Finding Insight: Discovering the Non-Obvious Obvious Connection to Why People Do What They Do

SECTION 1:

AN OVERVIEW OF INSIGHTS

A guy knows he’s in love when he loses interest in his car for a couple of days.

—Tim Allen, American comedian

My Obsession with Mercedes Benz—Mitch

When Melinda and I teach our introductory insights class, we typically start with a warm-up activity where we ask participants to write down their favorite brand. The usual responses (as one might predict) are Apple, Amazon, Costco, BMW, Netflix, and others like them. We then ask each participant to share why they chose their particular brand, and they usually tell some story behind their connection. As they speak about the brand, you can see their facial expressions becoming ones filled with delight and passion. When it comes to why they picked a certain brand, more of the answers given are based on how the product or service makes them feel versus the functional benefits it provides to them, which surprises many of the participants. At this point, we ask an additional question: What do you believe this company or brand know about you? This usually results in most admitting that it feels like the connection occurs because of the deep understanding the company has about their needs as a person. Once everyone has shared their story, someone will usually ask about Melinda’s and my favorite brands. My answer is always Mercedes Benz.

My favorite brand story goes back to my dad’s affection for cars. After his time in the Navy, he worked as a mechanic in the service department at the local GM dealership. Needless to say, every car he owned when my brother, sister, and I were growing up was a GM brand: Pontiac, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, etc. So naturally, I also developed an affection for cars and drove a GM brand for several years until I became a brand manager for Eli Lilly and Company. I would travel to Europe and notice most taxis were Mercedes sedans. I asked a taxi driver one time why they all drove Mercedes. His response was, Because they are luxurious and provide a comfortable ride for our passengers, but more importantly, they are sturdy and built to last.

When I received my first bonus as a manager, I decided it was time to make a trip to the local Mercedes dealership. After a couple of visits, I leased a C-280 sedan, which was their entry model at the time. I had been driving a Pontiac Grand Prix Special Edition. Believe me when I say, There was nothing special about that car. It had several mechanical issues in the three years I had owned it. After signing the papers for the new Mercedes, my salesperson said I needed to make an appointment with the service manager. I found this puzzling. I asked why since I had just leased the car and it had less than twenty-five miles on the odometer. His reply was interesting. It’s what we require for every first-time Mercedes owner.

I remember going into the office to meet with Jerry, the service manager, who had worked for Mercedes for thirty years. Jerry welcomed me to the Mercedes Benz family and said, Now that you have purchased your Mercedes, my job is to make sure we keep you in a Mercedes from now on. Although we don’t have many mechanical issues with our cars, you will spend more time with me over the life of your Mercedes than with your salesperson. And then he turned to the window behind him. Through the window, across the street, was the Pontiac dealership where I had purchased my former car. Jerry pointed and said, Let me tell you what your service experience has been like at that dealership.

He went on to describe an experience where your car needs repair. You call and schedule the appointment. You drive the car into the service bay in the morning. A young male (who may or may not have any mechanical experience) comes out to welcome you and inquires why you are bringing the car in for service. He will then ask if the car can be kept for the day. This necessitates a ride with someone to work. About mid-morning, you receive a call at work telling you they have discovered the problem, but they don’t have the part, and it will need to be ordered, which could take a couple of days. He will also inform you the mechanic has also found something else that needs urgent attention and then try to upsell you to fix another issue you did not know was present. They finally call you on day three and say the car is ready to be picked up. You pick up the car, only to discover on the way home, the original problem has not been entirely fixed.

When Jerry finished, I thought to myself, He knows exactly what I have experienced and has a deep understanding of the pain points I have encountered over the past three years.

Jerry then told me that his job and his service technicians’ jobs were to make sure I never had that kind of experience with Mercedes. He described a different experience to me. When I bring the car in for service, I will be greeted by a seasoned service technician who has years of mechanical experience working on Mercedes vehicles and can diagnose my problem accurately. If the car needs to be kept for one day or a week, for whatever reason, I will be provided with a loaner vehicle at no charge, which eliminates the need to hitch a ride with someone to work. Once my car is serviced, it will be washed and vacuumed on the inside before pick-up.

