Case
Executives take a sip – understanding the life and needs of low-income consumers
How immersive research supported a beverage brand to understand and commit to meeting low-income consumer needs.


How it started
A leading beverage brand needed help to grow efforts with low-income consumers. They wanted to educate and immerse executive leadership in this consumer group to gain clarity on priorities and next steps.
How we inspired change
Our custom approach included ethnographic research to capture human insights followed by an executive leadership team (ELT) workshop to bring these insights to life, inspire, and catalyze commitments to act.
- Online ethnography: We captured a consumer’s-eye-view as they provided a tour of their home, completed a shopping exercise, and showed us a day-in-the-life complete with emotional connections. This resulted in a documentary video humanizing the key themes found throughout the research.
- Consumer Connect: We organised a ‘speed dating’ activity in which we paired members of the leadership team with consumers of the brand for face-to-face conversations
- Immersive workshop: We showed the documentary video to the ELT to bring to life how these consumers live day-to-day, how they feel, and what they’re up against. We then facilitated brainstorming, prioritisation, and commitment activities to build momentum coming out of the session.
How it lives on
The ELT formed a visceral connection with their low-income consumers and felt shocked by the challenges they saw and heard. Powered by newfound empathy, they were able to relate the product to these challenges and recognise the need to act quickly on relevant solutions that would ultimately drive growth.
Let’s connect