As customer needs evolve and competition intensifies, traditional segmentation frameworks often fall short. Many segmentation models are based on demographics and psychographics, and often define customers based on traits such as their age, gender, attitudes and values. They tell you who your consumer is – but not why they make the choices they do. 

To fuel meaningful, strategic growth, businesses need more than demographic snapshots. They need contextual insight. This is where frameworks like Demand Space thinking comes in. 

What Is Demand Space Thinking? 

Demand Space frameworks shift the focus from static consumer traits to the moments that drive decisions. Instead of defining your audience only by traits such as age, gender, or income, this approach considers: 

• When the decision happens 

• Where the consumer is 

• Who they’re with 

• What they’re trying to achieve 

• How they feel in that moment 

It’s not about who your consumer is on paper – it’s about what’s happening around them, and inside them, when they make choices. 

Why It Matters 

Consumers don’t always behave the same way, even when they share similar traits on paper. A single person has different needs and behaviors throughout the day, week, or year, and traditional segmentation often misses these moments that drive real-world decisions. Demand Spaces, on the other hand, are based on the moments where context, emotion, and need converge.  

The Power of Demand Spaces for Growth 

When implemented thoughtfully, Demand Spaces help businesses: 

1. Reveal Unmet Needs 

Demand Spaces help businesses find the moments when consumers are underserved by existing options. These blind spots often become the clearest opportunities for growth. By identifying emotional or contextual gaps in the consumer experience, teams can design solutions that respond to real pain points and not using assumptions. 

2. Unlock Innovation Whitespace 

They also help businesses go beyond what consumers say they want and uncover what they actually need in specific situations. This helps teams design offerings that better reflect real-world behaviors.  It’s a way to spark smarter ideas, grounded in daily routines, shifting priorities, and overlooked occasions that traditional research often misses. 

3. Strengthen Brand Positioning 

Demand Space tools help position brands based on context and need, not just category. This reduces overlap and creates clearer brand roles. That means brands can carve out distinct emotional territory, ensuring each one plays a defined role in the consumer’s life, not just on a shelf. 

4. Clarify Audience Priorities 

By focusing efforts on the most critical consumer moments – when the stakes, emotions, or needs are highest – teams can prioritize smarter. It enables brands to align resources with the occasions that drive the most value, loyalty, or conversion – improving both focus and ROI. 

5. Reduce Internal Cannibalization 

They also help in assigning each brand, product, or service distinct moments. This ensures they serve different needs or occasions rather than competing for the same ones. By separating who serves what – and when – demand spaces bring clarity to brand architecture and reduce inefficiencies across portfolios. 
 
Demand Spaces help businesses unlock growth by bringing clarity to what consumers need, when they need it, and why. Instead of chasing broad segments or spreading resources thin, brands can focus on the moments that truly drive behavior – revealing new opportunities, reducing internal friction, and building solutions that resonate in the real world.  

Real-World Example: Same Consumer, Different Moments 

Let’s say your target is a 35-year-old parent who regularly shops for snacks. Depending on the situation, they might want:

• A quiet, solo snack to recharge after work (need example = calm, emotional reset) 
• A fun, shareable treat for a family movie night (need example = togetherness) 
• A convenient, energizing bite during school drop-off chaos (need example = speed, functionality) 

Each moment carries different emotional and functional needs – and may lead them to choose entirely different brands or products. This is the nuance Demand Spaces capture.

How to Map Demand Spaces 

In a challenging market, brands can’t afford to rely on guesswork. Demand Spaces provide both smarter lenses for targeting and innovation, a more human understanding of consumer behavior, and a faster path to discovering what will actually drive choice – and growth.  

To identify and activate demand spaces, brands need to move beyond static surveys. Instead, they should use context-rich research tools like: 

• Mobile ethnography and video diaries 

• In-the-moment interviews and shop-alongs 

• Qualitative deep dives to understand emotional context 

• Behavioral observation and journey mapping 

These are some of the methods that help businesses capture real consumer behavior, in real environments. At SIVO, we combine deep qualitative expertise with flexible research models to help you map the demand spaces that matter most to your business. Whether you're reassessing brand positioning, exploring whitespace for innovation, or trying to understand behavior shifts in today’s market – we help you with the right tools and insights for your business.  

