Studying the Consumer Within You: A New Year’s Resolution

By: Kana Feng

Happy New Year!

As someone who is (always, optimistically) looking to form productive habits and (finally) get more organized in various aspects of life, my social media feeds are flooded with ways to make and keep new year’s resolutions.

I haven’t made any for the past few years, but it typically consists of those common resolutions (exercising more, eating healthier, saving more money, spending more time with loved ones, etc.), but this year as I finally settle into this post-pandemic, post-baby life, the theme of my resolutions is to slow down and be more present.

When I first started my career in marketing research, I prided myself on being a consumer first and researcher second. In an industry where experience and knowledge are greatly valued, being able to present my own experiences as a consumer was something extra clients valued on top of the data-driven insights.

Over the years as it has become easier and more natural for me to dig deep into the numbers to analyze consumer behavior and attitudes as a quantitative researcher, I have gained more skill and confidence in being able to say more from the data and analysis alone. 

But as life has tossed me into a whole new demographic category (hi to fellow sleep-deprived new parents!) and the pandemic shifted my own shopping behaviors and attitudes, I now realize I haven’t been as cognizant of my existence as a consumer over the past year.

This year I vow to slow down and be more present as a consumer. To focus on my actions when making purchase decisions, what I do and don’t do. To be more observant of how I experience a store, website, or brand. To use what I experience and observe to boost answer sets in questionnaires and analysis of data.

As consumer insights professionals, it’s easy to get caught up on an aspect or nuance of the consumer experience that may or may not actually be valuable to consumers. For better and for worse, we know too much about what goes behind brands, products, and services, as we look at consumer behavior behind a marketer lens.

If you are like me and have gotten lost in a whirlwind of change recently, I invite you take a peek out from behind that lens in your daily life, slow down, and acknowledge and study the consumer in you.