Consumer Research
Understanding People to Create Change
Josh doesn't just study audiences—they decode the cultural currents that drive human behavior to inspire action.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about consumer research: most of it ends up in beautifully designed slide decks that executives nod at and then promptly ignore. Numbers without narrative. Demographics without psychology. Findings without the framework to turn insights into action.
The best research doesn't just tell you what people think—it reveals why they think it, how they make decisions when no one's watching, and what would actually make them change their minds. But getting to those revelations requires something most teams don't have: someone who can lead diverse expertise toward discoveries that matter.
Josh doesn't conduct research solo. They orchestrate research partnerships that combine methodological rigor with strategic intuition, working alongside insights teams to uncover the patterns that transform how brands connect with human complexity.
The Research Leadership Philosophy: Synthesis Over Surveys
Working alongside research and insights teams requires a different skill set than running focus groups or analyzing data solo. It's about being the strategic bridge between what researchers can measure and what marketers need to understand.
Josh's approach centers on collaborative intelligence—leading cross-functional teams toward insights that wouldn't emerge from any single methodology or perspective. The magic happens in the synthesis: when quantitative patterns meet qualitative nuance, when demographic data intersects with cultural intelligence, when brand metrics connect to human psychology.
The Trevor Project Research Partnership: When Standard Frameworks Break Down
When Josh needed to understand how to position Trevor Project's crisis intervention services, traditional brand research frameworks hit a wall. How do you test messaging about suicide prevention? How do you measure recall effectiveness for crisis moments? What focus group methodology addresses life-and-death decision-making?
Working alongside the discerning team at Qualtrics, Josh led a research partnership that got under the hood of something unprecedented: how do you ensure LGBTQ+ young people not only know about Trevor, but remember it during their most vulnerable moments?
The breakthrough insight came from the research partnership: To genuinely reduce suicidality among LGBTQ+ youth, Trevor needed to broaden their aperture beyond crisis response to affirmation and joy.
The Cultural Intelligence Advantage: Research That Reads the Room
Working alongside research teams gives Josh access to methodological rigor, but their cultural intelligence brings context that pure data can't provide. Understanding not just what the numbers say, but what they mean within the cultural moment.
The VICE Cultural Pulse Strategy: Research as Competitive Intelligence
At VICE Media, Josh worked alongside research teams that had developed unique methodologies for tracking millennial cultural behavior—not just demographics, but the social currents that shape how young people relate to brands, identity, and authenticity.
For the $12MM Chanel Fragrances campaign, Josh led the team toward insights that traditional luxury market research would have missed. While conventional research focused on aspiration and status, VICE's cultural pulse methodology revealed something different: female Millennials wanted authenticity from luxury brands, not accessibility.
The collaborative research process combined VICE's behavioral tracking with strategic brand analysis to decode what Millennials actually wanted from heritage luxury—respect for their intelligence, not patronizing attempts at relevance.
23% purchase intent increase
The strategic translation: Instead of dumbing down luxury or over-explaining heritage, the campaign honored Chanel's credibility while speaking fluent millennial cultural language.
The Research Orchestra: Leading Teams Toward Strategic Breakthroughs
The most valuable research insights emerge from collaborative intelligence—when methodologists, strategists, cultural analysts, and brand thinkers work together toward discoveries that none could reach alone.
Josh's role in research partnerships isn't to replace expertise but to orchestrate it. Leading teams toward questions that matter, frameworks that illuminate, and insights that transform strategy rather than just informing it.
The Methodology of Collaborative Discovery
Working with research teams to design inquiries that go beyond surface preferences to underlying psychology. Not just "do you like this brand" but "how does this brand fit into your identity story?"
Leading teams toward insights that account for cultural moment, social dynamics, and community influences—the factors that shape how individual preferences become collective behavior.
Translating research findings into strategic frameworks that teams can execute. Moving from "here's what we learned" to "here's how we act on it."
Working alongside research partners to present insights in ways that create organizational buy-in and strategic coherence across departments.
The Human Complexity Challenge: Research That Respects Contradictions
The best consumer research acknowledges something most brands prefer to ignore: people are contradictory. They say one thing and do another. They want authenticity and aspiration simultaneously. They crave connection and privacy.
Josh leads research teams toward insights that honor this complexity rather than trying to resolve it into simple buyer personas or demographic categories.
The Nuanced Brand Strategy for Crisis Prevention
The Trevor Project research revealed a perfect example of human complexity that traditional brand frameworks couldn't handle. LGBTQ+ youth wanted crisis support resources to be available but didn't want their identity primarily associated with trauma and crisis.
Leading the research partnership toward this nuanced understanding required methodology that could hold contradictions: celebrating identity while acknowledging struggle, building joy while maintaining crisis readiness, expanding brand aperture while maintaining mission focus.
"The research insight that changed everything: LGBTQ+ young people needed Trevor to be a protective space that prevented crisis rather than just intervening after crisis hit. They wanted relationships built on affirmation, not just available during desperation."
The Research Partnership Portfolio: Multiple Methodologies, Unified Strategy
Josh's approach to consumer research recognizes that different questions require different methodologies, different cultural moments call for different frameworks, and different organizational contexts need different types of evidence.
The skill lies in orchestrating research partnerships that combine quantitative rigor with qualitative nuance, demographic data with cultural intelligence, brand metrics with human psychology.
Combining VICE's unique cultural tracking methodology with luxury brand strategic analysis created insights that neither traditional market research nor cultural trend analysis could have uncovered alone.
Working alongside Qualtrics' methodological expertise to create research approaches that could handle the ethical complexity of crisis prevention while delivering strategic clarity about brand positioning.
The Future of Research Leadership: Complexity Over Simplification
Consumer research in the current moment requires teams that can navigate ambivalence, honor contradiction, and translate complexity into strategy without losing nuance.
Josh leads research partnerships that resist the temptation to oversimplify human behavior into actionable demographics. Instead, working alongside insights teams to develop strategy that works with human complexity rather than trying to resolve it.
From Asking "What Do People Want?"
To "How do people actually make decisions when competing values conflict?"
From Measuring "Brand Preference"
To understanding "identity integration"—how brands become part of people's sense of themselves.
From Tracking "Demographic Behavior"
To decoding "cultural psychology"—the social and emotional factors that shape individual choices.
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Transform Your Consumer Research Strategy
Ready to elevate your consumer research approach? Let's discuss how Josh's expertise can drive real results for your organization.