Customer Research & Customer Behaviour Research: How to Understand Customers and Their Decisions
TL;DR: what are Customer Research & Customer Behaviour Research?
Customer research helps organisations understand the people behind their data: what customers need, how they experience products and services, what shapes their choices, and where friction or opportunity sits across the journey. Customer behaviour research adds another layer by looking more closely at what people actually do, the habits and decisions they develop, and the real-world factors influencing those behaviours.
Used together, they help organisations move beyond surface metrics and assumptions. They can reveal why a product is struggling to gain traction, where an experience is breaking down, why an audience is drifting away, which needs are not being met, and where new opportunities may be emerging. This makes customer research relevant well beyond insight teams, informing product development, customer experience, brand strategy, innovation and major investment decisions.
The value of the research ultimately lies in the clarity it creates. By combining evidence about what customers say, what they do and the wider context shaping those behaviours, organisations can make decisions with a more realistic understanding of the people they are trying to serve.
What’s Wrong with Luxury Fashion and How to Fix It
TL;DR: Insights on luxury fashion, backed by years of observation of the field.
Luxury fashion is losing consumer trust because prices have risen while quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity and customer experience are perceived to have declined. Overproduction, constant creative-director changes, indiscriminate influencer marketing and trend-chasing have further diluted brand identity and made luxury feel increasingly mass-market.
To rebuild relevance, luxury brands need to return to the human and cultural foundations of luxury: exceptional quality, visible craftsmanship, transparency, distinctive storytelling, selective influence and personalised experiences before, during and after purchase. They must also understand a changing generation of Very Important Customers, including younger inherited-wealth consumers and new wealth created through technology, investment and entrepreneurship.
Drawing on ethnographic and netnographic research with luxury consumers and Cultural Opinion Leaders, this article explains what is going wrong, why it matters and what luxury brands should do next.
What Can 20 Winning Campaigns Based on Consumer Insights Teach Us?
TL;DR: What can successful campaigns teach us about consumer insights?
The best marketing and advertising campaigns use consumer insights to identify a meaningful human truth and turn it into a clear strategic action. Consumer insights are not simply statistics or observations. They explain why people behave as they do, what matters to them and how a brand can respond in a relevant and commercially useful way.
This article reverse-engineers 20 successful consumer insight campaigns from brands including Dove, Spotify, Snickers, Durex, Pret, Channel 4 and American Express. Together, the case studies show how consumer research can shape advertising, product innovation, brand positioning, customer experience and even social movements.
The recurring lesson is simple: begin with the real business problem, understand the cultural and behavioural forces behind it, translate the insight into a creative response, test the idea and use the results to guide the next decision.