For many manufacturers and retailers, the holiday season can be a “make or break” time period for generating sales and achieving revenue goals.  For this reason, it is critical to understand your customer’s holiday shopping attitudes, behaviors and motivations.  This is SIVO’s strength.  Through approaches like in-store shop-alongs, mobile missions, online communities and in-depth focus groups, SIVO can dig deep into understanding the mindset and behaviors of your target customers, while immersed in the holiday season.  Now is the time to act!  Let SIVO help you understand your holiday shoppers so you can anticipate their needs and preferences to… Win the Season!

Bringing you innovative performance marketing and
real-time digital shopper insights.

SIVO strives to be on the forefront of new technology and innovations in the insights industry. That is how we discovered Pear Commerce, a brilliant technology company that is on-pace to be the largest provider of shoppable media by the end of 2022! 

In 2018, Pear Commerce was founded by two talented serial tech entrepreneurs, Eric Martell and Alex Wyler, bringing their tech expertise to the world of retail.   

What is Shoppable Media? 

Shoppable media in retail means connecting any media (e.g. free and paid social, digital display, content, influencer, email, owned webpages, etc) to retailers with add-to-cart (ATC) functionality that is just “a click away”.

What are the benefits to Consumers?

Pear provides an industry-leading technology making shoppers online path to purchase frictionless which has been a leading reservation for consumers to shop online. Whether through a digital ad or your brand’s website, Pear uniquely gives consumers a “where to buy” choice, based on real time stock inventory checks and connects them to over 2,000 retail chains across the U.S. That is a clear point of difference.

What are the benefits to Marketing Teams?

A unique way-in to performance marketing. This revolution of advanced technology provides more data and less work for brand teams with real results. At the foundation, Pear provides full funnel click-to-conversion data which improves digital marketing performance while campaigns are in-market. They help marketers with: 

• Real-Time dashboard access for in-flight media optimizations 
• Retargeting & lookalike audiences built and pushed to ad networks; made from each step of the conversion funnel (page loads, add-to-cart, purchase) 
• Solving for distribution issues: Covid shifts, inventory/supply chain, availability, etc. by optimizing for retailer out-of-stocks across retailer locations 

What are the benefits to Insights Teams?

At this point you might be thinking, “That’s great, but isn’t SIVO an insights company?”  The answer is, “Yes!”  SIVO is all about understanding people and in this case, Pear’s technology helps SIVO and our clients better understand consumer preferences and consumers’ digital shopping behavior through real-time, in-market experimentation, such as: 

• Digital ad effectiveness via A/B testing of multiple campaign variables  
• Early new product post-launch feedback 
• Product attribute preferences, such as, flavors, pack sizes, package forms  
• Retailer and regional product sales strengths and gaps 
• Digital shopper path to purchase mapping, from ad engagement to add-to-cart, to sale 

As an example, Pear was able to help a CPG client create a data-driven approach to managing their digital marketing campaigns while also helping them to understand and optimize the plan based on shopper and retailer behavior.

The results were fantastic!  Pear created custom audiences for the brand using the client’s own 1^st party conversion data and saw 5x add-to-cart (ATC) rates compared to 3^rd party audiences and 20x ATC rates compared to the client’s website visitor audience. During the process, Pear scanned over 2,000 retailer’s digital shelves for real-time inventory to help shoppers purchase at their retailer of choice while also helping them avoid hitting out-of-stocks. The client also received valuable digital path to purchase insights and A/B testing results on different creative options to help optimize their digital campaign along the way. 

Through our partnership with Pear Commerce, SIVO can now help you achieve strong digital marketing results and new insights via performance marketing and real-time digital experimentation. To learn more about Pear Commerce and SIVO Market Intelligence solutions, please contact our SIVO team at Contact@SIVOInsights.com.   

What is a Consumer Target 

At the foundation of all great marketing initiatives is a complete and deep understanding of the consumer target. The consumer target is a specific and detailed description of the type of person who has needs or desires that you believe can be served or helped with your products or services. Truly identifying and understanding the consumer target can inspire creative and innovative thinking to help grow your brand through new products, marketing campaigns, or promotions that fulfill their needs and wants. 

