Getting our finger back on the pulse: Why marketing needs to regain its role as the real source of consumer insight and understanding

Martin Hayward

Marketing should step up and regain its role as a trusted source of consumer insight and understanding, to combat the rise of fake news and unreliable data in the UK.

Those who remember the Jay McInerny novel Bright Lights, Big City will recall that the lead character, played by Michael J. Fox in the movie, worked for a New York magazine in the wonderfully named Department of Factual Verification.

I thought of this film recently as I read yet another news story based on a 'Twitter erupts' hook. Journalists now seem to trawl social media looking for minor spats and an individual's outrage that can be extrapolated into national stories, rather than basing their stories on real insights. The psyche of the nation is frequently being determined by...

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