All business has one essential thing in common: People. Whether it’s people that buy products or services, or the workforce that creates value with their efforts and expertise. No matter how you look at it – to be successful in business you need to understand people and what drives them. But in an effort to truly understand people, traditional consumer research often grazes the surface and ignores deeper questions that are crucial to understand the motives of customers, consumers and citizens. For example, what happens to people’s fears and dreams during major changes such as pandemics, inflation, geopolitical tensions or financial crises. And how does this affect their behavioral mechanisms?

A concrete example: More than just simply asking people what they think, we go deeper into exploring fundamental questions. Of course it is useful to ask people what they think of current societal issues like the war in Ukraine or rising prices at the supermarket. But what you really want to know is how geopolitical tension affects people’s lives and behavior, and how people behave and adapt in times of (economic) uncertainty.

For these kinds of questions, we add to our understanding with a thorough analysis of existing scientific research (like psychology, sociology, or anthropology) on how people deal with uncertainty or social unrest, for example. This provides far more context than only conducting surveys and focus groups that are affected by socially desirable answers and the day-to-day sentiment of the current news reporting. Additionally, people are often unaware of (small) changes in their own attitudes. By analysing precisely at what is going on behind their direct answers and behavior, we gain more insight into the way people think and live and we understand what is relevant not just in the short term, but also in the long run.

Our goal is to understand people’s attitudes toward the world around them and determine how companies and organizations can resonate with their deeper needs by coming up with solutions beyond the day-to-day.