Will client insight functions survive the recession?

Michael Harvey of drinks giant Diageo argues that good consumer planners are more valuable than ever, but must be be intimately connected with brand strategy and implementation.

Will client insight functions survive the recession?

Michael Harvey

In the heady days of late summer last year, before the world as we knew it collapsed, I was very happy to give my opinion that client side 'insight' functions were here to stay.

These new 'insight' functions had steadily been established in client companies since the late 1990s for the same reason that account planning grew up 30 years ago in advertising agencies – management was fed up with the old-fashioned market research departments adding impenetrable data to the process rather than any useful implications that would drive the business....

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