Brand Strategy Archives

22 Jul 2026

Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty in 2026

Blog

Beauty and skincare brand loyalty remains strong despite ongoing economic uncertainty. These products have become an essential part of consumers’ self-care and wellness routines, reinforcing their importance in everyday life. Beauty and skincare have become an essential part of consumers’ self-care and wellness routines, reinforcing their importance in everyday life.

Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty Starts with Trust

Beauty and skincare shoppers enjoy discovering new products, but exploration alone does not drive purchases.. Provoke Insights’ research shows that trust and product performance ultimately determine which brands consumers choose and remain loyal to.

Lifestyle Habits Shape Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty

Shoppers in the beauty and skincare category are intentional buyers who view purchasing as more than a routine task. Skincare remains a popular category, with 50% of Americans purchasing skincare products in the past month, while 37% purchased beauty products. Compared to non-purchasers, they are more likely to enjoy browsing stores, discovering new products, and identifying as trendsetters.

Their interests extend beyond shopping as well. Skincare purchasers are more likely to participate in self-care (42%), crafting (23%), yoga (14%), and fine arts (10%), reflecting a greater focus on wellness and self-expression. In contrast, beauty purchasers are more likely to engage in social and experiential activities. These include dining out (34%), domestic travel (24%), dancing (22%), bar hopping (17%), attending concerts (15%), and professional sporting events (14%).

These behaviors suggest that beauty and skincare purchases are closely tied to broader lifestyle habits focused on wellness and self-expression.

Beauty and Skincare Purchases Are Driven by Discovery and Trust

Beauty and skincare shoppers enjoy exploring new products, but they also navigate one of the most crowded shopping environments of any category. Nearly 60% of Americans say the large number of choices overwhelm them when shopping, with beauty and skincare ranking among the most crowded categories.

Customer Reviews Strengthen Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty

Shoppers primarily rely on trusted brands and customer reviews when making purchase decisions. Nearly half (48%) of both beauty and skincare purchasers use customer reviews and ratings to guide their choices. These sources help shoppers navigate a constant stream of new products, ingredients, and trends. For brands, innovation remains important, but credibility matters just as much. Positive reviews, strong brand equity, and clear product benefits help shoppers feel confident in their choices.

Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty Depends on Product Performance

Although shoppers are willing to explore different brands, they remain loyal to products that consistently deliver quality. Fifty-five percent of purchasers in both categories identify quality as their top loyalty driver. Value, trust, and positive experiences also play an important role, but product performance remains the primary driver. Those same factors also influence why consumers switch brands. Nearly half of skincare purchasers (47%) stop purchasing when product quality declines. The same is true for 46% of beauty purchasers. Price increases rank second, cited by 33% and 32%, respectively.

Together, these findings reinforce an important reality for beauty and skincare brands: loyalty is not guaranteed. Consumers are willing to explore alternatives, but they remain loyal to products that consistently deliver results and meet their needs.

What Beauty and Skincare Brand Loyalty Means for Brands

Despite economic pressures, consumers continue to prioritize beauty and skincare purchases, even amid economic pressures. However, success in the category requires more than innovation alone.

Brands that combine innovation with credibility, consistently deliver results, and earn consumer trust build stronger, longer-lasting loyalty.

Want to learn more? Check out our full report

Methodology

Provoke Insights conducted a 15-minute online survey among 1,500 Americans aged 21 to 65 in March 2026. A stratified random sample methodology was used to ensure representation across key demographic groups, including age, gender, household income, geography, ethnicity, and presence of children in the household. Provoke Insights conducted statistical testing at a 95% confidence level, with a margin of error of ±2.5%.

12 Feb 2026

Clarifying the Corporate Value of Fair Chance Hiring

Case Study

Presented by Provoke Insights

CHALLENGE

A national non-profit works with employers to advance fair chance hiring practices, yet faces growing challenges in clearly articulating its value to corporate decision-makers. While interest in inclusive hiring was increasing, awareness of the non-profit’s specific offerings was low, and implementation barriers remained unclear across different internal roles within organizations.

The non-profit needed a deep, evidence-based understanding of:

How employers perceive fair chance hiring
Where hesitation and confusion exist
Which decision-makers matter most
How they could better position its services, messaging, and pricing

The organization partnered with Provoke Insights to conduct a multi-phase market research initiative that combined internal alignment, qualitative depth, quantitative scale, and persona development.

SOLUTION

Provoke Insights designed a five-phase, mixed-methods research program to uncover employer needs and translate insight into actionable strategy.

