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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
More than ever, demonstrating impact is the name of the
game for professional marketing services agencies. From
our recent Market Research (MR) Impact study (2014), we
know that only 45% of insight professionals & marketers
believe research succeeds in changing the attitudes and
decision of marketers and only one in two projects leads to
change (Schillewaert et al, 2014). This lack of impact is not
a matter of budget. Rather than spending more, the critical
driver for impact is to maximize the value of spending (BCG
study, 2009). Based on 20+ in-depth interviews with MR
professionals from the client side, we have identified 11 unmet
needs related to the future of consumer insights. While ten
of those frictions relate to creating a positive business impact
with consumer stories, only one is about finding better insights
(Willems et al, 2015). So, the goal is to trigger meaningful
actions which turn insights into concrete ideas, stronger
brands and future-proof business concepts to deliver better
consumer experiences. The million dollar question is: How do
we trigger these meaningful actions across the organization
in order to create a positive business impact? And how can
the insight professional of tomorrow do this in an efficient yet
effective way?
INTRODUCTION

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
For people to take action on a consumer insight, they first
need to learn what the insight is about. In traditional MR,
only a limited group of people is involved in this knowledge
exchange by e.g. participating in the debrief workshop or
managing the research study themselves. This limited group
is then able to shape an insight platform by adding own
thoughts, observations and/or ideas. By involving a wider
group of employees, one better understands the consumer
and is able to make better consumer relevant decisions. Fur-
thermore, the theory of open innovation teaches us that the
one golden idea can come from anywhere in the organization,
not only marketing or innovation (Whelan, 2011). To increase
the impact, all employees across the organization need to
learn what the friction is in order to share related observations
and ideas. For example, by experiencing how consumers
are using their product today, employees see what can be
improved. When such an insight is replicated by employees
by adding own observations and ideas, it is shared with
various people across the organization and it triggers action,
the insight is called a meme (Dawkins, 1989). An illustration
GOING FROM
INSIGHTS TO
MEMES

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of such a meme is what we did at ATAG, a leading supplier of kitchen
appliances. ATAG wanted to move away from a product-driven strategy
and introduce a consumer-driven approach (‘cook-centered thinking’).
In order to make this shift, they needed to create an internal belief for
their new strategy. We invited 400 internal stakeholders to discover the
consumer insights and experience themselves how strong the emotion
passion for cooking can be. The #welovecooks experience engaged
over 170 employees, who contributed 125 observations, and resulted
in 13 potential internal projects identified by the crowd. The new strat-
egy was shared among employees and turned into the #welovecooks
meme. To turn an insight into a meme, insight professionals need to
move away from the traditional research model and shift on three
levels to establish the Memefication of #MRX:
1.
From reporting to involving #experience
While 92% of insight professionals believes their research generates
insight worth sharing with colleagues, only 65% extensively shares
them with their organization. Furthermore, only one in five researchers
organizes interactive workshops to discuss results (Schillewaert et al,
2014). All too often, MR takes such an individualistic approach where
executives need to identify their own actions when reading research
reports. However, to trigger meaningful actions, insight professionals
need to bring insights to life through interaction. Therefore, we have
identified four building blocks when marketing insights; harvesting,
seeding, activating and collaborating (see figure 1). Through
harvesting, we collect insights from internal stakeholders which are
already known. Secondly, seeding enables insights managers to

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
Figure 1.
Four building
blocks of marketing
insights within the
organization
spread insights via key ambassadors in a relevant way through the
organization. Activating triggers stakeholders to not only discover
but also interact with insights. Finally, collaborating connects stake-
holders to work together and turn insights into actions and new future
projects. At Unilever R&D the combination of building blocks lead to
640 involved employees of the 1,000 invitees, which triggered more
conversations about their consumers on the work floor, measured with
an increase from 12% to 55%.

