At this point, we’ve all heard that consumers are “trading down.” According to McKinsey's new State of the Consumer 2026 report, more than three-quarters of consumers are now opting for less expensive alternatives amid economic uncertainty – even those with the household incomes to sustain their previous spending. So should premium brands panic?

If you read more closely, what’s really happening is that wealthy consumers are just adopting the exact same "resourceful" behaviors as everyone else. That might look like DIYing services they used to pay for. Seeking out budgeting tools. Buying secondhand. Not because they're broke, but because they want to feel resourceful. It’s an emotional response to a volatile environment, not a financial necessity. 

Plenty of people love Dawn Dish Soap. It cuts grease, it saves baby ducks from oil spills, it just works. But most of us don’t get excited about it. We don’t post about it, debate it, or line up for the new model. It’s kind of the beige of consumer products: quietly relied upon, rarely celebrated. And it just beat Google, every bank, and every AI tool on the market to become the most trusted brand in America. Band-Aid came in second. The biggest trust gainers of the year include Mr. Pibb, Lunchables, and Hot Wheels, which is to say ‘90s nostalgia is outperforming the entire technology sector.

Every CMO in a growing B2C company eventually hits the same moment. The team has data, dashboards, and a steady flow of marketing activity, but major decisions still feel harder than they should. Customer behavior is shifting, but the reasons behind those shifts are unclear. Opinions compete for attention because no one has the full picture. You can feel the limits of what your team can see.

Holiday shopping forecasts tell a confusing story: Gen Z plans to spend less overall but still intends to treat themselves. PwC reports a 23 percent cut in planned holiday budgets alongside a rise in micro-luxury purchases — the $7 coffee, the limited-edition drop, the skincare upgrade. Between January and April 2025, Gen Z spending fell 13 percent, yet the same study found spikes in smaller, emotionally charged buys that deliver a sense of care, creativity, or belonging. 

When we saw a recent headline that suggested happy people shop more, we couldn’t help but wonder: What does that mean right now? Because most Americans don’t seem especially happy at the moment.

Customer loyalty has never been more fragile. The Qualtrics 2025 Consumer Trends Report shows that more than half of bad experiences lead customers to cut their spending, while even making slight improvements to customer experience makes people 68% more likely to buy again.

Consumer researchers do what they do because they love to ask questions, understand people, and surface human truths. But the real value of the work isn’t in the data itself – it’s in the actions the insights provoke.

Studies show that up to a third of research data goes unused, and up to 40% of reports add little or no value because they lack context, clarity, or a clear path to action. When insights aren’t built for impact, momentum is lost and opportunities are missed.

We know consumers are “trading down” across categories, shifting from premium to private-label goods, swapping fine dining for fast casual, and moving from discretionary splurges to more practical spending. But the latest data reveals something deeper: a redefinition of what “value” really means.

Values are now a driving force in consumer behavior. The Harris Poll found that nearly half of Americans who boycott say they’ve done so because companies rolled back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, and one in five say their consumption habits are changing permanently. That’s not just a flare-up of outrage, that’s a long-term shift in loyalty.

Generative AI is cranking out video ads at a pace that would have stunned creative teams a year ago. According to the IAB’s 2025 Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy report, nearly nine in ten advertisers already use or plan to use the technology, and “GenAI creative will reach 40% of all ads by 2026.” The numbers are impressive, but they leave one big question unanswered: Do AI‑generated ads actually resonate with consumers?

Maybe you saw the recent story in Barron’s, which discusses the trend of more Americans cooking at home, trading down to store brands, and opting for fast-casual instead of fine dining.

This shift is showing up across the consumer landscape — not just in grocery. In beauty, household products, dining, entertainment, and apparel, people are rethinking what’s worth paying for, what feels “good enough,” and where to draw the line between value and experience.

Every news cycle brings something new to process. Economic pressure is building. Trust in institutions is slipping. Consumers are stretched thin, emotionally and financially, and many businesses are feeling it too.

In moments like this, it’s easy to pull back. Delay decisions. Play it safe. Wait for things to settle.

But the brands that will survive these strangely precedented-yet-unprecedented times, are the ones that stay close to the people they serve. The ones that choose empathy over assumption.

We often talk to clients who say their brands feel tired or dated. Maybe the look feels off. Maybe the messaging doesn’t reflect how the business has evolved. Whatever the reason, the instinct is often the same: time for a rebrand.

New colors. New font. New vibe.

But here’s the truth: a brand refresh won’t fix what you don’t understand.

So you've bought into the idea: consumer research isn’t just for validating campaigns—it’s the foundation of a strong, strategic brand. But what does that look like in practice? (Not sure? Read our previous post)

You don’t need a sprawling insights team or a million-dollar budget to get started. The most effective marketing leaders use focused, thoughtful research…

In fast-moving markets, brand is often misunderstood—reduced to color palettes, logos, or lofty vision statements. But brand, at its core, is how consumers perceive your business. And if you're not actively shaping that perception with real consumer input, someone else will.

Every now and then, a new research tool comes along that promises to change everything. Lately we’re hearing more and more about synthetic data: information that’s created by algorithms to look and behave like real consumer responses, without needing to ask actual people anything at all. It’s not science fiction; it’s already being used to model behaviors, predict trends, and simulate feedback in place of real research.

Let’s debunk a myth: you do not need a massive insights department to make smarter business decisions. In fact, some of the most nimble, high-impact research comes from small, focused teams—especially when they know how to ask the right questions.

If you work in marketing or innovation, chances are you've seen it happen: your team commissions a research study, receives a thick report full of charts and quotes, and then…nothing really changes. The insights feel interesting, but they don’t seem actionable.

Sound familiar?