Phase 1: Internal Stakeholder Interviews & Strategic Alignment

The multi-phase market research began with a moderated internal stakeholder session with the non-profit’s leadership and team members. This phase clarified success metrics, surfaced internal assumptions, and identified key challenges around positioning, differentiation, and scalability. A comprehensive SWOT analysis was developed to guide the design of subsequent research phases and ensure internal alignment from the start.

Phase 2: Competitive Analysis

Provoke Insights conducted a comprehensive industry trends analysis and competitive landscape assessment to evaluate brand positioning, advertising, PR initiatives, and service offerings. Using secondary research databases, competitive website analytics, and a review of advertising and sales collateral, Provoke Insights identified the top ten trends shaping corporations and fair chance hiring. The team also developed in-depth competitor profiles outlining organizational backgrounds, brand positioning, key messages, proof points, visual identity, and owned, earned, and paid media strategies.

Phase 3: Large-Scale Quantitative Research

Provoke Insights conducted an online survey among decision-makers at companies with employees across HR, DEI, Training & Development, Operations, Procurement, and Legal/Compliance departments. The study measured awareness, attitudes, motivators, barriers, budget willingness, and partnership expectations related to fair chance hiring.

Phase 4: Qualitative Deep Dives

Insights from the quantitative phase informed in-depth qualitative interviews among priority sub-groups. These conversations added emotional context, clarified implementation concerns, and revealed role-specific needs. Findings from all phases were synthesized into distinct, role-based personas, bringing to life the motivations, fears, decision-making power, and messaging needs of the non-profit’s core employer audiences.

Phase 5: Personas

Provoke Insights developed B2B personas to bring the corporate decision makers to life. Each persona paints a clear picture of the individual inside the organization, including their role, responsibilities, priorities, pressures, and influence in the hiring process. The profiles include representative quotes, core business needs, perceived risks, decision criteria, and key barriers to adopting fair chance hiring.

By mapping out what each stakeholder is trying to achieve, what concerns may hold them back, and what proof points they require, Provoke Insights provided the non-profit with a tangible framework to guide messaging, engagement strategies, and solution development. These personas serve as practical tools for understanding how to effectively reach and persuade employers at different levels of readiness.

RESULT

Through its multi-phase research approach, Provoke Insights delivered a Non-profit clear, cohesive roadmap for growth.

The research enabled the non-profit to:

Align internal stakeholders around shared priorities and challenges.
Clearly identify high-value employer segments and decision-makers.
Understand role-specific barriers to fair chance implementation.
Refine messaging to move beyond awareness toward action.
Develop actionable personas to guide marketing, partnerships, and sales strategy

By combining internal insight, qualitative depth, and quantitative data, the non-profit gained the clarity needed to strengthen its employer engagement strategy and position itself as a trusted, implementation-focused leader in fair chance hiring.

10 Apr 2025

Create Personas That Actually Kill It

Blog

If You’re Still Marketing to “Women 25–54,” We Need to Talk

Generic buyer profiles aren’t cutting it anymore. If you want your brand to resonate, you need to create personas that work. There are several market research services that can help bring personas to life.

A well-developed persona tells you who your customer is, why they care, and how to connect with them. But here’s the secret: the strongest personas aren’t brainstormed in a meeting room. They’re created through research.

That’s where market research services come in. When done right, they deliver personas that do more than sit in a PowerPoint — they guide strategy, messaging, product development, and media targeting.

Research Helps Develop Personas that Drive Results

Powerful personas are created from layered data, not assumptions. Start by interviewing internal stakeholders — your sales and service teams often know your customer better than anyone else. Their insights help uncover patterns worth exploring.

Next, analyze industry reports and existing customer data. Secondary research is a fast way to ground your understanding in macro trends and benchmarks.

Then, go outside. Social listening tools show what people really say online — their tone, frustrations, and preferences. It’s authentic and often surprising.

To validate what you’re hearing, layer in survey research. Large-scale surveys conducted through professional market research services help quantify behaviors, segment audiences, and pinpoint what drives decision-making. Want to go deeper? Use focus groups or in-depth interviews to bring emotion and context into the picture.

Whether you use one method or combine them all, the goal is the same: a well-rounded, deeply human understanding of your audience.

What a Strong Persona Should Include

Every persona should paint a complete picture. That means demographics, values, media habits, motivations, pain points, and preferred messaging. Include quotes, photos, and a backstory to make them feel real — not robotic. Keep it visual and easy to digest. If your team isn’t using it, it’s not doing its job.

Bring Personas to Life Across Your Organization

This isn’t just for marketers. Sales, product, creative, even HR — everyone benefits when they understand who you’re speaking to. Use personas to brief teams, guide campaigns, shape UX, and inspire innovation. The best ones are revisited and refined regularly — not created once and forgotten.

