Be consumer first. Don’t be consumer only. Powerful words by leading Insights executive, Khary Campbell, VP of Consumer Research & Insights at Comcast.
https://youtu.be/xJSQO7VSw5Q
During a recent SIVO Insights Forum, Khary shared the importance of considering the implications of all functions. After all, every function is working in orchestra of the business.
Click here for a lively on-demand conversation “Bridging The Gap: Translating Insights Into Meaningful Business Results" to hear from Khary and other Insights experts including Eliana Whanon (General Mills, VP of Consumer & Market Insights) and Elizabeth Oates (Book Author, and former Ulta Beauty VP of Consumer Insights.)
Learn from Insights leaders as they discuss:
Thank you to Natasha Weith, VP of Research at SIVO Inc. for hosting The SIVO Insights Forum!
As 2026 planning season approaches, most leaders are focused on big decisions: where to invest, how to grow, and which bets to place. But the strongest strategies don’t begin with goals, they begin with your consumers.
In fact, the annual planning season is the perfect time to pressure-test assumptions. Before you finalize budgets or commit to growth strategies, it pays to refresh your understanding of today’s consumer landscape. What’s changed? What’s emerging? And what gaps in understanding could derail your decisions?
This post outlines how to approach annual planning through the lens of consumer truth, so you can build smarter, more aligned strategies. Let’s dive in!
For many organizations, planning still begins with internal goal-setting: revenue and profit targets, innovation and growth priorities, and cost cutting. And high-performing teams know that successful strategy isn’t just about setting ambition, it’s about aligning that ambition to current market conditions.
Consumer behavior is one of the most dynamic variables in that equation, and often, one of the most overlooked. Market assumptions that were true a year ago may no longer apply. Purchasing patterns, motivations, and category expectations can shift quickly, especially in volatile economic environments like the current one. And if your plan doesn’t reflect those changes, it’s much more likely to underperform.
This consumer-centric understanding is foundational. It informs product decisions, pricing, messaging, innovation, and channel strategy. Without it, even well-intentioned plans can quickly drift out of sync with real consumer needs. Starting with the consumer also accelerates alignment. It gives cross-functional teams, from marketing to finance to sales, a shared understanding of where the business is heading and why. It moves planning conversations from opinion to evidence and from speculation to strategy.
If the case still isn’t clear, consider this: even well-resourced plans fail when they aren’t aligned with current consumer behavior. It’s often not about effort or execution, it’s about starting with the right inputs. Let’s look at a few examples:
Outdated consumer insights can lead to misdirected efforts, misaligned messaging, missed opportunities, and unnecessary risk. To illustrate what this looks like in practice, here are two common scenarios where strategy easily goes off track because the consumer context was never fully validated.
A company sets aggressive growth targets and decides to compete more directly with newer players in the category. They allocate budget toward developing a new product with features they believe will differentiate them. The plan gets approved. Timelines are set. Everyone is getting ready to mobilize fast and execute.
But the innovation was based on an internal assumption about what consumers wanted – not on recent consumer insight. In reality, consumers weren’t looking for more features. They were looking for simplicity, availability and value. The company spends $$$ getting the launch ready, but the product doesn’t gain any traction. The opportunity for a product refresh was real, but the execution missed the mark because actual buyers weren’t consulted.
Another company, facing margin pressure, looks for quick wins through cost reductions. They make the decision to cut a service element they believe is underutilized, based on operational data and internal team feedback.
What they didn’t realize is that this element was one of the few remaining differentiators in the eyes of their customers. It wasn’t used loudly, but it created trust and loyalty. Cutting it might save money in the short term, but it might erode value perception and reduce retention in the long term.
A brand team, focused on stabilizing performance, decides to stick with the same marketing and channel strategy that had worked well in the past. But in the background, both consumer behavior and category norms had shifted.
Competitors began simplifying their digital experience, consolidating touchpoints, and creating seamless mobile journeys. Meanwhile, this brand was still investing in a fragmented app strategy and outdated content flows. The team didn’t realize that expectations had changed. Consumers weren’t looking for more brand interaction, they were looking for convenience and control in one place. By the time results started to dip, the gap was already visible. A competitive audit or trend review could have flagged these shifts much earlier, giving the brand time to adapt before losing relevance.
