DLG Research

Who really “bought” your product—the person at the register, or the people at home who decided which brand was allowed in?

In many households, especially Hispanic and multicultural families, decisions are shared.
One person compares prices.
Another cares about taste or performance.
Kids lobby for brands they recognize from YouTube or abuela’s kitchen.

That’s why we rarely stop at “the shopper.”
We ask who suggested the brand first, who has veto power, who actually uses it, and whose needs are non-negotiable.

When you see the whole household, your creative stops talking to a lone decision-maker and starts reflecting real family roles, languages, and rituals.
Your channel choices shift too—from only targeting the primary buyer to showing up where influencers in the home actually are.

Household-level insight is what turns a “good fit” campaign into one that feels like it was made for their real life.

Houston on World Cup opening day feels exactly like what we study every day: multicultural energy in real life.

Fans from every corner of the world are sharing streets, screens, food, and chants. Families are switching languages mid‑sentence. Jerseys from different countries are standing shoulder to shoulder.

A lot of people in our city’s sports, marketing, media, and hospitality communities have spent years getting Houston ready for this moment and for our international guests.

For us, it is a reminder of why HUMAN research matters. When brands understand how diverse households live, celebrate, and gather around events like FIFA World Cup 26™, they make better decisions in the pantry, at the shelf, and in the stadium.

Today, we are simply proud of our city, our people, and the communities we serve every day in our work.

Our Managing Partner, Edgardo de la Garza, is joining the Main Round judges for the 2026 ANA Multicultural and Inclusive Marketing Excellence Awards.

We've spent over 20 years helping brands understand multicultural consumers — the real ones, not the demographic profiles. So when the industry gathers to recognize the work that actually gets it right, we want to be in that room.

Edgardo will be reviewing entries across a wide range of categories, from cultural moments to digital to experiential. The bar for what "good" looks like in multicultural marketing keeps rising. We think that's a good thing.

Congrats to all the teams who submitted this year. Can't wait to see the work.

When your quant and qual disagree, which one does your team quietly trust more?

We see the real unlock when they say the same thing—for different reasons.
Quant shows you where the pattern is: this feature isn’t pulling its weight, that message is underperforming with bicultural households, this promotion drives trial but not repeat.

Qual explains why.
You hear that the “hero benefit” sounds like table stakes, that people are using the product for a different job than it was designed for, or that the Spanish version feels translated, not written for them.

When both methods point in the same direction, it stops being an interesting debate and starts looking like a clear brief.
Shift the message.
Re-prioritize features.
Double down on what people are actually responding to.

That’s the moment teams move from “let’s test again” to “let’s move.”

Who shows up in your briefs: a demographic label, or the real lives you’re trying to win?

“Women 25–54” doesn’t tell you who is stretching a paycheck, cooking for three generations, or managing two jobs and school schedules.

But “people trying to feed a family on a tight budget” immediately points you to pantry, shelf, and budget decisions.

Once you define the audience that way, your questions shift.
You see which items get downgraded to private label, which products are non-negotiable, and where promotions truly change the basket—especially in Hispanic and multicultural households where sharing, remittances, and traditions all shape the cart.

That’s the level of definition that sharpens your positioning, pack strategy, and promotional choices.

We’ve spent more than 20 years listening behind the glass — moderating, observing, and translating what real people think and feel into decisions that move businesses forward.

But some of the most valuable lessons never show up in a topline. They live in the moments between questions in a focus group, in the tension when a segment doesn’t behave the way the brief expected, and in the patterns we see in multicultural America that never make it onto a slide but absolutely affect what people buy and how they respond to your brand.

That’s why we’re launching Behind the One-Way Mirror, a monthly DLG Research blog and LinkedIn newsletter where Edgardo de la Garza and Elvia de la Garza share how real-world research stories translate into sharper briefs and positioning, better creative and media decisions, and clearer bets in multicultural and Hispanic markets.

Our inaugural post looks back at Moderating Life, the limited-series podcast we released for DLG’s 20th anniversary, and what the last year has taught us about sharing the thinking behind our work — not just the polished deliverables.

If you’re responsible for turning consumer truth into strategy, we’d love for you to follow along. Here’s where you can read it! https://dlgresearch.com/blog/

Thank you for being here with us.

Today, we pause to honor the lives of those who died in service to the United States.

Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, reflection, and respect for the families and communities who carry these losses forward.

From all of us at DLG Research, we hold space for their sacrifice and the stories behind each name.

We are so grateful to all our friends and colleagues with AMA Houston - American Marketing Association, for hosting an incredible gala for the 40th Crystal Awards.

Congratulations to all the worthy winners for their outstanding work, and to all the Gamechanger award recipients. We were honored to be among you last night.

Our friends at Purple Page Marketing are working with us on some exceptional new work this year. We will see you for the 2027 Crystal Awards.

How often do your research questions sound like your PowerPoint… instead of your consumers’ real lives?

One strong question changes that. Not “How do you feel about Brand X?”

But “Tell me about the last time you chose Brand X over Brand Y. Where were you, who were you with, and what else were you considering?”

Now you’re not collecting opinions in a vacuum.

You’re inside a specific decision: the rushed grocery run, the late-night app order, the pharmacy counter moment where price, language, family needs, and habit all collide.

That level of detail is where positioning, messaging, and innovation get clearer.
You see which claims actually matter, which barriers show up in real life, and how those moments play out differently for Hispanic and multicultural households.

One grounded question can be the bridge between “interesting feedback” and a direction your team can actually move on.

Social media is more than likes and views. It is a real-time research lab.

We’re excited to share that our Managing Partner, Edgardo de la Garza, will be opening Social Media Day Houston 2026 with: “From Scroll to Strategy: Turning Social Signals into Smart Decisions through Research.”

He’ll be breaking down how to read between the lines of social conversations, find the tensions and emotions that matter, and turn that into smarter content, stronger brands, and better decisions.

Proud to see this work, born in Houston and rooted in real people’s stories, on the main stage.