- A usage and attitude study describes a whole category, not a brand: who uses it, how often, how, where, on which consumption occasions and with which attitudes.
- It is the right choice when entering a category, before a product strategy or a repositioning; it is not suited to a narrow question such as testing an advertisement.
- The sample must allow category penetration to be estimated, so it starts from the general population, with screening questions and, where needed, boosts for small groups.
- The value of the study comes from analysis: the structure of volume by user type, the map of consumption occasions and segmentation by attitudes and needs.
- Claimed consumption data carry memory and social desirability errors; short reference periods and questions about the last occasion reduce them.
1. The problem: the company knows its sales, not its consumers
A soft drinks producer knows exactly how many litres it sold last month, through which distributors and in which regions. It does not know who drank those litres, at what time of day, at home or out, alone or with friends, what they would have chosen if the product had been missing from the shelf, and why some buyers have switched to mineral water. Internal data describe transactions; they do not describe the behaviour and motivations behind them. The usage and attitude study (U&A) fills that gap: it is a complete picture of the category, seen through the eyes of those who use it and those who do not.
The same need arises well beyond consumer goods. A bank wants to understand how households manage money day to day, a mobile operator how mobile internet is used, a public institution how citizens access e-services. In every case the question is not "what do people think of us" but "how does the category work in people's lives", and the answer shapes every later decision on product, price, distribution and communication.
2. What a usage and attitude study is
Methodologically, it is a cross-sectional descriptive design: a quantitative survey, carried out once on a representative sample, that measures behaviour and attitudes related to a category of products or services. What sets it apart from neighbouring studies is the unit of analysis. A brand awareness and image study starts from brands; a satisfaction study starts from a company's customers; the U&A starts from the category and includes all brands, all users and the people who do not use the category at all.
A typical study answers six questions: who uses the category and who does not (penetration), how often and in what quantity (frequency and volume), how and on which consumption occasions, where and how it is bought, which brands make up each consumer's repertoire and, finally, which needs, attitudes and barriers explain all of this.
3. When it is the right choice and when it is not
A usage and attitude study is the right choice in four situations. When entering a category or a new market, before the company has data of its own. Before a portfolio or product development strategy, when unmet occasions and needs have to be identified. Before a repositioning, when the brand wants to move towards other consumption moments or another audience. And as the foundation for segmentation, which needs rich data on behaviour and attitudes, as the guide on market sizing and segmentation shows.
It is not the right choice when the question is narrow: whether an advertisement works, whether a price is acceptable, why satisfaction is falling in one branch. Dedicated studies exist for those, shorter and cheaper. Nor is it suited to frequent monitoring: a U&A is repeated every few years or after a major change in the market, and between waves the trend is followed through a short tracker built on the key indicators from the U&A.
4. What it measures: the questionnaire modules
- Penetration and screening. Who has used the category in the past year, the past month, the past week. These questions, asked of the whole sample, give the size of the user base.
- Frequency and volume. How often and how much, over a short and concrete reference period. These answers produce the user types: light, medium and heavy.
- Consumption occasions. The last occasion described in detail: when, where, with whom, what else was consumed, why the category was chosen. A question about the last occasion is more reliable than one about what people do "usually".
- Purchase. The channel, purchase frequency, who decides and who buys, what happens when the preferred brand is out of stock.
- Brand repertoire. Brief awareness questions, brands used, main brand, rejected brands and the reason for rejecting them.
- Attitudes and needs. A battery of 20-40 statements about the category, daily life and choice criteria, rated on an agreement scale. This is the raw material for segmentation.
- Profile. Socio-demographic data, household structure, urban or rural residence.
5. How it is designed: sample, instrument, fieldwork
The sample starts from the relevant general population, not from users. Only then can category penetration be estimated and non-users described, and non-users are often the main source of growth. With a probability sample or strict quotas by region, settlement type, sex and age, everyone answers the screening module and users go on to the rest of the questionnaire. If an important group is small, for example heavy users or one region, a boost sample is added for that group and the data are weighted back to the real proportions at the analysis stage.
The instrument is long, usually 25-40 minutes, which makes face-to-face interviewing the most suitable method, supported by brand cards and pack photographs. CAPI interviewing handles complex routing and the rotation of statements; for populations well covered online, a CAWI version is possible, with the questionnaire shortened and split into blocks. The details of the method are in the guide on face-to-face interviews.
Fieldwork is planned around seasonality: an ice cream U&A carried out in January describes a different category from the same study in July. Where seasonality is strong, either two waves are run or the reference period of the questions is explicitly adapted.
6. The role of qualitative research before and after
A good U&A almost always begins with a qualitative stage. A few focus groups or in-depth interviews with different users of the category produce consumers' own vocabulary, the list of occasions and, above all, the attitude statements that will go into the questionnaire. A battery of statements written only by the marketing team measures what the team believes about consumers, not what consumers believe.
After the survey, a qualitative stage can return to explore a segment the analysis has uncovered: who, concretely, the people in the "price-conscious pragmatist" segment are, what their day looks like, what language they use. This combination turns segments from tables into people the communication team can picture.
7. Analysis: from data to a map of the category
The value of a usage and attitude study is created at the analysis stage, through four main outputs.
- The structure of volume. Combining penetration with frequency and quantity shows what share of category volume comes from each user type. Often a minority of heavy users accounts for a disproportionately large share of consumption, which changes who communication should target.
- The map of consumption occasions. Occasions are grouped by moment, place and company, and for each one the share of volume and the dominant brands are calculated. Large occasions where the brand is absent are the growth opportunities.
- Segmentation by attitudes and needs. The statement battery is reduced to a few dimensions by factor analysis, and respondents are grouped by cluster analysis into segments with distinct needs. The methods are described in the guide to multivariate analysis.
- Gap analysis. For each segment, what matters is compared with how well the existing offer serves it. Important needs that are poorly met are the starting point for new products.
8. How results become decisions
A hypothetical example: a breakfast cereal producer commissions research on usage and attitudes because sales have stalled. The analysis shows that category penetration is low outside the large towns, that the main occasion is not breakfast but children's after-school snacks, and that a segment of parents concerned about sugar rejects the category altogether. These three findings lead to three different decisions: wider distribution in small towns, a snack-sized pack, and a reduced-sugar line, later checked through a concept test. The study did not say which product to launch; it said where the room for growth lies and for whom.
For the results to be used, the report is organised around business questions rather than the order of the questionnaire, and segments receive descriptions and names that teams can use in product and communication briefs. Working these results into portfolio strategy is what market research and segmentation covers.
9. Limits, common errors and how it compares with other studies
- Memory errors. Respondents do not remember exactly how much they consumed over the past three months. Short reference periods and questions about the last occasion reduce the error.
- Social desirability. Consumption of alcohol, sweets or gambling is under-reported, and sport and reading are over-reported. Neutral wording and self-completion for sensitive modules help.
- Claimed versus actual. The study measures what people say they do. For exact purchasing behaviour, consumer panel or retail data are complementary.
- The overloaded questionnaire. Every department adds questions, and after 45 minutes answer quality drops visibly.
- Unusable segmentation. Segments that are statistically sound but unrelated to behaviour, or impossible to identify in practice, stay in the report.
| Study | Unit of analysis | Main question | Typical frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Usage and attitude study | The category, all users and non-users | How the category works and where the room for growth is | Every few years or after major change |
| Awareness and image | The brands in the category | How well known the brand is and how it is perceived | Annually or as tracking |
| Customer satisfaction | One company's customers | How well customers are served and what to improve | Six-monthly, annual or continuous |
| Dedicated segmentation | The target market | Which distinct groups exist and which to target | Once, revised every few years |
| Category tracking | Key indicators from the U&A | How penetration, frequency and brands evolve | Quarterly or monthly |
10. What to ask the agency
- The definition of the category and the population: who enters the sample and how non-users are included.
- How penetration will be estimated: probability sample or quotas, with the reasoning.
- Boost samples for small groups and the weighting scheme.
- The qualitative preparation stage and how the attitude battery is built.
- Questionnaire length and the list of modules, with priorities agreed before programming.
- Reference periods for frequency and volume, and how seasonality is handled.
- The analysis plan: volume structure, occasions, segmentation, gaps.
- The indicators that will carry over into a later tracker.
A well-run usage and attitude study stays on the marketing team's desk for years: it is the document they come back to at every launch, repositioning or annual plan. If you are entering a new category, or feel you no longer understand the market you work in, talk to the Perspicuus quantitative research team about what the map of your category could look like.
See also: Market research and segmentation CAPI and CATI Focus groups and IDI Brand awareness and image study Market sizing and segmentation Face-to-face interviews (CAPI)
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