{"id":15658,"date":"2023-09-28T23:35:05","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/leveraging-generative-ai-for-forward-looking-consumer-insights\/"},"modified":"2023-09-28T23:35:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T23:35:05","slug":"leveraging-generative-ai-for-forward-looking-consumer-insights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=15658","title":{"rendered":"Leveraging Generative AI For Forward-Looking Consumer Insights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 2023 consumer expects organizations to innovate constantly. Before the internet and social media age, formal market research was one of the only ways companies could tap into customers\u2019 needs or wants. Then came platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, new tools organizations could leverage to hear from customers in real time. From there, social listening tools broke through the cacophony of noise to turn Tweets and comments into tangible takeaways for companies about what\u2019s popular at that moment.<\/p>\n

For me personally, this shift happened the day that the head of consumer insights at Taco Bell came to tell me that food had moved from simply \u201cfuel\u201d to \u201can experience.\u201d It wasn\u2019t a complete surprise when you consider that nearly 50% of Instagram posts were of food and beverages. I think this was a seismic shift in food’s role in people\u2019s lives. Because Taco Bell was able to see that change earlier than our competitors, it gave us at least a 2-year head start on turning Taco Bell into a lifestyle brand, which the company still benefits from today.<\/p>\n

While the listening work that Taco Bell did at that time was groundbreaking and gave us a competitive advantage, it has a fundamental limitation. Listening tools and practices can tell you what\u2019s happening in a given day, week, or month. But it\u2019s always a reaction to something that has already happened. The true Holy Grail is to predict what\u2019s coming before it happens and untangle the trends from the passing fads. With new tools like generative AI, it\u2019s now possible for organizations to predict future market shifts and see what the next trend or fad is coming so they can gain a competitive edge.<\/p>\n

The value of predicting: Identifying the light at the end of the tunnel or the oncoming train<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prediction is essential from an opportunity perspective (i.e., what roads you could go down) and a contingency-planning perspective (i.e., what to do when you see the train barreling toward you). In the old days, we often would find ourselves in a situation where the train hit us, and we had to work together to fix the pieces. The beauty of predicting offers both a reactive and proactive prediction of things: opportunities for your business to take advantage of and identify things that could damage your business.<\/p>\n

Perhaps if Budweiser hadn\u2019t partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an Instagram ad for Bud Light (a decision I personally support), they wouldn\u2019t have faced a very public and nasty backlash from their conservative audience, leading to two executives taking a leave of absence and almost $400m in lost revenue. Predicting vs. listening could have identified this country’s increasing trend of deep political division. Perhaps Budweiser would have second-guessed if they wanted to capitalize on this. Was it worth it? If you ask distributors, the company may never recover.<\/p>\n

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Trends vs. fads and market relevance<\/strong><\/p>\n

The difference between a fad and a trend is time: fads are often short-term, and trends often last for the long haul. The Bud Light story of 2023 is a cautionary tale on how important it is for organizations to differentiate between trends versus fads and develop clear guidelines for what they will capitalize on and why.<\/p>\n

The strongest organizations always consider the relevance of a specific trend or fad to their company by identifying one key element: cultural relevance. Cultural relevance is made up of two parts: what\u2019s happening in the greater society and what\u2019s happening culturally within the organization. When a trend or a fad has cultural relevance to what\u2019s happening in the world and relevance to the organization and its values, then it\u2019s a natural fit. What happened to Budweiser was their lack of understanding of the societal shift within the U.S. market and their customer base. Perhaps if they recognized this shift, they would have recognized that it didn\u2019t match their organizational culture or their customers\u2019 context and would have made a different choice.<\/p>\n

Why company values matter most<\/strong><\/p>\n

To decide what trend or fad your organization will strategically capitalize on, you must be able to connect that trend or fad to your company\u2019s values. Without that clear connection, it\u2019s wise to pass. In 1996, during a boxing match for the WBA heavyweight championship, Mike Tyson bit off a chunk of opponent Evander Holyfield\u2019s right ear. At the time, the Taco Bell marketing team came to me and said, \u201cWe should run a campaign saying, \u2018take a bit out of this, not this.\u2019\u201d The first \u2018this\u2019 refers to the taco since its shape resembles a human ear. Sure, we could have hopped on this cultural fad and gained some publicity, but we ultimately decided not to pursue it because it didn\u2019t align with Taco Bell\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

One of Taco Bell\u2019s core values is everything has to be innovating and<\/em> elevating. At that time, Mike Tyson had just been released from prison for rape, and we knew that there was nothing we could have done with Tyson that was elevating. We chose not to act upon a fad and used our company values to govern our decision-making process.<\/p>\n

Even with access to powerful predictive AI tools, organizations have to make these decisions based on their core values, personal wisdom, and experience. If we let technology make these fad and trend decisions on our behalf, we can end up in a situation like Bud Light found itself in earlier this year. In the case of \u201ctake a bite out of this, not this,\u201d mindlessly following an AI-driven tool\u2019s fad-driven recommendation without considering if it was the right fit for Taco Bell\u2019s values, the campaign could have been disastrous. AI tools like this should be another data point to consider in any company\u2019s marketing decision process, not the driver of the decision itself.<\/p>\n

Our windshield is getting larger <\/strong><\/p>\n

It has always been easier for businesses to tell a story about the past than predict what\u2019s next. Think about what you see when you\u2019re driving a car. The rearview mirror is tiny, allowing you to see what\u2019s behind you. While the windshield is huge, giving you a clear view of what\u2019s coming up the road. But in business, traditionally, it’s been the other way around; we had proportionally little information about what\u2019s coming up on the road ahead of us and a larger view into where we\u2019ve already been.<\/p>\n

Thanks to technological advances with generative AI, we\u2019re moving into a new moment with a much wider windshield; we can see more of what\u2019s next. This technology enables organizations to better align resources to the things that will drive growth. The businesses that prioritize predicting trends and fads, along with listening and leveraging this technology as an element of their decision-making process, will have more opportunities to see what\u2019s coming and be agile enough to adjust their business strategies to win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2023 consumer expects organizations to innovate constantly. Before the internet and social media age, formal market research was one of the only ways companies could tap into customers\u2019 needs or wants. Then came platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, new tools organizations could leverage to hear from customers in real time. From there, social […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nLeveraging Generative AI For Forward-Looking Consumer Insights | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 2023 consumer expects organizations to innovate constantly. 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