There’s nothing more exciting than seeing a client team receive fresh and meaningful insights. Everyone can see the potential for opportunity that will transform or evolve strategy. But insights are only as good as the ideas they inspire, the decisions they inform, and the momentum they build. Transforming insights into actionable plans requires an activation commitment among Insights teams involved to engage internal stakeholders on creating business-building strategies.
There’s so much to be gained by doing international activation right. The synergies that are established early on will ensure that the insights will be activated for meaningful brand growth and business performance.”
It can be challenging to keep the insights momentum going when a team is working within one region, much less two, five, or even ten regions. Here are some of the mistakes we see when Insights teams at the corporate level are attempting to get their arms around activating insights across global regions.
1. Going too broad with research objectives.
A successful global activation plan starts at the beginning in the design phase. Too often when companies set out on international marketing research projects, they make the mistake of going too broad and thus to avoid ending up with research that doesn’t address a specific brand or product or marketing issue, be clear on the objectives of the research. What is the priority focus and how does that differ by market? Why is this issue critical and can local needs be met by a global study? Looking too broadly across a region of different markets, or exploring how an entire product range might perform, can create a situation where results are too broad for local markets to activate against.
2. Not tailoring activation plan to project type.
Every activation program needs to be tailored to the project type, its importance, the available budget, and the kind of stakeholders involved. For more strategic-oriented projects, for example, it’s vital to collaborate with a broad range of internal stakeholders across different levels and teams to create impact. For more tactical projects, a smaller group of internal stakeholders will be sufficient. Activation plans can come in all sizes or shapes. Just be intentional about what is realistic for your project.
3. Not keeping the regions aligned.
This is one of the biggest challenges in international marketing research. There needs to be a collaborative effort and a shared understanding of the research goals, the methodology, and the insight objectives. If the brand teams in each region are siloed and don’t have a deep understanding the approach to researching the market and the insights themselves, it will be impossible for the regional team to activate on the brand strategy.
4. Forgetting to monitor progress over time.
A robust activation plan includes all the teams who are responsible for delivering on the new strategy — marketing, customer service, user experience, and others. The activation plan starts with initial sessions to discuss planning, development, and implementation of new initiatives. But these initial breakouts won’t be enough. It’s important to create accountability through consistent check-ins. Schedule follow-up sessions every three or four weeks so you can be sure progress is tracking to goals. Use these meetings to review and enhance each team’s activation plan, setting aside time for troubleshooting and Q&A.
5. Overlooking the upfront budget planning.
Most teams develop an annual learning plan to determine what research initiatives will be given priority — particularly important when considering global, strategic initiatives that require many teams and country leaders to coalesce. This is the time to budget not just for the design and fielding of the research, but for development and implementation of the global activation plan. Which markets will be included? What capabilities are available in-house or with an outside consultative partner? How best to align the regions with the objectives? There are always going to be limits to what’s practical, while the more defined the research objectives and the activation plans are from the start, the better return on investment will occur at the end.
Transforming insights into actionable plans requires an activation commitment among Insights teams involved to engage internal stakeholders on creating business-building strategies.”
There’s so much to be gained by doing international activation right. The synergies that are established early on will ensure that the insights will be activated for meaningful brand growth and business performance.
Contact us to learn more about the strategies our teams use to ensure global research is implemented successfully.