Segmenting the Market to Identify Your Consumer Target 

Teams must be focused and clear about who their consumer target is and is not. This consumer does not represent everyone that purchases your product or service.  

A typical first step to identifying your consumer target is to segment the market you operate in. Market or consumer segmentation is a market research approach that allows you to divide the universe of potential consumers into smaller groups or segments based on their characteristics. The segments are composed of consumers who will respond similarly to marketing strategies because they have shared demographics, needs, interests, values and/or locations. Once the market has been segmented, an assessment is required to understand which segment of consumers offer the most potential for growth, i.e., which group is most likely to find value and be motivated by your business proposition and respond to your initiatives, across the 4Ps of product, placement, pricing, and promotion. 

Building Knowledge About Your Consumer Target 

While segmentation is a great first step in identifying your consumer target, it is only the beginning. Every day you will be faced with making business decisions based on what you know about your consumer target and how you think they will respond to your actions. You should have basic knowledge covering five key areas: 

1. What are their basic demographics? 
2. How do they live their lives? 
3. What do they care about? 
4. How and where do they shop? 
5. How do they interact with media?

Answering these questions requires a combination of sales data analyses, quantitative assessments such as, attitude and usage studies plus, qualitative, or observational techniques such as, in-depth interviews, in-store shop-alongs, and in-home ethnographic research to fully immerse in how your consumer target thinks, lives and shops. Oftentimes, this is referred to as developing the consumer target persona.

Building Consumer Empathy 

The ultimate goal is to build empathy for and intuition about your consumer target. You need knowledge to understand what is in their head (how they think) and empathy to understand what is in their hearts (how they feel and their underlying motivations). Most of the time, you yourself are not the target consumers so you must spend time with them to truly understand their lives, values, beliefs, and behaviors. The goal should be to move through the following spectrum to be able to genuinely empathize with your consumer target.

How to Get to Empathy for Your Consumer Target 

Building empathy is different from conducting a typical market research study. Market research is designed to answer specific business questions by getting feedback and perspective from consumers. For instance, you might conduct market research to understand how your product compares to the competition or what product varieties you should launch next. 

An empathy trek is solely designed to gain better understanding of who your consumer target is. It is a listening and observation exercise, designed to help you “walk in their shoes” and “feel what they feel.” In an empathy trek, you’ll explore how your consumer target lives, what they value, believe and how they behave. By building consumer empathy, you will build your intuition about them, and are able to make business decisions on their behalf. 

The Value of Truly Knowing Your Consumer Target 

The value of building empathy for your consumer target is tremendous. Specifically, it can:  

• Eliminate personal bias from business decisions and keep the team focused on consumer-centric decision making 
• Create informed intuition that enables better, faster decisions  
• Take you beyond just understanding to actually anticipating consumer needs  
• Improve the quality of marketing communications, product innovation and renovation efforts 
• Unlock exceptional customer service 

Your Source for Expert Consumer Insights   

As you and your team learn more about your consumer, your marketing and innovation ideas will get more targeted at serving their needs, which will in turn, make them more successful. Ideally, you will be able to reach them at key moments of truth, physically or digitally with personalized content that improves the brand experience and loyalty. 

At SIVO, we are dedicated to helping our clients identify and understand their consumer target’s perceptions, needs, beliefs, and behaviors. We create learning plans that will help you gain valuable insights by applying the right approaches to identify your market segments, consumer target persona and to build consumer empathy for you and your team.

Contact us via our website form or email us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com today to schedule a discovery call! 

Every year, businesses face the same challenge: key research projects grind to a halt when insights professionals go on vacation. Deadlines can slip, stakeholder requests pile up, and business decisions get delayed, all because critical expertise isn’t available when it’s needed most.

For many teams, the choice is either overloading remaining staff (leading to problems like burnout) or putting projects on hold (risking lost momentum and missed opportunities). But there’s a better way.

Leading brands solve this problem by leveraging On Demand Market Research Talent—highly skilled, fractional insights professionals who step in seamlessly, ensuring that research initiatives keep moving, even when core team members are out. Whether planned months in advance or needed at the last minute, these experts keep insights flowing year-round without the cost or commitment of full-time hiring.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• The hidden cost of vacation gaps in Insights and Analytics teams
• How on-demand insights professionals fill these gaps
• How leading brands use flexible research talent to maintain business continuity
• How to prepare for coverage gaps (and what to do if you didn’t)

If your research team has ever struggled to keep up during vacation seasons, this is for you. Let’s dive in.

