The 5 Cardinal Rules Of Good Insight

Getting the insight right from the outset is essential to developing resonant marketing. This piece outlines the cardinal rules of good insights.

All inspiring marketing rests on a powerful, catalyzing insight. Most marketing misfires stem from a miscue masquerading as an insight.

As the starting point for any innovation, communication, or experience effort, nothing is more foundationally critical than a sound insight for staying on target as work progresses. If an insight is even two degrees off at the start, by the time you’re reviewing work weeks or months down the road, you’ll likely be miles off the mark.

So getting the insight right from the outset is essential to developing resonant marketing and avoiding the agony of round after round of unproductive work.

I believe its success comes down to what I consider these cardinal rules of good insights.

No Room For Wishful Thinking

One of the worst—and most common—sins of insights is allowing wishful thinking to creep into the mix.

I shudder to think how many times I’ve sat with a brand manager who showed me a positioning statement containing an insight along the lines of: “I wish there were a breakfast cereal that was healthy and tasted good.” This is an insight pre-engineered to invite the circular brand promise, “Only Toasty-O’s are healthy and good-tasting!”

You’ve got to tune your BS meter to 11, rigorously sniff out any trace of self-delusion, strategy, or aspiration, and stick to reality.

Dig For Penetrating, Revealing Discoveries

Remember the actual word— in-sight. Not surface observation.

A good insight delves deeply, going beyond the obvious, trite no-brainers of the category. If it leaps word-for-word off the pages of a survey, it’s probably not an insight. A good one usually involves some tension, some contradiction underlying the more visible and mundane realities.

“People get frustrated waiting on lines at airports” is not an insight. “I feel like the airline takes away my humanity” may be.

Focus On Human Truths

If you limit yourself to insights around your product or service, you’re likely to end up with functionally uninspiring work. Go one concentric circle out from your category and look for human truths. This is where you’ll find more resonant, catalyzing insights that will help your marketing strike a nerve.

“I wish I could get Hershey chocolate in a small, bite-sized package” is an unengaging product insight (and a bit self-delusory).

“In our busy lives, we don’t take the time to appreciate each other” is a human insight that unlocks great brand possibilities, like Kisses’ #ShowYouCare.

Connect The Dots

Interesting insights usually involve the intersection of two truths. Look for nuggets in the consumer behavior, purchase patterns, broader trends, and then cross-tab those with insights about your product, your category, and innovation capabilities.

As you do this, dig for the emotional “why” underlying that relationship. Why are consumers doing what they’re doing? Why does this issue matter to them?

Stay Relevant To The Brand

The final and most important rule is to find that powerful human truth that has a credible connection to the brand. It’s not enough to be highly resonant and achingly true. There must be a valid potential role for the brand in resolving the revealed tension.

In its Worlds Apart ad, Heineken nailed an appropriate aspiration for its brand in the midst of social tension—to sit down and have a chat over a beer. The campaign was widely viewed as thought-provoking, moving, and appropriate.

Next time you’re on round six of work from the agency and you’re pulling your hair out wondering why they just don’t get it, take a pause before you get medieval on your account exec. Take a look at the insight sitting way back in the brief. Stare at it with harsh, skeptical eyes. There’s a better than even chance that you’re experiencing referred pain from an insight that isn’t one.