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.
Have you ever returned home from a shopping trip and realized you bought way more than you had planned? The Gruen Effect might be to blame. The podcast 99% Invisible broke down the phenomenon. The Gruen Effect occurs when you are so distracted by a store’s lights, colors, and beautiful product display that you lose track…
The Say-Do Gap is real. I used to think it was all about whether people were being honest about their behavior—but now I realize it’s more about how unaware we actually are of what we do. And that gap gets even wider when we try to predict what we would do in the future. More…
Introduction Every package—sustainable or not—needs to nail three key functions to be effective: When considering sustainable packaging, if the design doesn’t meet these goals, it doesn’t matter how sustainable the offering is: it’s missed the point entirely. Protect The most sustainable packaging is the one that actually keeps a product intact until it is used. When products…
Back to Nature Redesigns that represent a major departure are always a watch-out for us, but the true risk is completely related to who the brand is and what the objectives are for the redesign. If you are a strong brand with specific equities that mean something to shoppers, you will want to tread carefully.…
Watching video footage of panel-recruited respondents “shopping” in a recent conference presentation reminded me of the unfortunate truth that for all the benefits of operational efficiency, there is a significant cost of respondent re-use: data validity. I could tell the behavior shown wasn’t “real”, even though it was captured in a real store. A few…
In my non-profit board work, I have been learning a lot about fundraising best practices and the need to build strong, long-term relationships. In sales training, I have been learning the same. Relationships make life better, but the challenge is that, as humans, our capacity—and willingness—to nurture them is limited. This fact is super relevant…
Our industry thinks a lot about qualitative vs. quantitative, but is that the right focus? More often, it is more important to focus on the quality of the methods. Quality that reflects validity should be table stakes in our industry, but it isn’t. Moving quickly in the wrong direction doesn’t build brands or unlock growth. …
In a seemingly serious contradiction, Luke Cahill is a self proclaimed introvert who has spoken to thousands of complete strangers. Listen to Real Insight CEO & Chief Nerd as he explains why real conversations with shoppers still matter https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vyL5FShNDZSV3nxVCm7Bb?si=7cafd1b5445e4185
As Seen in the Wild We humans are highly influenced by our environment consciously and in non-conscious ways. This is especially true in the store environment. After thousands upon thousands of hours doing consumer research in stores, REAL Insight understands the immense value of collecting data that accounts for the chaos and variance you can…
As Seen in the Wild Series After diving into breakthrough barriers in the store environment in part 1, we are going to zoom in on potential package pitfalls that are easy-to-miss. With thousands of packages vying for a shopper's attention throughout a trip, the little details that you can only see in-store, make or break…