discerning research implications - market logic software...1. a potentially game-changing insight is...

Market Logic © 2019 CONFIDENTIAL | 1

Discerning research implicationsAMSRS 15 April 2019

webinar

Market Logic © 2019 CONFIDENTIAL | 2AMSRS webinar 2019

Jamie RaynerManaging Director,Shoppercentric

John ScottProfessional Develop-ment Manager, AMSRS

Elizabeth P. MorganCo-Founder and CMO,Market Logic

John Scott, Professional Development Manager at AMSRS outlined the objectives for the webinar. He explained that it will look at how to discern the business implications from research studies, how to work with digitization to ensure that organizations can distil these implications for quick and easy access, and how to ensure that client organizations truly value the knowledge generated by research agencies.

Jamie Rayner, Managing Director of Shoppercentric, introduced participants to Shoppercentric, the ad hoc shopper and retail specialist agency. The agency was built over 15 years and its team is composed of both research and client-side

Introductionsprofessionals. Shoppercentric works with the top FMCG suppliers both inside and outside of the UK and enjoys repeat business with approximately 85% of their existing clients.

Elizabeth Morgan, Co-Founder and CMO of Market Logic, introduced Market Logic, a software enterprise company that delivers Insights Portals to share and promote knowledge, Intelligence Portals to analyze markets and competitors, and Market Insights Platforms to generate insights from data and inject these in business processes. 600+ research agencies around the world are uploading new research, results and new implications to their clients’ software platforms, powered by Market Logic.


Jamie reminded participants of the major reasons to ensure that research implications are used. According to McKinsey, companies that integrate data and creativity have twice the growth rate of those that don’t. And in innovation, where success rates range from 10% - 20% (or even less), 80% of success factors are

Because many organizations realize that they can’t generate enough research, or afford the research they want to do, they must be smart about how they show what they have and how they prove its ROI. Agencies in particular have to think about trying to shape an insight journey before they deliver a good piece of insight.

Jamie described a typical insight journey, which might go something like this: 1. A potentially game-changing insight is generated. 2. Those who generated it have to hand it over. 3. Others interpret what it means, and others still decide what to do with it. 4. The original insight becomes sanitized as a lack of expertise dilutes the insight. 5. Lack of context further dilates the insight. 6. Yet more lack of specialist skills dilutes the insight even more. 7. Markets then challenge the “weakened” insight (“it won’t work here,” “our consumers are in some way different”). 8. Those with the diluted insight don’t know how to defend it. 9. Those in-store don’t know the full context due to poor, even irrelevant design, a lack of explanation regarding activation, and no link back to the original insight.

Jamie reiterated the need to think about the process by which an insight is generated, and where it will end up.

The insights disconnect: background

The insights journey

insight related (market understanding, forecasting, etc.). He described his experience with Market Logic when he worked at Imperial, where there was already a huge amount of data available that the organization couldn’t properly access. “Having a system like Market Logic helped us save up to 20% of our budget, just by not replicating research that we already had.”

Most client organizations agree that there is an insights disconnect; in fact, 73% of businesses aspire to be data driven. The problem is that only 29% of businesses are skilled at turning data into action. It’s not about the data or the people, but rather the processes around it. Forrester calls this gap the “insights disconnect.”

At Imperial Brands, where a huge amount of information was hard to access, introducing a Market Logic platform helped us save 20% of our research budget.Jamie Rayner


Jamie then handed over to Elizabeth, who elaborated on the other disconnects that speak to the broader issue of how to manage voluminous research to make sure it is organized and digitized for quick and easy access. So many organizations know their companies are filled with consumer market knowledge, but they can’t find it. They also want to make better use of the data they have and are frustrated with their data swamps. There is also a need to ensure marketers, product managers and commercial teams don’t lose sight of relevant insights in decision-making processes.

Closing the insights gap

Market Logic categorizes these disconnects in three need groups: the first is about distilling and sharing insights, the second is about using all the insights to analyze markets and competitors, and the last one is to run an insight-driven business. Market Logic clients are establishing market insights platforms to digitize and bring all of their research and data onto one platform. That means they don’t lose sight of specific investments they have locked up in siloes. Everything goes into

one place so they can start connecting the data and prevent isolation.

Market Logic clients also want to generate fresh insights with agile research processes – on the same platform. They also want to make sure that the valuable insights they already own are injected in the business process. Insights can be injected right into the creative or innovation processes to ensure they are focused on the guiding light.

