From healthy to well'thy - insights regarding the new definition to health

The consumers in the rich part of the world appear to experience even growing pressure. You may think it has something to do with the conflicts around the world, the pressure of finding work-life balance or climate change. All those things probably hold true... but in addition there is a challenge of a more personal and physical matter.

The mother of a friend described the situation vividly following a recent visit to Thailand. At a popular Scandinavian hotel she witnessed mid-aged Scandinavians in their prime. Their beautiful toned bodies, bulging muscles and tight six-packs were on show by the poolside while watching their young kids having fun. Being of an older generation and with different priorities she was amazed by their healthy and toned bodies. But beyond the surface she also noticed that in their beautiful healthiness, they did not look or seem particularly happy.

This was an insightful observation which I've since thought about it whilst working on the creation of a deep understanding of consumer needs and insights related to health.

What remains as an important consumer health need is of course the long-standing impact of a healthy lifestyle. The feeling of being able to turn-back the clock and live longer. Another reason for embarking on a healthy lifestyle is the impact that good nutrition has on energy levels and on the ability to handle everyday life. And thirdly of course the want to ‘look-good’ and perhaps lose some weight. However, beyond these typically vocalized health needs and reasons emerged a more unarticulated ‘meta’ need. I would claim that this need has the power to change the view on health and the health foods territory as a whole. And perhaps this ‘meta’ need is the one with the strongest impact on the people by the pool in Thailand. This ‘meta’ need is to show your status in society through a healthy looking body. We call it ‘Health is the new status symbol’ and in the terms of Maslow it can be summed-up to ‘self-actualization by looking truly healty’.

I am convinced that this strong desire to demonstrate ‘status through health’ will have a strong impact on the food industry. It probably already has when you witness the strong growth in categories such as health snacks and the many launches of protein yogurt. In the fashion world Marc Jacobs has dropped 15kilos and is now selling his version of a sport on the catwalk. Swedish retail giant H&M has opened up their own sport stores well aware that ‘Health as the new status symbol’ is desired state that sells. It is only a matter of time until retailers give health foods an even larger share of space.

Out goes the envy of the Oligarch flexing his Rolex or the ‘beauty fake’ of Hollywood quick-fixes. In comes a desire and praise of the toned bodies of international sportsmen and sportswomen. Never before have such serious effort, time and money being spent on personal trainers, health foods, running gear, bicycles and health retreats. Health is the new status symbol – and for the food industry this realization will open up many opportunities. But let us try to be a bit more cheerful than the Thailand crowd in our endevours to achieve status through health.

What's a trend anyway?

It was a few weeks back in time and it was just another morning on the tube. I was on the way to work, somewhat bored when I came across Metro. Browsing through the pages I spotted this article about the very cool fashion designer Mathew Williamsson. Unfortunately I'm not the proud owner of any of his garments but despite my relative ‘untrendyness’ I've still somehow grasped that he is übercool by the more eloquent fashionistas out there (the ones that somehow squeeze in thoughts about fashion into their lives = not me). Now, the thing that grabbed me with the article was not so much Mathew's sayings regarding fashion as such, but rather the things he said about trends. In his übercool way Mathew proclaimed that "trends are out" and he said something around 'modern women not buying into the idea of trends any longer since they rather focus on individuality and identifying their own style'. I don’t know how well these perspectives go down in the fashion industry, but his views somehow stayed with me over the last few weeks while I’ve had the opportunity to attend some trends seminars and read a few trend papers. Being updated on trends is part of the job of picking up 'new', fresh thoughts to guide and inspire innovation. And trends are also an important perspective to future-proof directions I already work on. But following Mathew W’s perspective and being fed all these 'trends' I'm trying to get my head around what I actually think about trends. So far I've come to the following conclusion: What we call trends are reflections of big shifts in human emotions linked to reality. And those emotions are in turn linked to shifts and changes in the world around us. In the higher steps of the hierarchy of needs our needs shifts little by little based on external stimulus. As needs shifts and people or companies witness this shift, we start to witness reactions. Some reactions are pure withdrawal ‘no it’s not happening’ or ‘no, it won’t affect my business’ or simply ‘it’s too frustrating to even think about it’. Others reactions are future focused and proactive. It’s those reactions that result in innovation – both breakthrough and incremental. So, to my view the so called trends that we so often refer to, are simply clusters of reflections of the innovations that are already occurring. And we are only able to create these clusters when the stream of innovation is so wide so it can actually be seen and synthesized. Which is actually when the trend and the change in people is already happening. Thus, my belief is that to fully understand trends and to understand how to capitalise on trends, one needs to start with mega shifts in the world and to start to extrapolate on those shifts to try to understand the impact they will have on human needs and human emotions both in the longer- and the shorter-term. Of course, it still makes a lot of sense to follow the ‘trend’ reflections synthesized in presenentations and power points, but be aware that they are ‘here and now’, already happening and soon in a store near you. So to be able to capitalize on them you need to act fast.

