Consumer
and Retail
Theory Intelligence provides consumer brands, retailers and their investors with verified primary research for brand, channel, pricing and acquisition decisions: in-depth interviews with real, identity-checked shoppers, retail buyers, store operators and category managers, with a signed recommendation and a provenance appendix, as an alternative to compromised online panels.
- Retail buyer or trade Signal Brief: 6 to 8 verified category managers, buyers or operators in 10 business days, USD 7,500 to 12,000
- Brand, channel or acquisition Decision Study: 15 to 30 verified interviews including in-depth consumer interviews, 4 to 6 weeks, USD 25,000 to 75,000
- Every consumer participant identity checked and purchase behaviour verified where possible; no panels, no bots, no synthetic personas
- Trade and channel intelligence from people who actually make ranging decisions
- Independent evaluation of retail technology and AI vendors
The consumer panel has a quality problem
Consumer research relies more heavily on online panels than any other sector, and panels are where the quality problem is worst. Kantar reports that 30 to 40 percent of online survey responses are compromised by bots, farms or inattentive respondents. Academic tests have found that bots pass the standard quality checks 99.8 percent of the time. Synthetic respondent tools have been offered as the fix, and their own vendors' research shows they cluster around the average and miss the tails, which is where new products and price changes succeed or fail.
Theory does not run panels. We find real shoppers and real trade decision makers, verify who they are, and interview them in depth.
What we do for consumer businesses
Trade and channel
Whether a product is ranged, promoted and reordered depends on a category manager or a buyer. A Signal Brief with six to eight verified buyers, category managers or independent retailers gives a signed read on the trade view in ten business days.
Brand, proposition and pricing
A Decision Study combining in-depth interviews with verified consumers in the target segment and conversations with trade and competitors' customers. Verbatim, traceable, and useful in a board pack in a way that a panel chart is not.
Acquisitions
For an investor or a strategic acquirer buying a consumer brand, a Decision Study tests repeat purchase, brand strength and channel dependence against verified consumers and trade partners rather than against the seller's survey.
Retail technology
Retail media, personalisation, loss prevention and AI merchandising tools are sold with vendor case studies. Theory interviews verified current users at other retailers, with no vendor relationship, and signs the recommendation.
How we verify consumers
Consumer participants are recruited against the brief and identity checked before the interview. Where the question concerns purchase behaviour we ask for evidence of purchase, such as a receipt or an account view, and record whether it was provided. Consumer participants are presented by profile, never named, and the verification method appears in the provenance appendix.
All work is delivered under The Theory Standard. See services and prices.
Questions from consumer and retail clients
Is a small number of interviews enough for a consumer decision?
For a quantitative claim about a population, no, and we will say so. For understanding why people buy, switch or stop, and for what the trade thinks, verified in-depth interviews answer questions a panel cannot. Many clients use Theory to work out what to measure before they commission a survey.
Do you run surveys?
Not on panels. Where a decision needs quantification we will design the instrument, help you select a supplier whose sample quality we have checked, and interpret the results independently.
Can you reach buyers at specific retailers?
Often, through direct recruitment of current and recent category staff. We tell you at scoping what is realistic and we verify every participant.
A consumer and retail question worth answering properly?
Write to info@theoryintel.com with the decision. A researcher replies within one business day with a fixed price and a start date.
Start a brief