What are consumers interested in worldwide – and how are marketers aggregating, analyzing and taking action around these interests? Our Global Consumer Insight Analytics Report shares best practices and challenges from leading consumer and marketing intelligence professionals located around the world. And we have a summary of those findings for you below! As a bonus, we’ve broken out some EMEA-specific insight for you from our EMEA Consumer Insight Analytics Report as well. You’ll find info on both shared below!
Globally, we know that consumers are increasingly engaging online – and they have the power to move markets when so inclined. This makes capturing, understanding and taking immediate action on consumer insight incredibly crucial to every business. And we’ve found that the savviest amongst them realize this.
We recently surveyed more than 3,000 senior consumer insight intelligence professionals all told (covering both reports) in leading global organizations to better understand how they are taking on these increasingly complicated consumer interactions. The intel we’ve gathered from their responses are enlightening. We have some highlights to share ahead of you downloading the reports!
Consumer Insight as Secret Sauce
To help us better understand specific challenges that these global marketing leaders are facing worldwide as they move their businesses forward, we gathered insight from a variety of verticals. We took a representative sample of industry leaders in Banking and Finance, Consumer Products, Food and Beverage, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, Media and Entertainment, Retail, Technology, Transportation, and Travel and Hospitality. And in each one, we found the need for accurate, real-time consumer insight reported as a critical element of their planning across a number of use cases:
Consumer insights are the secret behind every leading business’ success. And this insight is complex, with seemingly endless moving parts to harness. The process of capturing consumer insight was the first problem these leaders had to solve, in fact. And separating the signal from the noise, to determine what was worth analysis in the cacophony of intel available, was the second. And all of it was compounded by perplexing budget constraints.
We found that most companies recognize how essential consumer insight is to inform strategic decision-making, and we also found that most of them—wherever they are in the world—are facing similar challenges in its implementation.
Consumer Insight Challenges Marketers Face
The pandemic wreaked havoc in markets worldwide, including EMEA businesses. And all of them needed to find ways to reconnect with increasingly isolated and cost-conscious consumers. Not only that, but they also needed to re-energize confidence in their companies, products and whatever category they inhabited. That’s a tall order in itself, but that’s not all.
Regardless of location, marketers worldwide feel an increasing pressure to meet some pretty big asks for their organizations:
- Connecting meaningfully with segments
- Identifying new potential consumers
- Moving hesitant customers through the purchase funnel
And these challenges are compounded by the massive quantities of data available.
Companies require the ability to capture and integrate many consumer and market data sources. They must also map it all out in a measurable way to justify spend. It’s a huge job with a typically mid-sized budget.
We see that reported budgets are increasing on the higher end of the spectrum, with those ‘in the know’ leapfrogging over competitors to capture in-depth, category-defining insight. We also see many companies lagging behind and moving slowly toward devoting appropriate spend to these crucial efforts.
Either way, regardless of what they’re working with, we see marketers making the most of the consumer insight they have access to.
Marketers Making the Most of Consumer Insight
Marketers are making the most of the consumer insight at their disposal. They’re not only capturing key intel about consumers to generate awareness and grow their businesses in these challenging times, but they’re also using it to prove their value to the C suite.
With siloed consumer insight and business intelligence gathering systems, respondents expressed frustration around leaving potential opportunities ignored. And a bit part of this is caused by a communication disconnect. Although holistic consumer insight is powerful, and increasingly on every CEO’s radar, the path to adoption is slow for brands working without the very latest in intelligence gathering technology. It’s chicken-egg scenario, as they have trouble demonstrating the power of the technology when they aren’t equipped with powerful technology to create these visualizations.
Instead, they find their companies unintentionally leaving wiggle room for competitors to swoop in. Though, in the EMEA region specifically, we see a cautious optimism building. Businesses are increasingly relying on consumer insight to direct mission-critical business decisions. Marketers are generating awareness, enhancing brand loyalty, and growing in these challenging times.
Be sure to download our Global Consumer Insight Analytics Report to see more specifics that can inform your strategic planning in 2022! And while you’re at it, if you plan to do business in the EMEA region – which everyone should – download our EMEA Consumer Insight Analytics Report as well. And then reach out for a demo so we can show you some tactics specific to your brand’s needs in action – and some powerful visualizations to help sell this data-driven approach to stakeholders!