Headmint clients get better insights.

Researchers, agencies and clients have become hooked on the idea that consumer insight is at the heart of powerful strategy (in part true) and all we have to do is go get some and bring it back to the office (not true).

Insights are not accidental. They do not just happen, they are made. To keep creating them again and again and to apply them meaningfully, so that consumers understand a brand to be both different and better, requires a rigorous development process centred on the desire to develop hypotheses and test them, often in non-traditional ways.  More about how to get better insights > 

Should we do any research?

It's the first question we ask. What if, for some reason, (often no money or no time) there can't be any research? What then would we advise or recommend? Using our gut feeling, experience or knowledge through existing or past research, what hypothesis would we generate? That's the starting point that gives the research focus the clarity it needs.

Is all research good research?

Simply doing research, any research, may bring some reassurance and faith to brand teams, but so often the wrong questions are asked of the wrong people, in the wrong way. At best, wrong research may not stop brand managers from making wrong decisions, but it can stop them making the right ones.  More about how to do good research >