Patients want convenience. Families make healthcare decisions together. People are anxious about costs.

These are insights that can drive your marketing strategy, right?

Wrong, because they’re not insights. They’re sights — observations that confirm what we can already see. They may be true. They may even be useful. But they don’t change the way you see the problem. They don’t alter the brief. They don’t force you to move in a different direction.

An insight changes the game and shifts the frame. After you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Take the LG example from the video. The brief was simple: sell people on the fact that the television had more pixels than anyone else.

But research revealed the brand wasn’t even in the consumer’s consideration set. It didn’t matter how superior the screen was. If the brand wasn’t shortlisted, the pixel conversation never happened.

That discovery changed the assignment. That’s an insight.

In healthcare marketing, we regularly mistake descriptive data for transformative thinking. We identify trends and label them insights. We summarize what’s happening and congratulate ourselves for clarity. But clarity is not the same as revelation.

Fixing a hole

If you want to stop confusing sights with insights, start with one brutal test: would this discovery materially change our strategy? If the answer is no, it’s not an insight. It’s context.

Next, ask where the real decision is being made. In the LG case, the decision wasn’t in the aisle comparing resolution specs. It happened earlier, when consumers decided which brands were credible enough to consider.

In healthcare, the same discipline applies. Is the decision really happening when someone searches for a specialist? Or was it made months earlier when trust was either built or lost?

Real insights reveal you’ve been solving the wrong problem. They redirect investment. They challenge the original brief. They make people uncomfortable because they expose a deeper issue than the one you thought you were addressing.

If your “insight” fits neatly into the existing plan without forcing change, you’re probably still at the surface.

And in the end

Insights are rare. If you find three or four true ones in a year, that’s a good year.

Most of what we call insights are well-articulated observations. Observations are useful. They describe the landscape. But an insight alters the terrain. It changes the brief. It redirects investment. It forces movement.

If the strategy doesn’t shift because of what you discovered, you didn’t uncover an insight. You confirmed what you already knew. Call things what they are. Then keep digging until something actually changes the game.