Anjali Lai

In the last decade, the term “boycott” pulsed through global consumer chatter and search queries. Whether consumers were talking about sneakers, seltzer, or the Academy Awards, the frequency of the word “boycott” spiked to some of the highest levels since the early 2000s. It’s tempting to assume that consumer activism will subside as swiftly as […]

Today I present the third of five key consumers lessons to take away from the 2010s. You can find the previous two here and here. Ten years ago, a wave of demonstrations and protests in the Middle East reshaped our understanding of social media’s influence; the Arab Spring turned up the volume on debate about […]

This is the second installment in a series of five blog posts highlighting important lessons about consumer behavior and attitude that emerged from the past decade. If a retrospective look on the 2010s conjures feelings of uncertainty, peering through the lens of legacy brand leaders only dramatizes the sense of instability as the volume and […]

There’s no better time to examine the past and future than when crossing the threshold of a new year and decade. During this time of thoughtful retrospection, it’s easy to exaggerate how dramatically the world has changed, thanks to cognitive bias. But certain changes are undeniable — after all, we entered 2010 at a time […]

Sustainability matters to younger consumers — but Baby Boomers are more likely to use their values to guide their purchasing.

Leaders, employees, and consumers will grapple with fitting the gig culture into familiar frameworks that steer business decisions.

Alignment between company values and executive’s values drives business growth. What does misalignment cause? Just ask Equinox and SoulCycle.

Singapore is recognized as one of the world’s most innovative hubs and as an innovation powerhouse in Asia: The 2018 Global Innovation Index ranks Singapore as the fifth most innovative market out of 126 global economies analyzed, and Singapore’s recently launched S$1 billion innovation fund establishes innovation as a key lever to economic growth and […]

It's not just the minimalist design. It's not just the products in millennial pink. DTC is winning because it caters to customers' contradictory impulses around decision-making.

Among a series of updates unveiled at Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg echoed a common refrain: The future is privacy. Fresh memories of Facebook’s mistakes and looming fines are not the only reasons why Zuckerberg’s refrain is relevant; in this cultural moment, consumers are clamoring for brands that build community around specific […]

Will consumers embrace your brand’s innovations or simply shrug? Forrester’s Consumer Energy Index measures consumers’ openness to your newest offerings. Learn more.

In this battle between direct-to-consumer (DTC) startups — cast as the proverbial David — and their large, established brand opponents, victory is not about size or stature; it’s about skillful weaponry. In fact, if one looks at DTC startups’ long-term growth numbers, a scorecard tally suggests that today’s Goliaths will continue to dominate consumer retail […]

As we gear up for Forrester’s Consumer Marketing 2019 Forum, I’m chipping away at a rather large research undertaking that quantifies why direct-to-consumer (DTC) startups deliver value to consumers and how this threatens big brands. In addition to mining rich quant, qual, and behavioral data sets, our advanced analytics illuminates the key drivers that predict […]

When sociologist Jane Jacobs artfully depicts crowds on a city sidewalk, she may as well be describing consumers. In Jacobs’ words: “Under the seeming disorder . . . is a marvelous order. It is a complex order . . . This order is all composed of movement and change . . . ensembles all have […]

After a tumultuous 2018, Facebook’s fate looks bleak. While the characteristic hope of the New Year lingers, you might look at the glimmers of positive news around Facebook with optimism: Advertisers are still using it; the company is investing in local news partnerships in a public display of its commitment to quality reporting; and consumers […]

Brands are jumping into the messy arena of polarizing issues with greater fervor — and Gillette just raised the stakes. After 30 years of sitting on the sidelines, Gillette is passing its razor like a baton, with an overture that overtly calls masculinity into question. Within 72 hours of launch, Gillette’s “We Believe” TV spot skyrocketed […]

On paper, customer experience (CX) is about people creating memorable experiences for other people. But in reality, resonating with consumers is complex and messy. Customers approach your brand with unique emotional profiles, tendencies, and preferences that shape how they feel about your CX. Like people themselves, CX isn’t objective or static — its quality relies […]

The American showman P.T. Barnum understood the value of online consumer reviews well before the arrival of the internet when he said, “Nothing draws a crowd quite like a crowd.” While consumer reviews generate buzz, they stop just short of being a circus because they’ve won immense levels of consumer trust. But two of the […]

We’ve been researching values-based consumers for several years now, and conversation in the C-suite has progressed from “Are values really important?” to “How do we strategize accordingly?” But every now and then, lingering questions crop up that lead to misguided decision making around values. Here are two common misconceptions — and why they are wrong. […]