Research since more than 20 years

I am Ute Rademacher – Professor of Business Psychology, marketing consultant and Chief Empathy Officer at COLIBRI Research. For more than two decades, I have focused on one central question in successful brand building: what truly moves people?

Attitudes towards products, brand preferences and purchasing decisions are rarely the result of rational deliberation alone. People act based on experience, emotion, habit, social influence and personal values. Making these dynamics visible is at the heart of my work. Through psychologically grounded qualitative research, I help organisations understand their audiences more deeply and reach them through communications and innovation that genuinely resonate.

My career combines academic rigour with international market-research experience. After several roles at Research International, now part of the Kantar Group, in Germany and South Africa, I went on to lead the qualitative team at Ipsos Germany. During this time, I worked with organisations across a wide range of sectors: from automotive and consumer goods to oral care and health communications. My projects have taken me across diverse markets and cultural settings, from Copenhagen to Cape Town.

This international experience has reinforced my conviction that markets cannot be understood through audience segments, metrics or averages alone. Behind the data are people with different everyday realities, needs, lived experiences and values. For me, effective marketing consultancy begins with empathy: listening carefully, asking the right questions and seeking to understand ambivalence, contradiction and unspoken expectations as well.

Research that enables development

A particular milestone in my market-research work was the “Concept Contest” tool, which was recognised as “Tool of the Year” by the German Association for Market and Social Research. The method identified the potential of co-creation early on: rather than simply asking consumers to evaluate existing ideas after the fact, it brings them actively into a structured development process.

This principle remains central to my consultancy today. Research should not end in a presentation. It should improve decisions, inspire teams and enable tangible next steps – whether in brand positioning, communications development, new-offering design or the refinement of product concepts, as in this study on bar culture from a psychological perspective.

Psychology meets agile methods

I combine expertise in consumer psychology with many years of experience in agile methods and design thinking. As markets, media environments and consumer mindsets evolve, research and development processes need to evolve too.

Traditional market research provides essential foundations. Yet in dynamic markets, one-off surveys or isolated studies are often not enough to spot and act on emerging trends early. Organisations benefit from approaches that enable rapid learning, bring different perspectives together, test hypotheses and translate learning directly into development. Agile working and design thinking offer valuable principles for this: iteration, early prototyping, interdisciplinary collaboration and a consistent focus on the people for whom products, services and communications are created.

I have distilled my experience at this intersection into a practice-oriented Springer Essential, available in English. Through this work, I offer grounded, practical stimulus for people who see research as a basis for better, bolder and more relevant decisions.

Sustainability as a psychological challenge

A particular focus of my work is psychologically informed sustainability management. More sustainable business practices are now a defining question of organisational future-readiness. At the same time, sustainability is strategically and communicatively demanding: customers seek orientation and credible solutions, yet are highly sensitive to overload, inconsistency and greenwashing – a topic I also discussed in the “Markenkraft” podcast.

I help organisations develop sustainable offers consistently from the perspective of their audiences. What motivates more sustainable choices? What barriers stand in the way? How can communications provide orientation without becoming moralising? And how can change be designed so that it is practical, appealing and workable in people’s everyday lives?

My aim is not to treat sustainability as merely a communications topic. It is about developing credible sustainable value propositions, products and brand relationships, grounded in a robust understanding of human behaviour.

Passing on knowledge

I am committed to passing my experience on to the next generation of marketing professionals. As a Professor of Business Psychology at Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences, I teach within the “Markets and Consumers” specialisation. There, I show how psychological research, consumer understanding and responsible market practice can be brought together.

I also work as a guest lecturer at HafenCity University Hamburg, focusing on sustainability psychology. The exchange with students and industry partners keeps my work vibrant: academic perspectives meet new questions, social change and real-world business challenges.

As Chief Empathy Officer, I help you get to know the people behind your market. So that sound insight becomes compelling offers, credible communications and confident, sustainable decisions.

COLIBRI Research

Prof. Ute Rademacher