Empathy 2.0: 4 Ways to Unlock Tech for Super-Human Brand Progress
Many brand and biz leaders are chasing empathy lately. But just understanding consumer behavior is no longer enough.
Empathy 2.0 will mean tapping into technology to predict consumer behavior and dream up what makes life even better.
As part of our creative approach, we use super-human tools to move brands forward faster. The best part? Many of our favorites are more affordable and accessible than ever before.
Here are a few easy ways we use tech, especially AI (artificial intelligence), to expedite insights, innovation and activation brands need to speed ahead – and you can too.
1. Trend Tracking
For years, we’ve used the power of machine learning to glean insights across online text, images and content to conduct quick, qualitative deep dives into consumer stories and cultural spaces for new thinking and ideas at speed. Today’s AI can also conduct a sweep of culture among websites, blogs, articles and more to categorize the most enduring trends that are relevant to your brand and business so you can better see the future of your category.
2. Real-World Research
We stopped doing focus groups in facilities more than a decade ago in favor of real-world research, including in-home interviews and mobile ethnographies using smart phones. Lately, we love platforms that enable in-the-moment product testing and map consumers’ journeys like the path to purchase and user experience. Stay tuned for more info about how we’re piloting core processing intelligence to gain insights faster and more consistently with AI that ingests video IDIs and creates a report with personas and Jobs to Be Done.
3. Consumer Feedback
From experience platforms that predict consumer behavior to your brands’ very own email database and social following, it’s easier than ever to secure input from your most valuable, viable customers. AI automates and analyzes customer feedback, online reviews, surveys, and other data points to confirm preferences, needs, and behaviors so that you can respond to needs faster than before. And with your very own methods to test and refine ideas, you can break away from traditional, expensive product testing platforms like BASES to create your own concept database with benchmarks and success criteria.
4. Concept and Content Optimization
We love how AI helps optimize new product concepts, especially descriptions and ingredient lists with rapid iteration. We’re also using it to improve content, including social posts, blogs and ad copy based on predefined criteria, keywords and consumer preferences. Will we always need human creativity to spark and confirm the best ideas? Yes. But why settle for being human when you can harness the power of tech to expedite brand progress?