Why isn’t there enough “why” data?

Welcome to Ryan’s Rant, my weekly newsletter aimed at helping companies drive customer-centric growth.

Organizations are swimming in data. Drowning in it.?

And most companies on a digital transformation journey are looking to simplify their systems — to get their data in one place so that they can be more efficient and set themselves up for a sustained competitive advantage.

But are they working with the right data??

I’ve spent a lot of time this quarter talking to Chief Data and Analytics Officers. What's killing me is that they're spending all this time putting together operational data, finance data, sales data, behavioral data… but they’re not thinking about “why” data.?

Why not??

The why behind why data

“Why” data gives insight into how people feel and why they feel that way. It tells us what they think about brands and why they do the things they do. It comes from the millions of dollars businesses spend on consumer insights, market orientation, pre-launch testing and learning.

Without that “why” data, you can’t explain consumer behavior or opinions at all. You can only guess based on what you observe.?

It’s one of the key gaps of A/B tests: They may tell you which ad was more successful, but they lack the context to help you codify your brand’s unique super power and opportunity.?

Without why data, you may know that an advertising campaign didn’t drive the boost in sales you thought it might, but you don’t know why. You don’t know what impact it had on your brand, you don’t know if audiences took away the right message, you don’t even know if it made sense to them.?

“What” data may tell you that you have a problem, but you can’t fully solve it without “why” data.

Giles Jepson, COO from Been There Done That, brought this up a few years ago on my podcast when he said:?

It is increasingly clear that the brand team does not have the insight they need to either help really define that problem or certainly to solve a problem. A lot of these businesses have, you could argue, way too much continuous data and they have a lot of the “what.” But not a lot of the “why.” Do you really understand the consumer or what the need is or what's going on in that consumer landscape? A lot of the time it feels like there is an awful lot of data, but is it really relevant, useful insight that is going to really help unlock a particular problem or unlock a particular opportunity?

If companies aren’t looking to connect their what data with their why data, they’re at a huge disadvantage.?

Why it’s missing

Why is the “why” data missing in these conversations I’m having?

It's often because consumer insights data is still analog. It’s sitting in PowerPoint decks. And knowledge management systems upload reports, not data. Those reports can’t be used for much beyond a single use case.?

And the “systems” used to collect these reports often feel like they’re from the 1990s. There is no intention, system or process on how a brand learns “why” people what they do across categories, brands, regions.

If companies aren’t bringing the data that explains why people do what they do into their data warehouses, then the millions of dollars they spend on primary consumer research is going to waste.

And when companies finally get their data lakes and warehouses set up with only “what” data, they may be more operationally efficient, but they won’t have the benefit of the customer represented in all of their decisions — sparking breakthrough creativity, innovation and growth.?

They're leaving a significant competitive advantage on the table by not leveraging insights on why people do what they do. They’re not feeding their data asset with the changes in culture, the changes in perceptions, the changes in attitudes.

We can bring the why

As AI takes over various functions, there's an opportunity to accelerate and disseminate expertise, knowledge and best practices of what works and what doesn't to the organization. This can be a productivity unlock to let the creators create, let the sellers sell, and let the operators operate.

This is a role that insights teams have to play. Because as we saw in the world of digital marketing, if insights teams can’t bring the “why,” marketers will move on without us. We can’t let that happen again.?

The result will be a future without consumers represented — resulting in at least some degree of homogeneous marketing, and less and less differentiation.

We need to be prepared to bring the “why” to the business to make sure our organizations can truly be consumer centric.

If you missed it

Zappi’s CEO Steve Phillips was featured in WARC this week with an article on the importance of data in an AI future. It pairs well with what I was saying in this newsletter so I recommend checking it out.?