By Natasha Weith
Innovation is often seen as a creative pursuit—a way for businesses to stay ahead, differentiate, and drive growth. But for many companies, the innovation process feels uncertain. How do you know if an idea will resonate in the market? Will consumers adopt a new product, behavior, or service? How do you distinguish between a promising concept and a costly misstep?
Most innovation initiatives are guided by internal vision, expert intuition, and trend analysis—all valuable inputs. But in a rapidly shifting consumer landscape, these elements alone aren’t enough.
Too many innovations fail—not because they weren’t good ideas, but because they weren’t validated in the real world before launch. The key to success? Embedding consumer input via market research into every stage of innovation instead of treating it as a final checkpoint.
Companies often assume they “know” their market. Here’s where innovation efforts commonly go wrong:
The result? Companies invest millions in ideas that sound good internally but fail to gain traction.
Consumers don’t just react to new offerings—they make trade-offs based on convenience, price, and habit. A product might be superior on paper, but that doesn’t mean consumers will switch.
To succeed, businesses must:
Without these insights, even a groundbreaking innovation can flop.
The most successful companies don’t just test ideas—they build them alongside the target consumer using agile, iterative research. However, even companies that invest in research get it wrong when they:
✖︎ Use Research as a One-Time final checkpoint – Instead of a continuous input, insights are only used for last-minute validation.
✖︎ Seek Confirmation Instead of Challenge – Teams look for data to support their pre-existing beliefs instead of stress-testing their assumptions.
✖︎ Over-Rely on Stated Consumer Intent – What consumers say they’ll do and what they actually do aren’t always the same.
✖︎ Fail to Connect Insights to Execution – Research reports sit in PowerPoints instead of shaping strategy and launch plans in real-time.
That’s where agile market research comes in. And let’s be clear: Agile research isn’t just about speed – it’s about making sure insights are integrated into the development process and at every decision point. Here’s how:
By embedding agile insights, companies create faster, more successful go-to-market strategies—without unnecessary spend.
It’s easy to get excited about a breakthrough idea. But without rigorous, real-time consumer input, even the most promising innovations can fail.
The best companies don’t just test innovations—they co-develop them with their consumer target. They ensure research isn’t a last-minute formality but a continuous input that sharpens ideas and launch plans and accelerates success.
As you think about your next big move—whether launching a new product, repositioning a brand, or identifying a growth opportunity—ask yourself:
If you’re not fully confident in the answers, it’s time to rethink how market research fits into your innovation strategy.
At SIVO, we help businesses turn market research into a competitive advantage. Whether you're validating early-stage concepts, refining go-to-market strategies, or optimizing post-launch success, we ensure that insights fuel smarter, faster decision-making at every stage of the process.
Our senior insights professionals specialize in agile, in-context research that goes beyond validation to actively shape breakthrough innovations. And with On-Demand Talent, we provide fractional research experts to scale your capabilities—without long-term hiring commitments.
Want to sharpen your innovation strategy? Contact us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com or visit SIVOInsights.com to learn more.
By Leslie Turner – VP, On Demand Talent
Over the past few years, we’ve had the privilege of working with organizations navigating all kinds of change: leadership transitions, unexpected surges in demand, shifting priorities, and the ever-present pressure to do more with less. One consistent theme has emerged: fractional insights talent can be a game-changer.
Not because it replaces full-time researchers. But because it complements them.
We’ve seen fractional researchers step into high-impact roles with speed, empathy, and precision. Whether they are brought in to lead key innovation or brand strategy initiatives, provide Insights leadership or optimize DIY platforms, they can play a key role in helping teams maintain momentum during critical transitions. And they’ve done it all while working alongside internal teams, to stretch their influence and impact.
Fractional insights professionals are seasoned researchers who embed into teams on a flexible, project-based basis. They’re not just temporary workers but strategic partners, who understand the demands of the business. Often former heads of insights or highly experienced research consultants, they bring deep research expertise across methodologies, industries and tools. They work part-time or on-demand, but their contributions are anything but temporary.
