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Problems We Solve

Here are the most common types of problems we solve:

MotivBase is a global research technology company.

We support our clients by studying people in 11+ countries, delivering agile ethnographic analyses.

Measurable Foresight

Foresight doesn’t always mean having to deal with big, hairy questions about our society and the future of humankind. Foresight CAN and in fact MUST begin with answering practical questions about how the culture surrounding a product or technology is evolving. It must ask what new cultures are developing that might offer new adjacent spaces for our products and solutions. And it must ask how the makeup of audiences within these cultures and adjacent spaces is naturally evolving. 

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Insight

To be truly human-centric, it’s not enough to simply know of trends and manifestations. One must understand and decode the deep human “why” — the implicit beliefs that drive the consumer.

Every signal, trend, and manifestation you study must link back to an underlying implicit belief. If it doesn’t, then you lack human-centricity. Click below to learn more about how we help make insights truly human-centric, and start your teams thinking like anthropologists.

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Innovation

Are you building solutions that no one wants?

Most companies are industry-led. They define their businesses according to internal or industry’- created terms, definitions, and constructs. For example, a food company may say its business is divided into its “shelf-stable” and “refrigerated” grocery business, as well as its new and emerging direct-to-consumer delivery business. These are all constructs that define innovation according to industry lines that don’t actually exist in the mind of the consumer. This is where MotivBase plays a significant role, in helping innovation teams first understand the consumer-centric lens and then identify the “cultural requirements” that innovation must meet to be successful.

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Is Your Organization Truly Human-Centric? Or Does Your Organization Tend to Lead With the Solution Instead of the Consumer? Let Us Inspire You and Your Teams and Help You Drive Impactful Change Within the Organization.

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Sample Report

Our interactive reports are delivered in a rich-text format. In this interactive format, you can download a PDF or PowerPoint (PPT) version as well as a visual version of the PPT automatically.  

Upon request, we would be happy to share with you a sample report in categories like food and beverage, personal care, skin care, apparel, retail, chemicals, packaging, sustainability, and more. We can also provide global examples of our work across the three products we offer.  

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The Iceberg Model and Why It Matters

Culture is very much like an iceberg. And we are, as insight and innovation leaders, sitting on a ship headed toward it. Seen from afar, it seems fairly benign. But as we get closer, we start to discover that it may be a threat to our very existence. 

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Building on the Iceberg Model: Part II

Every trend contains a handful of core beliefs that shape the consumer’s understanding of that trend. These core beliefs teach us about how the consumer makes sense of the trend and perhaps more importantly, how that trend might evolve with time. In this article, we build on the iceberg model to illustrate how by distinguishing between core beliefs and manifestations, we can make insights not just highly actionable but also deeply human-centric.  

The Volatility of Trends

Watch our EVP and Cultural Anthropologist Ujwal Arkalgud explain how anthropology can help us to decode and measure the volatility of trends and predict the future with incredible accuracy.

“Why Meaning Matters” is a podcast that explores how meaning shapes our experience and sets our expectations.

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“Why Meaning Matters” is a podcast that explores how meaning shapes our experience and sets our expectations.

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Innovation Professionals: Here’s why big data ethnography is critical to your front end.

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Innovation Professionals: Here’s why big data ethnography is critical to your front end.

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How AI (artificial intelligence) and anthropology can help us uncover and quantify jobs to be done

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How AI (artificial intelligence) and anthropology can help us uncover and quantify jobs to be done

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Research methods need to transform if we’re serious about diversity

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Symbolic capital, tension, and tempo — the three tenets of understanding the why behind human behavior.

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Trends and How Cultural Tension Can Act as an Accelerant.

Why is it that when it comes to certain types of trends and industries, some countries tend to lead the way while others follow?