Nikon 'I am' - powerful and insightful communication

Today I am going to write something close to a tribute to the best advertising campaign on air at the moment. It is the Nikon 'I am' campaign I'm talking about. I think they TV ads are so strong so they almost make my heart burst with happiness for seeing such great creative and insightful work. And the print and digital is equally strong. I don't know the agency behind the campaign but I hope that the communication isn't just empty words but rather a portrayal of what the Nikon company and brand truly want to offer to the world. My understanding is a brand that is absolutely passionate about offering their customers the ability to express themselves and who they are freely. The whole idea is clearly based on a strong consumer insight: 'the need to feel free and be able to demonstrate your true self to the world'. On the site 'I am' Nikon express it this way: "No matter what I use my camera for I always say something about myself with my photos...whether I’m capturing holiday memories or snapping party shots, whether I’m just having a laugh or earn a living as a photographer. With my Nikon I can combine my personality and my dreams. With my Nikon I can show the world who I am".

Why is this campaign so strong? Well, at the heart of it lies great quality products. But to make those products truly desirable and worth paying an extra margin is the key to success. And in this case Nikon has identified how to truly connect to consumers through insight and human emotions. Watch the ad and see how they use copy, imagery and music to create a very strong, emotional connection with the viewer. It is powerful, isn't it? I love it anyway. And feel pretty keen to buy a Nikon now....

Thank you Babybjörn - the honest, innovative, life-saver brand

Yesterday I had one of the toughest days for a while now. Both kids are ill with colds and fever, and my little boy is also teething... A recipe for total disaster zone. But whilst I have been feeling extremely deprived of sleep I have actually managed reasonably well. And the reason for that is mainly attributed to my long-term friend the Babybjörn baby carrier. What would I do without it? Whilst carrying around my little grizzly boy in my Babybjörn I started to think about the Babybjörn brand and an article I read just the other day about its founder Björn Jakobson. After having read the article I understood that one of the reasons that Babybjörn continues to produce such fantastic products is because the brand is staying true to Björn and his wife Lillemors founding principles and values. Babybjörn is truly a family owned brand where the founder hasn't been tempted to sell out to investors or the stock-market, but instead decided to grow organically, steadily year by year, by staying true to what they believe in most, the power of a caring, safe, and loving environment for small babies. And to support an environment that encourages strong attachment between baby and parent.

I took a look at the Babybjörn website and came across this fantastic clip with Björn and Lillemor. In this clip one can truly feel the power of the brand at its core. And the core I believe is not its fantastic products but rather the strong brand values acting as a foundation for anything the company does going forwards. Those values also ensure that the company continously search for new insights to innovate and new products or current products better for both baby and parents. I hope that the values of Björn and Lillemor will continue to remain at the heart of the Babybjörn brand for many years to come. What a great brand and what an inspiring brand story.

SC Johnson innovative launch with WC Duck Fresh Discs

My life has been upside down this year with the arrival of my baby boy. A very joyous arrival of course but also, with two little ones at home there are very few moments for myself by the computer. So it has unfortunately resulted in very few blog posts this year. Not because I haven't had anything on my mind to write about. But rather the opposite given how much time I spend in the supermarkets these days...

