FeltonBuford Partners

Home
United States
Cincinnati, OH
FeltonBuford Partners

Insight and Strategy Partner Uncovering Growth Opportunities Through the Power of Clarity

09/03/2026

Meta just agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims brought by nearly all U.S. states, over allegations that it had internal research showing its platforms were harming kids’ mental health, while continuing to design for engagement.

What should organizations learn from this landmark moment?

➡️ First: Ignore research at your own peril

Research can surface risks, uncover unintended consequences, or show where a product or experience isn’t landing the way it was intended to. But the insight itself is just a starting point. What matters is whether it actually changes a decision, before the cost of ignoring it shows up somewhere else.

➡️ Second: Products and services for kids have to account for the ecosystem around them.

The child may be the user, but they are not always the decision-maker. Parents may be making decisions on their behalf without having full visibility into what their children are experiencing. And kids are still developing the ability to self-regulate, assess consequences, and navigate social comparison.

That means understanding performance alone isn’t enough. For products and services designed for kids, we need to understand the experience from multiple perspectives, including where kids’ and parents’ experiences and expectations converge and where they diverge.

That’s true across categories, but especially when the consumer is still growing into the role.

Have you been following the Meta news? What takeaways are you seeing?

08/26/2026

Trend alert! Canada just became the first G7 country to approve a generic version of semaglutide, the active ingredient in GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy.

We’ve already seen signals of what rising GLP-1 usage can do to adjacent categories: food and beverage brands adjusting to changing appetite, haircare brands responding to new side effects, beauty and apparel brands rethinking a changing customer. Lower cost typically means broader access, and broader access could take those signals to an entirely different scale.

In our experience, shifts like this tend to show up in consumer behavior well before most brands are actually tracking for them. Canada may be a preview of what’s coming elsewhere, and the companies paying attention now will have a head start on the ones waiting for the headline to come across their desk.

08/20/2026

We love a team outing, especially one with peanuts and cracker jacks! Great day spent at the ballpark with our friends at Johnson & Johnson MedTech and Zeldis Research Associates — full of good conversation, better company, and even a win for the Reds.

08/12/2026

Said in 1954, and still true. Every era of marketing searches for a new shortcut to generate customer loyalty: broadcast ads, celebrity endorsements, influencers, algorithms...

The tools change. What earns loyalty doesn’t: a deep and continuous understanding of your customers, which translates into products, services and communications that actually reflect it.

Understanding isn’t a one-time insight to file away. Deep understanding is ongoing work, and the brands willing to do that work are the ones who can earn real loyalty, not just attention.

08/05/2026

After the Consumer Bankers Association Conference (CBA Live) earlier this year, we said the greatest advantage in financial services isn’t more customer data, it’s deeper customer understanding.

Since then, qualitative research by Meaghan Willis has taken that idea a step further. It’s no longer just the customer you need to know. It’s their whole ecosystem: the relationships, responsibilities, and realities that shape how someone decides what’s right for them. And as those needs keep evolving, so does the insight required to keep up.

For financial institutions, that deeper understanding can lead to more relevant products and stronger customer relationships.

Check out the full post linked in bio, and let us know what you think! 👇

07/29/2026

💡Next up in our Researcher Spotlight series: Kristin Carcieri💡

Kristin is a seasoned expert in market research, bringing over 15 years of experience across qual, quant, and market analysis, and adding a rare depth of perspective to every project she touches.

She has an instinct for knowing exactly when to dig deeper, uncovering not just what consumers are thinking, but why, and what it means for the business.

And when she’s not deep in research, she’s our resident AI-guru, always exploring new tools and tech to help the team stay ahead.

We’re so proud to have her on our team!

07/15/2026

For years, influencer marketing has been treated as key to reaching younger consumers. Among Gen Z, that strategy could be losing its footing.

A recent survey of Gen Z consumers confirms what we are hearing in our own qualitative work: when evaluating a brand, Gen Z places significantly more trust in independent sources like customer reviews, research, and expert opinion than in influencer content.

Why? Perhaps because Gen Z grew up entirely inside social media. They have been marketed to through influencers for as long as they can remember, and that familiarity has bred a kind of fluency — they know what sponsored content looks like and they have developed a more discerning filter for what counts as trustworthy. Recent academic research points to what’s being called an “authenticity paradox” — the more polished and produced content feels, the more skepticism it tends to trigger. Credibility appears to be increasingly earned through validation that feels independent, not paid.

To be clear: the influencer era isn’t over. But how Gen Z perceives influencers is clearly shifting, and brands leaning heavily on sponsored voices may find themselves talking to a generation that’s already tuned them out.

Fellow marketers and researchers, are you seeing this shift in your space too?

07/07/2026

We have some exciting news to share! FeltonBuford Partners has acquired Zeldis Research Associates, Inc — and we could not be more thrilled about what this means for our clients, our teams, and the future of our work.

This acquisition triples our size and resources, brings together two best-in-class qualitative research firms, and adds highly sophisticated quantitative research and analytics capabilities in-house. Together, we offer full service solutions for our clients across healthcare, financial services, insurance, consumer goods, utilities, and more.

We are so proud of this moment, and so ready for what comes next! 🎉

For new project inquiries, reach us at [email protected].

06/29/2026

Next up in our Researcher Spotlight series: Angela Williams!

With over 20 years of qualitative research experience, a background in journalism and advertising, a Master’s in Spiritual Psychology, Certification in Creative Problem Solving, and master training in Feng Shui, Angela brings a perspective to research that few others can match. Angela splits her time between Germany and the US, and we are so proud of her for recently passing her German language exam.

She is a visionary, and her range of experience shows up in how she works: she builds rapport with respondents almost instantly and has a gift for spotting patterns that turn into meaningful insight.

Cheers to Angela! 👏

06/24/2026

Protein is having a moment. Updated dietary guidelines have placed greater emphasis on intake, and the surge in GLP-1 medications, where muscle loss is a known side effect, has pushed protein into the center of mainstream wellness culture. And like many trends that take hold in adult culture, it tends to trickle down to kids.

This much is clear: the combination of new information and heightened awareness surrounding nutrition (looking at you, social media) has fundamentally restructured how parents eat, how they shop for their kids, and what they expect from the brands serving their families.

What is less clear is whether the choices landing in the kids’ lunchbox are rooted in what kids need versus the wellness priorities parents are absorbing for themselves. It is a natural connection, but not always a direct one. And for brands in kids nutrition, understanding the difference is what separates a trend-driven product from one that builds lasting trust with families.

Address

Cincinnati, OH
45209

Website

https://feltonbuford.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when FeltonBuford Partners posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to FeltonBuford Partners:

Want your business to be the top-listed Business in Cincinnati?