Principle Six: Data → Information → Insight → Inspiration

This formula shows how you take what I discussed yesterday, which was research, and form it into a fresh idea. It is important that we take the research and data that we have collected and turn it into information. This step is purely analyzing the data that we have collected, taking the numbers and putting meaning to them. This derives information. With the information we have to combine insight (the formula to the sweet spot). The book points out to remember, “the obvious facts are already known to everyone, including the competition.” Therefore, we have to go deeper in our insights of understanding the consumer. The last part of this equation is the inspiration. Although we may have everything else, if we can’t inspire our consumers nothing else is important. As I have stated in a past entry, the consumer must feel that they are inspired not manipulated. The book gives an example of Jell-O and what Young & Rubicam (Y&R) and General Foods (GF) did to apply this formula to a campaign. Jell-O repositioned itself, after sales were falling, to a “fun” dessert after they had the information that most women viewed dessert as the “fun” part of the meal. Therefore they took that and repositioned Jell-O as the fun dessert. It is very important to apply this formula to a campaign especially when repositioning a product.