Not that long ago we talked to a new media agency. They didn’t do quantitative research, they said. They said they didn’t do qualitative either. They did insight. In other words, people came to them and they gave their opinion about things. For money. Based on nothing much more than what they thought on the day, depending on whether they’d had a decent breakfast or not. They never quite explained how this worked, or why their clients went along with it.
If you look online you can still find plenty of more reputable research agencies offering “insight.” They say things like “our insight expertise includes end-user surveys and new service evaluation.”
Sorry, but it just doesn’t. That’s called data collection. Research is not insight. Insight is not opinion, personal recollections, or someone’s individual perspective. Insight is not the pseudo-science of what a self-appointed commentator thinks about something.
There is no such thing as an “Insight Department.” It’s absurd.
You don’t get insight just by buying some new business cards with the word: “Insight” printed on them. Or by calling people “Insight Specialists” instead of “Market Researchers.”
Insight means answers, not more questions
Insight really means putting research findings into context.
It’s about learning what respondents mean, not just what they say.
It’s about locating the results in a way that clients can use.
It’s contextual, rigourous, structured and disciplined.
It means taking an interest in the market, as well as carrying out good research.
Insight means using getting information that delivers business results, not just making the researcher feel clever. Using multiple information sources to get a big picture, so you can see where opinions or numbers or published reports shine new light on aspects of the market and its behaviour you might not have thought about before. That’s why, apart from anything else, we draft, then re-draft reports and presentations, to make the results more accessible, more useable and more valuable for our clients. Have a look in the Reporting section for more.
Insight means using proprietary research tools we’ve developed over the years for specific industries and applications, together with other techniques.
Above all, insight means structured analysis of research results, not just a little observation added to a lot of personal opinion. You’ve probably already had enough of those kinds of insights.
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