Thinking
Some thoughts, musings, opinions & pronouncements from the world of The Forge.
Whitepapers

Whitepaper
Future Consumer Value:
Why anticipating needs is the only sustainable path to growth

Whitepaper
Growth: Three Ways
Pt. 3 – Growth through Premiumisation

Whitepaper
Growth: Three Ways
Pt. 2 – How to grow through increasing Frequency

Whitepaper
Growth: Three Ways
Pt. 1 – How to grow through increasing Penetration

Whitepaper
How to Create a Winning Customer Strategy
Articles

- Article
How to get more from your Demand Spaces
In categories like FMCG, the uptake in demand spaces has been so near complete that clients are no longer asking how to create them but looking to understand how to get more out of them.
We explore the options in the following article.

- Article
Better addressing identity
We recently worked with an FMCG client to understand how the attitudes, motivations and needs of a specific identity group influenced behaviour. The findings were not completely as expected.

- Article
Too Much Information, Not Enough Insight?
The rapid recent rise in online tools gives us information more quickly than ever before. So why then are we seeing more clients suffering from information-overload - more and more data with fewer and fewer insights?

- Article
Is There Still Demand for Demand Spaces?
Used correctly, Demand Spaces can be an incredibly effective tool. In this post, we’ll discuss what they are, how they are frequently misapplied, and how we might use them in the future.

- Article
Fewer, Bigger, Better. Why a Strategy is Your Best Tactic
Covid-19 accelerated changes in consumer behaviour; businesses have had to deal with all of this against a backdrop of fewer resources and significant cost pressures. How well they bounceback will depend on how well they can focus on a clear strategy.

- Article
How to Create a Customer Strategy in 8 Steps
Extracted from our whitepaper How to Create a Winning Customer Strategy, and brought to life with instructional how-to videos and examples from the world’s most famous brands, this blog sets out the 8 simple steps.

- Article
The Big Framework For Growth
The Forge's proprietary model, The Big Framework for Growth, is used to map changes occurring in your category. It helps you to understand where the opportunities are but also flags the risks and dangers to your business. Find out how to create and deploy one in your organisation here.

- Article
Divided by a Common Language. Why Fat Words Create Risk
When a business is working to multiple expressions of the same word it creates confusion, a lack of efficiency or a loss of effectiveness. We need to break down these broad concepts into meaningful expressions, before then going on to understand which ones are most relevant to us and to our consumers.

- Article
Half the Time. Half the Cost. Twice the Impact?
The proliferation of new insight tools has prompted massive changes to the research industry and to how organisations harness the power of insight.
This plethora of tools has, understandably, led to an assumption that you can get more for less; you can spend half the time and half the money but get to answers that deliver twice the impact.
Half the time? Definitely. Half the cost? Almost certainly. Twice the impact? Hmmm…

- Article
How and Why You Should be Thinking About Naturals
In the last 2 years we’ve barely worked on a project in retail or FMCG where the ‘naturals’ conversation wasn’t relevant. Even if you feel like your brand is far removed from this conversation currently, there are elements of ‘naturals’ narratives that you can leverage without feeling like you are creating dissonance in your brand story.