Why Goals are Important

Welcome to August’s Flumeletter!??

In this issue we talk the importance of goal based thinking and the driving forces behind our decision making.

We also highlight some interesting things including the recent views on sustainability, which are taking their shape in 'Apocalypse Fatigue', and how brands are standing out in a down market.

Enjoy!

Why Goals are Important

"Can I have a decision tree please?"

Words that (should) make every researcher’s heart sink. Because a linear decision-making process simply doesn’t exist.

Psychological theory tells us that the driving force behind all our behaviour and therefore our decision-making is goals. But goals are contextual, not fixed. If your goal changes, your behaviour changes. With it the solutions (brands, products, features) you think of and seek out will change too. A lot of research doesn’t work this way.

It assumes you have one set of attitudes and behaviours and brand choices regardless of the context.

At Flume we have goal based thinking at the heart of our philosophy.?Our start point is goals – whether it’s leveraging our qual heritage to identify goals in a given category, workshopping to bring them to life, or using our quant expertise to deliver action-oriented U&As, drive superiority in product testing or meaningfully track categories over time.

Why should EVERY marketeer care about goals?? Because they are the key determinants ?of human behaviour. They influence what we pay attention to, what we call to mind and our choices – 3 essential components for marketing.

It’s an approach proven to deliver business impact (our case study was Highly Commended at the last MRS Awards). We’ve shared the ins and outs of it with many readers of this newsletter, but we’d love to share our thinking further and wider. If you’d like to know more, drop us a line and we’ll fill you in!

If you’d like to hear more about our goal based thinking and founding principles here at Flume, take a look at our website?and?please drop us a note at [email protected]. ?

This month's interesting things:

• This month we?were very interested to get an update on the current view on sustainability.?Consumers who claim to be interested in world events have decreased by 10% since Q2 2020, and those who claim to have opinions?about environmental issues have plummeted even more. With this popping up more in our work recently, this recent article by Shauna Moran explains the uprise of 'Apocalypse Fatigue' and why some no longer have the emotional headspace to always think of sustainability with?their actions.
• How do you stand out in a depressed market? With consumer's goals changing i.e., inflationary pressures leading to more mindful grocery shopping patterns - The brand?Juicy Marbles is certainly causing intrigue in the category with their debut of a plant based meat alternative with vegan edible bones. Their aim is to innovate in the plant based space with a sense of humour, it's definitely causing buzz in the plant based community!

MRS Oppies 2023 Finalists

It turns out we’re not biased at all and our sister company Babble really does have one of the best viewing facilities around! We’d like to congratulate them on being very well deserved finalists in the Best Viewing Facility Experience and Impact category. The winners will be announced in late September, and in the meantime if you’re looking for somewhere in the Midlands to host research then look no further! ?