What is Consumer Empathy?: Going Beyond the Data

This is not a blog about AI and data-driven marketing. In fact, it’s a blog about the exact opposite. It’s a blog about consumer empathy. It’s a blog about human beings.

Human beings who laugh at their own jokes.
Human beings who are afraid they won’t fit in with their new mommy group.
Human beings who realize their marriage isn’t working anymore.
Human beings who get laid off and need to move to an entirely new city.
Human beings who are willing to pay $150 for a Labubu doll.
Human beings who eat rotisserie chicken every Wednesday night.
Human beings who don’t get along with their mother in laws.
Human beings who love the smell of grass on a rainy Spring day.
Human beings who just got the biggest health scare of their lives.
Human beings who still laugh when someone farts at the kitchen table. 

You know… human beings. 

Those who know what it means to be human (quite literally).
To live in a human body.
To have human thoughts.
To breathe human air.
To experience human emotions.
To have human fears.
Human stuff.

As strategists and insight professionals, this is what we should be interested in understanding, right? The lived human experience. So the brands we work with can better connect and serve their human audience. This is where our attention needs to be…

But it’s not (as often as it should at least). Because as an industry, we seem to be a little distracted… by data.

• How much data we have
• How much data we want
• How much data we need 
• How quickly data comes in
• How quickly data goes out
• … big, flashy, fast moving DATA.

But here’s the thing. Human beings aren’t data. 

Just because we know John:

• Logs into Facebook 8 times a day
• Works for an insurance firm
• Lives with his wife and 3 kids 
• Prefers to take an Uber over a cab
• Likes brussel sprouts
• Owns a 3 bedroom house (plus a den)
• Watches his stocks closely 
• And likes to play Call of Duty at night when his kids go down 

… Doesn’t mean we know who John is. Those are just data points about John. Most of which you could pick up by looking at his Facebook profile. But to really know John and truly understand his lived experience, we need to connect deeper than just “data”. Much, much deeper. 

You get the point. Marketing is about people – their fears, their joys, their contradictions, and their messy realities. And that’s where consumer empathy in marketing comes in.

What is Consumer Empathy?

Consumer empathy is the practice of understanding and sharing the feelings, perspectives, and lived experiences of consumers. In marketing and research, it helps brands create more authentic, human-centered strategies.

But let’s take a step back for a moment and talk about empathy.

“Empathy” is a word that gets thrown around a lot in our industry. So much in fact, there’s the risk of it losing its meaning entirely. So just as a healthy reminder… 

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. It’s about putting yourself in their shoes to not only recognize their emotions but also to feel with them, rather than just feeling for them (that would be sympathy).

In fact, there are three forms of empathy experts like to talk about:

1. Cognitive Empathy: The ability to understand another’s perspective. It’s more intellectual in nature. Seeing a situation from another person’s point of view and deciphering what might be going on in their head. 
2. Affective Empathy: The ability to feel what another person is feeling and respond in an appropriate way. It’s more emotional in nature. Having genuine compassion for someone else’s well-being.
3. Somatic Empathy: The ability to experience someone else’s physical state. It’s more sensorial in nature. Like when you react to what someone else is going through (e.g. feeling a knot in your stomach when you see a friend who’s nervous).

…And then we of course like to slap the word ‘consumer’ in front of it to ensure everyone knows we’re talking about human beings who buy stuff, which is every human being, but I digress.

How to Build Consumer Empathy Through Market Research

Here’s the big, pink elephant in the room that no one really wants to look at… 

We live in an age of big data… and even bigger, shinier, smarter tech. And that’s exciting! But it’s also incredibly easy to get swept up in the momentum of it all and lose sight of why we are doing the work in the first place. 

So, the question becomes; How can insight professionals continue to practice consumer empathy so we don’t lose sight of the human experience? Well, here’s my attempt to break… it… all… down

First off, consumer empathy is a practice. It’s not something you have or not. It’s not a thing. It’s not something you can buy, or create, or repost on LinkedIn. It’s something you do. It’s an approach to research. And not just “consumer empathy research” (e.g. audience illumination, consumer connects)… but all research. It’s something that needs to be intentionally built into our process, every step of the way.

1. Designing Methodology with Consumer Empathy in Mind

As an insights professional, when you sit down to design an approach, you’re often thinking about a few things. You’re thinking about the budget. The timeline. The assignment. The specific research objectives. The outcome of the work. What to make for dinner that night. 