The Hidden Cost of Vacation Gaps in Insights Teams 

Insights teams (or their superiors) often assume they can absorb the impact of vacation gaps—but the reality is more disruptive than expected. When key insights professionals are out of office, projects stall, timelines get pushed, and business decisions are delayed. The ripple effect extends beyond just a temporary pause—it can create significant financial, operational, and strategic costs. 

Delayed Research = Missed Opportunities 

Insights don’t operate in isolation. When research is postponed due to staffing shortages, marketing campaigns, product launches, and strategic initiatives suffer. A postponed concept test could mean missing the ideal market entry window, and a delayed brand study could leave unanswered questions right when leadership needs clarity. 

Burnout Increases & Productivity Declines 

The default response to vacation gaps? Overloading remaining team members. This short-term fix often leads to long-term burnout, reducing productivity and increasing the likelihood of rushed, lower-quality insights. High-performing researchers need time to recharge, but when teams are stretched too thin, performance—and retention—suffers. 

Loss of Institutional Knowledge & Context 

Even with strong documentation, there’s always implicit knowledge that only team members carry—research nuances, stakeholder preferences, and the context behind past decisions. When an insights pro steps away, this expertise temporarily disappears, forcing teams to either pause projects or make assumptions that may not align with prior research. 

Stakeholder Frustration & Lost Credibility 

Insights teams thrive on being trusted advisors to the business, but when gaps in coverage lead to stalled projects or incomplete data, stakeholder confidence erodes. If leadership views the insights function as unreliable, they may turn to gut instinct over data-driven decision-making—undermining the very role of the Consumer Insights function. 

The bottom line? Vacation gaps in insights teams aren’t just an inconvenience—they create costly disruptions that affect business performance. But there’s a way to avoid these risks while still ensuring that research professionals get the breaks they need.

Vacation gaps are inevitable—but research delays don’t have to be.  

How to Keep Market Research Running When Your Team Is Out 

Vacation gaps are inevitable—but research delays don’t have to be. The key to maintaining momentum without burnout is having a strategy in place before gaps happen. Whether you’re proactively planning or scrambling for last-minute coverage, here’s how leading companies keep research running smoothly, even when key team members are away. 

1. Bring in an Experienced Insights Pro—On Demand 

When key team members are out, the biggest risk is insights bottlenecks—studies stall, stakeholder questions pile up, and research deliverables get delayed. SIVO’s On-Demand Talent steps in seamlessly, ensuring business-critical work continues without disruption. 

• Assign an experienced insights consultant to step in and manage ongoing research—from moderating qualitative sessions to overseeing quant studies to basically doing anything your full-time hires are usually covering.  
• Have a dedicated insights pro handle analysis & reporting, so findings are delivered on time—even when your internal team is out. 
• No long hiring process. ODT experts onboard in days, keeping your projects moving. 

2. Get Temporary Coverage for High-Stakes Projects 

Certain projects can’t afford to pause just because someone is on vacation. Product launches, consumer deep dives, and ad testing require continuity and expert oversight. 

• ODT teams provides specialized researchers who can step into complex projects midstream—without missing a beat. 
• No need to push deadlines or overburden remaining team members. Temporary insights professionals ensure work stays on track. 

3. Avoid Costly Delays with Rapid-Response Staffing 

Sometimes, vacation coverage isn’t planned—it’s needed last-minute. Whether it’s a sudden leave of absence or a forgotten PTO overlap, scrambling to fill gaps can lead to expensive delays. 

• ODT rapid-response talent network means you don’t need to panic. The placement of insights professionals can happen within days, so projects don’t stall. 
• Teams stay lean without losing research momentum. No need for bringing on extra full-time hires to cover gaps, when short-term coverage is usually all that’s needed. 

Whether planned or unexpected, vacation gaps don’t have to slow down insights. With an On-Demand Talent strategy in place, businesses stay ahead of potential disruptions—avoiding last-minute scrambles and keeping research moving seamlessly year-round. 

