P&G Takes Disruptive Approach to Consumer Insight
Procter & Gamble, the fast moving consumer goods manufacturer, has adopted a mindset of “constructive disruption” as it seeks to blend analytics and insights in impactful ways.
Kirti Singh, chief analytics and insights (A&I) officer at Procter & Gamble, discussed this subject at The Market Research Event (TMRE) 2019, a conference held by KNect365.
One powerful capability for the owner of Pamper diapers, Tide laundry detergent and Pantene shampoo, he reported, is an Analytics Studio that enables it to leverage data in a deep, granular fashion.
“We believe that working with the most granular level of data possible leads to breakthrough findings that are masked in the high-level aggregation we are used to,” Singh said. (For more, read WARC’s in-depth report: How Procter & Gamble uses analytics and insights to identify new opportunities.)
An example of this idea in action is tapping into geographical data “at the neighborhood level to find consumers who are quite similar in demographics and purchase behavior,” he continued.
“It does this by integrating several datasets – both proprietary and third party – to look at consumer groups in a more granular way than ever have before.”
Traditional research methods relied on aggregation and operated on extended time horizons. The Analytics Studio, by contrast, lets P&G test different shelf sets and promotions in real time.
“Our Analytics Studio allows us to look at thousands of natural experiments, in real time, that are happening every day, week, or year across the country,” Singh said.
Analytics and insights professionals within the Cincinnati-based enterprise are also increasingly adept when it comes to do-it-yourself research, instead of depending on vendors to undertake these efforts.
In Singh’s words, “every A&I professional should be able to conduct DIY research that elicits feedback and insights directly from consumers in little to no time.”
Behavioural science is another component of Procter & Gamble’s toolkit as it seeks to understand the habits of its target audience.
“P&G has moved away from traditional research methods into more behavioral science-based implicit methods that focus on consumer behaviors,” Singh said.
“Consumers can’t often articulate why they make certain decisions, but we know it’s influenced by things like context, memory, and what just ‘feels right.’ This is why understanding behavior is more important than intention.”
Credit: WARC