When you get to know your customers, creating products they want to buy comes naturally.

The deeper your knowledge of your consumers (whether they’re your customers or not), the more likely you are to make the right propositions. When you create products that delight the market, growth is inevitable.

For the latest in our Unleashed Talk series, we welcomed Maud Hua-Bulteau and Catherine Ropers, Consumer Insights Managers at Nestle Purina EMENA. They took the audience through the process of understanding everything related to Purina’s consumers - both as pet owners and people. Here are three key takeaways.

Consumer insights help you grow your business by increasing your chances of success in three core areas:

• Creating an appealing product offering for the right consumers
• Communicating product benefits in a way that resonates with your target customers
• Ensuring product quality to make sure your customers come back again and again

"It starts with building that superior holistic understanding of pet lovers – and the full marketplace, including retailers and competitors. It enables us to make better business decisions, which will drive growth."

- Maud Hua-Bulteau, Consumer Insights Manager, Purina PetCare EMENA

You have to get to know your customers in greater depth because pet owners are a diverse consumer group.

Owners’ attitudes towards their pets can differ wildly. In your research, you might hear feelings ranging from, ‘I am devoted to nurturing my beloved pet and giving her the very best’ to ‘I accept that my pet has a place in my life, but I’m practical and value driven’.

These attitudes will affect what they look for in their pet food - and how much they’ll spend. So you need to target them differently.

"Consumer insights are a tool that helps us tailor our products, brand strategy and communication to different groups of pet owners."

- Catherine Ropers, Consumer & Marketplace Insights Manager Nestlé Purina EMENA

Effective consumer research - and great products - start with the right business question.

Don’t go to the market looking to find out what product you should launch next. Instead, ask yourself what you want to achieve with your new product. This could be:

• Increasing sales with current users
• Increasing the profitability of your existing portfolio
• Attracting new users
• Developing a new segment before your competitors do

"Identifying the right business question enables us to design the right learning plan and gives us the right lens when looking at the results."

- Maud Hua-Bulteau, Consumer Insights Manager, Purina PetCare EMENA