With over 30 years of experience, REAL Insight has led projects across a variety of industries that successfully identified consumer behavior and expectations, helping CPG companies, retailers, and other clients understand how consumers act in a variety of contexts.
AGILE! SPRINT! LEAN START-UP! SCRAPPY! We are in an age where many paradigms are shifting quickly. Brand equity isn’t functioning the way it used to. Consumers are demanding more transparency and authenticity from companies than ever before. Start-ups are taking on big companies and winning more than ever. Non-traditional success stories are becoming more of the norm for innovation…
In our modern world, the gap between in-person realities and online perceptions can feel vast. Life, as seen on social media is filtered, perfected, and potentially polarized. These perspectives can feel exciting for those who have embraced this curated worldview and scary for those who would rather not. Connecting with people IRL feels much more…
Storytelling is important. In today's world, the breadth of channels for telling stories is broad, and we are exposed to many more stories than we have been in the past. Research has always been in the business of telling stories but may not have always put a strong emphasis on telling a good story in…
Behavioral Economics is HOT right now. The industry is gaining appreciation for the inconsistencies between self-reported and actual behavior, which we at REAL Insight are obvious fans of. As a team, we spend thousands of hours in stores each year observing how these behaviors differ across shoppers. One specific area we have come to better…
This is the time of year when reflection is easy. And this year, it is fun as well! REAL Insight enjoyed a good year full of successful projects, and some of our other developments truly made it great! Here are a few of the highlights: We experienced a baby boom! Five little researchers have joined…
As you know, perception is reality for shoppers. Relying on traditional concept evaluation tools presents a challenge; concepts are already fully explained before the consumer can share their thoughts even with more iterative, on-trend methodologies. Yet, concept understanding at-shelf is essentially a barometer of how much effort and cost will be required to gain traction.…
Another key note speaker at the Corporate Researchers conference was Derek Thompson, author of Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction. I was particularly struck by his analysis around the myth of novelty which directly impacts some of our innovation work. He describes this as “people like sneakily familiar positive variations…
The start of a new year is always exciting! A fresh beginning. Full of anticipation. It helps to be coming off of a strong end to 2017 and kicking off the new year with a busy January. We are kicking off a fun year with a fresh environment: a newly renovated office! Our space now has…
Recently, I had a great three days at the Corporate Researchers Conference in Chicago. It was a blast to nerd out with fellow researchers, and it was hugely validating to both our primary focus on in-context research and some of the key initiatives we have been working on for the last couple of years. Over…
, As a company whose roots lie with in-store intercepts, we have always had an appreciation for the purity and predictability of learning about shopping behavior and testing concepts/packaging in a real retail environment with shoppers who were in the store to shop. Reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman reinforced the idea that we need…