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Compelling new ideas, claims and concepts are normally inspired by deeper insights that capture feelings and attitudes from your target customer that are either new, or that have been overlooked. However, when developing new ideas, how can you ensure that you are focusing on the right insights, and how can they be used to inspire the best ideas and concepts for your business?
This short blog post provides a few thoughts on how to select and use insights to inspire new thinking. And if you are planning to run any ideation workshops for your business, we recommend that "leading insights" are gathered and identified in advance of the workshop sessions, and that small creative teams are given time to focus on three or four insights, using the five simple techniques listed below.
1. DO YOUR INSIGHTS PASS THE "SO WHAT" TEST?
Before taking time to focus on an insight, ask the quick question, does your insight pass the "so what test"? When you read the insight, does it generate a response of "so what" or does it get the creative juices flowing. If the insight generates a "so what reaction" it is probably not a great insight. Great insights provide a deeper or overlooked discovery about your target customer's attitudes and behaviour, and if they are really good, they will instantly inspire fresh thinking.
2. QUICKLY BRAINSTORM BASED ON YOUR GUT INSTINCTS
Working in small teams, look the insights and quickly brainstorm and capture any immediate ideas that come to mind. For example, let's take the following insight about sun protection lotions: "When I am on the beach on a hot and sunny day, I know that sun protection is important, but I never have a sun lotion with me when I need one most. And anyway, the bottles are too big to carry so I never have a lotion when I need it most." Quickly encourage the team to capture initial ideas based on gut reactions such as selling more concentrated lotions in smaller bottles.
3. FOCUS ON THE OBVIOUS INSIGHT "SO WHATS"
In addition to capturing the instant reactions, focus on different elements of the insight to explore and brainstorm ideas linked to the different and obvious "so whats". In the sun lotion insight example listed above, the "so what" about "never having a sun lotion when you need one most" might lead to ideas for vending machines on the beach, or having a lotion that is applied in the morning and lasts all day. Or looking at "bottles too big to carry" leads to obvious ideas for lotions in micro bottles. Capture the obvious ideas, even if they aren't that exciting.
4. DO SOME MIND READING AND THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX
To get the most from a good insight, take time to apply some mind reading, and look for some "inferred so whats" with a dash of "out of the box thinking". For example, looking at our sun lotion insight and "bottles being too big to carry" infers that consumers would carry smaller bottles or they might even carry some micro tablets that could be dissolved with a small bottle of water that's available on the beach. Or stretching thinking further, to offer consumers a monthly booster injection that boosts the skin's natural protection from the sun. Give the teams time and encourage them to think the impossible.
5. LOOK TO GET QUICK CUSTOMER FEEDBACK
And finally, the most important test of a good insight, is whether any of the ideas have appeal and traction with your target customer. When running workshops we encourage getting early customer feedback to help shape and refine early ideas. This could be done using online idea screening panels with platforms such as Zip-Zap Ideas®, or within the workshops with direct feedback from creative-thinking consumers.