Why do brands use characters to help drive engagement and does it work?
Some brands become memorable through jingles, catchphrases, logos or designs, and others find brand mascots or characters…
What sets us apart
We are a global market research agency with a specialist team of consumer psychologists and industry leaders that help you to grow your business by understanding the science behind human behaviour.
Based in London and Lichfield in the UK, we have worked on projects all over the world for our clients. We are at the cutting edge of behavioural science and utilise the latest academic thinking, combined with our market leading methodologies to get to actual, not claimed behaviour.
Our areas of expertise
We are trusted
We work in partnership with our clients to translate real emotions and behaviours into actionable insights. We have been are trusted by leading global brands to help them grow their business. Our team of market research experts have a broad range of research experience, covering consumer, shopper, behavioural, healthcare and quantitative and qualitative research.
Meet the
team
Shona has a strong track record of helping clients to improve conversion and category sales through responding to shopper feedback in a wide range of categories, channels and countries. Shona has extensive experience in driving growth for clients by connecting with the emotions of shoppers.
Shona McDonald Ponton
MA Language and Communication Research Methods
Senior Research Director
Sinita has extensive experience in applying behaviour science to everyday brand challenges including packaging, advertising, media and branding. She’s worked with numerous FMCG brands, retailers and service industries worldwide to deliver breakthrough insight and actionable results.
Sinita Govind
MSc Social Cognition: Research and Applications
Associate Director
Jack has both retail and brand expertise, gained by spending a large part of his career in the marketing department at Tesco PLC where he led trading and seasonal campaigns from insight through to execution. After this role, Jack moved to Grace Foods, managing a number of FMCG brands, including Encona and Nurishment.
Jack Hillaby
BA(Hons) in Marketing Management
Head of Brand and Marketing
Tara is relatively new to the team, recently joining from Bangor University having completed a masters degree in consumer psychology. Her natural enthusiasm and tenacity means she has made significant contributions on a number of market research projects for some of our most trusted clients.
Tara Moran
Msc Consumer Psychology with Business
Research Executive
Scott is a subject matter expert with a master’s degree in consumer psychology. Scott has worked across the globe combining academia with his natural understanding and vast knowledge of human behaviour to help clients gain deep insights into their customers behaviour.
Scott Willey
Msc Consumer Psychology with Business
Associate Director
Binna brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from the healthcare sector which she gained after concluding her research masters degree. She lives and breathes psychology and has consistently put this into practice in the market research world. Her background also enables Binna to analyse research projects from a different perspective.
Binna Chopra
MRes Psychology
Research Manager
Since completing a masters degree in consumer psychology, Will has remained a real student of the human brain, keeping himself and the business up to date on the latest research of why people do what they do. Will has delivered many global projects using his deep knowledge of the brain to offer our clients a true understanding of how consumers and shoppers behave.
Will Morgan
Msc Consumer Psychology with Business
Associate Director
Following her studies in English and History, Holly’s fascination with language and behaviour was transferred to the world of market research. Her experience in Category and Insights in the FMCG industry has given her a wealth of knowledge around how mechanisms in store interact with shopping behaviour in the real world.
Holly Adams
BA (Hons) in English & History
Research Manager
Gary has over 17 years experience in market research gathering and interpreting data across the customer insight world. With his wealth of experience throughout data and information technology, Gary ensures data is collated in the most efficient and accurate way, whilst maintaining the highest code of GDPR compliance.
Gary Haime
MSC in Computing
Data Manager
Amelia is passionate about getting to the truth behind how people function and used her inquisitive nature to successfully complete her psychology with business masters degree. Through research and analysis of complex data, she generates actionable insights that make it simple for our clients to implement change to drive business growth.
Amelia Gavrila
Msc Consumer Psychology with Business
Senior Research Executive
Lee is an authentic and visionary Chief Executive Officer who has been operating at board level for a number of years. As a previous Director across multiple disciplines at Tesco PLC he brings a wealth of experience to the business. Lee’s ability to connect teams and bring together the science behind behaviour, academia and industry experts is key to the business model going forward.
Lee Harrison
Chief Executive Officer
Anne-Marie is a crucial member of the team, she’s fully trained in facial coding which means we are able to understand the real, not claimed behaviour of customers. Anne-Marie’s input, working alongside our consumer psychologists and industry experts, enables us to get to the emotional truth for our clients.
Anne-Marie Brown
Office Manager and Facial Coder
David has over 30 years of global retail experience across commercial, operations and marketing. He uses strategic thinking and problem solving to help businesses build simple and effective plans. This depth of experience means David brings a wealth of unrivalled industry expertise to the business.
David Thomas
Chief Customer Officer
Andy has spent his entire career in shopper and consumer research, observing, questioning and helping to understand shopper behaviour. He understands how shoppers behave and crucially, WHY they behave as they do. This experience means Andy is an expert at identifying the best methodologies to get you the most accurate answers.
Andy Bromley
Chief Operating Officer
Adam studied multimedia at university and over the last 9 years he has been able to use these skills and knowledge in the shopper research industry. Adam frequently travels around the world for our clients, ensuring consistency of project set up, GDPR compliance and professional execution of fieldwork.
Adam Cooper
BA (Hons) in Multimedia
Data Executive
Paul is an experienced company secretary and senior leader across the corporate, financial services and IT & Technology sectors. Leading on business improvement & compliance, and ensuring board decisions are implemented with speed, efficiency and legality.
Paul Chapman
Commercial Director
Our research methodologies have be used by our clients globally
Press and
insights
The importance of touch for shoppers
Vision has been one of the most studied scientific areas in the history of consumer psychology. However,…
3 simple ways to capture shoppers attention to help your products stand out in-store
In-store, thousands of products are all battling it out to get into our baskets. But before we…
Part of the SMP Group
We are part of the SMP Group, an insight led marketing communications team, our 3 brands deliver leading innovations and experiences that are proven to drive business growth.
