Numerator Diagnostics is a DIY research tool built to help companies understand shopper behavior in rich detail, using real-time purchasing data across channels. For businesses struggling to grow trial rates, these diagnostics offer a practical way to dig beneath the surface to find out: why aren’t new consumers trying our brand?

Spotting Non-Triers in Shopper Data

At the heart of diagnosing trial issues is understanding who’s never tried your brand – and why. Numerator allows you to segment your data by key characteristics such as demographics, shopping behavior, top competitive brand choices, and more. With this, you can isolate your "non-triers" and begin analyzing what might be keeping them away. For example, you might find that younger shoppers in a certain region haven’t tried your product despite high usage in adjacent categories.

Identifying Category Entry Barriers

Trial resistance doesn’t always mean there's something wrong with your brand. Sometimes, shoppers are hesitant to enter the entire category. These are known as category entry barriers, and they can include:

• Lack of familiarity with the category or how to use the product
• Limited shelf space or poor in-store visibility
• Perceived price or value concerns
• Unmet psychological needs, like trust or safety

Numerator helps confront these barriers by showing cross-category behavior. For example, if shoppers are active in adjacent categories but never enter yours, that’s a big signal – and an opportunity.

Using Trial Conversion Metrics

The tool also provides a breakdown of trial conversion rates, helping you benchmark performance compared to category norms or competitive sets. Tracking these metrics over time – especially after launching campaigns or sampling programs – gives a clear picture of what’s moving the needle.

Why Layering Human Expertise Matters

While Numerator Diagnostics supplies the data, teams often need expert interpretation to find the real why behind shopper behavior. On its own, the tool shows “what happened” but may not clearly explain “why it happened.” Partnering with experienced On Demand Talent brings deeper context. These professionals understand how to surface psychological barriers, translate patterns into strategy, and spot blind spots that tech-driven platforms may miss.

In short, Numerator Diagnostics is an incredibly useful tool for identifying shopper insights and trial friction points – but leveraging its full potential often means combining data with human expertise to uncover the nuanced consumer motivations behind the numbers.

DIY research platforms like Numerator have changed how teams access and analyze shopper insights. But for all their benefits – speed, flexibility, and affordability – many teams struggle to use them effectively when diagnosing trial barriers. Understanding those challenges early can help you avoid mistakes and make better use of your research investments.

1. Difficulty Identifying the Right Data Cuts

Numerator Diagnostics contains a large amount of information. But not all of it is equally useful for uncovering trial friction. For teams that are new to analyzing shopper data, it can be overwhelming to know which filters to apply or which variables matter. Choosing the wrong data cuts can lead to misinterpretations or missed insights about why customers aren’t trying your brand.

2. Limited Context Around Shopper Behavior

DIY tools capture the when and what of shopper activity – but often lack the why. Without a trained insights expert guiding the analysis, key context can go unnoticed. For instance, a dip in trial might align with an out-of-stock issue or a pricing perception – but unless someone’s asking the right questions, these connections might remain hidden.

3. Time Constraints Within Internal Teams

DIY doesn’t always mean do-it-yourself alone. Internal teams are often stretched thin, juggling multiple priorities across brand strategy, innovation, and customer experience. As a result, they may not have the dedicated time or bandwidth to dig deep into diagnostic dashboards or uncover the true root causes of low trial conversion.

4. Skills Gaps in Data Interpretation

Market research tools are becoming more sophisticated, but they still depend on human judgment. If your team hasn't used Numerator Diagnostics before – or lacks experience translating data into action – core insights may be lost. Trying to tackle complex consumer research with limited experience can lead to analysis paralysis or superficial findings.

5. Misalignment Between Data Outputs and Business Priorities

A common issue arises when data outputs don’t align with what the business actually needs to know. DIY platforms only answer the questions they're asked. If trial barriers are the priority – but the data is sliced around brand loyalty or purchase frequency – it's easy to miss what’s really blocking consumer adoption.

How On Demand Talent Solves These Problems

Bringing in experienced insights professionals through SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution bridges these gaps. These experts understand both the platform and the category, ensuring that your investment in diagnostics tools leads to strategic wins. They can:

• Help your team frame the right research questions for Numerator
• Teach your team how to use and apply diagnostics data effectively
• Diagnose not just the symptoms but the root causes of trial resistance
• Map findings to specific brand or marketing actions

Rather than hiring a full-time employee or relying on short-term freelancers, On Demand Talent offers flexible, highly-skilled support that integrates into your workflow quickly – helping your team become more confident with these tools over time.

In an age of fast, flexible research, it pays to have the right people at the table. By solving the missteps common with DIY platforms, businesses can unlock the full value of their research tools and move from data to action with confidence.

Even brands with strong awareness and clear value propositions face the challenge of stagnant trial numbers. Often, the key to unlocking trial growth lies in identifying the shopper segments that simply aren’t considering your product in the first place.

Spotting Non-Triers in Numerator Diagnostics

With Numerator’s diagnostics tools, pinpointing these untapped audiences becomes possible using panel data. By isolating buying behaviors across specific demographics, retailers, and usage occasions, you can identify the ‘non-triers’ – those who have never engaged with your brand despite existing in your target market.

