In the age of Big Data, many companies struggle with finding balance between being intuitive and relying on data. In marketing, one can not live without the other; although data is the pure reality of your consumers’ behaviour and opinion, mistakes can happen, so staying critical is always very important.
Within the framework of an online round table, in April 2021 Synetiq had the chance to discuss the main questions of intuition and data-driven decision making with Vodafone Hungary`s head of brand and media, Unilever`s regional CMI business partner, HAB advert`s creative strategist and Synetiq`s founder and CEO. In the following article, we are going to share the main learnings of this webinar. One of the important messages we have learnt: being open both to your intuitions and to data is the key to success.
The exciting discussion happened between :
András Nagy, CMI Business Partner, HUAD (EE), Unilever
Péter Tibor Juhász, Head of brand and media, Vodafone
Virág Kiss, creative strategist, HAB advert
Dávid Ottlik, founder & CEO, Synetiq
Zsófia Németh Emese, social media specialist, HAB advert
How to deal with huge amounts of data
Multinational companies dispose of huge amounts of data from their accounts, sales, research, usage and many other sources. Although there is less attention on measuring the performance of advertising creatives (and more on sales performance and business results), in many cases the global team - and sometimes the local one - has the opportunity to test them also. Still, it is more important to know how a creative supports the business strategy, not how it drives consumers’ emotions - as András from Unilever mentioned. However, spending more on understanding your consumers’ reaction is totally worth it - the more you engage with your target audience, the better sales results you can reach.
Dealing with a huge amount of data makes everyday’s life more complicated, and here is where intuition can help first: when you have to find the needle in the haystack of data, your gut feeling will guide you in prioritising. The more experience we have, the better our intuition gets - as David from Synetiq pointed out.
When there is data for everything, usually the only thing that is missing is the question itself. What do we actually want to answer? What do we want to test, what is our hunch or hypothesis? When you figure out what you are looking for, it is much easier to find the answer in your data.
The importance of “why”
In the 21th century you have data about almost everything: what your consumers like, what they did last night, from where they order their favourite food, what music they listen to, even if they like your shampoo and how much they ordered from it last year. The only important information that is missing is the “why” - why did they go to that restaurant last night? Why did they order that item from Amazon and why is Shawn Mendes their favourite? Why is Coca-Cola more popular than Pepsi?
Understanding what drives your customers’ decisions is a must if you want to communicate in their language. Knowing the “whys” helps you to better reach your target group, to sell your product in the right way and to make your advertisement as personalized and engaging as possible. In the digital age, it is easier to find information about your consumers’ feelings, there is still not enough data about the “whys” - especially when it comes to “less sexy” brands, such as a cleaning product. Neuromarketing can help you in understanding what your customers have in their non-conscious mind, thus what drives their decisions.
Critical thinking is key
As intuition is coming from previous experiences, staying critical is important. Many times it happens that we make a decision based on how it happened in the past - it is important to pay attention to the changes in the market, to your customers’ behaviour and to the ever changing context in general. Some things that were not working in the past (because you were too ‘early’ for example) could still be successful today - and if it’s not you, it’s going to be your competitor who will take advantage of these changes, as András highlighted.
Also, don`t be blinded by just the data: you always have to pay attention and realize when something looks strange. Data gives you the information, but the computer won’t realize if there is a mistake - that is the job of humans. As Virag from HAB advert added, teamwork is also very important: having people from different areas look at data strengthens critical thinking.
Bad data or bad intuition? Neither!
Péter from Vodafone shared an interesting story with us, showing the importance of staying critical:
“A couple of years ago a new shower gel brand was introduced and the main benefit was the scent. Sounds good -we thought-, but we all knew (we had the intuition) that in this region of Europe selling a shower gel with the message that it smells like a perfume is not going to be enough - you need more benefits, something like ¨good for your body¨ or ¨this is a family product¨.
The company did research and the results showed that 25% of customers said that smell is somewhat important for them, but only 4-5% said that it is the most important factor. However, there was a mistake in the data and the two results have been swapped during translation, thus the product was launched. A mistake in the data that led to a bad decision.
After a few months it was clearly visible that the product was not performing well, but it was already too late to withdraw it from the market. They said that “launching this product was on the roadmap and it performs well in other countries”.
We had the intuition, we had the data, someone made a mistake, but the company culture did not allow us to say “yes, it was a mistake, let’s start again”. In some years the product performed so bad that it had to be led out of the market.”
Be creative, but stick to the data - how?
Another great example of critical thinking is Peter`s story of repositioning a beer brand. As Péter said, although the data showed something, at the end they made the decision based on their intuition and it worked out.
So here is his story: “There was a previously market leader brand of beer with declining sales, and our goal was to turn the trend back and become the leader again. We had a well-detailed research to understand our consumers, their motivations, so we had all the basic information to create an insight and a concept. We and all of our sales people felt that this is good, this is something that will work out in Hungary. However, according to the global process we had to run us to do quantitative research on the hand-drawn animatic of the ad we envisioned. Imagine a stick boy, arriving with his girlfriend, meeting for the first time with the father-in-law, and there will be frustration” - doesn’t sound very catchy, right with stick figures, right? The research participants didn’t like it either. The idea failed on the test, no business potential, no engagement, everything below average.
Still, our team, including the headquarter marketing director, didn’t give up, we believed in the concept, so this time we trusted our intuition and we launched the campaign. The results were unbelievable: in 2 months the declining trend turned back and the brand was market leader again.”
From Péter’s story we can learn many things:
Testing animatics can give you different results than a final video ad: in their case, the animatic failed the test, not the concept itself.
The right creative can be powerful: there were no changes in the product, no stronger trade activity, the campaign alone was able to turn back declining sales.
It’s important to involve your customers, but it can be dangerous if you do it too early. However, involving experts is an important step for success.
Brand new ideas are sometimes less welcome. Things that are out of our comfort zone scare us, so usually we stick to the older, traditional way by default. Be bold, show your customers something new so you will be able to change their attitudes and ways of thinking.
Trusting your intuition and your team's expertise is a must, while staying critical with your data is also important.
Even wise and experienced leaders can be wrong sometimes.
All in all: intuition or data-driven decision making?
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, one can not live without the other. When it comes to decision making, trusting your gut feelings, but having the adequate information are both essential. Data improves your intuition, while intuitions help you to stay critical with your data.
written by Petra Varhelyi
