Four ways, each with a job to do. One-off studies, segmentation analysis, behavioural tracking, and trend analysis over time. Use only the first two and you’ll get a static picture that’s already out of date. Use the third and forth well and you’ll see movement – which, in a volatile market, matters more than scale….

In practice, five things matter most: the practical routines that become habit, life stage and household context, how people feel about their finances, the emotional state they’re carrying, and the wider cultural pull that everyone claims to ignore and almost nobody actually does. The textbook answer usually groups these into four broad categories – economic,…

Not by changing minds. By meeting moods. Brands influence consumer behaviour most reliably when they connect with an emotional need the consumer already has – usually a deficit – and give them the feeling they’re missing. The rational case for the brand comes second, and it lands as permission, not persuasion. The textbook model of…

In practice, five things matter most: the practical routines that become habit, life stage and household context, how people feel about their finances, the emotional state they’re carrying, and the wider cultural pull that everyone claims to ignore and almost nobody actually does. The textbook answer usually groups these into four broad categories – economic,…

Because the person who answers the survey isn’t the same person who makes the purchase. We like to think of ourselves as rational. In practice, we decide with our guts and explain afterwards with our heads. Ask a consumer why they bought something and you’ll get a confident, plausible, frequently wrong answer. The attitude-behaviour gap…

Every brand says it’s “customer-led.” Most are guessing. The difference between the two usually comes down to one thing – consumer insight. Done properly, it’s the discipline that turns customer behaviour into commercial direction. Done badly, or skipped entirely, it’s the reason good products launch to silence and well-funded campaigns fall flat. Here’s what consumer…

Close, but not clean. Consumer sentiment does shape what people buy – it just doesn’t do it in the one-to-one way most tracking assumes. The headline sentiment number is a composite. The same 30% optimism figure can be arrived at from completely different routes, each with a very different purchase pattern sitting underneath. Read the…

Less than people think – and more than balance sheets suggest. What changes in a downturn isn’t the invention of new behaviours. It’s the speed at which latent ones surface, the cover they find to become socially acceptable, and the stickiness they develop once the worst has passed. The textbook view of recession behaviour is…

Why do UK consumers cut back even when they can afford not to? Because cutting back isn’t about what people can afford. It’s about protection, permission and mood – and right now, across the UK, all three point the same way. Conventional economics assumes spending follows income. More money in, more money out. When people…