Growth in personal care does not happen by chance. It requires a balance between building on what is already strong and daring to try what is new. For Laurens-Jan Duvigneau, General Manager Beauty & Wellbeing Benelux at Unilever, this means balancing a solid core focus with the agility to innovate and explore new media approaches. In this article, he shares how Unilever Personal Care is reshaping its growth strategy — from protecting the core to embracing a social-first minds

Utrecht, 26 November 2025 - DVJ Insights has once again been recognised as one of the fastest-growing companies in the Netherlands, winning the FD Gazelle Award for the 8th consecutive year. This recognition follows DVJ’s inclusion by the Financial Times and Statista as one of Europe’s Long-Term Growth Champions 2026, proving that the company’s success is not just a moment in time, but a sustained and strategic journey. DVJ has been able to realise a consistent annual growth

Brand growth is often seen as a mix of strong marketing, innovation, and consumer engagement. However, according to Sunita Sharman, Head of Business Intelligence UK & Ireland at Ferrero, execution plays an equally critical role. Distribution, in-store visibility, and last-mile execution can determine whether a brand thrives or disappears.   In this interview, Sunita shares her insights on the fundamentals of brand growth, the role of innovation, and how AI is shaping the futu

Humans learn slowly. We spend years studying, specialising, and narrowing our field of vision until we can say we truly know something. A good physicist often knows little about law, and a great lawyer rarely writes code. This limitation shapes how we think about intelligence. We divide people into generalists and specialists because our minds are bounded. There is only so much we can hold and process. When artificial intelligence arrived, we extended this same mental map to

Through DVJ’s Brand Growth platform, we interview over 2,000 marketers across 12 markets in Europe and the US every year. These conversations offer a fascinating pulse check on the marketing mindset. Over the years, one theme has stood out: caution. We’re seeing more and more emphasis on immediate returns, tighter efficiency targets, and a steadfast belief in consistency above all else.

When everyone already knows your brand, the challenge is no longer awareness; it’s affection. For Hanneke Berghoef, Head of Marketing at Audax Retail, the company behind Bruna and Read Shop, brand growth starts with building an emotional connection. In this interview, she shares how Bruna is working to evolve from a “cold” brand into one that people love, despite limited budgets, legacy store formats, and the changing dynamics of retail media. From Well-Known To Well-Loved Fe

The Imbalanced Embrace Few concepts have captured the marketing world’s imagination quite like Category Entry Points (CEPs). Introduced by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute through ‘How Brands Grow’, CEPs provide a powerful way to understand how and when consumers access categories in their minds – the moments of need that trigger brand recall and choice.

What an honour! Our Brand Growth Platform has been recognised in the Thought Leadership category at the Grand Prix Content Marketing Awards 2025! Nine years ago, we started with an ambitious goal: helping brands grow through knowledge. Through our annual Brand Growth Study, vision interviews, and a yearly global event, we share insights that truly help brands grow. This recognition is a wonderful compliment to our team, our academic partners, and our clients, all experts in t

What does it take to grow a brand in a category dominated by private labels, shifting consumer habits, and ever-increasing commercial pressure? For Jeroen Stirnberg, Marketing Director at GranFood, the answer lies in disciplined decision-making, sharp consumer relevance, and unwavering strategic clarity, not in flashy campaigns or chasing trends. In this conversation, Jeroen shares how Grand’Italia, the Netherlands’ leading pasta and sauce brand, navigates brand growth throug

København, 4. november 2025 – DVJ har for nylig åbnet sit kontor i Danmark for at understøtte virksomhedens europæiske vækst. I sidste uge blev DVJ anerkendt af Financial Times og Statista som en af Europas Long-Term Growth Champions 2026 – en særlig udmærkelse, der gives til de 300 virksomheder i Europa, som har udvist enestående vækst gennem de seneste ti år. Anerkendelsen falder samtidig med, at DVJ modtager sin 8. FD Gazelle i træk, hvilket endnu en gang bekræfter virksom

We are proud to share that DVJ Insights has been recognised by the Financial Times and Statista as one of Europe’s Long-Term Growth Champions 2026. This recognition is a special reward for the 300 companies in Europe that have shown exceptional growth over the past 10 years. DVJ has been able to realise a consistent annual growth for a period of 10 years! This recognition comes at the same moment as our 8th consecutive FD Gazelle, also showing the consistency of our growth. W

Blog post by Lisette Kruizinga-de Vries, based on the master thesis of Rong Shen (HEC Paris - MSc Data Science & AI For Business) The Battle For Attention In today’s media landscape, attention is one of the hardest things to get from consumers. Younger audiences in particular dislike long ads and often skip them or do other things at the same time (Duffett, 2017). Traditional TV advertising, once seen in a passive, one-screen setting, has now become time-shifted, watched on m

We’re proud to share that DVJ Insights has been shortlisted in two categories at the MRS Awards 2025  — a recognition of our continued commitment to turning research into real-world impact. Our nomination in Media Research highlights our breakthrough work in retail media, where we combined innovative exposure measurement with creative testing to show how in-store advertising truly drives sales. By linking shopper behaviour directly to purchase data, we revealed that strong c

What makes intelligence? Is it the ability to solve puzzles, recall facts, or predict outcomes? A compelling view is that intelligence emerges from the union of two core abilities: the use of language and the use of memory. Language gives shape to thought. A sommelier can detect and describe subtle differences in wine not only because of sensory skill but also because of vocabulary. Words sharpen perception, making distinctions visible that might otherwise go unnoticed. Memor

When the Most Promising Waters Turn Red You may be familiar with the “football theory of inflation,” an analogy introduced by economist William Nordhaus. It describes how spectators stand up to gain a better view, prompting others to follow suit, until eventually everyone is standing. No one’s view has improved, yet everyone is less comfortable. A similar effect can be seen in traffic jams: when navigation systems recommend the same detour, too many drivers take it, creating

It’s one of the least inspiring but most important truths in marketing: big brands have an unfair advantage. Not because they shout louder or spend recklessly, but because they’ve already built something smaller brands are still chasing: existing ad stock to fall back on . The pivotal work from Paul Dyson, amplified by Mark Ritson, already a similar case: brand size is the most important factor for campaign impact. In his meta-analyses across thousands of campaigns, he found

We are proud to share that DVJ Insights received an ESOMAR Award for Best Use of Data. The project integrated AI-generated cognitive...

Blog post by Lisette Kruizinga – de Vries, based on the master thesis of Ny Thi Ha Dao (University of Groningen) Introduction: Why...

How Strategic CDT Thinking Is Used To Guide Shoppers and Leverage Brand Strength... In today’s competitive retail landscape, visibility...

Taylors of Harrogate, the family-owned company behind the UK’s number one tea brand, Yorkshire Tea, sells tea and coffee in 50 countries...