clearly and concisely.

7. Interpret Findings: Interpret the data and insights gathered from your research to derive meaningful conclusions. Consider the implications of your findings for product development, marketing strategies, customer service, and other aspects of your business.

8. Iterate and Refine: Consumer insights are not static and may evolve. Continuously gather feedback, monitor market trends, and refine your research methods to stay abreast of changing consumer preferences and behaviours.

 

By following these steps, you can effectively uncover valuable consumer insights that inform your business decisions and drive success. It is needless to say with the growing competition in each industry, consumers’ feedback has become quite crucial to retain and grow sales numbers. 

Check out this blog on: Top 10 Market Research Tools and Software

Examples of Consumer insights

With the theoretic knowledge at hand, consumer insights can be quite valuable. But if you want to get some real-life examples, we have curated 3 methods that can be opted for your research. 

 

1. Social Media Listening for a Fashion Brand:

Objective: Understand consumer preferences and trends in the fashion industry.

Method: Utilize social media listening tools to monitor conversations, mentions, and hashtags related to fashion.

Insights: Suppose the brand discovers that eco-friendly and sustainable fashion is gaining traction among younger consumers. 

Implications: The fashion brand can incorporate sustainable materials into its product lines and promote eco-friendly practices to appeal to environmentally-conscious consumers.

 

2. Customer Surveys for a Food Delivery Service

Objective: Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty to a food delivery service.

Method: Conduct customer satisfaction surveys via email or mobile app to gather feedback on service quality, delivery times, and food preferences.

Insights: Suppose the researcher learns that customers value prompt delivery and crave customization options such as dietary preferences and meal personalization.

Implications: The food delivery service can optimize delivery routes, implement faster delivery times, and offer a wider range of healthy menu options to meet customer expectations and enhance satisfaction.

 

3. Market Research for a Tech Company

Objective: Identify emerging consumer trends in the technology sector.

Method: Conduct market research through online surveys, focus groups, and industry reports to explore consumer attitudes towards emerging technologies.

Insights: Discover a growing interest in smart home devices among tech-savvy consumers, driven by the desire for convenience and connectivity. 

Implications: The tech company can develop new smart home products that address consumer needs while prioritizing data privacy and security features. They can also refine marketing strategies to emphasize the benefits of connectivity and convenience while addressing consumer concerns about privacy.

 

These examples demonstrate how different research methods can uncover valuable consumer insights that inform strategic decisions. 

 

Final Word

Insights are not complicated. They need to be researched with a systematic approach. Most marketers think that consumer research is expensive and unreliable. But we think otherwise. 

Consumer Research gives a predefined direction and helps businesses to make the apt move. If you found this article helpful, make sure to subscribe to Humann and learn more about in-depth consumer insights. 

Related: Consumer Research Process Explained in 7 Simples Steps