Blog articles by Arne Maas

A fun and holistic process that uncovers the right decisions FAST

“More data, more problems.” That’s how a Product Insights Lead recently described to us the reality many brands face when it comes to making decisions today. Holistic, data-driven decision making is more complex than ever before, thanks to a variety of competing realities:

• Business intelligence is often siloed in different departments and data sources
• Different data sources may give conflicting insights
• Stakeholders have differing concerns and perspectives
• The competitive landscape may not be well understood
• Decisions need to be made quickly in response to changing markets and priorities

These realities impede your ability to make the best decisions to achieve your company’s goals.

So how can you bring together various data sources, information, insights, and stakeholders to make holistic and agile decisions?

People are poor predictors of their own behavior. Context changes corrupt their intentions. A context change may be as simple as a product discount, or as complex as a severe crisis. In both situations, the question is whether behavior changes, and particularly whether it will subsequently stick. We argue that, after the current crisis only a few new routines will establish. Trend lines from before a crisis will be similar after the crisis, maybe somewhat mitigated or accelerated.

Here we reflect on past crises and share 3 pitfalls consumer brands should avoid in preparing for the recession.

Consumer behavior is usually embedded in daily habits; sometimes consumers make more deliberate decisions. COVID-19 triggered a dramatic change in the context of consumer decision making: Many daily habits have come to an abrupt halt; more decisions are now deliberate.

Your company is probably feeling the immediate impact of these behavioral shifts and you may be charged with adapting short-term marketing strategies accordingly.