À nos mots, we are constantly striving to improve our methods. Just a few years ago, it seemed impossible to gather and analyse, listen to and understand thousands of respondents without any restrictions on volume or format. Today, we have achieved this. Our aim is to provide a detailed understanding of the needs and expectations of both consumers and employees. To this end, we have refined our approach to gaining insights.
Whilst the term may seem reductive, the fact remains that insight is ultimately an expression of consumer knowledge. Like any form of knowledge, the process of acquiring it can be broken down into several stages. In practice, these stages may be continuous, inseparable, or even simultaneous.
Let’s take a closer look. Whilst Anglicisms do offer a welcome degree of conciseness, unfortunately this all too often leads to conceptual vagueness that complicates the debate. In our context, a simple attempt at a definition might be to say that insight refers to an understanding of the audience’s specific motivations, which would enable the action (of the brand or institution) to be tailored to their expectations. The starting point for seeking insight would then be an understanding of the needs and expectations of the target community. This information can then be translated into terms that allow objectives and resources to be assigned to an action aimed at influencing behaviour. In proper corporate jargon, we refer to this as ‘actionable insight’ (the Holy Grail).
If we were to formulate a definition of knowledge, with the approval of the educators reading this, it would include several key elements. To adhere to the conventions of the genre, we shall, in turn, allow ourselves a few deviations from standard French.
To learn: you need to have some knowledge of the subject.
Understanding: you need to be able to articulate them.
Comply: you must be familiar with the rules governing the application of the concepts and procedures you have learnt.
Apply: use the knowledge acquired in a real-life or simulated context.
The insight formula could then include:
- a body of information or data that needs to be collected;
- a way of making sense of this data, initially by categorising and organising it;
- an opportunity to enrich this abstract knowledge through human experience and intuition, for understanding the motives of others can only be based on empathy;
- and, finally, the inspiration to express this vision in a form that allows its value to be grasped and put into practice.
A nos mots has developed a methodology that enables the large-scale collection of feedback from your stakeholders, the automated processing of this feedback in areas where AI is best suited to the task, and its analysis by human analysts to ensure the relevance and quality of the insights obtained. Indeed, this learning model immediately highlights the segments where a generative model can perform well and those that require human intelligence.
In our model, AI handles the collection and processing of large volumes of data. The human analyst brings real-world experience, the intuition needed to truly understand respondents, and the inspiration to present findings in a compelling and effective manner.