Four tips for increasing customer insight

Marketing strategist Tiina Kosonen and Insight Team Leader Jaana Jamalainen give their best tips on how to increase your understanding of your customers’ values, interests and purchase motives.

1. Make choices

You have to make choices because when you try to reach everyone, you typically end up reaching no one. This is why it’s important to determine whether you’re targeting your existing loyal customers or looking for potential new customers. Analyse the data – whether it’s your own data or research data – dig deeply into your target groups, compare them to your goals and make your choices based on this. Making choices doesn’t necessarily mean that your target audience will be small; rather, your choices will steer your media strategy in the right direction.

Use messages that appeal to your target audience and appear on channels that reach that audience. Using channels with sufficient reach will ensure that you also reach a wider audience through the halo effect. For example, target group insight can help your marketing influence your intended target groups with the right message, in the right place and at the right time.

2. Identify purchase motives

Why do people buy your products? Understanding purchase motives is surprisingly significant. For example, let’s consider people who buy electric cars. Some of them are interested in the latest technology, while others want the least polluting option possible and base their choice on sustainability. The communications that appeal to these two groups are very different. People also have very different motives for buying foods such as protein quark. One person buys it to boost their gym workout, while it might be a permissible sweet treat for someone on a diet.

Purchase motives are best used as the basis for marketing communications. Content based on purchase motives stands out from media hype and therefore has a better impact on consumers than generic messages. You can use surveys tailored to your customers to help you identify their purchase motives. They can help you identify the factors that influence consumer decision-making and those that may promote or deter purchases.

3. Do you understand your customer’s purchase path?

Do you know what your customer’s purchase path is like? According to the latest international research, it takes between 20 and 500 encounters with a brand to make a purchase decision. The differences between products are understandably considerable – choosing between protein quarks is probably easier than between car brands. People are more information-hungry than in the past and seek information to support their purchasing decisions. What does this mean for different industries? Industry and purchase path research can help you identify what activates your customers’ purchase needs, what kind of information they want, and where they look for it.

4. The right approaches and communication channels

You can combine the above tips in various ways to create a distinctive and appealing message. Different consumer segments have different values, attitudes and ways of using media – and you should use this insight when planning creative ads. Sanoma’s media use segmentation will help identify the right communication approach for each target group.

There can be huge differences in media use within groups at particular life stages. For example, let’s consider families with children, which is a relevant target group for many marketers. One parent in a family with children might spend micro-moments using media, while the other might spend long periods unwinding by watching TV, for example. We’ll help you identify both the differences and similarities to get the most out of your marketing communications.

Sanoma has a deep understanding of Finnish consumers, which gives us access to a vast amount of information. All our recommended solutions are based on data in one way or another. Feel free to reach out to us whenever you want to understand your customers better.

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