From Cost Center to Growth Driver: The Case for Connected Insights

As a market fueled by consumer spending, the U.S. economy can shift quickly based on how consumers are feeling. And right now, American consumers don’t feel very good. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment survey recently reported that more that 76% of consumers expect to reduce their spending this year by cutting back or skipping purchases while 60% expect unemployment to worsen, a reading last seen in the Great Recession.

That worry is showing up in how people shop, eat, and spend. In a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, 9 in 10 said they are already making budget tradeoffs due to rising prices—cooking more at home (49%) and buying fewer non-essentials (38%). In most categories, a 5-10% price increase is enough to change purchasing behavior.

As consumers cut back, brands are feeling the pressure too, navigating softening demand and elevated costs with continued expectations to grow. In a Deloitte survey of 250 consumer brand execs, just 51% believe price hikes will drive growth in 2025. Only 30% said prices could rise more than 3% without hurting demand.

In this environment, businesses need a sharper, more responsive understanding of what people want, what they’ll pay for, and how those behaviors are evolving in real time. That’s where market research should shine but too often, it lags behind. It remains slow, service-heavy, and misaligned with how modern teams work. Instead of fueling strategy, it’s often used to manage risk too late in the game

It’s no surprise, then, that many view research as a cost center—hard to quantify when ROI needs to be immediate and substantial. To change that, research needs to be faster, more connected, and built for now.

Strategic Decisions Begin with the Consumer Voice

When insights are integrated into a connected system, they become more powerful. Teams can link past learnings with real-time data and market conditions to make smarter, faster decisions. They can spot patterns earlier, adapt to shifting preferences, and develop offerings that align with what consumers want—before it shows up in sales data.

This alignment transforms data from reactive reports into proactive strategies that are especially useful in markets roiled by uncertainty and contracting consumer spending. The survey mentioned previously found that despite consumers cutting back, price (85%) and quality (87%) remain key drivers in purchasing decisions. By understanding this evolving situation, teams can make decisions fit for the moment.

McDonald’s recent decision to bring back its discontinued chicken snack wraps is a fantastic case study of adapting to consumer needs. By listening to years of consumer demand and responding to price sensitivity, the brand is expanding its value menu with a product it knows people want—and have been a bit obsessed with–meeting the moment with value and quality.

Insight = Opportunity

This level of foresight and agility is critical since organizations that center their operations around consumer insight grow faster.

Companies seeing real growth are using consumer insights to be more responsive to dynamic market conditions, take calculated risks and make their advertising and product innovation more impactful to the bottom line.

In an analysis by Forrester of shifting from traditional market research to a more agile mindset, they found that global consumer brands could see substantial improvement to in-market performance of advertising and innovation with consumers at the center:

• Increase in return on ad spend (ROAS): By testing and iterating advertising, brands improved in-market ad performance and media efficiency by 5%-6.5%.
• Increase in new product revenue: By accelerating product testing and go-to-market timelines, brands bring more high-performing innovations to market and generate 4%-7% incremental profit.
• Reduction in research costs: Brands reduced research costs 40% by shifting from legacy research agencies and reinvesting in more tests and faster learning.
• Time savings for insights teams: By eliminating manual processes and vendor coordination, teams saved 10%-15% on labor costs and spent more time driving strategic impact.

Consumer Data Is an Asset, Not a Checkbox

The value of connected insights isn’t just theoretical—it relies on clear foundations that let teams move fast and make smarter decisions at scale. To unlock that value, brands need to align around three core pillars:

1. Platform: leverage digital-native, self-serve tools that cut down the dependency on external partners for critical insights.
2. Process: Establish clear, actionable guidelines that streamline workflows and provide clarity on how and when to use insights.
3. People: Empower teams to experiment, fail and learn. A culture that encourages curiosity and continuous improvement ensures that the organization adapts to evolving consumer landscapes rather than remaining stagnant.

Consumer sentiment can change overnight. And in a volatile economy, brands need insight systems that help them keep up—and stay ahead. The question isn’t whether you need more consumer data. It’s whether your teams can actually use it to drive better outcomes.

The organizations that evolve how they gather, interpret, and act on insights will be the ones that thrive in today’s economy—and shape what comes next.