Vital to the Marketing Process
Insights-driven marketing has evolved to become so foundational that insights teams often now fall under the marketing banner. With this growing emphasis, many in the research community believe their role extends beyond crunching numbers and representing the voice of the consumer—they also serve as strategic consultants, helping to shape marketing decisions and overall strategy.
The market research community has undergone a transformative journey. Consider Karen Kraft, Associate Director, Consumer Insights & Analytics at Johnsonville.
“Insight-driven marketing has definitely evolved, especially at Johnsonville,” Kraft explains. “When I first joined, the marketing team was organized around manufacturing processes—fresh versus fully cooked products. But that’s not how consumers think. They think: What am I having for breakfast? What’s for dinner? What goes on my grill?”
This insight led to a major shift. “When we hired another insights person, we divided the work by occasion instead of product type. Within a year, the company reorganized around occasions—which was huge,” Kraft notes.
“Our ad campaigns, like Keep It Juicy, are strongly insights driven. It launched in the New York Times featuring data from a poll of American consumers. We continue polling people as part of our PR efforts to show we’re listening. Insights have impacted both how we think about our products and how we talk about them.”
At CPG brands like Johnsonville and StarKist, ad concept testing, social media intelligence, and influencer insights have become critical areas of collaboration with marketing.
Raina Rusnak, Head of Market Research & Business Intelligence at StarKist Co., notes, “Marketing leans into insights really heavily. We do a lot of ad testing before launch—or sometimes after, as a disaster check if they’ve moved quickly on gut feel. We work closely with marketing to ensure they’re connecting emotionally with consumers.”
Rusnak points out that having marketing and insights under the same corporate roof strengthens the partnership—though this isn’t always the case in organizations where insights is tied to finance or other functions. “Being tied to marketing elevates insights and increases our importance and potency,” says Rusnak. “From my perspective, it makes sense for insights at CPG companies to be under the marketing umbrella.”
Tripp Hughes, Senior Director – Consumer Strategy at Organic Valley, has witnessed how insights has grown alongside the brand.
“Insights was small initially—just a function within daily work. But we’ve always organized so that insights is a core strategic function of marketing,” Hughes recalls. “We’re constantly thinking about this consumer-centric world, understanding it from their point of view. That gets reflected in the quality of work we bring to life through strategy, positioning, and execution. I always advocate for insights to have a strong seat at the table.”
Sitting At the Front of Strategy
The evolution of insights and marketing is happening, though gradually, impacting both consumer brands and market research consultants. Increasingly, insights professionals are becoming central to marketing strategy, not just reporting on it.
“Consumer behavior has fragmented,” says Michael Gunther, SVP Research & Market Intelligence at Consumer Edge. “People shop across more channels, switch brands faster, and respond to price in ways that vary by region and income. Gut instinct and last year’s playbook can’t keep up. This has elevated insights from a reporting function to a strategy function—we now tell marketing teams where demand is moving before it shows up in sales.”
Gunther continues, “The insights professional now sits at the front of the strategy, not the back. We help decide which segments to chase, which markets to defend, and when to move. Winning brands treat insights as the input to the plan, not a justification written after. That shift is still early.”
Brent Seaborn, Co-Founder and Chief Data Science Officer at Tunnl, agrees that insights have become critical to marketing and business processes, especially as personalization intensifies.
“What’s really important is the audience level—knowing who we’re communicating with so we can measure campaign success,” Seaborn explains. “Media fragmentation today is enormous: dozens of streaming services, social media platforms, plus broadcast, cable, direct mail. There are screens at gas stations. We’re consuming information everywhere.”
The challenge, according to Seaborn, is reaching people where media actually impacts them. “Some people might be heavy social media users—are we tailoring campaigns to their needs there? For others, streaming might be primary or supplemental. When putting together a campaign, understanding the media mix and knowing how people consume information and where they find trusted sources is critical.”
The AI Impact on Insights
For Amir Akleh, VP, Business Strategy, Analytics & Insights at First Citizens Bank, the insights function is increasingly tied to business strategy, with AI playing a growing role—a trend visible across the industry.
“Insights is definitely evolving, though slowly,” Akleh notes. “Some business intelligence tools have rolled out AI solutions that analyze visualizations and data, providing suggestions on what’s driving growth year over year, quarter over quarter, across segments and markets. But adoption is slow—it’s new.”
