Shifting consumer expectations, emerging technologies, and disruptive innovations are resulting in misaligned offerings that no longer resonate with their target audiences by the time they reach the market.
Brands’ traditional product development cycles, often marked by rigid hierarchies and extended timeframes, are being challenged by retail’s hyper-competitive and fast-evolving marketplace.
“The pace of change in consumer behaviour is driven by the combination of tech, economy, and disruption, which far outpaces many brands’ internal systems or resources,” Sej Patel, Toluna’s country head of ANZ, told Inside FMCG.
“Outdated research cycles, fragmented data sources, and siloed teams often mean brands are reacting too slowly or basing ‘their consumer understanding’ on old assumptions or old data,” he continued.
According to Patel, customers are expecting seamless, personalised, and meaningful experiences, both online and in brick-and-mortar, all while demanding transparency, convenience, speed, value, and ethical responsibility.
But brands need the right technology to anticipate their customers’ needs to offer relevant recommendations, and to be responsive in real-time.
“The bar is higher than ever, and expectations shift rapidly with technology and the economic landscape,” Patel stated.
Toluna is the leading global research and insights provider that empowers clients to make smarter data-driven decisions – its platform, Toluna Start enables brands to conduct research efficiently and supports everything from concept testing to product development.
Bridging the gap
To get a better grip on their customers’ expectations, brands need to understand what is driving their behaviour.
“The pace of change in consumer behaviour is driven by the combination of tech, economy, and disruption, which far outpaces many brands’ internal systems or resources,” Patel explained.
“Outdated research cycles, fragmented data sources, and siloed teams often mean brands are reacting too slowly or basing ‘their consumer understanding’ on old assumptions or old data,” he added.
However, consumer behaviours and expectations sometimes compete and contradict – what Generation Z wants often doesn’t align with what Generation X wants from a brand.
“It’s about deeply understanding your key segments and making informed trade-offs, aligned to strategic business priorities,” Patel said.
“Fundamentally, brands need to stay close to their customers continuously, involving them in research programmes such as CX and advocacy,” he added.
By combining audience targeting with expertise from Tonula’s consultants and its unique services across qualitative data, quantitative data, and interpretation, brands are able to make faster, smarter business decisions that are in tune with today’s consumers.
For brands to evolve from being reactive to proactive by embedding agile research and strategic thinking into how their marketing and research teams work every day.
“Our Toluna Start platform makes it easy to launch quick surveys, test messaging, or explore new ideas and hypotheses in real time,” Patel shared.
“Whilst our consultants help brands think bigger, by identifying macro shifts, analysing behavioural data, and translating insights into longer-term roadmaps,” he added.
“It’s the blend of tactical speed and strategic depth that helps brands stay ahead.”
Ensuring operational efficiency
Staying relevant will help brands win customers, and being responsive will help brands retain them. Rapid concept testing, accelerated product development and continuous feedback loops are the best way to close the gap.
“High performing insight organisations recognise they can perform better by conducting learning-oriented research between validation tests,” Patel said.
“Rapid learning leads to smarter business decisions, faster go-to-market cycles, reduced costs and improved validation pass rates,” he added.
“In addition, knowing what to test, with whom, and how to interpret the results are also important.”
Toluna Start is a truly integrated research platform, giving brands a “single-source” agility to turn ideas into insights faster all while reducing operational complexity and cost.
It covers everything from survey creation to data visualisation and reporting, all in one place, so brands don’t need to use multiple vendors or platforms.
This “single-source” agility helps clients streamline research operations while boosting speed and reliability.
With Toluna, brands can continuously test ideas, iterate messaging, and check relevance before going to market, but what sets it apart is its strategic overlay.
Its consulting team helps brands interpret what the data means and what it signals for positioning, experience design, or competitive strategy.
“We help brands stay relevant by turning rapid inputs into real-world advantage,” Patel concluded. “This is where Toluna excels.”
- To learn more about how Start Toluna can bridge the gap between customer expectations and brand capabilities, head here.
