Welcome to Insights for Impact by Finch Brands. My name is John Ferreira and I’m the Chief Insights Officer at Finch Brands. Finch Brands is an Insights-driven, real-world brand consultancy and a leading provider of Insights communities. It’s switching season for Insights Communities. I know a lot of you’re planning your budgets out there. 

Is your insights community provider unresponsive?

Today is Part 4 of a 10-part series talking about some of the frustrations I felt when I was a client of one of the leading insights community providers. These are also things that I hear as consistent themes when I’m chatting with other insights leaders at trade shows who have various insights community providers. At Finch Brands, we deliberately built something different to try and solve these pain points that client-side researchers often feel. 

Number 4 on our list is when your partner is not responsive. This is a common complaint that I’ve felt and that I hear from those who have their own insights communities. Your partner actually becomes a bottleneck to the agility of your community. 

In some cases, I’ve even heard specific stories of how it’s not uncommon for e-mail communications to be delayed by 48 to 72 hours with no explanation. At the end of the day, one of the biggest benefits of communities is supposed to be agility. Agile is fragile. With the right partner, you can maximize the speed and effectiveness of your market research.

Set your insights community up for success with an agile partner 

A question to ask yourself is, “How many clients do the team members that are assigned to my account actually work on?” I don’t know if you’ve ever asked that question, but it’s something worth asking. 

I have spoken to some of the people who work for various insights community providers out there. When I asked them that question, they’d say back, “I work across 10-15 different accounts.”

It’s impossible for insights community providers to be responsive to your needs when they’re stretched that thin. It’s impossible for them to devote the time to really get your brand and your business and be that thought partner. It’s not that they’re not competent, they’re just not set up for success. 

If you ask that question and you don’t like the answer, maybe you should consider Finch Brands. 

Get more out of your insights community

As a real-world brand consultancy, our purpose is to help brands win when it matters most. From our point of view, the best way to do that is to staff our teams with intelligent, capable researchers who have the time and space to think about your business and be attentive and responsive to your needs. 

This allows them to understand your business objectives and develop a body of knowledge about your industry and your brands. They can identify what matters to your consumers or even your internal stakeholders, then leverage those strengths to help you get more out of your Insights community and help it reach its true potential. Then, you can realize the true potential of your brand and your business. 

If any of this sounds good to you, contact our team today. I look forward to connecting!

About the Author

John Ferreira is Chief Insights Officer at Finch Brands, a leading insight-driven brand consultancy. In 2016, John identified the need for a better solution in the insights community space to help solve the pain points he felt when he was a client himself. The result was FinchSight insights communities, which helped Finch Brands grow over 1,000% in the following 5 years by solving real problems for clients. Prior to joining Finch Brands, John spent 11 years at Campbell Soup Company with roles in consumer insights and brand management spanning brands such as Campbell’s Chunky Soup, Prego Italian Sauce, and Swanson Broth.

To stay ahead of the curve, companies need to invest in foresight to make informed bets on the future. This includes environmental scanning, trend and mega trend analysis, technology assessments, and scenario planning.