Semarang – Research activities are not only needed by non-profit companies but also important for profit companies. Research can help to find out information and market conditions and target consumers. Accurate information about consumers can be used as a basis for designing product communication strategies in the right way too. As its done by Dwi Wahyu, MM as Head of Consumer Insight from Kraft Heinz ABC.

In a public lecture organized by the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Undip on Wednesday (18/11), Wahyu explained the importance of research for companies. Previously, Wahyu always visited various places even to remote areas just to find out and get to know target consumers. Wahyu has been in the consumer insight sector for nearly 15 years. “People used to call it marketing research, but the point is the same, that how do we as people know all kinds of things about consumers,” said Wahyu.

In front of approximately 300 participants, Wahyu revealed that this pandemic condition had indeed prevented him from interacting directly with consumers but that did not mean that he did not conduct research on consumers.

“What we routinely do as a consumer insight team is we carry out regular tracks to consumers, even though the situation is currently in a pandemic like this, I still do it through Zoom Meeting or Microsoft Teams, so I met with women in Medan, I chatted,” he said.

In the activity moderated by Rouli Manalu Ph.D as the Head of Undip Communication Science Study Program, Wahyu also added the rules of the game contained in consumer insight itself.

“Now, in the business world, there will always be problems, even though our position have become a market leader. We have 5 stages, namely identifying problems, analyzing problems, finding alternative solutions, implementing solutions, and the last one is evaluation, “he added.

At the online activity through the Zoom Meeting, Wahyu also shared stories about his experience of failing when he launched the product two years ago. Even though it has gone through a very long research process, it is not enough to guarantee success. Many research data even say that the percentage of successful launching of new products is only 10% to 15%, the other 85% is the potential for failure.

Furthermore, Wahyu also conveyed the stages that must be passed before launching the product. “So, all stages will always be validated to consumers, not after the final process is validated, but at each stage. The first stage is finding ideas, then concept development, product development, and the last stage is the commercialization stage, ”said Wahyu.

Other than that, Wahyu tries to apply science in the creative world of advertising. Wahyu understands very well that advertising costs are not cheap and there is no guarantee that advertising will be successful, so it is important to do research.

As a closing remark, Wahyu reiterated the importance of research in profit companies. Many talents are talented but not all of them can do research well.

“The challenge is they still have to think how to simplify complexity. Providing all kinds of data and information is very easy. But, how they can choose and dig deeper into information and insight that is really useful, which is also important,” he concluded.

Writer: Nur Laily Mucharomah