Insights teams tend to define their roles as “voice of the customer or consumer” and strategic insights consultants, according to the GRIT Insights Industry Benchmarking Report [pdf]. These teams directly impact at least 8 areas of the organization on average, per the study.
Most commonly, insights work directly impacts attitudes and opinions, as cited by 71% of insights “buyers” – respondents who are on the client-side and employed by brands. Insights teams also directly impact brand positioning (68%), brand tracking (61%), segmentation (59%), and advertising or media (58%).
When asked to select the 3 areas most directly impacted by insights work, however, respondents put advertising or media atop their list, with roughly one-third (32%) choosing this to be among their top 3. This aligns with recent research showing that media planners are expecting to make greater use of market research in the year ahead.
Beyond advertising or media, insights teams said that their work most directly impacts brand positioning (29% selecting within top 3), early stage product or service development (28%), attitudes and opinions (24%) and customer satisfaction or loyalty (24%).
Separately, insights teams report spending about one-fifth (21% share) of their time on admin work. About half of their time is spent on the front end of research, designing (14%), managing execution (15%) and analyzing and reporting results (20%), while about 30% is back-end work consisting of presenting research results to key stakeholders (13%) and consulting on implications or forward-planning based on research (16%).
For more, check out the study here.
About the Data: The results are based on “data representing the experience and perspectives of thousands of insights professionals from around the world across multiple waves of GRIT.”