Don’t get me wrong. These are all very important things to think about. But, when designing an approach, the most important thing to think about is who you will be talking to. Whether they’re parents who buy their kids cereal snacks, plumbers who use press fittings, men who wear body spray, or people who do yoga 3+ times per month, it doesn’t really matter. It’s about pausing and asking yourself ‘How can we best connect to this group of human beings?’. For example:

• A virtual focus group may work for a group of parents (because let’s face it, they have zero time to get a facility).
• But then 30 minute phone interviews might work best for plumbers, who are often on site and not by their computers. 
• A video diary might work best for a group of 20-something males who can show us their bathroom counters full of grooming product with their iPhones.
• But then in-person ethnographies might work best for yoga enthusiasts, so we can tag along with them to their next class. 

We need to think about what approach will make the people we’re researching most comfortable and confident to talk to us. Which is a hell of vulnerable thing to do! Yes, they’re getting paid, but they’re opening up their front doors, their fridges, their families, their friendship groups… their lives to us, and being asked to divulge their innermost thoughts and feelings. So the least we can do is design an approach that shows compassion for who they are as people and the rythm of their lives. Otherwise, what’s the point?

2. Practicing Consumer Empathy During Recruitment

You might ask, how the hell can we practice consumer empathy at the recruitment stage? Well, if you think about it, recruitment is our very first touchpoint with the people we plan on talking to. It’s precious. It’s our first opportunity to show them we give a shit. And it all comes down to communication. 

1. We need to keep screeners short – There’s nothing more considerate than a short, concise, purposeful screener. 
2. We need to make sure we’re direct and honest from the start – About what the purpose of the research is, what the time commitment looks like, how much they’ll be paid, etc. They need to fully know what they’re getting themselves into. 
3. We need to be flexible in scheduling – Believe it or not, people have more going on than participating in a focus group about toilet bowl cleaner. They’re balancing soccer practices, with business conferences, with stomach flus, with birthday partners, with yard work, with dinners with their inlaws. So it’s our job to get creative and book research around their lives, and not our Google calendars. 

I know this may seem quite obvious, but we need to remember, as marketers and insight professionals, we’re used to the research process. This is the world we live in and the language we speak every day. This may be the first research project a person has ever been involved in. Which could be a bit scary. So it’s our responsibility to write screeners and brief our partners in a way that puts consumer empathy into practice, even before a person gets “firmed up”. We aren’t just trying to complete a recruit or fill a quota. Our job is to welcome people into the research process with dignity and respect.

3. Writing Discussion Guides with Consumer Empathy

I gotta be real honest here. There have been times where I’ve read a draft discussion guide and asked myself “Could I, as a human being, answer this question?” And the answer is often no. Typically, as market researchers, our marketer or researcher hat is on way too tight and we start to ask questions that only professionals in the industry can answer. We might use phrases like “brand association”, “value proposition”, and “pain point”. We might ask a leading or double barreled question. We might even use a projective technique that’s so projective we immediately lose the respondent, and they disengage. 

The questions we choose to ask people are on us. With the limited amount of time we have with them, it’s our responsibility to ensure:

1. The questions we ask are clear – That they’re absent of technical jargon and marketing speak (because who are we trying to impress?). And instead, we use language that feels conversational and approachable. Language we would use having coffee with an old friend or dinner around the table with family. Where we use contractions, shorter sentences, and even slang. We need to remember, we are not writing guides for ourselves or our clients. We are writing guides for the people we are talking to. 
2. The questions we ask are human – That they’re focused on understanding someone’s human experience: their feelings, thoughts, intentions, motivations, insecurities, challenges, joys and fears. The tensions, the contradictions, the full blown lies. All of the mess! Only then will we uncover what’s living right underneath the surface, where all it takes is for someone to ask the right question.    
3. The questions we ask are respectful – That they don’t threaten the person being interviewed in any shape or form. This includes questions that may offend someone, be too taxing emotionally, or assume something of a person that just isn’t true. Instead, questions need to be worded concisely and compassionately, so the person being interviewed knows all they need to do is be honest and show up.

4. Applying Consumer Empathy During Fieldwork

The minute we enter into field, whether it’s a virtual triad on Discuss.io, a digital diary on Field Notes, or an in-home ethnography in someone’s living room, we are entering into their world. So we need to move in accordance with them – their time, their schedule, their mood, their pace. It is and should always be about them. This means being empathetic to their situation and state of mind is critical. If they feel uncomfortable at any point, they’re going to shut down, and you aren’t going to get what you need. So, we need to always make sure we: 

