Introduction
- What makes empathy treks unique for CPG innovation research
- How to recruit real consumers to generate richer insights
- Tips for planning research in context and collecting meaningful feedback
- How to connect findings back to business decisions
- What makes empathy treks unique for CPG innovation research
- How to recruit real consumers to generate richer insights
- Tips for planning research in context and collecting meaningful feedback
- How to connect findings back to business decisions
Why Use an Empathy Trek for CPG Product Launches?
Unlike structured surveys or lab-based product testing, empathy treks are conducted in real-life, in-context settings. That might mean spending time in consumers’ homes, shopping with them in-store, or observing how they use similar products in everyday routines. By engaging directly with participants in their own environments, researchers capture behavioral cues, emotional associations, and usage patterns that are difficult to replicate in artificial settings.
Empathy Trek research is especially valuable in the early stages of product development. It informs key decisions such as:
Consumer Pain Points and Unmet Needs
What challenges are people facing in a category? What workarounds have they adopted? Real-world observation reveals friction in ways self-reported data doesn't always capture.Usage Contexts
Where, when, and how are products being used? In-home versus on-the-go use might influence design, sizes, or packaging.Emotional Drivers
Beyond function, what emotional needs do products fulfill? Perhaps a snack isn’t just about hunger, but about parenting, control, or indulgence.Influencing Factors
Who else is involved in product choices – family members, peers, or influencers? These hidden dynamics often shape purchase behavior. Because empathy treks are conducted early enough in the innovation cycle, their findings can directly shape product features, branding, positioning, and retail experience. Instead of reacting to poor sales post-launch, businesses move forward with confidence, knowing their decisions are grounded in consumer reality. Here’s how empathy treks contribute to stronger CPG product launches:- Reveal hidden consumer routines, behaviors, and pain points
- Identify innovation opportunities rooted in emotional value
- Build cross-functional alignment around the consumer voice
- Create empathy-based messaging and positioning that connects
Step 1: Recruit Real Consumers Aligned with Your Product
Define Your Ideal Consumer Profile
Start by working with your insights team or research partner to define who you're targeting. Be clear and specific, but avoid getting too narrow too soon – remember, this is part of your learning process. Key criteria might include:- Current usage habits (e.g., frequent users of similar products)
- Lifestyle and routines (e.g., busy parents, health-conscious shoppers)
- Shopping behavior (e.g., grocery store loyalists vs. online-only consumers)
- Attitudes toward the category (e.g., value-seekers, eco-conscious buyers)
Balance Representation and Realism
In empathy treks, depth matters more than representation in a statistical sense. Aim for a thoughtfully selected group rather than broad coverage. Quality over quantity ensures deeper engagement and more actionable consumer feedback. SIVO often recommends a sample of 6–8 participants for a typical CPG empathy trek. This allows for rich, individualized insight without overwhelming your team with data.How to Recruit Participants
Recruiting can be handled in several ways, depending on your resources: • Use a professional recruiter with experience in market research and CPG categories • Collaborate with retail partners or community networks who engage your target consumers • Tap into social media, loyalty programs, or email lists to reach users already engaged with your brand or categorySet Expectations Early
Because empathy treks often happen in real environments – like homes, stores, or public spaces – it’s important to explain what participation involves. Participants should be comfortable with being observed or audio recorded, and with sharing honest feedback without judgment. Respect is key. SIVO ensures participants feel valued and safe throughout the research journey, thereby encouraging more open responses.By starting with the right people, you lay the groundwork for meaningful insights and decisions. In the next sections, we’ll cover how to choose locations, plan the session, and guide the conversation to deliver clear value for your product development team. The voice of your consumer begins with who you choose to listen to. Get that part right – and the rest of your innovation journey becomes much more focused and effective.
Step 2: Choose In-Context Locations That Reflect Daily Life
One of the most powerful aspects of an empathy trek is its setting. Where the research takes place is just as important as who participates. In-context qualitative research methods allow you to observe consumers in their natural environments – places where they make everyday choices that relate directly to your category. These locations spark authentic behaviors and reveal organic reactions that traditional in-home interviews or focus groups often miss.
What makes a location “in-context”?
An “in-context” location mirrors the real-life settings where your target audience encounters your product or category. For CPG product launches, these often include:
- Grocery stores and retail aisles where product selection happens
- Kitchen or pantry spaces where products are stored and used
- Restaurants, coffee shops, or lunchrooms where consumption occurs
- Commutes or on-the-go moments if your product is used outside the home
By visiting consumers in these real-world spaces, you're not just asking questions – you're observing choices, habits, and emotional responses in context.
Consider the “moment of truth”
Think about when your product enters a consumer’s life. Is it when they’re grocery shopping and scanning shelves? When they’re preparing dinner on a busy weekday? Choose times and spaces that coincide with these key touchpoints. Research planning at this stage should align with your CPG innovation cycle so insights can inform critical development and commercialization phases.
Tips for choosing the right locations
- Start with the category: Where is your product discovered, bought, and used?
- Balance logistics with authenticity: Safely accessible but close to consumers’ real lives
- Capture different settings: Visiting a few varied environments adds richness to your empathy-based research plan
- Prepare for variability: No two homes, groceries, or routines are the same – and that’s what makes this method effective
Real-life research for CPG launches isn’t about producing idealized footage – it’s about understanding day-to-day nuance. These observational insights offer a window into not just what people do, but why they do it, revealing unmet needs and emotional context critical for product development.