How Top Brands Maintain Research Continuity During Vacation Gaps 

Leading companies plan ahead—or react quickly—with On-Demand Talent, ensuring no critical work falls through the cracks that can impact the organization. Here’s how organizations leverage fractional insights pros to bridge gaps and keep research running smoothly: 

1. Keeping Consumer Research on Track When Your Lead Insights Manager Is Out 

Scenario 1: A national CPG company has ongoing brand equity tracking and ad testing, but their Senior Consumer Insights Manager was heading out for a month-long vacation. 

Without coverage, research timelines would have slipped, and stakeholder meetings would have lacked fresh insights. Instead, the company brought in an On-Demand Consumer Insights Strategist to manage the process, ensuring: 

• Data collection and analysis continued without interruption.  
• Reports were delivered on time for marketing and leadership teams.  
• Actionable insights informed the next stage of brand strategy—without delays. 

This proactive approach prevented research bottlenecks and decision-making gaps, keeping the business moving. 

2. Avoiding a Last-Minute Crisis When an Insights Director’s PTO Overlaps With a Major Product Launch 

Scenario 2: A global food & beverage company had a new product launch scheduled—but their Head of Consumer Insights and two key team members had overlapping PTO. 

With final-stage concept testing still underway and last-minute adjustments needed for packaging and claims, the company faced a potential launch delay. Instead of postponing, they brought in a fractional Insights Lead to: 

• Step in immediately and oversee remaining consumer testing. 
• Ensure insights translated directly into marketing and sales execution. 
• Keep the launch on schedule—avoiding costly delays and lost momentum. 

ODT gave them specialized expertise exactly when they needed it, ensuring no compromises in research quality or speed. 

3. Handling an Unexpected Leave of Absence Without Overloading the Team 

Scenario 3: A leading technology brand was in the middle of a competitive landscape study when an unexpected leave of absence left their insights team short-staffed. 

Rather than overloading remaining team members or pressing pause on critical work, they: 

• Onboarded an On-Demand Market Researcher within a week to pick up where their team member left off.  
• Maintained the study’s original timeline, ensuring insights were delivered as planned.  
• Prevented burnout among the existing team while keeping leadership informed with fresh data. 

With rapid-response talent placement, the company avoided research disruptions and kept its competitive intelligence up to date. 

4. Managing Seasonal Vacation Overlaps Without Halting Innovation Research 

Scenario 4: A major retailer had a busy summer innovation pipeline, but multiple insights pros were out on PTO at the same time. 

Rather than pausing consumer co-creation sessions and delaying concept testing, they used On-Demand Talent to:  

• Moderate in-depth interviews and lead focus groups while internal staff was away.
• Analyze & synthesize findings, ensuring no delays in go/no-go decisions.  
• Keep internal teams updated with real-time insights, even with limited internal resources. 

With fractional insights experts seamlessly filling gaps, the company stayed on schedule without sacrificing research quality. 

The Bottom Line for How to Deal with Research Bottlenecks During PTO 

Whether you plan ahead or need urgent support, On-Demand Talent ensures your research stays on track—so your team can take time off without work grinding to a halt. 

By leveraging fractional insights professionals, companies can prevent last-minute scrambles, reduce the risk of missed deadlines, and maintain research momentum year-round. 

How to Plan for Vacation Gaps in Your Insights Team (And What to Do If You Didn’t) 

So, how do you avoid research slowdowns when your team is out? And if you’re already facing an urgent coverage issue, what’s the best way to bridge the gap without scrambling?Let’s break it down. 

Proactive Planning: How to Avoid Vacation Research Gaps Before They Happen 

Businesses plan for financial forecasts, marketing campaigns, and supply chain logistics months in advance. Yet, many insights teams still treat PTO gaps as an inevitable issue. The key is building vacation coverage into your annual research strategy so that insights continue flowing, no matter the time of year. Some things you can do:  

• Map Out High-Stakes Research Periods & Coverage Needs 
  Identify peak research cycles—product launches, annual brand tracking, campaign testing, etc.—and ensure backup support is in place well before PTO is scheduled. Use research roadmaps to flag critical projects where dedicated resources are required, so gaps aren’t discovered too late. 
  
