How Do Brands Get Customer Understanding Wrong?

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Welcome to the DTC Podcast. Today, we’re joined by Seth Waite, Founder and Buyer Psychologist at Schaefer, where he helps CPG and food and beverage brands unlock growth by digging into the real reasons people buy.

In this episode, we cover:

Why knowing your customer via demographics isn't enough - the shift to behaviors, motivations, and jobs-to-be-done.

How to build a "Why People Buy Pyramid" for your brand and map messaging across basic needs, emotional values, personal growth, and community.

How to recognize true product-market fit in a DTC/CPG context (hint: when the only thing stopping you from selling more is budget).

Why targeting the small obsessed segment matters (the "kingpin strategy") and how that unlocks long-term scale and profitable growth.

Practical tips for talking to customers today - simple interviews, replacement questions, and how to turn qualitative insights into segmentation and messaging.

Best moments you'll want to scan for:

• "Demographics are interesting ... but they're not always insightful."

• "What you should be telling is the customer's story - these are the occasions you'll have with our product."

• "If the only reason why you're not selling more is money ... you've got product-market-fit."

• The breakdown of the Why People Buy Pyramid and how it applies to food and beverage brands.

• How brands like Oreo and Liquid Death illustrate layering of needs, emotional values, and community.

Whether you're launching a new DTC food brand, scaling a snack or beverage line, or trying to sharpen your segmentation and messaging, you'll walk away with concrete frameworks and a clearer path to growth.

00:00 - Introduction: Why People Buy

01:20 - From Sam's Club to Walmart: Studying Real Buyer Behavior

05:12 - Motivations vs. Demographics

12:15 - Oreo: How to Own a Category

18:03 - Brand Psychology, Packaging, and Subconscious Triggers

26:06 - What Product-Market Fit Actually Looks Like

32:28 - Tell Their Story, Not Yours

39:13 - How to Actually Get Insight (Without a $150K Research Budget)

#ConsumerPsychology #WhyPeopleBuy #CPGMarketing #BrandStrategy #ProductMarketFit #CustomerInsights #BehavioralScience #MarketingPsychology #FoodAndBeverage #DTCMarketing #MotivationBasedMarketing #EmotionalBranding #DataDrivenMarketing #OreoCaseStudy #LiquidDeathMarketing #FishwifeBrand #CustomerResearch #FounderStrategy #MarketingPodcast #DTCPodcast

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