At Khayan, we’ve found that real insight comes when research is built around the actual decision a customer is about to make. Not abstract preferences, but trade-offs: this bottle or that one? Stick to habit, or switch for something new? If the research question isn’t pointed at that moment of choice, it’s not going to bring much clarity.
That’s why we start by anchoring our questions in behavior. Not abstract attitudes, but concrete routines: Where do people buy? What do they recognize on the shelf? What bottle size do they pick up and why? In our recent work on the mineral water category, we didn’t just ask people what they liked—we asked what they chose, how often, and what mattered most in that moment. Was it price? Brand familiarity? The feel of the packaging? We used scaled questions to capture price perception levels, and head-to-head comparisons to learn what wins in a split-second choice.
These comparisons aren’t just useful for rankings—they expose how people process their options. In our previous project, we saw how packaging aesthetics drove first impressions—but decisions ultimately leaned on recognition and habit. Even when people said they cared about purity or ingredients, most couldn’t explain what made one bottle better than another. Instead, they chose based on what felt safe, or what they’d seen before.
This is where research becomes more than data. When built around a focused question, it helps you see the story behind behavior. You start to understand that someone buys the same brand every day not because it’s the best, but because it’s familiar, it’s available on the same shelf and the price isn’t surprising. These patterns form quickly—and they’re sticky. Changing them takes more than
features or facts. It takes getting into the rhythm of how people already decide, and offering something that fits that rhythm without friction.
Most of our clients don’t start with that question figured out. That’s where we come in. We help shape it. We design studies around it. And we test it in the places where decisions actually happen. Because when the question is right, the answers don’t just fill a report—they build the strategy that comes next.