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2.
From teams to the organization #reach
In traditional MR, consumer stories and insights are often discov-
ered and owned by the MR department. However, in order to trigger
meaningful actions, the insight needs to be co-owned by all employees
(figure 2). First of all, we want extend the MR reach from executives
to management to enable higher management to take long-term
decisions with a consumer context in mind. Secondly, we involve the
front-line employees, who are in almost daily contact with consumers,
to shape their consumer feeling and ultimately improve their perfor-
mance. Finally, involving all other employees that have a rather indirect
relationship with the consumer creates a better understanding of the
consumer context of the business, making them more motivated as an
employee in general. The extension of MR reach calls for a layered ap-
proach, as we did for the Belgian bus company De Lijn which involved
their whole organization with consumer insights about their Gen Y pas-
senger. We seeded the top 10 insights during an internal conference
with 200 top managers, we organized a speed date for executives to
meet their consumers and finally we activated all stakeholders to play
the Gen Y passenger quiz to interact with the key insights.
RELATIONSHIP WITH CONSUMERS
LEVELINTHEORGANIZATION
EXECUTIVES
FRONTLINE
Direct
LowHigh
Indirect
MANAGEMENT
STAFF
Figure 2. Extend the internal reach of mr

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
3.
From projects to habit creation #structural
For most employees, working with consumer insights is not a routine.
If you wish to trigger meaningful actions and enable employees to
turn the insight into a meme, it is of great importance that consumer
relevant inspirations are integrated into their daily jobs. By identifying
the employees’ motivations and behaviours, we can better trigger when
and how to use consumer insights on a regular basis. If we learn to
shift towards habits, we will be more successful in triggering meaningful
actions and increase the impact of consumer insights on the business.
For Unilever R&D, we immersed 1,000 employees with their consumer
in six weeks’ time by testing their consumer knowledge through mini-
quizzes and organizing collaboration sessions to close their knowledge
gaps. As a result of integrating these consumer insight routines, we not
only improved their gut feeling but also shaped their consumer feeling
with a relative increase of 81% (De Ruyck et al, 2012).

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
We strongly believe that consumer insights have not reached
their full potential in terms of ROI. Based on our interviews
with clients, the MR Impact Study and the projects we did with
Unilever R&D, ATAG and De Lijn, we’ve identified a recipe for
success to create a positive business impact with consumer
insights. To enable the insight professional of tomorrow to do
this in an efficient yet effective way, we developed a mobile
collaboration platform, called the Insight Activation Studio. This
is a scalable solution for insight managers so they can establish
the memefication of research in their organizations and create
engaging experiences, across the organization in a structural
way. How does it work? The Studio connects and empowers
internal stakeholders to share inspiring observations and take
action together. This mobile application (figure 3), which is fully
responsive, consists of several Inspiration Walls, where each
wall starts from an insight platform that uncovers a consumer
friction, emotion or unmet need. Employees are prompted
to add their own Inspiration Tiles of these walls through
observations and ideas by posting photos, videos and stories.
They interact and shape the Inspiration Tiles of their colleagues
through comments and likes (figure 4).
BUILDING A
MOBILE INSIGHT
ACTIVATION STUDIO

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This mobile platform helps the insight professional to combine the four
building blocks of marketing insights in an efficient way (figure 1). By
challenging employees to share their inspirations, we harvest their
consumer knowledge. By opening an Inspiration Wall, we seed new
consumer insights with the relevant team(s). By activating employees
to share observations and ideas on the go, we prompt them to interact
with insights. Finally, by sharing enabling commenting and feedback,
we enable them to collaborate and work together to shape outcomes.
Figure 3. The Insight Activation Studio
Figure 4. Impressions of the Insight Activation Studio:
The inspiration wall, an inspiration tile & add tile option

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
What does it bring? Just like any technology, the Consumer
Activation Studio brings automational, informational and
transformational value for the insight professional (Day 1994).
1. Automational - Faster sharing of insights. There is a reduction
of manual efforts in spreading & seeding insights with more,
relevant stakeholders, leading to more and faster decision
making at the same or lower level of costs.
2. Informational - Higher ROI of consumer insights. The Studio
enables internal stakeholders to spot, share and shape
inspirations on the go. The more inspirations are posted on
an Inspiration Wall, and the more feedback an inspiration will
receive, the richer the insight will be. Furthermore, all these
interactions also create a deeper understanding of the insight.
In turn, the company has access to richer, more relevant,
authentic ideas which are closer to the reality of the business
world, encouraging employees to take action to make better
decisions.
3. Transformational - Consumer-activated culture. By
connecting the whole organization with the consumer, the
Studio influences employees’ day-to-day behavior, helps to
collect ideas from the whole organization and transforms the
organization towards an innovation and consumer-centric
culture.

