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In the world of healthcare marketing research, we are surrounded by (dare I say, inundated with) data — findings, learnings, charts, and verbatim quotes. But every so often, something sharper cuts through the noise: an insight. To appreciate the difference between a learning and an insight, let’s look to an unlikely source — the Mel Gibson film Braveheart.
There’s a pivotal, dramatic scene where William Wallace sits with his men in a quiet forest. They've just learned they'll be facing the English "heavy horse" on the battlefield. A well-armored cavalry trained to shatter infantry lines. Wallace’s army is outnumbered, under-equipped, and vulnerable. No armor. Few horses. No clear way to withstand a charge.
As Wallace looks up, the camera follows his gaze to the tall, swaying trees above. And that’s the moment it clicks: what if they felled these trees into long spears — longer than any the English expect — and concealed them until the last second? What if the cavalry’s greatest strength could be turned into its undoing?
That shift — from facing an overwhelming problem to reframing it with a simple but profound idea — is the essence of an insight. It emerges not from more data, but from the synthesis of experience, constraint, and imagination. It doesn’t just explain the situation. It changes the terms of engagement.
In our field, we gather findings all the time — patients struggling to stay adherent or abandoning treatment; physicians who say they want to adopt a new medication, but stuck in a stubborn habit of a known treatment; caregivers caught between fatigue and love. These are important observations. Learnings go a step further — we might understand why a patient may abandon treatment, or how a specialist makes decisions (or falls back on defaults) under time constraints.
But an insight takes a leap further: it reframes the problem in a way that unlocks new possibilities.
Like Wallace seeing trees not as scenery, but as the raw material for a radically unexpected defense — an insight reveals a hidden lever. It often starts with empathy, curiosity, some survival instinct perhaps, and the intellectual patience to sit with a challenge until something shifts. Importantly, it leads to a creative solution that wouldn't have emerged through linear analysis alone.
An insight is not only about what you see — it's about when and how you act. Wallace’s spears would have been useless if revealed too early. In healthcare marketing, the same principle applies. Whether we’re crafting a message for a diagnostic that patients barely understand, or positioning a new therapeutic in a crowded treatment landscape, the solution must land at the right moment, in the right channel, for the right audience.
The next time you’re faced with a gnarly commercial challenge, ask yourself: are you looking for another tree, or are you searching for the spear? Findings inform. Learnings explain. But insights? They change the game.