So, with a few seconds to spare I wanted to share with you my latest favourite of FMCG innovations. This time it may not appeal to all based on it being a solution for a rather dirty problem. It is the launch of WC Duck Fresh Discs by SC Johnson. I haven't tried this product myself yet but I am familiar with the problem that is being highlighted in what I view as an effective and well-executed TV commercial. This launch demonstrates that SC Johnson look for real insigts to develop new and innovative ways to provide consumer friendly solutions to common problems. I have been involved in similar research in the past and I can tell you from my own experience that it can quite an eye-opening experience to understand how other people clean their loos...

Hence I find this a great launch that I believe is based on consumer insight into the wonderful world of toilet cleaning... But I need to try the product before I'm convinced that it will be a lasting concept that will have an impact on the category. The TV-commercial can be seen here. The one on air in Sweden may be cut a bit different from this one.

Electrolux - commitment to 'Thinking of You'

Yesterday I spotted a great ad by Electrolux in the newspaper - it was highlighting one of their vacuum cleaners. But instead of focusing on the vacuum cleaner message I spotted the Electrolux brand tagline 'Thinking of you'.

I had not seen that tagline before. Is it maybe new? But when I saw it I was so pleased to see that Electrolux has such a strong commitment to consumers. Based on news in the marketplace, hirings and their recent, successful launches I have already understood that something is happening at Electrolux. During the last few years they have moved from a technically driven appliances manufacturer to a consumer insight centric solution provider. Electrolux is deeply committed to consumer centric and insight driven innovation, and it was fantastic to see that this commitment has also translated to their brand communication. I think the total change to a consumer centric company will continue but whilst their at it and beyond I believe we will see great things from Electrolux. I'm not only looking to buy a sexy Ergorapido vacuum cleaner asap (how did they manage to make a vacuum cleaner sexy and desirable?) but will also look into buying some shares...  

Colgate Max White - good emo message in the functional benefit world of toothpaste

The most recent ad I've enjoyed is the recent Colgate Max White commercial that's currently running on Swedish television. The good news about it is that Colgate have found a great insight to work from and  focussed on the emo benefit of 'let the smile speak for you' rather than the functional message of 'gives you white teeth'. That's great news for Colgate and I think the Max White might have a fair chance for success in the marketplace, given the great comms being grounded on insight with substance. Unfortunately Colgate haven't trusted to share the ad on Youtube, so I cannot share it with you. But do visit their website if you want to view the ad.

Crisp maker OLW taps into Fredagsmys insight to conquer Swedish crisp market

Swedish crisp maker OLW's choice to tap into a strong emotional insight proved a good strategy. OLW has now taken the throne as the king of the Swedish crisp market with a 39% market share. The insight that sits at the back of the Fredagsmys campaign taps into Swedes need for 'cosy, lazy family time' on Friday nights, after a tough and stressful working week. The key ingredient in the campaign is the song 'Fredagsmys' which, in all its 'geekiness', have become incredibly popular. It has been played more than 1 200 200 on Spotify! And the social network following has also been strong with more than 190 000 members in the Facebook group 'We love Fredagsmys'. See the ad below - a show of different Swedes who all love Fredagsmys.

Fritidsresor - the days you remember

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I just spotted the most recent Fritidsresor ad on telly - the one with Mads Mikkelsen. Apart from being a beautiful ad it also carries a strong emotional message built around the Fritidsresor brand promise of 'creating more days to remember'. Of course we should all want more great days to remember. Many of us are but too aware that time flies and our individual lifetimes are just tiny little dots on the lifetime of planet earth. And just as autumn comes and Swedes are back behind our desks with memories of a lovely summer holiday behind us, the Fritidsresor message becomes even stronger. I want to book a trip now!

Pour Tea - clever way of promoting consumer engagement

A colleague and friend of mine told me about this lovely concept by the swedish coffee and tea makers Johan & Nyström (a company that I hadn't heard about before - but I'm now well impressed!). Those guys apparently noted that there was a gap in the market and a great opportunity to promote ice tea in Sweden - well spotted for a start! And they realised that they needed a good, well positioned and well designed concept to make it work. So, here comes Pour Tea, a new brand with a range of products that I'm sure are refreshing and tasty, but where they've also realised that it takes more to create consumer buzz, build brand personality and sell lots of modern ice tea! The packaging design was done by Identity Works - nice job! In their analysis they did a great job of utilising the insight that 'ice tea is a drink for social moments, and often drunk in cafés' - this insight they utilised to build a great conceptual idea i.e. the idea of creating the modern 'message in a bottle' by utilising the inside of the label to print different messages from other Pour Tea devotees. And the label also has information on how your own message can be printed on Pour Tea labels or on the Pour Tea website (which I can no longer find - hmm would have loved a link here but you have to google it yourself). Well, apart from the non existing website issue - Don't you love this concept too!?

