Today most innovation and growth strategies are founded in some level of data. Only the few still subscribe to pure gutfeel when deciding how to place their major bets.
Yet most of the efforts irrespective of market and type of company gather their data in ways, that helps us explain why the average likelihood of success has not grown significantly.
Most of the efforts are based on traditional research methods. Classic market reports describe the distribution of sales within the category historically. It describes the attributes, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities and identifiable threats. Deep dives into data on existing customers provides an idea about the most attractive and valuable part of the customer experience. Focus groups are applied to dive for insights into consumer motivation behind existing behaviour. And internet panels are applied to validate and maybe test supplementary hypothesise. And all of these are great tools – if what you are looking for is ways to sub-optimize or squeeze a few more percentage points of market share from your rival.
But if you want to grow the problem is simple. The data derived is per definition historical. It is like driving a car navigating by looking in the rear-view mirror. Historical data is not very accurate, when it comes to creating the direction that leads to growth. So, building growth strategies on this data relies heavily on the interpretation of all the data from a select group of people. Not just on the individual dataset. But also, on their ability to decode and interpret the connections and dynamics between them. Because when qualitative focus group, a market study, a panel questionnaire, and customer data do not perfectly align, there is no fixed manual for how to interpret this. So, even though your strategy has a base in data, the success still relies on human interpretation and gut-feelings.
When you’re looking for growth, you need data, that is predictive and dynamic. You need to qualify accurately how the market will react to new propositions, not just presumptions. And you need a competitive set that includes the actual dynamics, you will be competing in.
Factive is committed to making change in the world removing doubts as the barrier for doing. We want to challenge the current realities of the status quo with imagination powered by technology and data to create more meaningful and useful relationships between people and brands that lead to growth. We help business grow by creating dynamic and predictive datasets, that are more accurate, more cost effective and faster processed than any other approach. Learn more at: https://factive.io
