Method Series: You Have Your Data - Now What?

Highlight's guide to leveraging consumer insights to make an impact, across different audiences.

Consumer insights are critical for product development, marketing, and sales. But often, we see our brands collect tons of interesting data, and then ask us what's next. So, we've decided to break it down for our community.

Depending on your goals, how you use your data, and who you share your data with can differ. Here are some ways we've seen our brand partners successfully take data and transform it into actionable impact, broken out by audiences. Click an audience below or scroll to learn how to use your data across the spectrum.

This post is part of our Method Series. For guidance on study design before you analyze results, read Method Series: Choosing the Right Sample Size.

1. Internal Team

2. Consumers

3. Retailers

4. Investors

1. Internal Team

Research & Development

Product-experience-specific questions and data tell you how consumers react to your products and if they are meeting expectations related to flavor, efficacy, usage, and more. This data can go straight to product developers to inform future product innovation, renovation, and extension, or even existing product marketing.

Examples:

• 74% of Highlighters described the cookie as too sweet for their liking
• 25% of consumers ate the entire bag in one sitting, while 75% ate the snack over multiple occasions. 80% of them requested a resealable zippered pouch
• Women were more likely to use this product twice a day, whereas men typically used once a day in the morning
• Case study: Agile Sensory Testing for Cat Litter Innovation

Marketing

Marketers can ask questions to understand:

1. marketing channels and influences
2. communications (taglines, images, logos, names, ads, etc)
3. general likelihood to purchase

While some of these questions can be asked without sending physical product, feedback rooted in product trial ensures product-messaging fit.

Examples:

• 66% of consumers who stated they were likely to purchase this item were women ages 35-49 with children <18 in the household.
• "100% Compostable Packaging" and "Fair-trade Certified" are the highest ranked product attributes among target high-income consumers.
• 3 in 5 parents reported that friends and family are their #1 source of new product recommendations in the toddler food category.
• Case study: Message Optimization for Ocean Spray

2. Consumers

Use stats and verbatims from consumers, for consumers. Pull quotes and testimonials to share in your consumer marketing, or share some light claims based on your data.

Examples:

• 63% of consumers who used this eye cream found that the area around their eye looked brighter.
• 'I can't consume caffeine so I'm always looking for ways to stay focused and energized - this sparkling water was amazing!! The effects of coffee, without the crash, and with the flavor of La Croix.' - Female, 27, Nurse, NYC
• Blog: Designing Your Sensory Tests for Optimal Results

3. Retailers

Arm your sales team with data to populate trade decks and share with retailers. Highlight your product strengths and gather data around:

1. general likelihood to purchase
2. anticipated purchase frequency and behaviors
3. whether you are an addition or a replacement
4. who's in your competitive set and what else is in their care

Examples:

• In a survey of 100 Whole Foods shoppers, 78 said they would be very likely to purchase this functional RTD latte.
• 83% of 25-44 year olds surveyed expect to find this product in the dried fruit aisle.
• 41% see this bar as a replacement for other protein bars, and 28% see it as an addition to the protein bar routine.
• Blog: Innovation in CPG

4. Investors

Strengthen pitch decks and drive home your value proposition with objective consumer feedback. Extract product performance scores benchmarked to competitors or the market.

Examples:

• 64% of Highlighters said that they preferred this product over their go-to salty snack.
• This sustainable makeup scored an NPS of 9.1, a full 1.6 points higher than the beauty category average of 7.5.

View case studies and learn more about why brands trust the Highlight product research platform to secure this important data. Book a demo to get your questions answered 1:1 with a Highlight team member.