Why It Pays to Pay for Research

You can build basic personas internally. But when you invest in expert-led market research services, you gain depth, accuracy, and objectivity. Agencies bring fresh perspective, advanced tools, and strategic analysis that go far beyond DIY efforts.

Bottom line: smart brands pay for great research because it leads to better strategy — and better results.

Want Personas That Actually Drive Growth?

The real win isn’t just having a beautiful slide or a clever name for your persona. It’s creating something that feels alive — something that tells the full story of who your customer is, what they care about, and why they choose you.

A great persona doesn’t sit on a server collecting dust. It’s a living, breathing tool that anyone — from a media buyer to a product manager to a creative freelancer — can pick up and say, “I get it. This is who we’re talking to.”

That’s when personas stop being a box to check and start becoming the foundation for better, more human marketing.

Interested in reading more- Check out our blogs on segmentations:

11 Jan 2018

Manufacturers… What’s Your Brand Strategy?

Blog

While manufacturing in the United States has adopted new technologies to streamline operations, logistics, increase capabilities, and provide better products, industry growth is still slow due to overseas competition. Though manufacturers are consistently innovating, 2017 growth in the industry has only increased by 1.6%[1]. What is the brand strategy?

Manufacturers often rely on their sales teams to develop and solidify relationships. However, with such a competitive environment, it is short-sighted to not only focus on sales. Even a B2B industry should have a brand strategy in place.

First, every business should have a unique selling proposition to convince prospects to work with your company as well as to increase loyalty among current customers. It makes the sales teams’ jobs easier by providing key differentiators in an industry where prospects and customers may see many manufacturers as all the same. This provides additional value for the brand beyond cost.

Second, it is pertinent to understand your customer wants and needs and determine if your company meets them. Plus, there should be a strong understanding of why prospects work with your competitors vs. you. Other than price, what is that key trigger point that would convince them to switch manufacturers? Often this can be done using market research with methodologies such as focus groups and surveys. For example, you can learn about what is unique about your brand vs. the competition, as well as possible emotional triggers you would not normally associate with a manufacturing company.

Also, it is pertinent to determine what marketing channels not only reach your customers, but can best communicate your brand’s story.

Even if your competitive advantage is not the most advanced or the cheapest, a market strategy is a way to tell a compelling story that helps your customer understand your brand in a simple and digestible manner.

As you can tell, there are many moving parts to a marketing strategy. Provoke Insights can help assist with a marketing or branding strategy and research needs.

Read our blogs about why primary and secondary research is so important when launching a successful brand.

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[1] “Over-the-year employment changes and tests of significance, seasonally adjusted. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov Dec. 2017.

27 Nov 2017

Trends of 2018: Advertising & Marketing Industry

Blog

As 2018 approaches, advertisers and marketers are preparing for the new year, Provoke Insights is providing a comprehensive look at the state of the advertising and marketing industry. In other words, what are in-house marketers and ad agencies up to?

In the last decade, the marketing industry is changing immensely from new technologies to more specialty advertising agencies. As a result, in-house marketers are pushing for more project-based work, and an ever-increasing number of consumers are cutting-the-cord to their TVs.

This change leads us to ask some questions:

How has this change affected advertisers as well as in-house marketers? In addition, is this impacting advertising and media budgets? Subsequently, are the changes affecting the longevity of the relationship between an ad agency and their clients? Next, what advertising and marketing initiatives are marketers commissioning in today’s market? Beyond, how satisfied are marketers with their job in this fast-evolving environment?

For instance, in 2014, only half of the advertisers surveyed were very satisfied with the process. Thus, with the ever-increasing frequency of ad pitching in the advertising and marketing industry, are agencies and clients still dissatisfied with this process? Especially, is there some room for improvement? Furthermore, what makes marketers most likely to select an advertising agency? In summary, find some of our new findings below.

Who Conducts the Research

Companies are split almost evenly between those who hire advertising agencies (56%) and those who conduct all marketing in-house (44%). Companies with 500 or more employees are twice as likely to hire advertising agencies than those with under 500 employees.

Ever-Changing Landscape

To keep up with the ever-changing marketing landscape, companies are increasingly commissioning multiple specialized ad agencies to meet various needs. Companies typically have four vendors on the roster. Businesses are focusing on digital advertising initiatives more than traditional offline channels. Banner ads paid social, and social media community management is the most commonly used digital initiatives. However, don’t discount the tried and true conventional channels, as these are still a core part of the marketing plan. The channels include print ad (55%) followed by events (46%) and commercials (40%).

