Consumer Questions Every 2026 Plan Should Answer
This is Part 2 in the 2026 Planning Series.
Most brands skip straight to tactics—channels, creative, retail strategy—without answering the foundational question: Who is this actually for?
Before you set revenue goals or pick marketing channels, answer these questions about your consumer. Get this wrong and nothing downstream works.
Who are they?
Who is your target segment?
What are their motivations?
Who are we NOT targeting?
This isn't about exclusion—it's about focus. When you try to be for everyone, you end up meaning nothing to anyone.
What does their life actually look like?
Walk through a day in their life. When do they encounter the problem your product solves?
What are their pain points, routines, and decision triggers?
Where do they spend their time? (physically and digitally)
What other brands are part of their daily ecosystem?
What need state are you solving for?
What job is your product hired to do?
What are the alternative solutions your consumer considers?
Example: Is your frozen meal competing against other healthy frozen meals? Or against meal kits, takeout, skipping lunch, a protein shake, or last night's leftovers?
Understanding the real consideration set changes how you position and where you show up.
What do they believe about the category?
What assumptions do they hold that you need to reinforce or overcome? (e.g., "all protein bars taste like cardboard")
What would make them switch from their current solution?
What do they think is non-negotiable?
How are they behaving with your brand?
Where is your target discovering you? (Not where you hope—where they actually are)
What converted them?
What's their repeat behavior? (reorder cadence, basket expansion, flavor progression)
A few notes:
Positioning: You shouldn't change your core positioning every year. But you should refine how you express it, where you show up, and how you adapt to shifts in consumer behavior. Your "who" might stay consistent while your "how" evolves.
Psychographics beat demographics: You can grow the number of people who want a late-night snack with great marketing. You can't grow the number of 25-35 year olds in the US. Target the mindset, not the age bracket.
Use demographics as context, not strategy. If your target is "busy parents seeking convenient nutrition," then yes—they likely have kids under 12, which means they're shopping at specific retailers, time-starved in specific dayparts, influenced by specific creators, and care about specific attributes (portability, mess-free, kid-approved). Use demographics to inform your strategy, not define your audience.
Translating to media: When it comes time to activate—whether in creative, product development, or media—you'll need to translate psychographic targets into platform-level signals. We'll cover that in a future piece. For now: nail the human truth first. The tactics follow.
Next in the series: Category & Competition—how to see the landscape clearly without letting competitors define your strategy.