Akleh explains that a “super user” is often needed to master these AI tools and then socialize them internally, focusing on change management, adoption, and best practices. “Some insights are surface level and don’t reach deeper analysis unless you provide business context and institutional knowledge. Insights is shifting toward an AI-driven world, but ultimately, final decision-making—determining real insights and strategy—will remain human-driven.”
Beyond marketing, Akleh notes that insights is becoming more consolidated across functions. “In the past, business insights was a dedicated function within strategy groups. Now it’s rolling into technology, data, and analytics—maybe under the CIO. With AI’s rise, I wonder if there will still be a dedicated business insights team or if it will all fall under data analytics and AI within the CTO or CIO organization.”
Pavi Gupta, former VP of Insights & Analytics at Chobani and Board Member at the Market Research Institute International, sees AI and agents as game-changers, though we may be just at the beginning.
“With AI, there’s a dramatic drive toward efficiency and the ability to find patterns in millions of data points. Insights is transforming dramatically, along with experimentation at scale. As insights efforts have shifted digitally, there’s far more information on how consumers engage with content and products,” Gupta explains.
He describes the current landscape as paradoxical: “It’s the best of times because there’s so much data. As everything becomes more digital, you can attribute and determine what’s working. Performance marketing is at an all-time high. But it’s the worst of times because pure performance marketing doesn’t drive brand love and engagement—that’s the emotional piece you need to build.”
Gupta continues, “Performance marketing can be driven purely on price, timeliness, or meeting needs. But does that build the brand? That’s where classical marketing still matters—it unlocks the emotional piece. And that’s challenging now because consumers don’t have the same attention span. Brands don’t have captive audiences anymore. People used to have one screen; now they have five, with endless distractions.”
Despite these challenges, Gupta remains optimistic about the insights profession: “Our job as insights professionals is to continue playing a bigger role, leveraging our strengths to look for multiple signals and assemble the full truth for marketing stakeholders to drive strategy.”
Seizing the Moment
Where will the marketing-insights partnership evolve from here? While the future is uncertain, market research leaders point to the ever-expanding data pipeline as evidence that insights will be inextricably linked to marketing in this digital age.
“The realities of today’s economy and how companies operate necessitate insights and data being inseparable from marketing decisions,” says Tamar Rimmon, VP, Data Science & Analytics at McAfee. “The days of relying on marketers’ gut instinct and vague understandings of customers are long gone.”
Rimmon emphasizes the imperative: “There’s too much data available for us to afford not using it, and there’s pressure on companies to deliver results. You have to be closely informed by data and insights to understand what you’re doing, what’s working, and how to shift direction.”
She notes that her marketing team is deeply involved in understanding customer motivations and conducting extensive testing and experimentation to validate hypotheses. “That’s the expectation from leadership and from people on the ground. They’ve gotten used to having data at their fingertips and want more. They want to know faster, and it’s our responsibility to ensure they have all the information needed to make the best decisions possible.”
This positions insights for significant growth alongside marketing in the near future. A rising tide, after all, lifts all boats.
“If we seize the moment, it could be one of the best times for us because we, as insights professionals, know how to ask the right questions,” says Vita Molis, Head of the B2B Institute at LinkedIn.
Molis reflects on the evolution she’s witnessed: “In my fifteen-plus years in research, there have been key disruptions and methodology evolutions—conjoint analysis, qual-quant prompting driven by AI-like technology. We’ve disrupted ourselves repeatedly and innovated because we focus on the customer and excel at asking questions.”
She concludes optimistically: “If we seize this moment, it could be a powerful opportunity for us as insights professionals to take on bigger, bolder roles and responsibilities within marketing.”
Making an Impact
Every year, All Things Insights and TMRE highlight perspectives from market research leaders. Our latest report, “From Data to Decisions: Insights That Drive Impact,” is a deep dive into the transformative journey from insights to impact, showcasing how leading organizations are leveraging data and analytics to drive meaningful business outcomes. Through a series of interviews with insights leaders, we aim to highlight the strategies and tools that are redefining the role of insights in decision-making.
Access the “From Data to Decisions: Insights That Drive Impact” report here.
Video: “How to Build Insights-Driven Marketing Campaigns with Nataly Kelly of Zappi,” courtesy of Marketing Happy Hour.
