The theory of the crime: What market researchers can learn about insight from a real life murder case

This article discusses how market researchers looking for insight could learn from the processes and thinking that solved a real-life murder case, including the application of Bayes' Theorem.

The theory of the crime: What market researchers can learn about insight from a real life murder case

David Bakken

View the presentation deck for this paper

Preface

Extracting insights from data is a lot like trying to solve a murder based on circumstantial evidence. We develop a theory and look to the evidence for confirmation. This all works reasonably well when the evidence is consistent and well behaved, but we can run into trouble when the facts contradict one another. A real murder case with contradicting bits of evidence demonstrates the use of Bayes' Theorem to sort...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands