FeltonBuford Partners

FeltonBuford Partners Insight and Strategy Partner Uncovering Growth Opportunities Through the Power of Clarity

We’re back with another Researcher Spotlight: Aliza Pollack!Aliza is creative, deeply thoughtful, and thrives on immersi...
09/29/2026

We’re back with another Researcher Spotlight: Aliza Pollack!

Aliza is creative, deeply thoughtful, and thrives on immersing herself into peoples’ worlds to uncover distinct client opportunities. Her advertising background shows in how she works: she doesn’t just collect interviews, she builds meaning across them, using what she learns from one conversation to sharpen the next, so what she brings back actually strengthens the ideas a team is working on.

That instinct has taken her deep into healthcare research, from working with AIDS patient caregivers to help build a framework for palliative care, to mapping the patient journey for people navigating atrial fibrillation treatment.

Needless to say, we’re very lucky to have her as part of the FBP team! Swipe through to get her take on some burning questions. 🎙️✨

In just a couple of weeks, we’re headed to The Market Research Event (TMRE) in Denver! Meaghan and Christi from our team...
09/21/2026

In just a couple of weeks, we’re headed to The Market Research Event (TMRE) in Denver! Meaghan and Christi from our team, along with Amy from Zeldis, will be on the ground at booth #545.

If you’re attending, we’d love to catch up. Feel free to swing by the booth, or reach out to schedule time. Hope to see you there!

Our unofficial research assistants: great for morale, not much help on reports. Swipe through to meet the crew 🐾        ...
09/09/2026

Our unofficial research assistants: great for morale, not much help on reports. Swipe through to meet the crew 🐾

09/03/2026

Meta just agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims brought by nearly all U.S. states, over allegations that it had internal research showing its platforms were harming kids’ mental health, while continuing to design for engagement.

What should organizations learn from this landmark moment?

➡️ First: Ignore research at your own peril

Research can surface risks, uncover unintended consequences, or show where a product or experience isn’t landing the way it was intended to. But the insight itself is just a starting point. What matters is whether it actually changes a decision, before the cost of ignoring it shows up somewhere else.

➡️ Second: Products and services for kids have to account for the ecosystem around them.

The child may be the user, but they are not always the decision-maker. Parents may be making decisions on their behalf without having full visibility into what their children are experiencing. And kids are still developing the ability to self-regulate, assess consequences, and navigate social comparison.

That means understanding performance alone isn’t enough. For products and services designed for kids, we need to understand the experience from multiple perspectives, including where kids’ and parents’ experiences and expectations converge and where they diverge.

That’s true across categories, but especially when the consumer is still growing into the role.

Have you been following the Meta news? What takeaways are you seeing?

Trend alert! Canada just became the first G7 country to approve a generic version of semaglutide, the active ingredient ...
08/26/2026

Trend alert! Canada just became the first G7 country to approve a generic version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.

We’ve already seen signals of what rising GLP-1 usage can do to adjacent categories: food and beverage brands adjusting to changing appetite, haircare brands responding to new side effects, beauty and apparel brands rethinking a changing customer. Lower cost typically means broader access, and broader access could take those signals to an entirely different scale.

In our experience, shifts like this tend to show up in consumer behavior well before most brands are actually tracking for them. Canada may be a preview of what’s coming elsewhere, and the companies paying attention now will have a head start on the ones waiting for the headline to come across their desk.

We love a team outing, especially one with peanuts and cracker jacks! Great day spent at the ballpark with our friends a...
08/20/2026

We love a team outing, especially one with peanuts and cracker jacks! Great day spent at the ballpark with our friends at Johnson & Johnson MedTech and Zeldis Research Associates — full of good conversation, better company, and even a win for the Reds.

Said in 1954, and still true. Every era of marketing searches for a new shortcut to generate customer loyalty: broadcast...
08/12/2026

Said in 1954, and still true. Every era of marketing searches for a new shortcut to generate customer loyalty: broadcast ads, celebrity endorsements, influencers, algorithms...

The tools change. What earns loyalty doesn’t: a deep and continuous understanding of your customers, which translates into products, services and communications that actually reflect it.

Understanding isn’t a one-time insight to file away. Deep understanding is ongoing work, and the brands willing to do that work are the ones who can earn real loyalty, not just attention.

After the Consumer Bankers Association Conference (CBA Live) earlier this year, we said the greatest advantage in financ...
08/05/2026

After the Consumer Bankers Association Conference (CBA Live) earlier this year, we said the greatest advantage in financial services isn’t more customer data, it’s deeper customer understanding.

Since then, qualitative research by Meaghan Willis has taken that idea a step further. It’s no longer just the customer you need to know. It’s their whole ecosystem: the relationships, responsibilities, and realities that shape how someone decides what’s right for them. And as those needs keep evolving, so does the insight required to keep up.

For financial institutions, that deeper understanding can lead to more relevant products and stronger customer relationships.

Check out the full post linked in bio, and let us know what you think! 👇

💡Next up in our Researcher Spotlight series: Kristin Carcieri💡Kristin is a seasoned expert in market research, bringing ...
07/29/2026

💡Next up in our Researcher Spotlight series: Kristin Carcieri💡

Kristin is a seasoned expert in market research, bringing over 15 years of experience across qual, quant, and market analysis, and adding a rare depth of perspective to every project she touches.

She has an instinct for knowing exactly when to dig deeper, uncovering not just what consumers are thinking, but why, and what it means for the business.

And when she’s not deep in research, she’s our resident AI-guru, always exploring new tools and tech to help the team stay ahead.

We’re so proud to have her on our team!

For years, influencer marketing has been treated as key to reaching younger consumers. Among Gen Z, that strategy could ...
07/15/2026

For years, influencer marketing has been treated as key to reaching younger consumers. Among Gen Z, that strategy could be losing its footing.

A recent survey of Gen Z consumers confirms what we are hearing in our own qualitative work: when evaluating a brand, Gen Z places significantly more trust in independent sources like customer reviews, research, and expert opinion than in influencer content.

Why? Perhaps because Gen Z grew up entirely inside social media. They have been marketed to through influencers for as long as they can remember, and that familiarity has bred a kind of fluency — they know what sponsored content looks like and they have developed a more discerning filter for what counts as trustworthy. Recent academic research points to what’s being called an “authenticity paradox” — the more polished and produced content feels, the more skepticism it tends to trigger. Credibility appears to be increasingly earned through validation that feels independent, not paid.

To be clear: the influencer era isn’t over. But how Gen Z perceives influencers is clearly shifting, and brands leaning heavily on sponsored voices may find themselves talking to a generation that’s already tuned them out.

Fellow marketers and researchers, are you seeing this shift in your space too?

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