So many organizations know their companies are filled with consumer market knowledge, but they can’t find it. There is a pressing need to ensure marketers, product managers and commercial teams don’t lose sight of relevant insights in their decision-making processes.”Elizabeth P. Morgan

Elizabeth pointed out the distinction between data-aware firms, where decision makers have to go to the evidence or data they need to support their decisions, and insights-driven firms, where insights are injected into the entire process and “information goes to user.” Market Logic offers the building blocks to be insights-driven. First, a technology platform connects all data and tools. Knowledge Management leverages existing insights so you “know what

The difference between an insights-driven business and “data-aware” firms


The AI knowledge graph you use to distil insights from your research and business data must be designed with marketing in mind, so no matter what you’re looking for, your answer will always be insights-driven.”Elizabeth P. Morgan

you know,” and a Market Intelligence platform collects and analyzes data from newsfeeds and syndicated sources.

Agile research provides end-to-end support to execute new research projects. Growth planning provides opportunities for the insights professional to guide the organization, and excellent execution empowers the marketers to put insights to work. Most importantly, Artificial Intelligence helps the organization distill new implications from the research backlog and knowledge assets.

The knowledge graph you use to distil insights from your research and business data should actually be designed to deliver marketing and business results. If you’re searching on Google today, the knowledge graph inside Google clusters information about that topic and provides a summary on the right-hand side of the screen. AI

shifts depending on the topics that appear in the search. For marketers and insights managers, Market Logic pre-programs the knowledge graph so it is insights and

marketing specific, looking for segments, groups of consumers, needs, channels, etc. No matter what you’re looking for, your answer is always designed by the AI to be marketing and insights-driven.

Case study: changing a CPG merchandizing decisionJamie recognized the people and technology solutions required to solve the insights disconnect. He presented a CPG merchandizing case study from Shopper Insight. He described the real challenge to determine what kind of levers to pull in order to elicit a change.

“Eye level” is a term that’s often repeated in many shopper studies, but it often gets misinterpreted or poorly implemented. Ultimately, it’s an insight that needs to be actionable at a store level to have an impact. For example, Jamie pointed out that “you can see a positive impact on sales if you place

brands that shoppers want, where shoppers look.” However, in some organizations where there is a sales force for delivering this kind of execution, the insights that are first generated can take about ten steps down or up the chain of command to make something happen. There are a lot of links in the chain that could misinterpret or reinterpret the story the insight is telling. The role of the insight professional should not only be on generating the insight that will have a commercial impact, but also to hold others to account – or at least thinking through to the execution to ensure that there is as little deviation as possible from the insight.


If you have the greatest insights in the world, but you’re not able to make sure they’re implemented through the final stages of execution, you’re not doing your investments justice.Jamie Rayner

Insights generators should keep the following considerations in mind: 1. What happens to the insight once you have generated it? Who picks it up? What will be helpful to them to take it forward? Depending on the organization, you will either have a chance to shine and take it through the line or someone else will pick it up. 2. It is important to know who your audience is and how they want to receive information. If you have the greatest insights in the world but they’re not implemented through the final stages, you’re not really doing your investments justice. 3. Keep in mind: if you were receiving the insight and seeing it for the first time – would you know what you actually have to do with it? Is it clear? Is there more you can be doing to guide how the insight should be used? 4. Bear in mind that the decision makers, who will invariably signing off the action, will probably dedicate about 10 minutes, or thirty if you’re lucky, to understanding what it is you are trying to say. It needs to be clear and to the point.

Case study: finding insights with an AI-powered digital platformElizabeth provided an overview of a Coca-Cola case study which was presented at IIEX Amsterdam in February 2019. On the Coca-Cola Market Logic platform, over 95,000 research documents have accumulated over the past few years. In December, they integrated Netbase social listening data into the platform – at a whopping 945,000 post count. The order of magnitude grew exponentially within a matter of months. Needless to say, human brains are no longer sufficient to process that amount of data. Coca-Cola decided to introduce AI to the platform to digitize insights and connect more dots between unsupervised and supervised learning.

Unsupervised learning makes connections based on content and structure, just as humans do. In supervised learning, Coca-

Cola can train the machine to come to more advanced conclusions. They defined specific entities, like emotional benefits, purchase locations, promotions etc. The machine was then trained to annotate training materials with defined entities. The AI model is then fine-tuned to test and improve upon results.

As the volume of information increases from tens of thousands of research documents to millions of social listening posts, human brains are no longer sufficient to make sense of that amount of data.Elizabeth P. Morgan


Coca-Cola’s insights organization needed to know that the output generated with AI would be reliable – at least as reliable as the insights a human mind could generate. To test the quality of the insights, they wanted to sort them into three buckets:

1. Insights that confirm what we already know. 2. Insights that surprise us, but make sense. 3. Insights that surprise us, but make us feel uncomfortable.

The machine processed the data and generated a list of results for each bucket. Coca-Cola’s insight team then checked the results to make sure they made sense, and more importantly, to evaluate if they were useful. The results for each bucket exceeded their expectations. Bucket one results found, for example, that “millennials like living near coffee shops.” Bucket two contained results like, “coconut flavors are often associated with breakfast,” and bucket three provided insights like “stevia is associated with an unpleasant taste.”

