Most brands have got more data and research than they know what to do with. Brand trackers, category maps, innovation scorecards, debriefs and due diligence reports. Information, however, is not the problem; what can sometimes be lacking is insight. The research industry has been busy repositioning itself along these lines for some time now, but in many cases one is still left with a sense of “very interesting, but now what”.
So, when you’re looking for a genuinely new moment of inspiration, a different way of thinking about a category or a brand or a sense of where the opportunities lie, what do you do? Commission more research and hope it’ll somehow be more insightful than what you already have? Well, yes, sometimes that is the answer, simply because consumer opinions shift, categories change, new competitors arrive and suddenly your existing research is out of date. However, there are other ways. Particularly when you’re looking for inspiration, rather than evidence.
Brands that are going to accelerate past the competition need constant inspiration, something that is notoriously difficult to glean from classic research techniques. Consumers can only tell you about their experiences and react to new ideas in the context of their existing habits and repertoire. They can give you a good steer on their future likely reaction and likelihood to buy a new product or service, but they can’t help you with that extra bit of inspiration, that sparkle of new opportunity that makes the difference between an averagely performing brand and a market leader.
That inspiration needs to come from non-mainstream sources. From people who have a wider, perhaps more irreverent, more challenging view on a category. Not your typical consumer, but people on the fringes of a category. It can be people with a vested professional interest such as a chef or a food critic considering opportunities for a food brand or new category. Or perhaps those with a more extreme view, such as a hackers’ perspective on a software brand.
We’ve launched ‘The Fringe’ to reach these types of people, to tap into their thinking and provide our clients, particularly in private equity, with a wider sense of where new opportunities for a brand can come from. People included within ‘The Fringe’ range from TV presenters to DJs to a previous Masterchef winner. They don’t in any way replace the need for conventional, commercially-oriented research to build a business case, but will unearth new insights, generate wider ideas and validate hypotheses in the early stages of a deal discussion. Our clients are finding it particularly useful for pre-due diligence market scoping to give an early sense of the future potential for a brand.
Brands need inspiration for growth. Sometimes, that can come just from adopting a different view. A view from ‘The Fringe’.