{"id":826,"date":"2023-05-17T14:15:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T14:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qualsights.com\/post\/?p=826"},"modified":"2023-11-24T09:48:44","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T09:48:44","slug":"think-tank-recap-how-market-research-leaders-feel-about-consumer-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qualsights.com\/post\/think-tank-recap-how-market-research-leaders-feel-about-consumer-empathy","title":{"rendered":"QualSights Think Tank Recap: How Market Research Leaders Feel About Consumer Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We recently hosted 7 top insights leaders from categories including personal care, oral care, surface care, feminine care, food and beverage, pain relief, and retail to get a diverse set of ideas, insights, and inspiration on the topic of <\/span>Building Human-Centric Organizational Consumer Empathy Programs that Last<\/i>.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our conversation spanned defining consumer and customer empathy and human-centricity, understanding the value it can provide and how to measure it, while also digging into the barriers that prevent these programs from persisting and advice on how to overcome those challenges.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the top 15 themes that came out of this discussion.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topic 1 \u2013 Defining Consumer Empathy & Human-Centricity <\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1. How do you define consumer empathy?<\/span><\/b> Whether your organization refers to it as consumer empathy, closeness, or obsession, it seems that the best way to define this activity is to understand the human behind the consumer. To not be so blinded by the specific context of your category and how they shop and consume, but to understand them on a more human level. This means understanding their lives, their different interests, dreams, fears, and challenges beyond the acts of consumption and shopping within one\u2019s category of focus.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. How is human-centricity different than consumer empathy?<\/span><\/b> There seems to be a delineation between consumer empathy, the practice of deeply understanding consumers\u2019 lives and challenges, and human-centricity, the act of applying that knowledge to make business decisions across different functions that goes beyond marketing and includes functions such as research and development, marketing, and even finance, legal, and compliance.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topic 2 \u2013 Understanding and Measuring the Value of Customer Empathy Programs <\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

3. Why is it important to build customer empathy (herein also referred to as consumer empathy)? <\/span><\/b>You are not your target consumer. It takes discipline and restraint to remember that you are very different than your target consumer. Your target consumer likely has very different needs, dreams, constraints, and pain points than you. Don\u2019t fall victim to the biases of your own interests and behaviors and assume your target consumer behaves like you.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. How does consumer empathy add organizational value? <\/span><\/b>The reality is that most marketing and sales teams have access to the same sales data and, for the most part, struggle to meaningfully distinguish their brands. The idea of customer empathy is that it allows organizations to connect on a more human level with the goal of making decisions that add more value to that human\u2019s life and, over time, increase the value of the brands that service that human.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. What are the other less tangible benefits of a customer empathy program? <\/span><\/b>In addition to the business outcomes from a consumer empathy program, organizations might enjoy less tangible benefits like increased cross-functional collaboration, as well as the development of listening muscles that can apply to many more contexts beyond the consumer in their home or in the store. Other organizations have seen an increase in hypotheses as a result of the curious mindset that a customer empathy program builds. This impact is harder to measure and quantify, but should still be considered a positive externality of these programs<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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\"increases-cross-functional-team-collaboration\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

6. How do you maximize the value of consumer empathy programs?<\/span><\/b>  Even if one separates customer empathy (the practice of deeply understanding the lives and challenges of the consumer) from human-centricity (the act of applying that knowledge to make better business decisions), an organization will be far more successful if they build on the idea that human-centricity should create value for the human\/consumer\/shopper, as this is the ideal way to create long-term organizational value.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. How do you measure the value or ROI of a customer empathy program?<\/span><\/b> Measuring ROI is one of the hardest activities that insights leaders can take on. When it comes to consumer empathy programs, we may need to think about new ways of measuring ROI that goes beyond volume, dollars spent, and market share. Some ideas can include:<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n