These are not unusual cases. They reflect a planning process that moved forward before validating the reality on the ground. Other common issues include planning around outdated needs or occasions, targeting segments that have shifted or declined, or simply prioritizing the things that don’t matter to consumers anyways. None of these decisions are inherently flawed, but when they’re based on outdated or assumed insight, the risk of “planning in the wrong direction” increases.
The good news is you don’t always need to start from scratch. In many cases, the best approach is to audit what you already have, identify gaps, and decide what needs to be refreshed or revalidated.
Here are some key areas worth pressure-testing, before you commit to planning:
Many teams start with a Get Smart session. It’s a fast-turn immersion that pulls together everything you already know, from existing data to partner knowledge to internal POVs, and highlights what’s still missing. These sessions help surface blind spots, align teams, and set the foundation for what to explore further through new research or analysis, which will lay the foundation for a solid and strategic plan.
Insight work at this stage doesn’t need to be complex. It just needs to be focused, current, and relevant to the decisions you’re about to make.
The strongest strategic plans are built on a clear understanding of the consumer. When that understanding is current, relevant, and grounded in reality, teams make better decisions, faster, with less risk, and greater impact. At SIVO, we help businesses enter planning season with confidence:
Whether you need to revalidate consumer segments, understand emerging behaviors, or map new usage occasions, our team designs studies that answer the right questions at the right time. We work fast, focus on what matters to your business, and turn insight into clear recommendations for strategic use you can easily relate to in your annual plans.
Need to align insights and teams quickly? Our Get Smart sessions help you make sense of what you already know and highlight the gaps that matter most. These sessions help build internal alignment early and avoid late pivots, and are perfect as a foundation for your annual plans.
Already have an internal insights team, but planning season is stretching your resources? SIVO’s On Demand Talent gives you access to senior insights professionals who can plug into your team quickly. Whether you need a trends lead, moderator, or strategic storyteller, we match you with the right expert, without hiring delays and long-term commitments. The perfect flexbile insights approach to supercharge your insights team for the planning season!
Consumer truth is the foundation of smarter annual planning. Whether you're building that foundation or scaling your team to deliver it, we're here to help.
by Cindy Blackstock
In Part 1 of our Jobs Theory series, we described how uncovering the underlying needs and motivations of consumer decisions leads to new opportunities for product innovation, renovation and positioning/messaging. Now let’s dig into the keys to success for Consumer Job Mapping.
“Jobs to Be Done” mapping works for all industries and any products or service to create a competitive advantage for your company or brand. There are a few points to consider when embarking on jobs discovery:
There are multiple ways to understand your consumer: in-home observation, longitudinal diaries, one-on-one interviews, in-context intercepts, etc. The optimal approach should be customized for your objectives and your consumers.
Enlist an experienced researcher to listen and interpret your consumers’ words and behaviours to identify the Job. For example, consumers cannot answer the question “What job are you hiring this face cream for?” Asking the right questions in the right way is key to uncovering hidden motivations.
A jobs map will be comprised of multiple jobs ranging from functional to emotional. Ensure each job has been defined – or structured – with context, motivation, and desired outcome. For example, a consumer statement such as “When (the situation) … I want / need (the motivation) … so I can (outcome).
Go beyond just identifying the job. Use activation sessions to translate the Jobs to address your team’s business goals. For example, mapping competitors against your jobs map identifies “white space” opportunities for new product innovation.
At SIVO, we have successfully helped our clients identify opportunities with Job Mapping including white space and positioning opportunities to win in the market place. Here are a few examples to bring it to life.
Innovate in an existing category
OPPORTUNITY: A food manufacturer wanting to find white space in the hot snack category to grow sales and earn a bigger share of consumers’ wallets.
SIVO APPROACH: We used a multi-phased approach to get a comprehensive view into the lives of their consumers. This included mobile journals, in-home ethnographies, in-store intercepts and product user immersion.
RESULT: With the Jobs Map framework, the client was easily able to identify and prioritize jobs signalling white space opportunities, and that led to the launch of a new and unique product to the hot snacks category.
