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Strategic leaders need brand insights
Many leaders rely on intuition or their own experiences to make big decisions. But when it comes to developing a vibrant brand strategy, gaining a deeper understanding of your stakeholders is essential.
by Joe Grossmann · 5 min read
illustrations by Matt Johnson
If you’ve ever launched a startup or managed marketing and communications, you know that nurturing your organization’s brand is just as critical as growing revenues or optimizing performance.
Regardless of whether your organization sells to consumers or other businesses—or operates as a nonprofit—both your top line and bottom line are likely to suffer in the long run if your stakeholders are unhappy or unengaged.
Brands thrive on the energy, interest, and goodwill of many different groups: customers or clients, B2B partners, and employees. In the case of nonprofits, there are also donors, volunteers, nonprofit or for-profit partners, foundations, and government agencies.
That’s why a hallmark of true leadership is an insatiable appetite for the lessons one learns by paying close attention to the needs, perceptions, and habits of stakeholders—both internal and external.
Brand insights are not simply gut instincts
Our culture has trained many of us to value our opinions and perceptions over those of others. The messages come in many forms: “Trust your gut;” “Go with your instincts;” “Listen to your inner voice;” “Follow your heart;” “Be a leader, not a follower.”
These bits of advice may have a strong romantic appeal, especially to those who identify as visionaries, loners, rebels, underdogs, or rugged individualists. Popular books and movies often feature a hero who sees what the rest of us can’t see and who has the passion, courage, or moxie to go against the grain.
This isn’t just the stuff of comic books, romances, action movies, and Ayn Rand novels. It’s also the plot line of some of America’s favorite business success narratives, particularly in the world of tech startups. Steve Jobs and Elon Musk are prime examples. Each is celebrated for pursuing a seemingly unique and contrarian vision that eventually proves prescient and wildly profitable.
While self-styled visionaries like Steve Jobs have often portrayed their brand insights as evidence of their genius, we should take these anecdotes with a grain of salt. (For more on this topic, see “Brand myths & legends: Jobs, Ford & Apple.”)
Visions and epiphanies based on “instincts” may be great starting points, but what strategic leaders really need are evidence-based brand insights.
What is a brand insight anyway?
Let’s begin to answer that question by defining “brand” and “insight” separately:
Brand refers to the collective experience of your stakeholders vis-à-vis your company, product, or service. If you have customers or clients that love the way you operate and value what you provide, your brand is probably succeeding on the retail front. If your partners and vendors respect you and work to maintain their relationships with you, your brand is probably succeeding on the B2B front. And if people want to work for you, through times both good and bad, you may be succeeding on the employee experience front. Conversely, if any of these stakeholders are less than happy with you, your brand may be showing fault lines.
An insight is a fresh observation or an understanding that was not previously obvious or widely shared. Before Charles Darwin published his 1859 treatise On the Origin of Species, most people (including most scientists) believed each species was created by a divine entity, or evolved into its current form according to some grand plan. Darwin’s greatest insight was recognizing that the diversity of individual variations within each species was the driver of evolution. He proposed that all species descended from a common ancestor through a long, slow process of random mutations and natural selection. That insight was a huge leap that changed our world forever.
A brand insight is a fresh observation or a clearer understanding of the way stakeholders might encounter, perceive, judge, or engage with your company, product, or service. A brand insight is not simply a data point, such as a rating, a percentage, or a follower count. A brand insight is the recognition of a tendency, a pattern, or a relationship that had not been previously articulated.
Many significant brand insights are discovered by researchers either watching other humans “in the field” or listening closely to them in open-ended conversations. Much as Darwin spent years studying a wide array of South American species in the 1830s, trying to discern a pattern, a brand researcher or strategist may choose to observe diverse human behaviors for clues that lead to significant breakthroughs in understanding a brand’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Many brand leaders believe they’re already collecting these clues, courtesy of their front line staff, and that they know exactly what their external stakeholders are thinking. But it’s best not to rely entirely on your marketing team, salespeople, or customer service representatives to discover and report brand insights. No matter how well intentioned they are, each staff member has their own role-based bias as a representative of your organization. And of course, to some degree, their jobs and budgets are at stake. (For more on this topic, see “DIY market research: your mileage may vary.”)
Getting out of one’s head
In the course of his 50-year career on radio and television, Larry King hosted over 50,000 interviews with a stunning array of luminaries, movers, and shakers, including several sitting US presidents and leaders like Dr Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama, and Nelson Mandela. He often said, “I never learned anything while I was talking.” In other words, King learned by listening, and he listened to other people talk for over 50 years.
Does listening sound like a non-activity? Journalist and author Kate Murphy has written a wonderful exploration of this topic titled You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters. Her book is filled with tips on how to listen effectively, many drawn from insightful conversations with professional listeners, including a CIA agent, a bartender, an FBI lead hostage negotiator, a producer on WHYY’s Fresh Air, and renowned focus group moderator Naomi Henderson.
What is the through line in all of these conversations with professional listeners? In every case, they cultivate curiosity—a combination of genuine wonder and an eagerness to learn from others.
Murphy quotes Studs Terkel, the legendary author, conversationalist, and radio interviewer: “The obvious tool of my trade is the tape recorder. But the real tool is curiosity.” (Terkel fans will also remember that he wanted his epitaph to read, “Curiosity didn't kill this cat.” For more Terkel, visit the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.)
Cultivating this level of patience, curiosity, and open mindedness can be challenging, especially if you’re a leader who’s routinely expected to make tough decisions quickly. Even if you’d like to prioritize listening, you may find yourself overwhelmed with competing priorities.
That’s when you should consider collaborating with a skilled qualitative researcher—an independent consultant committed to establishing neutral yet vibrant connections with a brand’s stakeholders. Regardless of whether the research takes place in a phone call, a Zoom meeting, or a room with a one-way mirror, the researcher strives to create an open, nonjudgmental space for stakeholders to express themselves freely.
Facilitating this kind of honest, unfettered expression is not easy, and it’s certainly not a job for everyone. Qualitative researchers are skilled at breaking the ice and melting it quickly. They ask the right questions at the right time—then utilize their own silence—to unlock floods of valuable information from strangers.
What’s the first step toward better brand insights?
As a brand leader, the most important step you can take is to cultivate your sense of curiosity about the perceptions and stories of all the stakeholders in your brand’s ecosystem. Think about how they might fall into various segments, and ask yourself whether these segments share any traits, such as needs, preferences, and pain points. Keep a list of things you don’t definitively know about these segments. You may not be able to effectively find the answers by yourself, but you will be much better poised to engage a researcher who can deliver the critical insights you’re seeking.
If you’re a leader of a small- to medium-sized organization, you may wonder whether qualitative research is affordable or a good fit for your brand. Leaders of many B2B brands and nonprofits assume such research is most appropriate for large B2C companies that compete by focusing on consumer trends. If you’re wondering how qualitative research might benefit your B2B or nonprofit brand, see “Is qualitative research only for big brands?”.