When diagnosing trial barriers in Numerator, look at data segments filtered by:

• Category buyers who have never purchased your brand
• Lapsed buyers or those who only purchased once
• Retailers where your product is commonly available but faces low basket penetration
• Demographics or household types with high category spend but no past interaction with your brand

Common Non-Trial Segments That Matter

Not all non-triers are equal. Some segments may be more strategically valuable than others based on size, growth opportunity, or alignment with your brand strategy. Here are a few common examples (fictional, for illustration only):

A plant-based frozen entrée brand discovers that millennial families with kids are underrepresented in its trial pool – not because of disinterest, but due to a category entry barrier: skepticism about taste authenticity.

Or perhaps a premium household cleaner finds it's missing trial among budget-conscious Gen Z renters, largely because of price visibility and unclear value in the product description at shelf.

Linking Segment Insights to Action

Once you’ve identified key non-trial groups using Numerator, the next step is uncovering why they haven’t tried. Are there awareness gaps? Misaligned messaging? Behavioral or psychological trial barriers?

Understanding these nuances can help shape effective trial conversion strategies, from refining your audience targeting to testing new claims or sampling efforts. And while Numerator is powerful for identifying who isn’t trying, interpreting those patterns often requires additional expertise – which leads us to the next challenge.

Seeing the “what” in your data – such as who isn’t trying your brand – is often just the beginning. But uncovering the “why” requires peeling back layers beyond purchase behaviors. Psychological and behavioral trial barriers are often hidden forces that hold shoppers back from trial, even when a need exists.

What’s Behind Behavioral Trial Barriers?

Behavioral barriers stem from habits, routines, and shopping patterns that keep consumers from considering alternatives. For example, a consumer may stick to one toothpaste brand simply because it’s what they’ve always used. Even presented with a fresher or more cost-effective product, they might not switch due to a subconscious “default mode.”

These barriers are hard to observe in data alone. That’s where insight professionals come in – helping connect the dots between quantitative metrics and the psychological drivers that influence trial decisions.

How Expert Researchers Add Value to DIY Tools

While Numerator diagnostics platforms provide rich purchase data, human expertise is key to unlocking meaning from the numbers. Senior insights professionals can:

• Design follow-up research to uncover underlying consumer beliefs or misperceptions
• Interpret behavioral patterns through a psychological lens (e.g., risk aversion, brand loyalty, influence of social norms)
• Bridge the gap between observed behavior and unspoken motivations
• Help teams avoid bias when interpreting self-serve dashboards

For example, a fictional beverage company struggling to drive trial among fitness-conscious consumers might find the reason is not price or availability, but a mental association with sugary energy drinks. This kind of insight doesn’t surface in transactional data – it requires contextual exploration and strategic interpretation.

When to Bring in Expert Help

If your team finds itself asking questions like, “What’s really stopping these consumers from trying us?” or “How do we know if this barrier is emotional or functional?” – it’s a good time to bring in outside support.

SIVO’s On Demand Talent connects you with seasoned consumer research professionals who can guide your team through this exact challenge. Whether it’s adding qualitative layers to your Numerator analytics, designing new ways to test trial incentives, or leading high-impact behavioral diagnostics, the right expert makes a measurable difference.

DIY research tools like Numerator have revolutionized how insights teams access and analyze shopper data. But even the best platforms can leave teams facing decision roadblocks – especially when diagnostics get complex or time is limited.

Common Gaps in DIY Diagnostic Workflows

As powerful as Numerator is, it’s not immune to missteps or missed insights. Teams often encounter challenges like:

• Unclear visualization of root causes behind trial gaps
• Difficulty knowing how to segment and prioritize non-triers
• Overwhelming dashboards with no clear next action
• Insight fatigue – lots of data, little clarity
• Lack of in-house expertise to expand findings into relaunches or campaigns

When these hurdles emerge, teams sometimes scramble to hire consultants or freelancers – but this adds delays, mixed experience levels, or inconsistent delivery. That’s where On Demand Talent excels.

How SIVO’s On Demand Talent Solution Supports Your Team

On Demand Talent offers you flexible access to experienced insights professionals ready to plug into your project in days – not weeks or months. These are seasoned experts who’ve run diagnostics before, across a range of industries, and know how to steer tools like Numerator toward smarter decisions and faster trial conversions.

Here’s what that could look like in practice:

Imagine your team identifies a potential behavioral barrier in Numerator data. An On Demand consumer insights expert quickly picks up the thread, leads a focused study to validate the cause (e.g., confusion at shelf), and co-develops a clear activation plan to relaunch packaging or adjust messaging. The support is embedded, swift, and strategic – not offloaded to an outside agency with a long ramp-up time.

More Than Temporary Support – It’s Capability Building

Unlike freelancers or consultants, On Demand Talent is designed to transfer knowledge into your team. Whether it’s showing marketers how to interpret shopper insights more confidently or helping junior analysts learn qualitative add-ons to complement diagnostics, every engagement makes your team stronger long term.

It’s not just about solving today’s diagnostic challenge – it’s about equipping your team to run smarter, faster, and more confidently across every market research issue ahead.