Mercedes’s customers can be described as accomplished, successful professionals/executives from elite industries or entrepreneurs. One of the core insights Mercedes is leveraging in their service experience for someone like me is that time is money for business professionals. In addition, executives like to feel like executives, thus a Mercedes loaner is provided instead of a free rental car.

I can honestly say, after owning multiple Mercedes Benz vehicles over the past twenty-five years, I have never been disappointed. I will own a Mercedes until my wife or children take the keys. Mercedes Benz is just one example of a strong brand that understands the importance of connecting with its customers on both a functional and an emotional level to provide an exceptional customer experience—and this is an example of an insight in action!

Why Do Insights Matter?

The NINA Principle®: No Insight—No Advantage®

—Guiding mantra of Daryl Travis, founder and CEO, Brandtrust

When we teach insights, defining an insight is typically the second section of the agenda, not the first. Instead, as mentioned above in Mitch’s story, we start with an activity we call feeling the power of insights. We do this because starting with a definition can suggest insights are a formulaic activity rather than the underpinning foundation for a brand or company’s strategy. It also allows participants to relate to what an insight feels like on a personal basis before analyzing them. Insights are more than words on the page; they are intuitive sentiments that connect with you or the people you care about at a deeper level. We need insights so we can more accurately see into situations to determine what action is required from us as marketers, service professionals, or just people who care about improving the experiences of others.

To borrow from a blog from the company Meeting Magic in the UK, Insight is the bridge between the past and the future. We could not agree more. Most often, people are buried in information, and they struggle to make their way out of a data dump and into action. The intent of this book is to teach you the critical skills you need to process information into an insight that helps you take future action. Words like transformative, disruptive, and innovative are popular in the halls of organizations and the pitches of entrepreneurs—but what are these based on? We would argue strategies, even core values, should be based on insights. A marketer’s job is to change behavior and create a future state. Analytics alone is based on examining past behavior data, whereas insights characterize the present state. Insights represent a deeper level of why we do what we do. If you want to change the future, you have to know where you are starting.

In this first section, we will provide a better understanding of insights at a definitional level, describe the common challenges to uncovering insights, and provide guidance on how to properly define problems to scope your insight discovery process. All of these pieces are fundamental to evolving from traditional summary and analysis to uncovering powerful insights.

CHAPTER 1:

WHAT IS AN INSIGHT?

It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.

—Rita Rudner, American comedian

You Get Me—Melinda

My husband and I had been married for just over two years. We purchased our first house and started a major renovation project. Therefore, it only seemed logical to dial back on how much we would spend at Christmas. We decided on a two-gift limit. We exchanged gifts right before we left for our road trip to see family. In the middle of the living room was something I had specifically asked for, a cedar chest to hold fabric for my sewing projects. I had a smile on my face when my husband said, Open it.

I opened the lid, and my smile dropped with my reflexive eye roll. Inside the cedar chest was a box with a ribbon around it from a well-known lingerie shop. Before I could say anything, my husband said to me, It’s not what you think. Just open it.

With minimal enthusiasm, I opened the box to find what is one of the top five gifts I have ever received from Jeff, a plush navy blue bathrobe.

Even though I have now completely worn this bathrobe down to matted fibers, I keep it in a spare closet because of how much this gift means to me. This was a gift I did not ask for or even knew I wanted until I opened the box. It’s meaningful because it is an example of how well my husband knows me—that he knew what I wanted before I did.

The bathrobe represents a deep truth about who I was at that time. I was working in a fairly stressful job that I absolutely loved. Trying to balance a new marriage, a new career, and a new home was a lot for me. The bathrobe was something I would not have purchased for myself. I prioritized things for the house, a special dinner out, a brief weekend trip with my husband, or clothes for work. I definitely did not prioritize something meant only for me and my comfort—and something that would never see the light of day. A bathrobe feels selfish when you have so many other priorities. My husband understood this about me, and that knowledge was the real gift. The bathrobe was just a symbol of his insight.