1. Act like a human being first (researcher second) – Talk about the art behind them on a video call. Pat their dog on the way into their home. Send a quick note saying how much you appreciated the detail they shared in their intro video. Connect with them as a human being first before you get into your line of questioning. We like to call this “building rapport”. I like to call it just being a nice human being.  
2. Give them breathing room – I know some of us were trained as moderators to always maintain complete control over an interview or group… but I say that’s hogwash. It’s important that a researcher makes the participant feel in charge of their own experience. If they start to veer away from a line of questioning and share a story about what happened to them that morning… let them and then gently bring them back. If the conversation starts to get a bit emotional for them… offer them a break. If they need to answer their phone during an interview because it’s the principal from their child’s school… give them a minute. Nothing is more important than ensuring they’re comfortable. And as a researcher, you just adapt. 
3. Don’t nod too much – Naturally, when a researcher is interviewing someone, there is an instant perceived power dynamic that gets formed. The person often sees the researcher as an authority figure of sorts. Which can lead the participant to want to please the researcher… and give them the “right answer”. But it’s not their job to tell the researcher (or the client) what they want to hear. So it’s important that we be mindful of the verbal (e.g. “That’s a great answer!”) and nonverbal (e.g. nods, uh has!) cues we’re giving a participant, as to not lead  them in any way. 
4. Prioritize the participant – Sometimes we have clients with us. Sitting in the virtual backroom, observing a shop-along, or sending probes via WhatsApp during a series of digital diaries. And we love client engagement! It means they care and want to understand just as much as we do. But if it comes down to making the participant feel comfortable or the client… choose the participant everytime. The client will understand.

5. Using Consumer Empathy During Analysis and Insight Delivery

It’s really tempting to come out of field wanting to open up a Keynote doc and start writing, but my advice for you is to… slow down. Taking a decent amount of time to sit down with the data, analyze it, discuss it, reflect on it, is not only necessary to write a story but is critical to the quality and integrity of the consumer insight we share. In fact, it’s one of the primary ways to practice consumer empathy, by: 

Staying tuned in – It’s easy after 10 focus groups, or 21 IDIs, or 52 diaries to lose sight of the people you talked to. This doesn’t make you a monster. It makes you a researcher that’s overloaded with data. That is why it’s important in analysis to stay connected to the people. The individuals themselves. Refer to them by name. Remember what it was like to be in their home. Recall their facial expressions. Think back to the stories they told you. Read their verbatim. Reground yourself in the fieldwork all the way through analysis. Let the human beings you met anchor you.   

Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable – When developing your narrative, you may find it gets uncomfortable. And that’s a good thing. It means you’ve uncovered a tension in people’s lives. Whether that’s a tension between the consumer and themselves, the consumer and the world, the consumer and the category, or the consumer and the brand… tensions are uncomfortable. But tensions mean you are tapping into something real, where things aren’t always pretty and well packaged. And tensions mean there may be an opportunity for the brand to help out.      

Writing a story for them (not the client) – You might be saying to yourself, we write reports for the client, not the consumer. And in many ways, you’re right! We have a responsibility to the client to ensure the reports we deliver help them reach their business outcomes. That’s what they’re paying us to do. But in order to do that properly, we need to tell the consumer’s story. We need to stay true to their lived experiences. Write headlines that represent their tone of voice. Create impact slides that land on their key thoughts and feelings. Develop models that help to explain their dynamics. Include verbatim that gets across their point of view. It’s definitely not about us (or the client). It’s always gotta be about them.    

Showing vs. telling – A report is great. An in-person debrief, even better. But nothing builds consumer empathy like a film. A professionally edited, emotionally charged, beautifully animated film forms a direct and meaningful connection between the client and their human audience. They’re faces. Their voices. Their environments. Their experiences. Their words. Straight from the source! From one human nervous system to another. It doesn’t get much more empathetic than that.

Why Consumer Empathy Matters for Brands Today

Honestly, I get a little verklempt when this question comes up, because I hate that we even have to ask it. I guess to answer this question I would have to ask another question (I know, very qualy of me). Just imagine a world where brands didn’t practice consumer empathy. What would that look like? Well, I think we’ve seen what that looks like for some brands and it hasn’t been pretty.

As strategists and insight professionals, on the supplier side or client side, we need to continue to encourage brands to practice consumer empathy, so we (as a species) don’t lose sight of the human experience. The very thing we’re trying to understand.  

So we can feel confident in the insights we uncover.
So we can feel confident in the narratives we deliver.
So clients can feel confident in the advice we give them.
So brands can feel confident in the decisions they make.
And so people can feel confident in the products and services they use. 

Like I said. This is not a blog about AI and data-driven marketing. This is a blog about consumer empathy. This is a blog about human beings. 

As always, we’re here to help.

Written By:

Brynn Harris

As a founding member of the Sound, Brynn has played an integral role in shaping what The Sound is today. She works closely with all our teams, uncovering powerful narratives that move people and brands. She is the mastermind of our Sound Track process and ensures that our work is always exceptional.

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