Ultimately, selecting the right in-context locations sets the stage for meaningful empathy trek moments. It lets you see consumers as people first – not data points – which is what drives more human, resonant innovation.
Step 3: Moderate with Purpose to Capture Emotions and Behavior
At the heart of every successful empathy trek is intentional moderation. When capturing true consumer insights for product launch, it’s not just about asking the right questions – it’s about creating space for real feelings, behaviors, and stories to emerge. Moderators act less like interviewers and more like open-minded observers and empathetic guides.
Why moderation matters
In empathy-based research planning, the moderator’s role is grounded in listening, observing, and drawing out meaningful moments. Consumers may not always articulate exactly what they think or feel about your product, especially in early innovation stages. Skilled moderation techniques help connect the dots between what people say and what their behavior reveals.
Best practices for moderating an empathy trek
- Lead with empathy: Begin each session by building trust. Make participants feel safe and understood, not evaluated.
- Observe before probing: Let participants lead in their environment. Watch what they do before interrupting or asking detailed questions.
- Use open-ended prompts: Say things like “Walk me through your routine” or “Tell me more about what you're thinking when you do that.”
- Notice non-verbal cues: A hesitation, facial expression, or gesture can say more than words.
- Handle silence well: Don’t rush to fill quiet moments. They often invite deeper insights to surface.
The true power of moderation during an empathy trek lies in spotting emotional undercurrents – frustration, delight, indifference – that influence decision-making. These hidden motivators help market research translate from data collection into understanding.
For example, watching a busy parent hurriedly grab a snack might reveal time pressure as a pain point. Or noticing hesitation while comparing labels could point to decision fatigue or a trust issue in certain claims. None of these are likely to be said aloud – but skilled moderation techniques can bring them to light.
Consider pairing your empathy trek moderator with peers from product development, marketing, or innovation research roles. Their presence – even just as observers – helps build cross-functional alignment around the emotions and unmet needs uncovered in the field.
Done right, moderation fuels clarity. It unlocks stories that numbers alone can’t capture and helps turn surface-level feedback into the deep insights needed for truly consumer-centric products.
Step 4: Debrief and Translate Insights into Actionable Next Steps
After the trek wraps, the real work begins – translating what you’ve seen, heard, and felt into clear direction for your CPG product launch. Empathy treks are qualitative by design, but that doesn’t mean they can’t inform strategy. In fact, a well-facilitated debrief is where market research becomes business impact.
Why the debrief matters
In the rush of product development – especially within tight innovation cycles – it’s easy to move on too quickly. But deep consumer insights need reflection and alignment. An effective debrief connects research planning to real priorities: customer needs, product features, messaging tone, or packaging cues. It’s about turning human observation into practical movement.
Debrief in layers
- First impressions: Immediately after the trek, gather your team and share spontaneous reflections. What surprised you? What moments felt emotional or revealing?
- Thematic synthesis: Identify recurring themes across different visits. Are there shared unmet needs, barriers, or aspirations?
- Behavior + meaning: Connect what consumers did with why they did it. Highlight tensions between stated preferences and actual behavior.
- Business application: End with implications: What can you refine, add, or remove in your product strategy based on these insights?
Consider leveraging a visual storytelling method – like mood boards, verbatim highlight reels, or consumer journey maps – to bring the empathy trek experience to internal stakeholders who weren’t in the field. These tools help humanize your findings and ensure your consumer stays front-and-center as decisions are made.
Lastly, remember that insights from an empathy trek shouldn’t live in a report alone. They should ripple through product development, from R&D to marketing. Whether you’re refining positioning, optimizing packaging, or validating claims, these insights tether your team to the real people you serve.
When timing research with product development, well-planned debriefs ensure that valuable empathy-based insights remain timely, actionable, and directly relevant to launch decisions. It’s about linking real-life stories to meaningful strategy – and that’s where empathy treks shine.
Summary
Empathy treks offer a unique way to tap into consumer truth by stepping into people’s everyday lives and learning firsthand how your product fits – or doesn’t – into their routines. From identifying the right participants and in-context locations to moderating with purpose and distilling insights during the debrief, each step in this process contributes to a more thoughtful, consumer-led CPG product launch.
Grounded in qualitative research and designed for agility, empathy treks offer powerful consumer insights for product launch teams. They provide something that surveys and data points alone can’t: authentic, emotional context that fuels better innovation decisions.
As CPG brands look to stay ahead of trends and meet real customer needs, empathy-based research planning offers a roadmap grounded in human truth. SIVO Insights is here to help teams design and execute treks that unlock clarity, confidence, and connection – at every stage of product development.
Summary
Empathy treks offer a unique way to tap into consumer truth by stepping into people’s everyday lives and learning firsthand how your product fits – or doesn’t – into their routines. From identifying the right participants and in-context locations to moderating with purpose and distilling insights during the debrief, each step in this process contributes to a more thoughtful, consumer-led CPG product launch.
Grounded in qualitative research and designed for agility, empathy treks offer powerful consumer insights for product launch teams. They provide something that surveys and data points alone can’t: authentic, emotional context that fuels better innovation decisions.
As CPG brands look to stay ahead of trends and meet real customer needs, empathy-based research planning offers a roadmap grounded in human truth. SIVO Insights is here to help teams design and execute treks that unlock clarity, confidence, and connection – at every stage of product development.
