Understanding the Insights of Consumer Decisions

The Insight250 spotlights and celebrates 250 of the world’s premier leaders and innovators in market research, consumer insights, and data-driven marketing. The awards have created renewed excitement across the industry whilst strengthening the connectivity of the market research community. Winners of the 2024 Insight250 were announced this past September - you can see the full list of Winners at Insight250.com. Nominations for the 2025 Insight250 close on March 31, so be sure to submit your nominations at Insight250.com/nominate. 

With so many exceptional professionals named to the Insight250, it seems fitting to tap into their expertise and unique perspectives across various topics. This regular series does just that: inquiring about the expert perspectives of many of these individuals in a series of short topical features. 

This edition features Dr. Nadia Morozova. Nadia has more than 15 years of international experience across a variety of industries, which include CPG (Procter & Gamble, Nestlé group), technology (TikTok), and professional services (EY, BCG). Right now, Nadia is Chief Analytics & Insights Officer at Enriched Insights, the company she established last year to drive further business implementation of her PhD research in Behavioural Science and Consumer Neuroscience at Warwick Business School.

I sat down with Nadia to learn more about her PhD research, what potential it uncovers for brands and retailers, and, of course, her view on the recent evolution in data, insights and AI.

Crispin: Congratulations on being named a 2024 Insight250 Winner! Let’s dive right into it. I see that in 2016, after several years of corporate career in consumer and insights in companies such as P&G, BCG, and Nestlé group, you decided to embark on your PhD journey at Warwick Business School. What inspired you the most to proceed with this move? 

NM: At the beginning of my career at Procter & Gamble, I spent hundreds of hours observing how consumers make their purchase decisions in different types of stores, including pharmacies, baby stores, and e-commerce. I noticed that in these channels consumers were buying a lot of products that they were not initially planning to purchase. However, I wasn’t sure whether to call these purchases ‘unplanned’ or ‘impulse’. So, I decided to read some academic papers to learn the right terminology.

What I found very intriguing was that papers published in the 1980s were talking about differences between these two types of purchases, while papers published in 2000-2010 used these terms synonymously. So, I saw that there is not just strong business potential, but also a solid academic gap.

Crispin: This sounds exciting. And what are the main highlights from your PhD research?

NM: As the main outcome of my research, I created a product that makes it possible to differentiate between planned, unplanned, and impulse purchases. This methodology also allowed me to develop an in-depth understanding of the nature and underlying mechanisms of purchase decision-making that leads to these three types of purchases.

Let me share two specific findings which were the most unexpected for me. Overall, I found that unplanned purchases are mostly associated with cognitive involvement in purchase decision-making.

At the same time, for unplanned purchases, I also saw strong heart rate activation in the first 3-5 seconds  upon initial product exposure. This means that we as consumers get this kind of ‘A-Ha’ moment about our forgotten wants or needs right after we see the product. This is a good reminder for advertisers about the importance of the first 3 seconds in their ads!

Another interesting finding is related to impulse purchases which have a strong association with emotional engagement during the final stage of purchase decision-making. Specifically, I saw a significant increase 8-12 seconds before we as consumers put a product in our basket. Previous fMRI research has also shown that this is exactly the time when we make our decision to buy a product.

If you are interested to learn more about my PhD research and key take-aways from this journey, please watch my recently released TEDxWalthamstow talk:

Crispin: You mentioned that the product you developed during your PhD research has been leveraged so far across a diversity of industries. Can you share any further details on it? 

NM: Yes, right after I finished my PhD, I started working at TikTok. Leveraging the product that I had developed, my team and I, in partnership with WARC, found that 63% of purchases inspired by social media platforms can be classified as unplanned. Moreover, we also identified that this finding stayed very consistent across a variety of categories. For example, research that my team conducted in partnership with Vogue Business showed that 65% of purchases inspired by TikTok can be classified as unplanned. Such a massive opportunity for luxury brands.

Crispin: I also saw on LinkedIn that this year you visited Davos during the World Economic Forum. What are your main highlights from this trip? Anything specific that stood out for you?

NM: Yes, it was an amazing opportunity! The main topic of this year’s World Economic Forum was ‘Collaboration for the Intelligent Age’. I feel very humbled about the opportunities I had to share my experience and expertise on AI. For example, I participated in a panel about the ethics of AI where I presented my recently launched framework on how human-centricity enables high data quality for AI

This sparked a very insightful conversation with Professor Neil, DeepMind Professor of Machine

Learning at the University of Cambridge. We both agreed that modern fast-speed technological developments put a lot of pressure on companies to run faster adoption of new AI tools and solutions. However, we still need to do our due diligence of these AI offerings, especially in terms of data quality and data governance.

HOT TOPIC - AI Transformation

Crispin: I agree, this focus on AI brings a lot of opportunities and challenges for organizations. Any recommendations you can provide to companies who are going through their AI transformations right now?

NM: Absolutely - start with a clear and holistic strategy. What specific business questions and opportunities are you going to address with these AI tools and solutions? After the strategy is set, then decision-making on the adoption of new tools and solutions becomes much easier and much more streamlined across different teams and departments.

AI transformations should be also treated as large-scale culture change projects. According to BCG research, successful AI strategy consists 20% of data, 10% of technology, and 70% of deployment. So, it’s all about ensuring successful collaboration across all departments in the organization, which of course should start on the C-Suite level. 

Crispin: And what unique value do you think insight leaders can provide to organizations on this journey?

NM: I truly believe that right now is the best time for professionals with a background in data & insights! First of all, a background in insights allows professionals to support strategic decision-making with understanding of the “Why?” behind the ‘What?’. Nowadays, there is no more shortage of data within organizations. However, this tremendous inflow of data and different ways to manipulate this data make companies face an even greater shortage of actionable insights.

Secondly, insights professionals have unique experience in connecting data of different natures and showcasing this data within specific business contexts. Historically, insights professionals learned to deep dive into qualitative, quantitative, panel and so on data in order to generate actionable insights and recommendations for businesses. Right now, this process is amplified by solid data infrastructure. So, insights professionals have even more opportunities to develop foundational data solutions for finding the best ways to merge diverse data sources on an on-going basis and hence get more time to work on large-scale and large value-add projects. 

Crispin: As you mentioned, right from the beginning of your career in research & insights you were very passionate about driving innovation and closing the gap between academia and industry. Any advice you could share to continue being a leader and innovator in data and insights?

NM: Interestingly, while recently working on my course about pursuing a career in data & insights, I asked senior leaders what advice they would give to their younger selves. I was overwhelmed by how consistent their response was – curiosity was always mentioned first! I hope my story about blending academic and applied consumer research will inspire other professionals in insights to stay curious. As I mentioned in my TEDxWalthamstow talk, this curiosity doesn’t need to lead to any solid academic research or something groundbreaking, but it will make you think much more critically both about what you are working on and on what you are reading outside your core working hours.

Crispin: Nadia, thank you for providing a view into your vital research and sharing such a fascinating perspective on how how innovation is driving the importance of insights and its impact on understanding consumers. This research will no doubt enhance the understanding of consumers and the utility of insights so can move closer towards providing ideal solutions to individuals.