Integrated systematics for strategic brand tracking

Currently I'm intrigued by the thought of identifying some magic tool for 'Integrated Strategic Brand and Product Tracking'. Clever tracking is tricky - and I haven't come across a single company that have a strategic tracking systematics that's totally integrated with segmentation tools, brand platforms and strategic KPIs. And, on top of that - also cleverly reported via customised / tailored reporting systems. If anyone comes across the ultimate tracking device - do let me know!

FMCG concept development - part 2. Concept crafting

In my little piece on Concept Development - part 1 I wrote about the importance of concept development. I also mentioned that concept development isn't as simple and straightforward as many believe. No, I would claim that good concept development is a skill that needs to be honed by hours of practice. And, in order to be a good concept developer, a marketeer needs to understand a great deal about the consumer or customer, have an idea to conceptualise, and be able to put that idea and the benefit it offers into words and imagery. Those words and the imagery need to carefully crafted so that the concept is crystal clear and can be truly comprehended by the target group (without empty words of marketing bullshit!). For me concept writing is important. And it is NOT about simply explaining an idea in words or some creative rhetorics. No, concept writing is a marketing skill. And a marketing skill that too few marketeers master really well. I've seen too many poor concepts die in qual or quant research - not because of a bad conceptual idea but simply because that idea has been poorly crafted into a concept.

The key building bricks of a good concept? Well, Ï believe those to be the following three:
Consumer Insight: your concept need to rely on a foundation of insight. What's the thing that you know about the consumer that makes your idea relevant? Ideally you've already researched the relevance of your insight.
Idea presentation: This is the opportunity to explain your offer. This should be presented in an appealing way but do work hard on steering away from choosing 'sales' language here! The one thing that one needs to work very hard on is the uniqueness of the idea in the market - is it something new or different that's really relevant to your target group. If it's not I'm not sure whether you should bother writing a concept at all!
Benefit: concept benefits need to link to the idea presentation. What are the key benefits that your concept offers to the intended target? This is where many concepts really fail. They try to claim too many things, they sometimes claim non relevant benefits or they claim just poor, undifferentiated me-too benefits that no one cares about.

I find the above to be the basics of the actual 'concept crafting' exercise - But to that comes the topic of concept stimulus, not to mention the hard work of researching and honing concepts through different development and screening stages. To that comes the development of moodboards, illustrations, packaging shots or whatever other stimulus you chose to bring your concept to life. I'll get back to these topics at some later stage. Meanwhile, good luck with your concept development!

Insight & the Insight pyramid

As a professional in the field of ‘Consumer Insight’ I sometimes feel rather frustrated by the lack of understanding for Insight amongst other marketing, sales and general business professionals. Few understand what ‘Insight’ is, why it is important and what it brings to the bottom line. I don’t want to dwell on the reasons why… but it may have something to do with the way universities portray insight as the very dull and non exiting topic of ‘market research’ and it may also have something to do with the ‘Insight’ industry and us Insight professionals not daring to promote Insight and its important role in strategic business development.

I’ve already made a first attempt to define the word ’Insight’. Today I’ll try to put ‘Insight’ into a context. ‘The Insight Pyramid’ is my tool that I use to give Insight meaning and further definition.