• Cross-Train Teams & Create Research Playbooks 
  The best insurance against knowledge loss is ensuring at least one other team member understands key methodologies, ongoing studies, and stakeholder expectations. Develop structured research playbooks that outline study designs, data sources, and reporting formats to minimize disruption. 

• Leverage Fractional Research Support for Built-In Coverage 
  On-Demand Talent (ODT) provides pre-vetted insights professionals who can step in seamlessly—ensuring research projects stay on track without long-term hiring commitments. Businesses that integrate ODT into their talent strategy avoid last-minute scrambles and keep research moving efficiently year-round. 

Planning ahead prevents vacation gaps from becoming business roadblocks. But what if PTO conflicts weren’t anticipated—and now key insights work is at risk of falling behind? 

Short-Term Fixes: What to Do If You’re Already Facing a Research Vacation Gap 

Even with careful planning, unexpected gaps happen. A last-minute PTO request, overlapping team absences, or an urgent business need can leave insights teams short-staffed at critical moments. If you’re already dealing with a research gap, here’s how to minimize disruption fast: 

• Prioritize & Streamline Workloads 
  Not every project is equally urgent. Work with stakeholders to reassess timelines, consolidate deliverables, or temporarily deprioritize lower-impact initiatives until full team capacity is restored. 

• Leverage Internal Teams for Tactical Execution 
  While high-level insights strategy requires expertise, some research tasks—survey fielding, basic analysis, or stakeholder updates—can potentially be temporarily shifted to marketing or product teams with clear guidance. However, there is always a risk that they aren’t equipped with the skills to execute properly – and who can really blame them?  

• Activate On-Demand Talent for Immediate Research Support 
  Need an insights pro immediately? As mentioned, ODT fills critical gaps within days, not weeks, ensuring research continuity without overwhelming the existing team, and is an excellent fix for filling research vacation gaps. Instead of pausing work, rushing through deliverables, or handing off work to other staff members, fractional insights pros ensure studies stay on track, analysis is completed, and high-quality reports are delivered on time. 

AI vs. Human Expertise: Can AI Cover Vacation Research Gaps? 

As companies seek more efficiency, many turn to AI-powered research tools to bridge staffing gaps. While AI can be a valuable support system, it has clear limitations that make it an unreliable substitute for expert insights professionals—especially when high-stakes decisions are involved. 

For instance, AI is great at surfacing data but doesn’t interpret nuances, human motivations, or cultural relevance—leading to misaligned insights. AI models also (unfortunately) inherit biases from training data, which can skew results if not carefully reviewed and adjusted by human experts. Additionally, executives rely on strategic recommendations, not just raw data—AI lacks the credibility and business acumen needed to drive stakeholder decisions.  
 
If you’re considering using AI to fill vacation coverage gaps for your research team, keep in mind that the more tools you introduce, the more training your team will require. This can actually take more time away from employees rather than increasing productivity—especially for short-term needs like a vacation fill. What seems like an easy solution can quickly turn into a time-consuming distraction, creating more inefficiencies rather than solving the original problem. 

Where to Find Temporary Research Experts Fast & Seamlessly 

When critical insights projects can’t wait, finding temporary research experts quickly is essential. So, where can businesses turn for immediate, high-quality research support? 

Many organizations look to freelance platforms and consulting firms, but these often require lengthy onboarding or lack the industry expertise needed for specialized research roles. Others attempt to redistribute workloads internally, which can lead to inefficiencies and overburdened teams.  

A more effective approach is tapping into pre-vetted insights professionals (like ODT) who can integrate quickly, understand complex research needs, and keep projects moving without disruption. Whether covering for a planned PTO or responding to an unexpected gap, having a flexible resourcing strategy ensures that insights teams can maintain momentum—without last-minute scrambles or overburdening internal staff.  

About SIVO 

At SIVO, we provide businesses with flexible, on-demand insights talent to keep research initiatives moving—no matter the challenge. Whether you need short-term vacation coverage, interim leadership, or specialized expertise for a critical project, we place senior-level insights professionals within days. 

• Short- or long-term commitments–ODT is flexible! 
• Seamless integration into your team 
• Deep experience across industries and methodologies 

Don’t let research slow down when key insight team members are out for vacation. Let’s talk:  

contact@sivoinsights.com | www.sivoinsights.com/on-demand-talent-management/