We believe that customer is God or Grahak is the form of God. Never annoy the customer because if the customer does not buy your goods or he/she gets upset then it will impact the business! To some extent this is due to the fact that it is our God who accepts our offerings. But on the other hand, it should be analyzed why this buyer/God buys/accepts goods/offerings only from me. The second fact is that the customer, whether he/she is buying from a small shop or a big machinery buyer, buys the thing that he/she needs, wants, and has in his/her mind. Customer will definitely buy from a trader who can give the answer to these questions in a straight-forward narrative.
When we are planning a product or marketing or thinking about a brand, a question and a word is very prevalent, which is the subject of discussion as to who the target audience for this product or brand is? To whom is this brand to be sold? We have read many times that it is particularly important to understand the customer. What does it mean to know the customer? We would be surprised to know that many people don’t try to know the consumer before making or marketing a product or superficially only know its demographics; Like my consumer is male, aged 25-35, he lives in Metro City, is a graduate, earns a few thousand a month, etc. All these demographic factors are important but if a successful brand is to be built, the consumer has to go beyond this. And so, the word “consumer insight” is immensely popular in product development and marketing. As mentioned above, many times we give the name of Insight to the basic information that can be seen externally. Moreover, what we see or what trend is going on, if the consumer behaves in a certain way following a certain trend, we call that an Insight.
We often hear in practice that human should be known from his/her inner qualities and not how he/she behaves outside. From the outside, everything seems good, maybe his/her behavior and thoughts are good in practice, but from the inside, how he/she behaves in times of crisis or trouble is his/her true identity/character.
The same thing applies to the brand, try to identify the consumer not from the outside but from the inside, if he/she follows certain trends or behaves in some way, then what is his/her mindset behind it, what is his/her ideology, what is the truth behind it? Knowing this, we can call it Consumer Insight.
Let’s try to know Consumer Insight by example. Generally, people will say that a woman loves to look beautiful and also hopes that she will get a compliment for beauty. This is not completely wrong, or we can say the superficial truth on the outer edge. Based on this many brands will sell their products saying that our brand will help you to look more beautiful. But if one tries to know the true truth or insight, “a woman wants praise for her inner beauty or quality and not just for outer beauty.” This has been proven based on research and Dove soap has used this insight systematically in the “Real Beauty” campaign and achieved success. Another example is “Rin” laundry soap / powder which used same Insight in its category that I have shine due to the uniqueness inside me and people appreciate me for it and not just based on the shine of the clothes. Both the brands decided their positioning based on this insight and promoted the brand, and today both are strong in their respective categories. Same Insight can be used in different categories. Because it is a truth with which the consumer will relate to. The product or brand that the consumer will relate to, no one can stop the brand from succeeding.
Let us study some other interesting insights that have made a significant contribution in relating the brand to the consumer. “Every mother wants her child to have experiences and learn on their own, so she is ready for it even if they get dirty.” Against this, people always say that “mother is always protective”. When the “Surf” powder campaigned that stains are good, people in that category were talking about how dirty clothes get better. While Surf said that if someone gets dirty in doing good deeds, the stain is good and in each campaign the child is shown learning life lessons in his/her own way.
Cold drinks people drink to quench their thirst, the trend is to feel smart if you have a bottle of cold drink in hand. But in the end, it works to quench the thirst. Sprite took advantage of this insight in its campaign that smart man is not interested in false claims but in direct and true things. Sprite began to gain overnight popularity.
Just as Consumer Insight helps us to build products or to develop relatability, so often consumers actually face some problems and some services or products have been launched based on that. A great example of this is; If I do not get the transport when I need it or if I do not have the means to come and go, I have to plan in advance. Uber used this problem as an opportunity to start a taxi service. The problem was solved and today it is a successful transport model.
In order to truly use Consumer Insights, keep in mind that the insights we look for, should be fresh, transparent, heartwarming, and not superficial. Should be relevant to my product or brand, must be practical with which people can relate to themselves. And most importantly, it should not be limited so that I can expand my brand, campaign, and various activities based on it. As we have seen, trends or observations cannot be called true insights because they are temporary while real consumer insights will be permanent. It will be based on the truth, not on the outside but on the inside.
Getting Consumer Insight is not an easy task. Not just doing research for it, revealing the hidden fact within the research is like chewing iron chickpeas. Just like you have to open every single peal of the onion and go inside, you have to go deeper inside human mindset to know the consumer insight.
In this context, a new meaning of customer is God or Ghrahak Bhagwan hai, can also mean that if basis Consumer Insight I create my brand or sell my product, it will keep my customer/God attached to me and happy with my offering. The consumer always wants someone to listen to him/her, understand him/her and come up with a product and service that he/she can adopt and make a part of his/her life.
Some parts of this article are excerpts from the book “BRAND BANSHE, BUSINESS VADHASHE”, written by Sameer Joshi, Founding Partner – Sam & Andy.