Innovation is a word often misused and overused in the business world. Yet, in the truest sense of the word, it is a holy grail for private industry – an original idea, a game-changing new product, a brand that changes the parameters of its sector.

For this reason, innovation is an area in which the market research industry has a close connection, with data and insight helping to steady the company ship, and set it sailing on the course towards successful innovation. True innovation is hard to achieve, with the number of failed ideas often far outweighing those that are truly successful. 

“The insights and data we provide clients are so important to support them to build confidence and momentum in the business,” says Kantar’s Nicki Morley. “It has never been so important that, in a crowded marketplace, that they have data to hand to make informed decisions, often at speed and at pace.”

Nicki Morley was recently appointed global innovation lead at Kantar, moving from her previous role as head of behavioural science and innovation expertise in the UK insights business as part of a wider reshuffle. Morley tells Research Live that her new job is “innovation almost with a capital ‘I’”, focused on guiding clients through the innovation process and solutions, as well as overseeing thought leadership, pitches and proposals.

Part of the role is building confidence in how to build momentum about an idea in the business – helping clients to take the plunge and supporting those arguments for moving into new spaces. Morley says that she wants companies to see insight as “indispensable brand partners”, adding: “We are sparring partners to our clients – we’re not just researchers.

“I think all research has been on a journey. Back in the day, you used to be a methodological person as a researcher. Now the challenges people have is making choices, changing the way they’re innovating and they’re having to make bolder moves.”

Challenges for brand managers include identifying areas in which to innovate, building a proposition and launching new ideas. Kantar recently released a tool that allows businesses to identify factors driving in-market performance and spot issues such as low awareness. 

With new technology, including AI, helping businesses get greater access to data to support innovation, Morley argues that the insights sector needs to play to its strengths to remain a vital cog in the innovation machine. With data used to provide the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ and the voice of the business, she says: “The insights business is going to have to double-down on its understanding of context and culture and humans to provide that against the backdrop of big data.”

Morley says that insight should be a partner throughout the entire innovation process for brands. “We should understand how to support our clients to identify an opportunity, how to test and iterate from an idea all the way to pack and product, and once it is in market, be able to guide our clients to understand what is going on with their product,” she explains. “It’s a really important topic in innovation to help [clients] to learn how to do it better next time.” 

Brands also need to have the right structures in place to help innovation. “There’s always a caveat we say to our clients – it is really important to take your time to build from strong foundations,” says Morley. “When innovators are moving at pace and talking about speed and agility, we encourage them to put their energy slightly differently – to build from strong foundations, then in the middle phase to test, learn and iterate at speed, because you are building from something strong.”

Morley previously worked client-side, including more than 12 years at Unilever, and is drawing on those experiences in her new role. “When I worked client-side, I almost felt like I was dragging a concept through rather than spending the time to get it right and then be able to build from strong foundations. You can’t move at speed if you don’t have those strong foundations, as you will only end up in trouble.”

Are brands embracing that idea? Some definitely are, says Morley, including some of Kantar’s FMCG clients. “Some clients talk about making bolder moves – doing less, but doing less better and building stronger, bigger innovations. 

“I think it’s important to support that, and that comes from taking your time. I hate the phrase ‘new news for new news’ sake’ – the idea that you have to innovate something. It should be much more thought through.”