This is the first public presentation of Insights2020, a study built to identify the drivers of customer-centric growth and how to achieve it. It was presented jointly by the chief marketing officer of Millward Brown Vermeer and the head of the Advertising Research Foundation, to an audience of marketing leaders.
The premise is that older sources of advantage no longer hold. Manufacturing, distribution, and technology advantages are dissipating, and in a connected market the remaining differentiator is consumer centricity. The study exists to test whether that actually drives growth, rather than to assert it.
Key findings
- The study drew on 60 markets, 337 in-depth interviews, and over 10,000 surveys.
- Respondents were split into over-performers and under-performers, and 60 candidate attributes were tested against that split. Exactly ten showed significant differences in revenue-growth outperformance.
- The ten drivers cluster into three areas: total experience, customer obsession, and the insights engine.
- Brand purpose is the single strongest driver. Over 80 percent of people in outperforming companies said everything they do is linked to a clearly defined brand purpose. In self-identified underperformers the figure was 32 percent.
- Customer centricity as a shared belief separates the groups sharply. Around 79 to 80 percent of people in winning companies said it is fully embraced by everyone, against 13 percent in underperforming ones.
- It also shows up in what leaders are paid for. 91 percent of outperforming companies said customer centricity is a top priority for the company’s senior leaders.
- Outperformers are three times more likely to have insights and analytics leading across the entire business rather than sitting in a service department.
What the study measured
The scale is what the presenters lean on. Data came from 60 markets, with 337 in-depth interviews and more than 10,000 surveys. Companies were sorted into over- and under-performers first, and 60 candidate attributes were then tested against that division.
Ten attributes survived the test. They group into three clusters, which the presenters call total experience, customer obsession, and the insights engine.
Purpose is the strongest single driver
The gap on purpose is the widest in the presentation. More than 80 percent of people at companies growing faster than their peers said everything the company does is linked to a clearly defined brand purpose. At companies that described themselves as doing worse than competitors over three years, the figure was 32 percent.
The other two drivers in the experience cluster concern data used well. One is customization built from insights and analytics. The other is consistency of the brand across every touchpoint as the number of touchpoints multiplies, which the presenters treat as the practical test of whether a marketing organization is in control.
Customer obsession is measured by behavior, not statements
Saying a company is customer centric is easy, so the study looked for corroboration. Around four in five people at winning companies said the belief is fully embraced by everyone, against 13 percent at underperformers. The sharper test is what leaders are accountable for, and 91 percent of outperformers said customer centricity is a top priority at that level.
The contrast the presenters draw is between an inward and an outward posture. Underperformers look internally, carry silos, and debate how to organize. Outperformers spend that time on collaboration with partners and customers, and on experimentation and the risk it carries.
The insights engine, and who leads it
The third cluster is about where the insights function sits. Outperformers are three times more likely to have insights and analytics leading across the whole business rather than acting as a service department or a project office. Where the function already reports into the chief executive, that reach follows.
The capability requirement stated is personal rather than technical. Insights leaders have to be business people first, able to say what the data shows and then what they think should be done. The presenters call for whole-brain thinking, artists and scientists who can also tell a story.
What to do differently on Monday
The practical advice reverses several habits. Outperformers focus less on the products and services they already sell and think in terms of larger need states and total experiences. On data, the counsel is against perfectionism: cleaning data until it is all correct is not where the energy belongs, and the useful question is what can be done with what already exists.
Two behaviors are singled out. Marketers should be experimenting and encouraging colleagues to experiment, because experimentation correlated strongly with outperformance. And instead of delivering to customers, companies should co-create with partners and with customers themselves.
Scope and limitations
The presenters are clear that the study identifies characteristics of winners rather than a method for becoming one. The relationship reported is a correlation with outperformance across the participating companies, and how to act on any of the ten drivers is described as still to come.
Performance groups rest on self-identification. Underperformers are those who reported doing worse than competitors over the previous three years, and the purpose and centricity figures are what employees said about their own companies. At the time of presentation, over 70 organizations had profiled themselves against the framework.
This is a 25-minute conference presentation of a much larger study, and the presenters say as much on stage. The source is an automatic caption track of speech, with no speaker labels and frequent mistranscription of names and organizations.
Source
This page summarises Insights2020 presentation at ANA Masters of Marketing, by Marc de Swaan Arons, Gayle Fuguitt.