Informing Growth & Retention
Research to understand the forces, journeys and experiences that influence brand take-up and loyalty.
We help brands that have a digital focus adopt a human-centred approach to growth and retention—one that places people, their lives, experiences, and needs at the heart of strategy. By identifying opportunities to add value for their audiences, we help brands become the preferred choice for both new and existing users —and, in turn, increase their own value.
Digital-first. Human-centred
OUR APPROACH
The strongest digital brands share a common purpose: to add value to their users' lives. This focus is the foundation for growing and cultivating a loyal customer base.
Developing great propositions and experiences is key to achieving brand growth and strong customer retention. For digital brands, these elements matter more than any marketing campaign, tagline, or design assets. That’s why our brand growth and retention research focuses here.
Digital growth is different
Digital brands are unique. You can’t approach their strategy the same way you would for example, food, fashion, or automotive brands.
Our approach reflects the distinct ways digital-first brands grow—how they engage, deliver value, prioritise user experience, and navigate fast-paced competitive environments.
Building Brand-Market-Fit
A strong market fit between products and audience needs is the foundation of any successful brand. Without it, a brand lacks purpose and would not be missed.
We help shape propositions centred on the Jobs-to-be-Done, gain creators, and pain relievers that matter most to their audience when deciding which brands to choose.
The experience is the brand
Consumers make choices holistically, evaluating the entire brand experience—encompassing product value, marketing, and user experience.
We identify the elements of the brand experience that drive loyalty and the gaps that cause churn, enabling growth and retention strategies to work seamlessly together.
Find out more about our services for boosting growth and loyalty
1. Growth & Retention Strategy
We conduct research to uncover the forces that drive brand choice, loyalty, or switching behaviour. Our insights empower strategies across product, marketing, and user experience, providing actionable guidance for sustainable growth and retention.
Using the powerful Switching Forces model (developed by Bob Moesta), we identify the Push, Pull, Anxiety, and Habitual forces that influence whether a customer chooses a new brand and remains loyal to it.
Through a mix of exploratory qualitative research, behavioural insights, and survey analytics, we help brands pinpoint the levers across product, marketing, and user experience to attract and retain customers.
Switching Forces Model:
Switch
Push forces
The paint points and underserved needs with the brands they currently use, that make people want to switch to something new.
Pull forces
The features and benefits a brand, product or service has that are most likely to attract customers to switch to this new behaviour (brand).
P
H
P
A
Habitual forces
What are the behavioural forces
and inertia factors that would prevent switching behaviour - from a competing brand or from your brand.
Anxiety forces
The reservations and concerns
that need to be removed before the decision to switch from a new brand would be likely.
Stay
Research solutions used:
User interviews
Mixed-method surveys
Video diaries
2. Evaluating customer journeys
We help build a deep understanding of the paths potential users take as they work toward their goals and choosing a brand. We uncover the critical moments of truth—how to become part of the journey, influence behaviour, and add value along the way.
Through rigorous research with real users and authentic experiences, we map and build empathy with the steps people take toward achieving their goals. We identify the phases, actions, emotions, and opportunities that matter most, providing the knowledge to helping brands to become the one they choose.
Rich journey paths
We visualise the situation, stories, touchpoints and channels as users make progress towards achieving their goals.
Pain points
We build understanding of the points of friction and the underserved needs that exist with current product, service and content experiences.
Emotional highs & lows
We witness how users feel as they complete their journeys - the good and the bad, and the opportunities to build positive brand sentiment.
Contextual influences
We reveal the external and situational factors (media, brands, behavioural bias & tech) that shape decision-making and influence journeys.
Research solutions used:
Journey audits
Contextual interviews
Video diaries
Consumer surveys
3. Evaluating brand experience
We provide a comprehensive review of your users’ brand experience—identifying gaps, uncovering opportunities to add value, and crafting strategies to enhance audience loyalty.
Through user reviews, trials, and testing, we deliver insightful and actionable evaluations of specific aspects of your brand offering—products and services, designs, marketing, and user experience. This human-centred approach helps brands address experience gaps, eliminate pain points, and create added value, helping ensure users remain satisfied and loyal.
Usage immersion
Understand how, where and why audiences use a product or service with in-the-moment quantitative and qualitative feedback.
Test against needs
Assess effectiveness vs. users’ Jobs-to-be-Done, how satisfied they are with different factors and if they would they recommend the brand.
Find experience gaps
Discover and close experience gaps (compared to needs, expectations, competitors). Find opportunities to optimise the offering to add more value.
Iterative approach
Task users with trying out new releases and features, and gather feedback. Update and test again to enhance experiences.
Research solutions used:
Trial communities
Usage diaries
User surveys
User Interviews
Delivered for impact.
We craft and deliver research projects that make a difference. Projects that add value for end users. Projects that help brands progress towards their goals.
Custom & flexible
Projects aligned to the unique needs & goals of each brand.
Full-service
Added value at every step from our experienced insight team.
Influential delivery
Directional insights, engaging outputs & rich empathy.
Quality at Sprint speeds
Fusing tech & AI with smart thinking to deliver valuable insights faster.
Ready to amplify the value of your brand.
Have a project to discuss? Want to know more about our services? We’d love to hear from you.