Consumer Centricity
Consumer-Centric Thinking
In many companies, marketing, product development, and sales often work separately, leading to confusion and misalignment. Sometimes, this disconnect runs so deep that the business struggles to create the right products and strategies that truly serve the customer.
A consumer-centric approach changes that. It ensures that all departments—finance, sales, production, IT, marketing and leadership—work together with a shared understanding of what the consumer really wants and not work in silos, especially for industries like FMCG, where success depends entirely on consumer behavior.
Why Understanding the Consumer Is Crucial
To make the right decisions, businesses need to hear directly from consumers. Often, what a company believes is valuable may not be what the consumer actually needs. Without this clarity, even large investments in research and development may fail to deliver results because consumers simply don’t buy the product.
For FMCGs, where consumers are fragmented and their spending habits vary, this challenge is even bigger. Even with significant marketing spend, sales may not increase if the product does not meet their evolving expectations. When other stakeholders—such as finance or IT—do not fully buy into consumer insights, businesses struggle to adapt effectively.
Learning from the Consumer
A major FMCG company faced this exact issue. They had invested heavily in research and product development, but their sales stagnated. The reason? A lack of direct consumer insights and a disconnect between internal teams.
To fix this, they conducted a consumer connect workshop where all senior management, including the CEO, sat through live consumer interactions separately. Through these discussions, they were able to get a first-hand understanding of consumers.
- Consumers had different spending patterns than expected.
- The company’s assumptions about product value did not align with actual demand.
- The marketing and sales approach needed to be adjusted based on real consumer behaviour.
These workshops helped the teams identify the real problem, bridge the gaps, and develop a new strategy that was driven by actual consumer needs. The same method was later applied across all products, leading to significant improvements in decision-making and sales.
Building a Truly Consumer-Centric Company
Research and development should never happen in isolation. A consumer-centric mindset requires full involvement from all teams, not just marketing and product development. When the entire organization—from sales to IT to finance—understands what the consumer wants, better business decisions are made.
This shift in thinking creates products and strategies that truly resonate with customers, leading to stronger sales, better market positioning, and long-term success.
By making consumer insights the foundation of all decision-making, companies can ensure that their products, marketing, and sales efforts align with what people actually need.
Understanding the consumer isn’t just important—it’s essential for growth.
