CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
Customer Centricity , Insights , And The Imperative Of Imagination
By Daniel Oseman
Over the last decade companies around the World have embraced the idea of customer centricity as a source of competitive advantage . The seeds of this revolution were planted in a 2015 study by Kantar titled ‘ Insights 2020 ’. Our study posited that true customer centricity involved developing a deep understanding of your customers ’ needs and being able to fulfil them better than anyone else .
At the time many companies were beginning to open up to the possibility of big data , meaning there was more information than ever before on what customers were doing , saying , and thinking . The companies that embraced this opportunity developed a distinct competitive advantage . At the time , Kantar research found that 74 % of industry leading companies defined themselves as truly customer centric , compared to 51 % of trailing companies . Overall , on average , 66 % of companies were classed as customer centric in 2015 . By 2022 , this had risen to 76 %, meaning customer centricity has become a basic license to compete in most sectors , rather than a source of differentiation and sustainable advantage .
The main lesson to be learned from Insights 2030 , Kantar ’ s comprehensive study on the future of Insights , is Imagination . Over 1,700 senior business and insights leaders participated in a global survey conducted by Kantar for Insights 2030 , which was supported by an advisory board of key organizations and industry players , including Colgate-Palmolive , the project ’ s primary sponsor and partner .
Being creative is essential to success . Business leaders frequently use imagination when they put themselves in their consumers ’ shoes , consider innovative ways to speed up growth in their categories , or decide which path to follow for innovation , advertising , and purpose . Over the years , Kantar research has consistently shown that the basis for business growth is imagination . Business executives will need to dramatically increase their capacity for ,
62 MAL52 / 23 ISSUE and dedication to , imagination if they want to succeed in the future .
Imagination is more than just artistic flair or aesthetic virtuosity . It is a way of working built from the ground up , with a set of structures , processes , and practices that enable business leaders to apprehend , understand and react to the marketplace in smarter , more original , and more impactful ways . Business executives want their insights teams to be the catalyst for advancing this style of working , ensuring its integrity , and putting it into practice . In an age of economic and social turbulence , discontinuities are becoming the new standard . The Great Moderation , which economists frequently refer to as the stability of the past , is now in the rearview mirror . Large-scale new opportunities will be made possible by disruptions . New strategies will therefore be needed , which highlights the value of imagination . Business executives want Insights to assume a leadership position based on new methods and structures of working to face this challenge .
Three themes emerged from Insights 2030 : Empathy , Provocation and Activation , which we summarize with the shorthand acronym EMPACT ( for EMpathy , Provocation , ACTivation ).
The role of empathy is to develop deeper comprehension of the totality of people ’ s life . A few years ago , when the Big Data era began , there was the promise of evergreater specificity about customers in the marketplace . Fast-forward to 2022 and business leaders are concerned that the human experience of the person at the center has been overlooked in the haystack of data and information . Senior leaders think large , imaginative ideas are necessary to fully utilize the potential of Big Data in an age of disruption .
Provocation is needed because senior business executives lament that insights teams simply discuss the data and not what was best for the company . In the words of one , “ Insights is traditionally quite comfortable stating ‘ research says ’ or ‘ data shows .’ This passes the responsibility to others . There is a need to express an opinion beyond what the research says - giving conclusions , implications , and recommendations ”. Insights leaders must be active participants in the business , according to senior business leaders .
Finally comes activation . Business leaders made it clear in the Insights 2030 interviews that they desired activationrelated stories from their Insights teams . For strategy , Insights need to do more than just join the dots . Actionable insights must incorporate a more detailed understanding of the market that can be incorporated into strategic planning .
Insights 2030 operationalized imagination as a collection of precise actions . Unsurprisingly , the underpinning of success was discovered to be customer-centricity . In terms of organizations , this entails making customer data the center of everything .
However , there are two approaches to pursuing client centricity . The spark that maximizes the benefits of customercentricity is doing so with creativity . The human experience is at the center of this focus on the future and making the human story the center of everything means organizing everything around it . Kantar ’ s Insights 2030 work is clear . The future of Insights is a stronger nucleus of customercentricity , supercharged and animated anew by the structures , processes and practices of empathy , provocation , and activation . In this manner , Insights can reenergize the ways in which corporate leaders apprehend and envision the marketplace of tomorrow . This is the imperative of imagination .
Daniel Oseman is the Managing Director , Kantar East Africa . You can commune with him via email at : Daniel . Oseman @ kantar . com .