"Fractional leadership is the next evolution of the independent contractor economy"
– Sara Daw, Fast Company, July 11, 2025
Marketing research teams are under pressure, with tighter budgets and timelines often competing with higher expectations. It can be hard to anticipate what the next year may bring, and sometimes you just need support now. Fractional talent helps bridge the gap by offering:
They’re especially valuable when your team is trying to scale insights without compromising depth or rigor. We’ve seen them turn raw data into executive-ready outputs, design unbiased surveys, and bring fresh thinking from outside your category, all while working within your existing tools and workflows.
If you’re considering fractional support, here are a few things we’ve learned that help set the stage for success:
Fractional talent isn’t a work-around, it’s a strategic lever. It allows research teams to stay agile, deepen their insights, and build internal capabilities without overextending resources.
Full-time researchers are the backbone of any insights team. Fractional talent simply helps them go further, faster. If your team is thinking about how to balance speed and depth, fractional talent might be the answer.
For further insight into the value of fractional talent and how it could support your team, please reach out. We're always happy to share what we’ve learned, explore your team’s needs, or just talk shop about the future of insights!
By Natasha Weith
Market research is often designed to answer specific business questions, such as how a product compares to the competition or what new features consumers desire. While this information helps guide important business decisions, it does not really help brand teams to truly know their consumer target. To connect with consumers on a deeper level, brand teams must move beyond understanding what is in their consumers’ heads (how they think) and delve into what is in their hearts (how they feel and their underlying motivations.)
The Importance of Empathy
Empathy is the key to unlocking this deeper understanding. It is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It involves not only recognizing what someone else is going through but also being able to emotionally connect with their experience, as if you were in their situation. Empathy fosters compassion, support, and meaningful relationships.
In a business context, it is about going beyond data points or demographic segments to genuinely connect with consumers’ experiences and feelings. By building empathy, marketers and R&D teams can cultivate a more intuitive grasp of consumer needs, enabling them to make decisions that not only meet consumer expectations but anticipate them.
Building Consumer Empathy
Most of the time, marketers are not their own target consumers so they must spend time with them to truly understand their lives, values, hopes, challenges, and behaviors. The goal should be to move through the following spectrum to genuinely empathize with your consumer target.
The Empathy Trek: Walking in Your Consumer’s Shoes
Building consumer empathy requires more than traditional research methods. It calls for what we like to refer to as "empathy treks." Unlike typical market research, which is focused on specific business objectives, an empathy trek is a more immersive and observational approach focused solely on getting to know the consumer. The goal is not to gather data for immediate business decisions but to develop a profound understanding of the consumer target.
An empathy trek involves spending time with your consumers in their natural environments. It means observing how they live, understanding what they value, exploring their beliefs, and witnessing their behaviors firsthand. This exercise helps brand teams to “walk in their shoes” and “feel what they feel,” leading to a more holistic understanding of their lives.
For example, if your target consumers are busy parents, an empathy trek might involve spending time in their homes during the weekday morning rush, observing how they juggle responsibilities, and understanding the emotional pressures they face. This experience can reveal insights that traditional research might miss, such as the stress points that influence purchase decisions or the small moments of joy that a brand could tap into.
The Value of Empathy in Brand Management
So, why is building empathy for your consumer target so critical? The benefits are numerous and can transform the way brand teams approach decision-making.
Let SIVO Guide your Path to Consumer-Centric Success
In a world where consumers are increasingly seeking brands that understand and resonate with their values, building empathy is not just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. Brand teams that invest in understanding their consumers at a deeper, more emotional level will be better equipped to create meaningful connections that stand the test of time.
As an insights partner, it is SIVO’s responsibility to champion empathy with our clients. By advocating for empathy treks and encouraging client teams to walk in the shoes of their consumers, we can help you build brands that not only meet consumer needs but also win their hearts.
Contact us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com or visit SIVOInsights.com to schedule a discovery call and connect to your consumers!
