Case Study
Applying Behavioral Science to Help Understand Shopper Decision-Making
overview
Using Behavioral Science to Guide Product Strategy
A leading personal care company partnered with C+R Research to evaluate new product concepts for disposable underwear designed for older adults. The goal was to understand which product features most influenced shopper decisions in a club-store environment. By applying behavioral science principles—particularly around how people make decisions in real-world contexts—the research aimed to uncover not just what consumers say, but what they’re likely to do.
THE PROBLEM
Moving Beyond Stated Preferences
Traditional surveys often rely on self-reported attitudes and intentions, which can miss the nuances of actual shopper behavior. The client needed to know:
- Which product features (e.g., comfort, protection, fit) would drive real purchase behavior
- Shoppers’ System 1 reactions to what product features were most motivating
- How exclusivity to a specific retailer would influence decision-making
- How differently or similarly System 1 vs System 2 research approaches captured the behavioral drivers behind shopper choices
The challenge was to go beyond surface-level preferences and tap into the cognitive shortcuts and trade-offs consumers make in the moment.
OUR APPROACH
Simulating Real-World Decisions
To capture both rational and intuitive decision-making, C+R used two complementary methods grounded in behavioral science:
- Monadic Survey with Simulated Shopping
Participants evaluated one product concept at a time and responded to a series of structured questions about purchase intent, perceived value, and feature importance. This method provided a controlled environment to assess stated preferences. - Prediction Market Exercise
Participants were given tokens to “bet” on how likely other shoppers would be to choose each product. This approach taps into social prediction and collective intelligence—key behavioral science concepts that reflect how people use both personal experience and social cues to make judgments.
By comparing results across these methods, the research team could identify not only which features were most appealing, but also which ones triggered confident, behaviorally-grounded responses.
The result
Behavioral Insights That Drive Action
The research revealed several key behavioral patterns:
- Comfort and Fit were top drivers of purchase intent, especially among women, while odor control and absorbency were more motivating for men.
- Retailer exclusivity increased perceived value and urgency, reinforcing the behavioral principle of scarcity.
- The prediction market surfaced deeper insights into confidence and social judgment, showing where shoppers felt most certain about their choices—even when their stated preferences were more evenly split.
- Both methods aligned on overall concept rankings, but the prediction market provided stronger signals on which benefits were most likely to influence real-world behavior.
These findings helped the client refine product messaging, prioritize features for development, and tailor strategies by gender and retail channel.
proven experience
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