WHY CULTURE EATS CONSUMER INSIGHT FOR BREAKFAST (PART 1)
It’s one of the most enduring beliefs in marketing: that brands are doomed without ‘consumer insight’. Are they?
In this three-part blog we’ll argue that:
brands can gain a competitive edge without peering into consumers’ psyche (Part 1)
psychology is getting more screen time than it deserves in deciphering human behaviour (Part 2)
ignoring culture is like skipping the seasoning in cooking - everything will taste the same (Part 3)
Strap in and enjoy the ride.
Consumocentrism
The better brands understand people, the more successful they are. So far so true?. This concept of consumer insight hinges on a tricky assumption: that we are lost without insight in the ‘personal’. Needs, attitudes, motivations, preferences.
Evidence from a slew of sciences shows that most people struggle to articulate what they want until it’s right in front of them. And most people’s opinions about brands tend wobble like a poorly set jelly, anyway. If this is true, the insight industry’s foundation is shaky at best.
Moreover, there’s this stubborn habit of examining people as individuals, ignoring that we are deeply social beings who soak up wisdom from other people and ‘culture’. Many researchers are missing a trick here.
So why do we cling to the myth of the lone-wolf consumer?
First, it’s how we - and our clients - experience the world (a little self-delusion makes the world go round ;-)
Second, for old times’ sake: despite nods to the sway of context and the subconscious on our actions, insight teams at companies and the business models of many agencies are steadfast in believing that peppering people with direct questions is perfectly okay. Without respondents for our surveys, traditional research might as well join the dodo..
Third, our love affair with solo actors stems from the desire to keep things simple. Treating people as rational, independent entities lets us sidestep the messy — but crucial — contextual details. This approach not only keeps our overheads low, it also helps ensure clients can follow our reports. In insight and marketing, easy does it.
These are merely three reasons (there may be more?) why Consumocentrism sticks around. Yet it can easily blind us to other potent drivers of behaviour. Such as culture.
Take Millennials, who are often branded as opportunists. The underlying assumption is generally that this is hardwired. Millennials are opportunistic people.
An alternative, and perhaps better, explanation is that opportunism is a behavioural response to an increasingly cutthroat environment, in which mass higher education has eroded social distinction and homeownership and job security are distant dreams. In such a competitive world, seemingly engrained values are in fact behavioural coping mechanisms in a competitive ‘system’. When this changes, Millennials’ actions will change too.
Long story short: if the aim is to help brands with integrating the outside-in perspective (= market research’ core promise) into their marketing plans, putting your money on people-as-individuals has profound limitations.
Can we dig ourselves out of this Consumocentric quagmire? Maybe. But not without taking a hard look at psychology as our weapon of choice.
Stay tuned for a deep dive into the pitfalls of psychology in Part 2.