Across industries, brands attempt to access and leverage data to unlock stronger sales and business growth. Your team can bring a wealth of experience and expertise to initiatives, but getting feedback from the people who engage with the product produces better outcomes. Below, we’ll answer the questions: what are consumer insights? Why are consumer insights important? And What is the best way to get consumer insights for my business?
First thing’s first, what are consumer insights? Consumer insights are the underlying motivations or needs that make a consumer behave a certain way. Insights professionals work to understand consumer attitudes, requirements, desires and behaviors to uncover insights that can then guide brand building, portfolio and marketing communications efforts. Many organizations gather data from their consumers, but the real depth of insight comes in asking the right questions and getting the full picture from consumers. Insights gleaned from studying and connecting with your consumers can inform nearly every aspect of your business’ path to growth.
So, how do you get consumer insights? Businesses can get consumer insights in several ways. The correct method for your team depends largely the business question, as well as the industry and market you serve. For example, organizations may capture qualitative data via focus groups, in-depth interviews, and user immersions to identify the nuances in consumer values and opinions.
Meanwhile, quantitative data like path-to-purchase, product testing, and volumetric forecasting can help teams validate consumer interest and behaviors and build confidence in decision-making and actions. Consumer insights experts can gather this information in a number of ways. See some of the most effective consumer insight solutions and techniques below:
Qualitative Consumer Insights
Ethnographies
In-Depth Interviews
Focus Groups
Shopalongs
Shopper Intercepts
Mobile Missions
Online Bulletin Boards
Fishbowls
Agile Sprints
Rapid Refinement
Communication Checks
User Immersions
In-Home Usage
Interactive User Experience
Jobs to Be Done
Quantitative Consumer Insights
Segmentation
Attitude and Usage
Path-to-Purchase
Tracking Testing / Screening
Brand Positioning
Brand Architecture
Product Testing
Creative Testing
Opinion Polling
Now that we know what they are, why are consumer insights important? Essentially, consumer insights remove some of the speculation from your business decisions and actions. It provides actionable answers to what consumers think about your brand, your category, and your products or services. Once you receive those insights, you can take it and run. It’s the fuel that ignites new product or service innovation and optimization, brand experiences and communications. At a higher level, it gives your business access to an entirely new perspective within your consumer market. Consumer insights give you a more holistic understanding of the consumer target audience you want to connect with, allowing you to gain a competitive edge within your industry.
So, why is consumer insight important? There are several reasons growing brands invest in these solutions to drive growth and gain a competitive edge. See why more and more businesses focus on obtaining consumer insights for their strategies below:
The best business strategies have data-backed insights behind them. Consumer insights allow you to identify a “why” to inform and support your business initiatives. The same goes for your brand.
Understanding what people truly believe about your brand can transform marketing strategies. Today, it is important to know who your customers are, what they do, what they value, and why it matters. The best way to answer those questions is to identify your consumers and start a dialogue to better understand them. This dialogue and the insights that come from it allows your business to bring more value to the people you serve. It all leads to better customer experiences and a stronger return on investment.
Every product or service has areas for improvement. Who are the best people to provide that feedback? The individuals who purchase and use them. Getting honest opinions on your current portfolio helps you identify the best places for optimization. You can spot holes in the market and create solutions that fill consumers' unmet needs. Some of the best product ideas and business innovation can come straight from your customers.
It all starts with empathy. Providing enhanced, consumer-focused products and services can only benefit brand loyalty. Brands need to continuously check in with their customers to ensure they have positive brand experiences and identify new ways to delight them. As mentioned above, your products/services can consistently improve to meet the needs of your customer base. Ultimately, this all works toward a stronger relationship with your audience to gain ongoing loyalty. That goes a long way when they are choosing between brands.
How can consumer insights fuel your marketing campaign? Speaking directly to your target audience members creates more nuance and specificity in your consumer-first marketing campaigns. Every engagement in your advertising and beyond should prioritize your consumer. Understanding their values and preferences deeply allows you to speak to them more directly and effectively. If you’re on the journey of building your brand or audience-based marketing (AMB) strategy, these insights provide a path toward successful campaigns that move the needle and influence consumer behavior.