Communicate with your target
OPPORTUNITY: An apparel supplier needed to more fully understand a new consumer target to develop effective messaging.
SIVO APPROACH: We dug deep with both consumers and the sales team to uncover hidden motivations for apparel purchases. We designed an approach that used online boards to capture longitudinal learning (multiple days of apparel choice) followed with webcam focus groups to dig deeper on what was uncovered during the online board.
RESULT: We learned how the target consumer “hired” her apparel and accessories to convey her personal style. This discovery was then reflected in our client’s Facebook and Instagram posts with a focus on the finer details and accessories that are unique to this apparel brand.
Position your new product
OPPORTUNITY: A tech start-up had developed a training app for athletes and were preparing for their next wave of fundraising. They needed to demonstrate they knew their target consumer and how to communicate with them. The company had a hypothesis around what their target consumer was looking for but needed to be sure.
SIVO APPROACH: We needed to capture the First Moment of Truth when exposed to the app and the Second Moment of Truth after using the app. We combined one on one interviews capturing the immediate reaction to the app, followed by a 2-week diary using the app, then one-on-one interviews to learn about the experience.
RESULT: SIVO uncovered an new consumer job, “I want to train like a pro” which was more compelling than the client’s original positioning for the App. The client shifted the messaging, in their introductory video, to focus on this job.
Are you ready to uncover, activate and deliver on your consumers’ jobs through data-driven product evaluation services? Please reach out to SIVO and we will help you build a Consumer Job Map that is full of opportunities to grow your business!
By Kerry Juhl
Brand positioning is a critical component of a successful marketing strategy. It defines how a brand is perceived in the minds of its consumer target, differentiating it from key competitors. A well-crafted positioning statement serves as the foundation for all marketing efforts and ensures consistent messaging across all channels.
The SIVO team has spent many years helping brand teams develop and evaluate brand positionings across a variety of industries. While every positioning project is somewhat unique, we have supported our clients with proven frameworks and research approaches, leading to the development of successful brand positionings.
The Positioning Statement
A positioning statement is a concise description of how a brand wants to “show up” in the world, highlighting the primary (and ideally, unique) benefit it provides, along with the rationale for how it can deliver the benefit. The statement typically includes the following format and elements:
For (consumer target), Brand is the only product type that provides (key benefit), because Brand has (feature/reason to believe), (feature/reason to believe) and (feature/reason to believe).
For example, Volvo’s positioning statement looks something like this:
For safety-conscious families, Volvo premium automobiles offer the safest cars on the road because they have advanced safety features, industry-leading crash test ratings, and innovative safety technologies.
The Brand Benefit Ladder
At the heart of developing a strong brand positioning is a solid understanding of the Brand Benefit Ladder, a strategic tool used early in the positioning development process. It helps brand teams articulate the value proposition by identifying benefits at four levels:
1) What it is
2) What it does
3) How it makes you feel
4) How it can transform your life
This framework ensures a clear articulation of the brand’s offerings and the emotional and transformational benefits they provide. Depending on the brand’s maturity and the competitive landscape, positioning can be based on functional benefits (what it is/what it does) or a more emotional/transformational benefits (how it makes me you feel/changes your life).
Positioning Types
There are a variety of positioning types that fit across the Brand Benefit Ladder:
Product Features:
Attribute-Based Positioning centers on specific features that distinguish the product.
Example: For homeowners, Dyson vacuum cleaners are superior carpet cleaners because they offer superior suction, advanced filtration, and allergen removal.
Value-Based Positioning is linked specifically to the price value of the product.
Example: For price-sensitive shoppers, Walmart offers everyday low prices by leveraging its extensive supply chain and scale to provide unbeatable savings on a vast assortment of goods, ensuring customers can save money and live better.
Functional Benefits:
Benefit-based Positioning highlights the key functional benefits or solutions provided by the product.
Example: For fitness enthusiasts struggling to exercise regularly, Peloton is the exercise bike that keeps you motivated to exercise because it delivers an immersive and interactive experience, world-class instructors, and a supportive fitness community.
Problem-Solution Positioning focuses on the problems that the product solves for customers.
Example: For individuals suffering from dandruff, Head & Shoulders provides effective and long-lasting relief from dandruff flakes and itchiness because it has a clinically proven formula that eliminates dandruff, nourishes, and protects the scalp.