Partner Companies

Incidentally, in-house marketers, on average, have worked with their primary agency for five years. However, only two-fifths of companies claim to be ‘very satisfied’ with this partner; revealing that there is room to improve the relationship. ROI, distrust, and expectations not being met are the reasons for dissatisfaction with primary agencies. Companies are most satisfied with their partner’s understanding of the company’s goals/objectives (54%); they are least happy with their agency’s cost (34%). On the other hand, smaller firms are less satisfied with access to research/data and prior experience in their industry.

Provoke Insights conducted a survey looking at both advertising and in-house marketers to better understand the state of the advertising & marketing industry. This extensive advertising survey among 736 respondents will help you plan the 2018 year right. Thus, if you would like to learn more about the results of this survey and receive the whitepaper of this research in December, follow this link and we will send it to you.

About Provoke Insights

Provoke Insights is a full-service brand consultancy and market research firm. Our innovative approach helps brands navigate through today’s cluttered marketing space. We are the nerds behind the advertising, branding, media, and content marketing initiatives. Our obsession with data and research makes your marketing strategy compelling and impactful.

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Check out our most recent features in the news media:

September 11th, 2019: 40% of U.S. Millennials prefer crypto investments in the event of a recession: eToro Survey

July 31st, 2019: Jewelry Is About to Get its Own ‘Got Milk’ Ads

July 1st, 2019: 22 Top Advertising Research Companies 2019

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13 Dec 2016

Millennials, Fine Jewelry & the Luxury Category

Blog

Written by: Rachael Ryan

Millennials are the most researched subgroup of the 21st century – and yet, they still seem to be misunderstood. Everyone wants to know more and more about the generation. A look at millennials and the jewelry industry can give us some insights.

Who are Millennials?

Millennials are technically anyone born between 1982 and 2002, but most importantly they are the buying generation. They’re taking over from the Baby-Boomers who are retiring both from work and they’re hanging up their consumer shoes too. Despite marketers obsessing over millennials, they are still often dumbfounded by them. Just when marketers think they have them all figured out, millennials change their habits and leave everyone bewildered.

For example, millennials were buying luxury goods such as fine jewelry. Millennials spent $26 billion on diamonds in 2015. But since then, the attitudes of affluent millennials have changed. 6.2 million millennial households earn more than $100,000 a year and they will take over the luxury consumer market by 2018-2020 – that means they need to be understood and luxury brands need to research them in order to appease this headstrong generation.

Market research is invaluable in this situation; here are a few speculations as to why millennials have become indifferent to the opulence of luxury jewelry brands.

Millennials are incredulous towards big luxury brands.

They want to pay big bucks for an individual experience rather than a brand that everyone has. The generation prior to millennials would pay vast amounts of money to have luxury, classic pieces of jewelry to display their wealth and standing in society. Millennials are not purchasing fine jewelry, they are more interested in spending the same money on a one-of-a-kind, once in a lifetime experiences.
Milestone purchases.

Millennials don’t want a piece of jewelry to define them – they want sentiment behind it. Most millennials will only buy a luxury good as a milestone or to mark an occasion, while this has always been partially the case – it is now the sole selling point of luxury jewelry. Millennials are not likely to impulse buy a luxury item; there must be a deeper level of emotion attached to a piece. This is why luxury jewelry brands such as Pandora are so popular – each piece is unique to the owner and every part of the piece has a story to tell that is exclusive to the person wearing it.
Technology is a new luxury.

The number of millennials that own a fitness watch and the number of millennials that have a classic wristwatch are almost equal. This is a two-sided argument, if you want your luxury brand to be successful then your brand needs to have a successful online presence that resonates with this savvy generation. Millennials read on average 13.9 reviews online before buying a product, and they normally only buy products that have been recommended by loved ones or people they trust.

There are many other factors that come into play here; millennials get married later in life and their engagement ring is ordinarily their introduction to fine jewelry purchasing, millennials are experience-oriented and want to be unique, therefore often look for one-of-a-kind jewelry that has a story behind it, among other reasons.

To learn more, read Provoke Insights’ President Carly Fink’s article on Brown Diamonds here.

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15 Nov 2016

Know Your Target Audience Through Research

Blog

Written by: Rachael Ryan

Have you ever been to a children’s birthday party when an adult gives one child some attention, then before they know it, every child at the party is vying for that adult’s attention? But the adult no longer has any time to give to any child because there are so many kids looking for it – in the end, no one gets attention and the adult goes back to conversing with the other adults.

