Hunting vs Farming: Are Consumer Insights A Renewable Resource?

By Kathy Justice

When it comes to using previously gathered insights, are you a hunter or a farmer?

It’s exciting to be a market research consultant, particularly at W5. Leading brands and agencies seek us out to answer their most pressing questions about what makes consumers tick and how they can meet demand for new products or services.

Often, our clients are focused on collecting new learnings about their consumer base. They are driven by a hunger for uncovering “what’s next” in their category or determining ways they can future-proof success by staying ahead of new product demand, buying behaviors, brand strategy trends, and emerging business objectives. I love these requests for bright, shiny new consumer information. It’s delightful to dip into the well of human behavior and come up with uncharted learnings that help our client empathize with the consumer and inspire new solutions.

Yet, I can’t help but wonder, what’s become of all that rich, previously collected data? Once new learnings are uncovered and shared, do they become a “moot”, or as Joey from Friends would say, a “moo” point? Often, I secretly wish clients would let me in on their arsenal of knowledge so I could form a complete and clear picture of what they already know about their consumer and what’s missing from this knowledge. New research projects capture an accurate and compelling thumbnail view of the consumer, but where’s the whole picture?

With this question circling my brain, I was excited to see James Wycherley’s article  “Making Research a Renewable Resource” in the March/April issue of Quirks. Wycherley applies a hunting vs. farming analogy to the business of gathering insights. He posits that many companies put most of their eggs in the “insights hunting” basket. Hunting new learnings is appealing because there’s a thrill factor involved. We are excited by the pursuit of new learning! But once we’ve acquired our target, it’s tempting to begin the chase all over again. If we are constantly hunting, there is little time for reflection on what the learnings might mean not only independently, but in the context of previous research and acquired knowledge.

A farmer approaches things differently. A farmer is not enthralled by the chase but instead works with collected knowledge about their land (i.e., soil performance, weather patterns, etc.) to design sustainable systems, such as fallow fields or irrigation, that keep growth steady year after year. Farmers have a big-picture view of what’s required to build a complete ecosystem that nurtures success long-term.

I love this analogy when considering savvy approaches to managing insights. The truth is we need to combine both the hunter and the farmer’s mindsets to make sound business decisions. As Wycherly states, “…our companies can make a better return on their insight investment if we devote a significant part of our resources to farming our existing findings and seeing each new project as one more piece of a far bigger jigsaw puzzle.”

W5 has several research approaches that can help you farm and hunt as you put together your own ‘jigsaw’ puzzle. Here are some best practices for making previously collected insights a renewable resource in your next project:

Open the Vault

When a new research initiative comes up, don’t be afraid to pause and look back at past research projects for any helpful learnings about the topic area or consumer. Knowledge is iterative! Identifying what information has been previously collected will help you to be more precise on what needs to be uncovered next.

Synthesize and Summarize

If you have a wealth of collected insights but there is no overarching view of how these learnings stack up against your business objectives, you are missing out on valuable big-picture knowledge. W5 can perform a meta-analysis of your data, revisiting previous projects and synthesizing top-level learnings into a reference library for reference. A knowledge compendium can help make future research more agile by cutting out duplication.

Show and Tell

We love it when our clients share any relevant reports or learnings with us as we ramp up to tackle a new research question. Schedule time with your dedicated W5 project team for a knowledge transfer of relevant learnings to help us build a smarter questionnaire or discussion guide that uncovers fresh new territory rather than rehashing existing learnings.

For more information on W5’s approaches to solving your research needs or to learn more about how you can make your existing insights a renewable resource, set up a time to chat with W5’s dedicated team!