What is your customer’s experience with your brand? Are there features that they like or dislike? Sometimes small things go unseen by marketers, but small details can leave a lasting impression on consumers. Whether it’s digital user journeys, messaging, or customer service conversations, it’s invaluable to hear, understand and react to what people think when they engage with your brand, products, and representatives.
If your organization is wondering how to get consumer insights, the best path is through a specialized consumer insights company. SIVO is a global insights and strategy firm specializing in understanding people and their needs and beliefs that drive behavior. We partner with brands to answer key questions that guide strategies and fuel growth. First, we schedule a discovery meeting, where we ask your stakeholders and subject matter experts key questions about your business and needs. Then, we design a custom research approach that aligns with those requirements. From the data gathered, we identify key insights that inform your decisions and drive business growth. Our experts act as your ongoing partner, helping you access your consumers and interpret the research every step of the way.
Ready to get meaningful consumer insights to unlock your next business and brand strategy? SIVO provides full-service custom consumer research and experiences for business across industries. Whether you need consumer insights, organizational intelligence, market and competitive intelligence, or on-demand talent, we empower organizations to get the most of their business, marketing, and brand building efforts to better achieve their goals. Contact SIVO today to get started.
By Kerry Juhl
The Responsibility & Privilege of Serving Customers
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider to our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us the opportunity to do so.”
– Mahatma Gandhi, 1890
This quote is more than 100-years old, but it is still true today. The opportunity to serve customers is a privilege. The responsibility of that privilege is ensuring the customer’s voice is heard and understood. Brand teams need to know what their customers need and what they value, as decisions about products and services are made on the customers’ behalf.
Defining Customer Value
Understanding customer value can be a differentiator for companies in today’s challenging market. Simplistically, if a brand team has $1 to invest – or needs to cut $1 in spending – knowledge about what customers’ value must guide these business decisions to stay competitive.
So let’s talk about customer value…In everyday conversations, value has many meanings including price, worth, or even benefits. It is imperative for organizations to operate with a common understanding of customer value. From a marketing and branding perspective, it helps to think about customer value as an equation:
Customer Value equals Benefits minus Cost (CV=B-C).
Benefits include the advantages of quality, service, image, brand, experience, and the functionality one gets or emotions one feels when using the product or service. Cost is not only price – which we think of as cash, credit, interest, even service fees - but it can also include non-price terms such as time, effort, energy, and convenience.*
When teams define their Customer Value Equation, they can clearly identify growth opportunities by emphasizing or improving aspects of an offering that customers value (where to invest) and they can identify cost savings by eliminating aspects of the offering that customers do not value (where to cut).
Developing the Customer Value Equation
SIVO employs a 5-Step Process to develop your Customer Value Equation. In partnership with our client teams, we Mine, Explore and Quantify the customer value drivers leveraging Functional, Emotional, Life-Changing and Social Impact values. Note that the Quantify Step can be qualitative consumer learning, a quantitative survey or ideally, a combination of both. The design of this step is dependent on how much past learning that the team already has in hand.
Four Categories of Customer Value
We then partner with teams to Develop & Refine the Customer Value Equation. Lastly, we help teams Apply their equation by assessing where their products/services are over/under-delivering and facilitate them through the generation of ideas to improve the customer experience.
The result of our process is rich with discoveries. These insights provide a unifying understanding of the target customers’ purchase drivers, must-haves and nice-to-haves regarding a product or service – giving teams confidence and clarity on what to do with $1 more or $1 less.
Our Offer to You
SIVO is interested in sharing our Customer Value Equation experience and case studies with you and your insights team! Our “CVE Download” can easily be part of an in-person or virtual “Lunch & Learn” or your next team meeting.
If you can answer “yes” to at least one of the following three questions, please reach out to SIVO.
To learn more, contact us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com.
*Referenced article by Gautam Mahajan https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2394964320903557
SIVO Insights brings together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence. Have a business challenge? Let's talk!
We bring together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence
