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Understanding your customers goes beyond knowing what they buy. It’s about understanding why they buy, what they’re looking for and how your brand can meet their needs.
At sync, Aoife Teague from Octane AI brought together Niall Harty, Founder and CEO of All Real Nutrition, and Sam O’Neill, Managing Director of Leading Social, to explore how brands can turn customer insights into more meaningful experiences, stronger creative and more effective marketing.
From discovering new customer segments through quizzes to connecting paid advertising with the problems customers want to solve, the discussion highlighted a simple principle: sustainable growth starts with listening.
Start with the customer, not the campaign
Founded by Niall Harty, All Real Nutrition was created to address a gap in the market for natural, transparent, low-sugar protein bars made with Irish grass-fed dairy. As the brand has grown, so has its understanding of the people buying its products.
For Niall, knowing your customer comes down to understanding two groups: existing customers and those yet to discover the brand.
All Real Nutrition uses surveys, social media and email marketing to encourage conversations with its existing audience. Niall also takes a personal approach, sharing founder-led emails about his own experiences and inviting customers to respond.
“If I have a thought, I'll write it down, I'll blog it,” he explained, highlighting how sharing personal experiences can open up conversations and provide valuable feedback.
Alongside this, the brand uses Octane AI quizzes to understand prospective customers at the point of purchase, asking what they want from a protein bar and why they're considering buying one.
By comparing what customers say with how they behave, All Real Nutrition can build a clearer picture of its audience and use those insights to inform everything from creative and email marketing to product recommendations.
Challenging assumptions through personalisation
One of the most valuable insights came from discovering that All Real Nutrition's customers weren't necessarily buying for the reasons the brand might have expected.
While protein bars are often associated with gym-goers and fitness goals, the brand found that many customers were simply looking for a healthier everyday snack or something to satisfy a craving.
That distinction matters. If brands rely on assumptions about their audience, they risk creating messaging that speaks to only one part of their potential market.
Quizzes give customers a way to share their needs while helping brands deliver more relevant recommendations. Crucially, as Aoife highlighted, their value extends beyond conversion.
Quizzes are also a data collection tool, providing insight into customer motivations that can inform future marketing decisions.
Turning customer insights into better advertising
For Sam O’Neill, understanding the customer should shape the entire advertising strategy, not just the creative.
Rather than constantly changing ads and testing multiple messages at once, brands should first look at their product, offer and website experience. If those foundations aren't working, new creative alone may not solve the problem.
“Really speak to your customers and understand where they are, what their problem is,” Sam advised.
Those insights can then inform more effective campaigns, with messaging that addresses real customer needs rather than relying on guesswork.
He also emphasised the importance of aligning ads with landing pages. If an ad introduces a particular problem, the landing page should explore it in more detail, explaining how the product offers a solution instead of sending every visitor straight to a generic product page.
Creative doesn't always need to be complicated, either. Brands can build on organic content that already resonates, put founders and real people in front of the camera, and test static graphics before investing in larger video productions.
The aim is to find the message that connects with customers, rather than overcomplicating the process.
Building growth beyond acquisition
The conversation also highlighted the importance of looking beyond immediate product features to find broader creative angles that help a brand stand out.
But effective customer acquisition is only one part of sustainable growth. As brands attract more customers, their operations, systems and cash flow need to develop alongside demand.
Personalisation can help brands make better decisions, but its impact depends on how effectively those insights are put into practice.
Making every interaction count
Ultimately, All Real Nutrition's story demonstrates that building trust starts with understanding people, not simply selling products.
Whether through founder-led emails, customer conversations or interactive quizzes, every touchpoint presents an opportunity to learn something new.
And with those insights informing recommendations, creative and the wider customer journey, brands can move away from guesswork towards experiences that feel more relevant and personal.
Because the strongest customer relationships aren't built on a single campaign. They're built one personalised moment at a time.