Insights Defined

If you’ve ever said to someone, You get me or thought to yourself, That is so true; I never thought of that before, then you have experienced an insight. The formal definition we teach is an insight is a deep truth that describes behavior that is often unspoken. For example, a common generalization about wives and mothers is they often take care of everyone else’s needs and wants before they take care of their own. In Melinda’s story, her husband understood this about her. His combination of knowing this insight and finding something she would like but wouldn’t prioritize for herself made the gift special. Gift-giving is a great example of insights in action. When a gift is the result of an insight into the recipient, the value is much greater than the purchase price.

In addition to giving or receiving a great gift, there are several other scenarios where you may have experienced an insight, such as:

A commercial that spoke directly to you and resulted in an emotional response, maybe even a purchase

A coach, teacher, or mentor who inspired you to improve when no one else could

A quote or phrase that connects with you enough to represent your identity—such that you use it in a signature line or even a tattoo

A comedian who made you laugh because they revealed the nonobvious obvious

Let’s Get Emotional

Man is an emotional human being who describes things rationally.

All behavior that we do, however, is actually governed by our emotions and feelings.

—Rob Malcolm, former CEO, Diageo

A question we are often asked is if insights must have an emotional component. Our answer is that most of the time, they do. In our experience, when insights don’t have an emotional component, then it is not an insight. We encourage people to explore deeper to understand the why connected to the behavior. Let’s take one of the most debated examples between the two of us. We like to call this insight more dip on the chip.

Think back to the last time you shared a bowl of queso. Inevitably, someone was overly greedy with the queso, took more than the chip could handle, and a rogue chip became stuck in the dip, tainting the queso. Depending on how many were sharing the queso and how close you were to these people, the emotions likely ranged from a minor annoyance to significant disgust—and it ultimately suspended access to the dip for everyone. If you were the greedy offender, you had a dilemma on your hands. If only the host had splurged for the Scoops.

When we first shared more dip on the chip as an insight, we did not see it as having an emotional component. It was brought to our attention that the description above has emotions: greed, annoyance, and disgust. The emotions may seem silly or trivial but are there.

Insights can be big and provide understanding of harmful behaviors like smoking or maintaining toxic relationships—or they can be simple and recognize a pain point that may last only a few minutes. Small insights, like more dip on the chip, might not solve a worldwide problem, but they are often harder to recognize because they are not top of mind.

Eureka! Ah-Ha! Well, Duh!!!

Think about a time you solved a difficult puzzle—such as a Wordle or a crossword puzzle that you mulled over much longer than you expected—or you finally determined how to enable technology you were struggling with (and perhaps even swearing at). You probably experienced a range of emotions. First, you felt a bit elated and accomplished, only to then feel somewhat deflated. The answer was probably simple but overlooked. Why hadn’t you thought of it earlier?

Uncovering an insight is similar. When you uncover an insight, you have a eureka or ah-ha moment. You feel a sense of accomplishment—until you share it with someone who says, Well, duh.

Just like a puzzle or difficult problem, insights are often simple and have been there all along. For this reason, many insights experts, like Stan Sthanunathan, a former executive at Unilever, have described the uncovering of an insight as retrospectively self-evident. The phrase addresses the response, Well, duh. That seems obvious, and the question back should be, "Yes, but was it obvious before I told you?"

Insights are the non-obvious obvious. They are simple yet have deep meaning. When you hear an insight, you don’t debate whether it is true or not. You already know it to be true; it just had not been brought to your attention before.

Who Are Insights for in the Real World?

Insights are relevant to a wide range of professional and personal situations. When we teach insights, we will often ask this question: Who is responsible for insights? The answer: Everyone. There is one notable profession, however, that is arguably the best at uncovering insights—comedians.

Great comedians are masters at observing our behavior, asking questions, and connecting the results of both to arrive at deep truths. Humor, at its best, is universal (even though it can be quite subjective) and requires the keenest of insights into the human experience. The comedic process requires a rigorous understanding of your subject, similar to that of an analyst. It is the product of non-linear thinking, usually using narrative and dialogue, to open minds to new ideas and seeing the world around them more clearly. Think of the last great stand-up bit you heard. Not the funniest one, but the greatest one. Our guess is it followed a formula. That is because, as Chris Rock said, comedians are professional arguers. Not only can they argue about anything, but they can also argue either side. For jokes to ring true for many people, comedians must make a compelling case for their worldview. And