Emotional Benefits:
Lifestyle Positioning aligns the product with a particular emotion or feeling.
Example: For athletes and active individuals, Nike enhances athletic performance and empowers athletes to reach their full potential through its innovative, cutting-edge sportswear products.
Cultural Symbolism Positioning uses cultural symbols and references to position the brand within a cultural context.
Example: For motorcycle enthusiasts seeking an authentic and exhilarating riding experience, Harley-Davidson is the iconic motorcycle brand that delivers powerful, custom-made bikes with a rich American heritage and embodying the spirit of freedom, rebellion and individuality.
Purpose-Driven Benefits:
Innovation-led Positioning sets the brand up as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge technology.
Example: For environmentally conscious consumers and tech enthusiasts, Tesla is the leading electric vehicle and clean energy company that offers a sustainable environmental solution via their innovative high-performance electric cars and cutting-edge technology.
Purpose-led Positioning centers on what the brand is doing for the world rather than the product itself.
Example: For socially conscious consumers, TOMS is the footwear brand that provides stylish and comfortable shoes while also making a positive impact on communities around the world though its One-for-One model, where each purchase directly contributes to improving lives in underdeveloped countries.
Purpose-Driven Benefits:
Innovation-led Positioning sets the brand up as a leader in innovation and cutting-edge technology.
Example: For environmentally conscious consumers and tech enthusiasts, Tesla is the leading electric vehicle and clean energy company that offers a sustainable environmental solution via their innovative high-performance electric cars and cutting-edge technology.
Purpose-led Positioning centers on what the brand is doing for the world rather than the product itself.
Example: For socially conscious consumers, TOMS is the footwear brand that provides stylish and comfortable shoes while also making a positive impact on communities around the world though its One-for-One model, where each purchase directly contributes to improving lives in underdeveloped countries.
Regardless of the type of positioning and where it fits on the benefit ladder, all positioning statements need to be clear, credible, and differentiated from the competition. It can then be used to inspire marketing executions across channels, to create consistent communications and connections to the consumer target.
Researching Your Brand Positioning
Developing effective brand positioning requires rigorous research, with the ideal approach being a combination of qualitative and quantitative research.
1. Qualitative Exploration: This phase uses one-on-one in-depth interviews with current and potential consumers to explore brand perceptions and refine positioning language. It helps the client team explore and understand the nuanced emotional and rational drivers behind brand choice and allows the team to modify and improve the positioning statements in real-time, based on consumer input.
2. Quantitative Survey: Once the positioning statements are refined, quantitative research helps identify the most motivating positioning from a handful of alternatives. Surveys and real-world experiments (e.g., testing via digital ads) can be used to test different positioning statements among a larger sample, assessing the impact on brand perception and purchase interest.
By using a combination of qualitative exploration and quantitative validation, brand teams can ensure their positioning is not only compelling but also grounded in consumer reality.
Your Source for Expert Consumer Insights
At SIVO, Inc., we are dedicated to helping our clients develop brand positionings that are clear, unique, credible, and most importantly, relevant to your consumer target. We are trusted advisors in supporting your positioning development and will design custom learning plans that generate the insights needed to carve out a unique space in the market and connect with your consumers. This holistic approach will set the foundation for enduring brand success.
Contact us via our website form or email us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com today to schedule a discovery call!
Through the SIVO, Inc. "Modern Ways of Working" Mini Chat series, we spoke with a strategic consumer insights leader, Anna Estlund, Senior Director of Insights and Strategy at Pernod Ricard.
In this conversation with Natasha Weith, Anna discusses how she is working to the ways her team works to drive impact and efficiency. Examples include building more flexibility into her teams roles, spending more time focused on the front and end stages of projects and hiring on demand talent to extend the bandwidth of her team. All of these things allow Anna and her team to maximize their value and relevance to the organization. Check it out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhrIyqHooiM
Special thanks to Anna for generously sharing her experience and knowledge with our peers across the Insights industry!
SIVO Insights brings together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence. Have a business challenge? Let's talk!
We bring together research, talent, and intelligent technology to help organizations navigate complexity with confidence