Building insights maturityJamie wrapped up the webinar with the Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Insights Maturity Model (2017), which describes the stages in which customer insights can become a powerful business partner. The traditional market research provider is in the first stage, which is the most basic way of engaging with insights. The second step is as a business contributor, which provides a more strategic focus. Most organizations experience insights in stage three, as a strategic insights partner. Very few organizations are at stage four where they are using insights as a source of competitive advantage.

With solid insights generated on data existing within the business, insights professionals should be able to effectively help shape decisions. The BCG model is also useful for agencies, because they can look at their clients and understand where their clients sit on the model.

The more the insights community can make insights accessible to the organization, through both technology and a human approach, both internally and externally, the greater the impact will be on sales and marketing organizations.


Q&AThe webinar was followed by a lively Q&A session.

“How can we make sure shopper insights are correctly interpreted in the markets?” Jamie responded by naming a number of steps. First of all, work with other departments within your organization to make sure insights reports are clear and written in a language that others understand. For example, work with Human Resources – who are responsible for training – to implement market-wide training where content is driven by the insights team. Partner with procurement, for example, who will be able to challenge what their stakeholders are spending money on using the insights provided to them.

“How does Market Logic incorporate quantitative data?” Elizabeth said that Market Logic platforms typically incorporate qualitative and quantitative data, so managers can self-serve tracking and business reporting alongside custom research. This empowers marketers to synthesize business implications from all of the research, uncovering what happened, and why. The answer to “how is my brand performance in Argentina” is quantitative – but the qualitative data provides insights into why performance is up or down.

“How does the speed of business impact the ability of agencies and insights teams to generate insights and make sure they are used?” Jamie said the world is moving much more quickly than it ever has before. Agencies should make sure that all current methodologies are set out as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you can get to the

key insights quickly, you should run with them as quickly as you possibly can. There is no need to have a drawn out process of the back end of a research program.

Elizabeth added that Market Logic clients are increasing saying that the fastest way to respond to the speed of business is to answer questions from what you already know. Some of the agencies in the world are starting to do rapid cycle consulting to get a quick answer to a question from what is already known. People are also understanding that newsfeeds can deliver fast information with updates, especially in sectors that are moving really quickly. Doing lean, agile research with approximate methodologies can also provide faster outcomes. Software is helpful in taking busy work out of that process.

Our clients are becoming increasingly aware that the fastest way to respond to the speed of business with useful insights, is to answer questions from what you already know.Elizabeth P. Morgan

“Is there a link between Market Logic’s approach for getting insights accepted and used by an organization, and the design thinking paradigm?” Elizabeth said that design thinking is absolutely key. You have to ask, “what is the job to be done?” for your stakeholder. If, for example, a commercial manager is thinking about a merchandising decision and they have to go into that meeting and make a convincing story and back it up with insights,


Market Logic needs to be right alongside them. You have to start with the use case where the insight is used and engineer back from that. Jamie speaks to stakeholders within the organization to understand their language and understand how they would use it. For him, design thinking is about

If there’s one thing that stands out, it is collaboration.Jamie Rayner

“Do you think insights managers can really do what is needed to sell insights within a business? Do they have the skills, and what advice would you give to them?” If insights managers are trying to elicit the change through data or insights, they need collaboration. Collaboration is a real soft skill, and it is really important in trying to make insights stick.

Insights managers are great advocates for customer opinions, and great evangelists for true customer centricity. They have the skills, but the challenge is that instead of focusing energy on doing that, too often they chase our tails looking for answers to questions they already know. Putting all of their data and research on one platform allows them to focus on bringing stories to life and really influencing the business.

trying to know what your end game is and trying to work towards that in a pragmatic way. Most organizations will have goals, and you’ll soon know if it’s a discovery exercise or not. You can save yourself a lot of pain by knowing where it is you want to end up.

2019 © Market Logic AG. The information contained in these documents is confidential, privileged and only for the information of the intended recipient and may not be used, published or redistributed without the prior written consent of Market Logic Software AG, Franklinstraße 28, 10587 Berlin, VAT Nr. DE 249354497

About Market Logic Market Logic helps the world‘s best brands to run insights-driven businesses. We do this with insights portals to share and promote knowledge, intelligence portals to analyze markets and competitors, and market insights platforms to generate insights from data and inject these in business processes. Our software is used to drive customer centricity in CPG, healthcare, retail, finance & insurance, telecom, travel and media sectors, where our clients collaborate with 600+ research agencies online. We employ 300+ software developers, data scientists and marketing professionals at regional headquarters in Berlin, Chicago, Pune and Singapore.

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