Want to talk about how Demand Space research can unlock strategic clarity for your team?
We’d love to help!  

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Through the SIVO, Inc. “Modern Ways of Working” Mini Chat series, we spoke with a strategic consumer insights leader, Helen Kurtz, Chief Marketing Officer. In this conversation with Marilyn Weiss, Helen discusses her experience with SIVO’s On Demand Talent solution.  She has hired SIVO’s fractional Insights talent in two different companies that she has led, with the intention of introducing consumer insights to the organization, working with the marketing team to prove out the value of insights.  Watch this insightful video or read through the transcript below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDTSN-vB8jA

Video Transcript: 

DOING MORE WITH FEWER PEOPLE:

I mean, for sure, budgets are getting squeezed and I think it's more and more the case that headcount is getting squeezed and there's a desire to do more with fewer people and to be really smart about what choices we're making on staffing.

BRING IT IN AND PROVE IT OUT:

I left General Mills and went to a sort of billion dollar company, Foster Farms and it was clear to me as I came in as CMO that we needed to absolutely elevate our sort of consumer touch points and I needed to get that consumer insight function established at the company but I didn't have the headcount to do that and so that's where I reached out to you Marilyn and we dreamed up this idea of this fractional support. 

I left the company, I'm now CMO at another company, and very quickly brought Sevo in with me again for the same reason. It wasn't a function that was established in the company, again about a billion dollars in revenue.  And so it was a real opportunity to bring in and prove out the capabilities of consumer insights at the same time knowing I was going to get a fantastic,  no questions asked, I was going to get the best talent at the right time. 

CONCENTRATED EFFORT & TEAM INTEGRATION:

I think what you're getting with this fractional talent, because SIVO is the best at weeding it out. You guys are the experts themselves. It's like you’re going to a great college. You've already been filtered through.  You're picking out the best talent. 

I think there's also a little bit of a mindset of a fractional talent that's really important that who we've brought in doesn't need to be pitching in front of the C -suite.

They can, but they don't need that recognition. They they're not gunning for promotions within. They're really just there to do a job. They integrate really well with my team. But again, there I can have them sort of play in the background or bring them to the forefront. It's just a much lower lift for me and my team.  I would say they're really there to do the job. And in many cases to educate my team on what consumer insights excellence looks like because that was not a function that was in either of the two companies.

So I guess, again, to be more succinct, this combination of excellence and expertise in their field, as well as this ability to work very seamlessly with the team and again, not being in it to win it for promotions. They're really there to do the job. So it's just sort of very concentrated effort. 

CONSUMER-CENTRIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP:  

I think it's just thought leadership first and foremost.  I think most companies are, if not there already, are wising up to consumer-first and consumer-led and that's sort of like in their DNA.  So if you have a declaration like that happening in your company, it's like well, what do I do with that? and who helps me execute that? So I think you know both of the individuals I've worked with have really brought that to the fore helping educate on what that looks like.  How to get close to the consumer, driving education, training, and facilitating.   

Again, it's not just like executing the research, but interrogating:

• Does that research need to be done even?  
• Do we know this?  
• What do we already have on hand?
• How can we be creative or scrappy about thinking differently about getting to the consumer and getting to insight?

THE ECONOMICS ARE FANTASTIC:  

Like just the economics have been really fantastic. I didn't hire a full -time person. I use a fractional person at 30 hours a week.   So like, that's worked out really well. I have no turnover because this person is here and they're very committed to us. I don't have to worry about them leaving.  I've got a great backup from SIVO in that, you know, the resources are there. The thought leadership is there behind my individual. I know that she consults with SIVO on questions that are beyond her scope.

Then, just this sort of seamlessness of having someone who works well with a team. You filter out for people who are really exceptional at what they do and are used to an experience with working on a team.   When you're out there interviewing, you don't really know what you're gonna get. So it's just like, it's almost like a stamp of approval, I think, coming from SIVO.  I have found that through and through.