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
After two successful pilot Studio’s for Dorel Juvenile in Europe
and Dannon in the United States the Studio was launched in
2015. The technology, which recently received 2 awards, is
currently embedded
in more than 10 organizations. We identify five use cases:
1. Harvest the collective mind
It is in the nature of organizations, especially those larger
in size, that knowledge and information is fragmented
around people and departments. The Studio allows to
harvest the minds of colleagues and partners bringing
together all learnings and assumptions on a topic and
identifying the knowledge gaps.
2. Live updates from the field
When collecting insights from the field, inspiring stories
are far too often only shared at the end of a project flow.
The Studio can serve as the ideal mean to share the
latest consumer observation live and directly from the
field serving as teaser material for the final insight report.
MEASURING THE
IMPACT OF MEMES

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3. Project collaboration
The Studio allows to easily collaborate in an insight driven way
during the whole project phase with all project stakeholders. At the
start of the project insights can be harvested from various studies,
where after new observations and ideas can be added allowing to
grow existing and new insights as the project evolves.
4. Immersion experience
Whether it is a new target group, key market, new trend or
customer journey you want to explore. The Studio allows to
easily collect inspiration about a topic over time, creating a true
immersion experience.

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5. Archive of insights
Data is key, yet it easily results in data overload where finding data
back when needed becomes challenging and time consuming. The
Studio can serve as your insights database where you can easily
search consumer stories, brand examples and consumer insights
from previous research studies.

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G
THE INSIGHT
UNIVERSE
Impact is the name of the game for the insight professional
of tomorrow, and we need to increase our ROI in order to
be successful. Illustrated by the case studies we did for
Unilever R&D, ATAG and De Lijn, and now proven by pilot
studies at Dorel and Dannon, the success of consumer
insights is rated by the interactions, feedback and actions it
triggers. By mapping all these insights and related actions, an
insight universe is created and measures which insight was
leveraged successfully and became a meme. For the future,
this insight universe will be the reference for the insight
professional and will make our #mrx impact finally tangible,
once and for all!

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REFERENCES
Boston Consulting Group Study, 2009, The consumer’s voice - can
your company hear it? Retrieved from www on Feb. 10, 2015,
http://www.bcg.com/documents/file35167.pdf
Dawkins, R., 1989, The Selfish Gene (2 ed.), Oxford University Press,
p. 192, ISBN 0-19-286092-5,
Day, G., 1994, The capabilities of market driven organizations.
Journal of Marketing, 58, 4 (October), pp. 37–52.
De Ruyck, T., Schillewaert, N., and Knoops, S., 2012,
Engage, Inspire Act! Esomar Congress paper
Schillewaert, N., Pallini, K. 2014, What do clients think about MR
impact. Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, http://www.greenbook-
blog.org/2014/11/20/what-do-clients-think-about-mr-impact/
Whelan, E., Parise, S., Valk, de J. and Aalbers, R., 2011, Creating
Employee Networks That Deliver Open Innovation. Harvard Business
Review Retrieved from www on Feb. 10 2015, https://hbr.org/product/
creating-employee-networks-that-deliver-openinnovation/
SMR399-PDF-ENG
Willems, A. and De Ruyck T., 2015, How To Market, Research?
MIE conference presentation, Feb. 5th 2015.

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G

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THE AUTHORS
Tom De Ruyck
Managing Partner
InSites Consulting
Tom@insites-consulting.com
Anouk Willems
Head of Insight Activation Studios
InSites Consulting,
Anouk.Willems@insites-consulting.com

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I N S I T E S C O N S U LT I N G

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www.insites-consulting.com