sparking curious mind

Ah, insights, everybody these days talks about insights.
A consumer insight is like God - present everywhere but not seen, felt or easily understood. Verbatim judgments, linearly-observed consumer behaviour, or simply aphorisms for life are often passed off as insights. However, to get insights, you need deeper thinking.

An insight is what connects the advertising idea to brand attributes via consumer life.
And insights into consumer life cannot be obtained via noisy Focus Groups relying too much upon consumers to talk about their own world. Consumers tend to talk about the obvious.
So, we get past and current playback, not what can possibly be. New insights cannot be unearthed through this method alone. Marketers have to delve deeper, and not rely upon consumers to define everything for them, which is really just lazy marketing.

The deep insights come from one-on-one, in-depth interviews, observation at home or consumption points, sociological studies, or by just observing life keenly. Focus Group discussions, at best, can be one of the methods. Meeting more consumers is not the solution. More reliance on indirect methods and deeper interpretations is required.