That’s the world today! You’re the adult and brands are the children. We gave our attention to marketing – once or twice, maybe a couple of hundred times – and now every single brand is vying for our time and attention. The more brands compete for our attention, the less time and attention we have to give. As a result, we need brands need to more efficiently reach their customers.

There are more barriers than ever between you and your target audience. There are more channels from which to get information out there, there are an increasing number of social media channels, more apps, more news outlets, and more television series on more television streaming websites and TV channels, more adverts and more messages trying to be transmitted. All of this makes it even more important for you to understand your prospects and customers.

So how can you go about understanding your target audience?

Research, research, research! If you know nothing about your target audience in this day and age, you need to start researching. Research is the only means of finding out who your target audience is.

Find out your audience’s demographic – this is limited in its potential to present the motivations for buying but it will allow you to begin to form a picture. It’s limiting because it doesn’t tell you why – it tells you who the customer is (i.e. gender, age) and where they are but you’re missing the why and the how.

Straight off the bat, you need to understand your consumer’s goals. Why is your consumer buying your product? How did your consumer get to your product or service? Understand the problem or desire that your audience may have that will lead them to your product. In order to do that, you need to research the audience – research those who will be in the market for your product or service.

You might be thinking, that’s all well and good – but how can I get all of that information? Well, a survey will provide you with the answer. Research can help you determine not only the who, where and what but more importantly it can resolve the mystery of why and how! Not only that, it will also ascertain which segment of your audience will invest the most in your brand.

Segment your audience through research. Divide your audience into segments and provide content specific to them. Make sure your content is consistent, shareable and of a high quality. Your marketing won’t get any attention unless it’s worth the audience’s while – don’t offend your target audience by contending for their attention via poor quality content. I can assure you no one will give you attention the next time you contend for it!

Choose how to engage your audience wisely. Where do they get their information? If your audience doesn’t listen to podcasts then don’t choose that as your means of communication with them. If they ordinarily read blog posts that they see on Twitter then don’t focus all of your attention on Snapchat.

Be true to your brand. Finally, we live in a world filled with skeptics; always remain honest and true to your brand. Consumers today are quick to flag when they are being fed nonsense and drivel – it will do more damage to your brand than good if you try to get their attention with content that has a spurious link to your brand. Be sure to remain authentic. That way, you’ll become someone that your audience trusts and wants to invest in.

Want to learn more about your customers? Check out Provoke Insights article Four Ways to Better Understand Your Consumer. Also, you can sign up for our newsletter here.

10 Sep 2015

4 Watch Outs When Conducting a Survey

Blog

“There are errors everywhere,” my market research professor claimed on the first day of class. He continued and said, “as a market researcher, your job is to reduce the errors as much as possible.” As someone who has worked in the industry for fifteen years, I believe that this lesson is still extremely important. In other words, when conducting a survey, there are certain things to watch out for.

If research errors are not found, the results will lead to inaccuracies. Ultimately, the insights garnered from the study may lead a brand to the wrong conclusions.

If you are developing a survey, here are a few errors that you need to watch out for.

1. Inaccurate Objectives

When constructing your research objectives, it is always important to think about how the end results will be used. In other words, when conducting a survey, you must make sure that your objectives are clear and factual.

2. Improper Research Methodology

Sample size, language issues, and goals of the research are aspects you need to consider when determining the methodology. For example, a survey with only 25 respondents only provides directional information and does not represent a portion of the population. You may want to consider using more open-ended research approaches such as focus groups.

3. Bad Survey Writing

Survey length is too long, leading with sensitive questions (i.e. household income), too many open ends, inconsistent or wrong survey scales are just a few of the problems that occur when writing a survey. The best way to solve survey errors is by asking others to take your survey. The more people who take the survey, the more errors you will be able to find. Also, double-check to ensure the survey logic is accurate. To sum up, survey writing is vital when conducting a survey, and your choices are very important.

4. Sampling Bias

How you acquire your sample can impact survey results. Your friends or colleagues may provide biased results if they took your survey. Also, only researching a certain segment of your population may also skew results. For example, if you were targeting a national population, but only reached New Yorkers the results won’t be representative.

In conclusion, survey writing plays an enormous role in the success of your study. For example, any combination of sampling bias, bad survey writing, improper methodology, and inaccurate objectives can submarine your research. In particular, bias can torpedo a research study by skewing the results to inaccuracy. The job of researchers is to conduct smart, factual, and insightful studies, in order to inform a marketing strategy. By avoiding these pitfalls, you as a researcher will be on your way to doing your job to the best of your possibilities. And the possibilities of market research are endless!