In a world of constant change, where consumers are always keen to try the next best thing, the ability to innovate fast has never been more important. Sadly, traditional innovation cycles are not achieving the results needed to keep up with this always competitive, connected and convergent environment. And it’s going to get worse - more technologies, more devices, more automated interactions, more gamification - anything and everything, is open to innovation.
As a result, professionals, and thus businesses, are becoming convinced that the most fertile ground for new products, services and solutions will be found at the intersection between companies and their customers in the innovation ecosystem. It’s not an easy path and obviously there is no silver bullet.
A recent Hitachi survey revealed that 61% of 554 senior executives across a range of sectors in Europe, believe that CROWD-based insights have enabled them to produce more successful new products and services. Fostering people’s ideas is seen as the business’s response to the ever changing circumstances and a clever way to have that competitive edge on their side.
Now it’s about testing, implementing and leveraging better tools. Most probably some competitors of yours are already using CROWD-based insights. So, how do you approach it, what should you expect and what does a real example of CROWD-based insights look like?
- The power of the hidden truth
CROWD-based insights are becoming a fundamental part of the innovation process. They are the spark for the NPD teams to create surplus value for the consumers. Cultivated the right way an insight should savour an universal human truth about your customers presented via a strong tension point.
In the past few years we’ve witnessed a lot of misplaced usage of the word “insight”. The misguided belief that more data means better insight, has led some to think that drowning in a hastily collected whirlpool of data is what being insight-rich feels like.
However, getting to a really good consumer insight is a much harder and longer process.
This is why at Catalyx we nurture the ability to understand all the information gathered through full service research and turn it into active intelligence. What sets us apart is the time we spend synthesizing all the CROWD-based data. Put bluntly, we believe that you do have to swim through all the information and analyze it for a meaningful insight generation process to actually occur.
Having data doesn't make you insight rich, it's what you do with it that counts.
- How do we make data work for you?
Plenty of approaches have claimed to be successful for spotting a crowd-based insight the right way. One option is to go through the tiresome and costly process of discovering the approach that suits you by continuously testing the wrong thing. Alternatively we can do it for you by providing an in depth and expert analysis of your business problems with the ultimate aim of finding the perfect solution.
To make this happen we create series of tasks and activities for your consumers to engage in. During the process they generate different kinds of visual content, answer questions, and even participate in video calls with other consumers. Meanwhile, there is a moderator who helps the conversation move forward and re-engages the participants with new tasks. At the end we present you with a detailed report with actionable recommendations to implement immediately in your work processes after the research has finished.
In our digital era, gathering data isn't really the issue. Rather, deriving actionable insight that is useful at a strategic level is far more challenging.
Knowing what value your insights should deliver is far more important for us. Actually - it's our main focus. That is why we make them actionable for your specific business need - building up to the right moment for a change. At Catalyx we try to take a multidimensional view in order to craft a crowd-based insight employing the full potential of synthesis:
- Not only do we collect data, but we also use various proven techniques to analyze quantitative and qualitative data.
- Our most important strength is the power to process data and see through it, thereby provide a much deeper understanding of the problems and potentials at hand.
- We present to you the findings of the consumer-centric research which contains guidance suitable for an instant execution in order to achieve your main goals.
Still not convinced? Here is a real example of how a crowd-based insight helped The Children Society rethink their fund raising strategies and create an exciting innovation springboard.
Innovating fund raising strategies with the Children’s Society
Challenge and Brief: Fundraising is often a challenge for many charities, therefore the Children Society sought to get a better understanding of the needs and aspirations of their most affluent consumers to will enable them to innovate with fresh fundraising ideas and create an exciting innovation springboard for these consumers.
What we did: We recruited more than 100 consumers, all aged 50 or more and explored their aspirations and needs. Firstly, we engaged them in a bespoke online CROWD and then had virtual focus groups with five of them to dig deeper into their intrinsic motivators and drivers in life.
What was the key insight: After analyzing and synthesizing 10,000 data points (coming from various sources such as texts, videos, pictures) we discovered that people of this age get reminded that life is short and has to be lived in the now and start to reconsider their life and start thinking of giving back to society more. However, as a charity, it needs to connect with them on a personal level, focus on the impact it creates and have an impeccable reputation.
Outcome: Leveraging these insights, we generated a multitude of ideas to engage with this age group, one of many being the creation of an interactive community map which shows the places/causes/people that need help/attention/focus and stimulate people to help the way they want to while keeping their impact as transparent as possible to the community.
Why Catalyx Crowd was the right partner for The Children Society
Catalyx Crowd is a powerful tool that is used to unlock the views of many with the work of just a few, but its real value lies in our team's ability to see beyond a linear narrative and put the pieces of your target consumers' knowledge in new and interesting ways that help you chart new pathways to growth - creating more useful insights.
Ready to give it a try? Get in touch with us.