TALENT CURATION & INSIGHTS EXPERTISE:

I think the biggest compliment to SIVO is that my team doesn't really know about SIVO. Like they just know Jill. They know the person with whom they work. I am the behind the scenes working with SIVO and I've found that to be extraordinarily easy.  I think that the team at SIVO like really listens to what I need. When I start a project or when I moved companies, they were quick to sort of like curate who would be a good match. They get to know me as a client and what my demands are. 

My team would say it's a godsend.  I think my team loves in both places, loves working with this talent, and would sacrifice a lot of other things before they would give up this talent, which happily we didn't have to do.

Every business has customers, but how well they know their customers is another question. In a recent Harvard Business Review blog, Peter Merholz explains that many large companies lose that vital interaction with their customers as their business begins to grow.

“Business cannot exist without customers, so it’s sadly ironic that many, if not most, businesses, actually understand so little about them,” says Merholz. “In order to become customer experience-driven, you need to go beyond who your customers are, and understand what they do.”

While it may feel tempting to place your customers into simple, definable categories, Merholz urges companies to dig deeper and understand their customers as real people living in a messy, complicated world.  What does that mean for your company? It means going beyond the high-level data and seeking to understand and appreciate your customer’s behavior and true motivation.

Trending

Do customers want to ‘hire’ your product?

Through SIVO On Demand Talent or with SIVO custom qualitative research, our clients uncover the underlying motivations behind their customer’s unique behavior. With SIVO On Demand Talent, we have storytellers who mine existing research to bring our clients’ customers to life. And, we ensure the next phase of research fills a customer knowledge gap, extending our clients’ research budgets. With SIVO custom research, our clients tap into valuable customer insights through approaches like In-Store Intercepts, Shop-Alongs, and Ethnographic research,  to gain clear, in-depth analysis of their customer in the context of their daily lives.

How well do you know your customer? Maybe it’s time to take a deeper look…

Contact us at Contact@SIVOInsights.com for more information and next steps.

by Julie Rose

Did somebody say recession? Unfortunately, recessions are a normal part of the business cycle. There are periods of economic growth and periods of economic slowdown. During a recession, the economy slows, companies struggle with sales, people lose their jobs, and the stock market suffers. The point where the economy officially falls into a recession depends on multiple factors, but many experts indicate that two consecutive quarters of decline in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a sign of recession. The recession in 2020 occurred when the pandemic impacted our economy. The Great Recession in 2008 was caused by the collapse of the housing market. We are seeing signs for the next recession too, with some experts predicting late 2022 or early 2023. According to the Washington Post, the economy contracted in the first three months of 2022, by shrinking at a 1.4 percent pace.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/19/recession-economy-markets/

One common result of recession is that unemployment rises. Companies sometimes employ “hiring freezes” to maintain profits, while they wait for the economy to stabilize.  This puts stress on the rest of the workforce so companies must look for ways to protect their current employees from burnout while also ensuring the most critical work gets done.

It’s common for businesses today to look for creative ways to expand their bandwidth to continue to achieve short and long-term goals. For companies that don’t want to make the long-term commitment of hiring full-time employees or are trying to conserve budgets, hiring temporary or “on demand” professionals is a low-risk, cost-effective option.  

Recession-Proof Insights Talent from SIVO On Demand Talent

SIVO On Demand Talent can help with skilled Consumer Insight and Market Research Professionals that ease your team’s workload and help you achieve your business goals while also relieving you of the financial risk that is common during a recession. 

We offer flexible solutions, like short or long-term assignments for fill-in roles or finite projects. Additionally, we can serve as an extension of your internal Consumer Insights Team, what we like to call your “back-pocket” consultants. For some clients, our talent serves as the virtual CI team, supporting initiatives in a cost-effective way while also ensuring high quality insights. 

SIVO On Demand Talent offers far more flexibility than full-time employee expansion. Plus, you don’t have to spend your valuable time searching for, hiring, and training talent. We take care of it all for you, freeing you from the burden of a lengthy process.

Let SIVO help you manage through the ‘hiring freeze” by temporarily meeting your Insights, Analytics or Market Research talent needs.

Reach out to ondemandtalent@sivoinsights.com for a consultation.