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What We Talk About When We Talk About "Consumer Love"

Writer's picture: Team UNPITCHDTeam UNPITCHD

What Consumer Love Is, How to Understand It, and Why It Matters



Design of Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Artisit Unkown

This summer, I made the questionable choice of giving “workation” another go. So, while re-reading Carver’s "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"—somewhere between a beach and building a new insights tool—I started thinking about “consumer love.”
How it’s become the be-all, end-all metric of product development. How we, as entrepreneurs, marketers, and innovators, desperarely seek it. But much like in Carver’s novel, when we talk about consumer love, what are we really chasing? And more importantly—how do we ensure it’s genuine?

The Love Trap: Why “Good Enough” Never Is


The “love trap” is as old as business itself. A team pours its heart and soul into a new product. A focus group showers it with praise—sometimes, one glowing session is all it takes. The product hits the market, and... it flops.
What happened?
Early attraction and validation feel good. They’re like a warm hug for your ego. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: they’re the bare minimum. They’re not love. And worse, they’re mostly misleading.
I blame lazy focus groups for this kind of professional heartbreak. They reinforce surface-level attractions and confirm existing biases, rather than challenging them. They seduce teams with the illusion of consumer love, when they’re at their most vulnerable and desperate for it.

Here’s how to avoid this trap:
  1. Actively Look for the Red Flags: Seek out the naysayers. Bring in skeptics, develop negative personas, and design research that actively seeks out critical feedback. Find the experts who have failed at developing something similar before you, and listen to their cautionary tales. The red flags are there, if you want to see them.
  2. Raise the Bar: To truly move the commercial needle, you need creative testing results that blow past the usual benchmarks. A 20% performance boost? That’s not love. That’s not even like. As Jack Welch put it, “If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”
  3. Look for Proof, Not Signs: Signs of consumer interest are often wishful thinking disguised as data. A Consumer Love Proof, rooted in tangible behavior, offers a much more solid foundation for success. (See more on “Love Proofs” below)

One Size Does Not Fit All


Love comes in all shapes and sizes. Consumer love is no different.
It’s absurd to expect the same kind of consumer love for an energy provider as you would for a car brand or a fashion label. No one eagerly anticipates the “drop” of a new insurance policy or posts unboxing videos of their latest energy bill.
Yet, teams all persist in chasing the same tired metrics—raving reviews, social media buzz, NPS scores. But not all brands can—or should—play the same game. The trick is in understanding your category’s unique love triggers.
Learn from your consumers in their natural states. Observe how they interact with your product in the moments that matter—whether it’s paying bills, making dinner, or commuting to work.
For a coffee company, a love proof might be a customer taking a detour for their favorite brew. For a utility provider, it’s a customer remembering their last interaction with the company that keeps the lights on. For a toy company, it’s the parent who can’t bear to part with certain cherished toys. These are the moments that define consumer love, not the ephemeral buzz of social media or a ranking on Trustpilot.
Set the right benchmarks and tailor your research. Remember: It’s not you; it’s your category.

Love Is the Only Answer


I’ve actually questioned whether to abandon the term “consumer love.” It’s easy to dismiss as marketing jargon, sparking debates more about semantics than substance. After all, could we not achieve the same outcomes by aiming for “consumer satisfaction”?
Here’s what it comes down to: satisfaction is a transaction. It’s about meeting expectations and ensuring a functional experience. Useful, yes—but it’s devoid of the emotional depth that fuels loyalty. Love, on the other hand, taps into something far more potent. It’s the irrational, emotional connection that turns a good proposition into a beloved one, and satisfied customers into advocates.
Consumer love isn’t just a lofty ideal; it’s a strategic necessity. It reminds us that success isn’t about ticking boxes or short-term wins. It’s about creating products that resonate deeply, beyond ‘needs’ and stated preferences.
In the age of automation and AI-everything, being able to understand and elicit consumer love is what will set teams apart. It’s the ability to tap into irrationality to create something original that goes beyond the logical and the utilitarian.
So, while “consumer love” might sound like marketing fluff, it’s anything but. It’s the North Star for any team that isn’t content with mediocrity but is driven to create something truly extraordinary.
In the end, consumer love isn’t just a metric—it’s the ultimate goal. It’s why we do what we do. Without it, our products are just auto-generated commodities—devoid of meaning and easy to replace. And ultimately, creating something meaningful requires us to feel all the feels.

Steph Renucci Steph is the MD & Founder of UNPITCHD: the innovation agency for changemakers. We give you the tools, the skills and the team to make change happen.

You want to find and understand consumer love?


At UNPITCHD, we’re developing the future of qualitative consumer insights for innovation teams. If you’re interested in pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with creative consumer research, get in touch to learn more.
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