At the bottom of the pyramid comes ‘Data’ – this is the raw market data that’s available via public sources or professional data providers. Data is e.g. real sales figures, Nielsen or GFK data or other forms of market and category data that you can get your hands on. Data is the essential basics behind any form of market understanding. But bear in mind, with data you’re always looking in the rear-view mirror. Only by tracking the ‘long trend’ of data, you might be able to draw a few interesting thoughts about the future. The second tier level of the pyramid I call ‘Information’. When it comes to Information, the actual gathering exercise is a bit different. Information is gathered by listening to consumers and by seeing consumers in action. How do consumers act in the retail environment? How do consumers value different kinds of packaging material? What are consumers attitudes to frozen food? The ‘Information’ questions are always many and varied and the answers to those questions are rarely 100% simple and rational. Moreoften they are highly multi-faceted, emotionally led and incredibly thought provoking. The third tier of the ‘Insight Pyramid’ I call ‘Understanding’. Understanding is the stage that comes through thorough, hard-work analysis – by continuous search for the meaning behind the data and the information that you’ve gathered. Understanding is never a one timer, it’s rather the on-going search for what makes the consumer tick and how you should develop, refine and maximise your offer to meet consumer needs and of course, make loads of money for your business. The impact of ‘Understanding’ comes when your team has got the same or at least a very similar understanding and work towards a common goal. That’s magic! But, if ‘Understanding’ is magic – my fourth and final tier of ‘Insight’ is the real fireworks! Insight is when it all comes together. It’s when you’re really engaged with the consumer, when you can identify an insight (as per my previous definition) as consumers verbalise their needs and, when you gather those insights and actively utilise them for your innovation, brand and category programmes.

Working the insight pyramid sure isn’t easy. But as you work yourself and your team higher in the pyramid you develop a knowledge that will help you steer your category and market your way, the right way. And if you are a ‘Consumer Insight manager’ you need to preach the value of the whole pyramid to your organisation. Beware of simply ending up with the first two tiers…

Definition of Insight - what's an insight anyway?

Well, that is a good question don't you think? Especially when you read a blog which claims to give you 'insight for innovation'! Well, the definition that I believe in and that I work with everyday is the definition of my past employer 'The Value Engineers'. They say that an insight is ‘The penetrating understanding of consumers which provides hooks or clues that lead us towards new brand building opportunities’.
That's a pretty damn good definition of insight! Enjoy!

The three most important cornerstones of marketing: segmentation, segmentation and segmentation

This will be the very first time that I write about market segmentation on this site. I'm one of those people who just love segmentation and what it offers! And the reason why I regard this marvellous tool so highly is this. Segmentation is like the torch in a pitch dark room. If you have your segmentation in place you can identify the right direction and move along. And if you don't have it you will always feel slightly lost. Not to mention that you will spend countless hours discussing 'who should be my target group?', 'how big is this market?', 'in which direction should I take this brand?' and so on, and so on.
Unfortunately it's my belief that the highly important area of market segmentation is not taught well at Swedish universities. And I believe that there are many out there who think that effective segmentation is 'a la' Kotler style ... 'demographic', 'geographic' bla bla bla...
And, it's certainly not! Effective market segmentation is about creating an in depth understanding of consumer needs and consumer mentality. And to break down this complex set of data into manageable chunks of 'similarity' or likeness'. Each chunk then represents a certain consumer need or consumer type. I will get back to this in more detail soon!

The challenge of identifying true and real insight

I like the fact that Insight is taken more seriously these days. However, I have often heard the word Insight being used to describe a simple state a fact or some simple market data - not real insight.
So what is real insight then? Well, from my point of view real insight is derived from thorough analysis and consumer or market understanding. Real insight is a deep and strong understanding which opens up interesting thoughts and market opportunities. Let me demonstrate this. Compare e.g. the following three statements:
1) 40% of the UK population drink coffee and of these, 5% drink more than 5 cups per day.
2) Many women buy their own cars but many women state that they feel inadequate when they visit a car retailer.
3) Working men and women spend less time watching TV compared to those not working.

The first statement is simply data - this data offers you a basic understanding of the market but it's not insight (do you see any opportunity arising?). The third statement is interesting information. But, it doesn't offer any real insight. So, let's look at the second statement. This is what I would call an insight statement. Why - you say? Because this statement tells you something interesting and new about these women. You know already that a lot of women these days have the purchasing power to buy a nice new car. However, many feel inadequate whey they visit their local car retailers. So what? Well, how about this? If a car retailer would like to utilise this insight they should ensure that they understand what makes these women feel inadequate. An opportunity might be to develop a service and retail environment which suits these women better. Why not a specialist car retailer who caters for women needs? I think that could be a great opportunity!