In social settings, developing meaningful relationships and insightful connections means going beyond small talk. The latest weather phenomenon may provide a useful icebreaker, but to really understand an individual, learning what makes them unique builds a full picture of who they are.
In similar fashion, gleaning only the most basic information from consumers won’t get brands very far in developing useful marketing insight. Consumers share their behavior and preferences with brands every day, and as more people expect their purchasing experience to be efficient and intuitive, there is no question that this data is critical to a product’s public traction. There is a certain type of conversation that occurs — consumers expect their behaviors to be heard, and in their marketing and product development, brands signal that they are listening and responding.
“These conversations allow you to go deeper and uncover motivations that you may not have had on your radar,” said Liz Paquette, head of brand and consumer insights at Drizly.
Opening the dialogue between brand and customer, and broadening the understanding of what motivates a purchase, can unlock new ways to encourage retention.
For Paola Miranda, product marketing manager at Devo Technology Inc, including empathy in the mix ensures that the why behind each insight is factored into the strategy it influences.
“By understanding our customers, we can deeply empathize with them, and it motivates us to come up with creative solutions for their problems,” she said.
Each company has a unique set of customers, and accordingly, diverse and intentional methods for analyzing how those customers behave. Let’s dig in.
Synthesizing broad sets of behavioral data into general analyses can be challenging. To ensure stakeholders understand the takeaway strategy, Kayla McGhehey follows a rubric in developing digestible insights.
What’s an example of an issue you have been able to solve using consumer insights?
The analytics team at Rue Gilt Groupe is constantly searching for and discovering meaningful consumer insights to improve the overall journey for our members. At one point we were seeing low performance on our living-home section and needed to figure out what wasn’t working and what had been successful in the past. After some digging, we realized we were showing that section less on the home page. We found through this analysis that we really need to show our members the wide breadth of products available in order for those sides of the business to do well. After increasing the amount that our living-home section was shown on our home page, both visitation and conversion improved.
By figuring out how to make the consumer journey a better experience for our members, we can actually drive revenue and help grow the business.”
What technologies or techniques do you use to gain insight into a consumer’s journey and motivations?
We use a broad range of technologies, from surveys and panels to in-house data analytics. I typically segment audiences based on their on-site behavior. To do this, I usually start my initial analyses in Tableau, and then do most of the heavy-lifting in SQL. The end product is a much more digestible method for my stakeholders to understand and take action on, compared to drilling down to an individual level. But personally, one of my favorite ways to learn more about our customers is from their survey responses, and learning directly from them how they hope we can improve.
How have consumer insights changed the way you view Rue Gilt Groupe’s customer base?
We can learn more about our members’ demographics, which can help to humanize them; however, I think understanding their behavior is even more helpful. By figuring out how to make the consumer journey a better experience for our members, we can actually drive revenue and help grow the business overall. I love learning about our members and figuring out how to make them happy.
In learning more about Devo’s customers, Product Marketing Manager Paola Miranda uses consumer data to form well-rounded and customer-centric strategies that support the whole customer journey.
What’s an example of an issue you have been able to solve using consumer insights?
Customer insights are key for us to understand what keeps our customers up at night, their goals and motivations, their decision-making process, and how they use our product. As we establish ourselves in the cybersecurity space, it has been pivotal for us to develop messaging and positioning that resonates with our target market. By leveraging customer insights, we improved our communications to better solve their pain points and help them maximize their investment in our technology.
The pandemic has made it harder to engage with our customers at industry trade shows and in-person events, but we have come up with creative solutions.”
What technologies or techniques do you use to gain insight into a consumer’s journey and motivations?
To get a well-rounded understanding of our customers, we leverage a combination of quantitative and qualitative resources, including proprietary research, NPS scores and analyst reports. The pandemic has made it harder to engage with our customers at industry trade shows and in-person events, but we have come up with creative solutions like virtual re-formatting workshops and focus groups.
How have consumer insights changed the way you view Devo’s customer base?
These insights have made us a more customer-centric organization that provides users with a delightful experience throughout their whole journey. By understanding our customers, we can deeply empathize with them, and it motivates us to come up with creative solutions for their problems.
The festivities don’t just begin when the party starts; a great alcohol purchasing experience is itself worth celebrating. Quarantine presented Drizly with a new set of buyers; Liz Paquette is building those new demographics and personalities into Drizly’s long-term strategy.
What’s an example of an issue you have been able to solve using consumer insights?
The consumer is our North Star here at Drizly. We are on a mission to become the go-to destination for alcohol — anytime, anywhere, for any occasion. To do that, we need an in-depth understanding of how consumers are shopping in this category, shifts that may occur in that behavior seasonally and over time, and what they’re seeking in our product that they may not be getting today.
For example, we recently heard about some frustrations with the shopping experience on Drizly, particularly for gifting. During Covid-19, the buying occasion for gifts on Drizly shifted quite significantly. As we were away from friends and family, we saw shares of gifting more than double, and listening to consumers, learned that some of the use cases for this service were quite different than pre-Covid-19.
We made updates both to the flow and to the messaging around gifting, moving from overly cheerful tones to a more measured approach. We leverage consumer insights for instances like this to improve specific aspects of the buying experience, in addition to leveraging them to inform our longer-term strategy and positioning for the brand.
What technologies or techniques do you use to gain insight into a consumer’s journey and motivations?
There are three ways we approach consumer insights: listening, observing and actually speaking with customers. Beyond any technology, it’s important to ensure you’re having direct conversations with your customers. These conversations allow you to go deeper and uncover motivations that you may not have had on your radar. Generally, we employ a number of methods: one-on-one interviews, focus groups, surveys, online panels, social listening and trend monitoring, listening to customer feedback and data analysis.
We have platforms that allow us to do this kind of work on a regular basis and a consumer insights, business intelligence and analytics team dedicated to analyzing those various inputs. We’re consistently monitoring aggregate shifts in buying patterns, use of our platform and categorical purchasing behaviors to not only inform our decision-making as a brand but also to help inform the industry writ large.
Leveraging consumer insights requires having an open mind and knowing that what was true about your customers yesterday may not be true tomorrow.”
How have consumer insights changed the way you view Drizly’s customer base?
In just about every way imaginable! Any brand makes assumptions about their customers — what they like, why they shop your brand or how you can best serve them. Leveraging consumer insights requires having an open mind and knowing that what was true about your customers yesterday may not be true tomorrow. During the early days of Covid-19 in particular, we experienced a significant increase in new buyers on Drizly, and this group had quite different makeup and shopping patterns than our traditional buyers.
We spent a lot of time getting to know those consumers on the same level that we know our existing customer base. Insights that were gleaned from that work have directly influenced our long-term strategy as a brand. Our consumers are absolutely fascinating to observe and learn from. Their tastes and interests change pretty frequently in this category, and we’re constantly learning ways that we can better serve them. This knowledge directly influences pretty much everything we do as a brand. We use these insights to inform everything from our product itself to the way we message and target consumers, through to the last mile of delivery with our retail partners.
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