In-house customer intelligence, on tap
Know your customer.
Grow your business.
Knowledge is the ultimate competitive advantage in business. Swell provides the deep, continuous intelligence on customers and the marketplace that used to require a full research department, without the overhead, the headcount, or the guesswork.
The thesis
We build in-house intelligence for growing businesses.
The businesses that win understand their buyers and their market better than anyone else, and they keep that understanding current as both shift.
That knowledge is where growth hides. It points to new audiences and markets worth entering, and it uncovers value already sitting in your business: overlooked segments, underpriced offers, and needs your competitors haven't noticed. Swell turns that understanding into an ongoing capability.
The economics of certainty
Guessing is the real cost. Research is assurance.
Primary customer research is the highest-leverage growth investment a mid-market business can make.
faster revenue growth for mid-market brands that use primary customer research to define new audiences and segments.
McKinsey & Company
of new product and market expansions fail due to unvalidated customer assumptions and missed buyer motivations.
Harvard Business School / Nielsen
reduction in go-to-market risk and capital waste when strategic bets are pre-tested before full deployment.
Bain & Company
average budget lost when companies purchase generic, unsequenced research that ends up as unread shelfware.
Mid-Market Insights Benchmark
What we build
Instruments of a growth engine.
Each study is a growth instrument, designed to inform a critical business decision.
Swell can help you build a coordinated program of research, where every study feeds the next and the insight accumulates into critical business knowledge, far beyond a scattered mix of one-off studies.
Segmentation Study
Pinpoint where your most profitable customers hide.
Move beyond flat demographic spreadsheets to behavioral, needs-based, and willingness-to-pay segments that uncover untapped market share.
Attitudes & Usage (A&U) Study
De-risk product, pricing, and messaging decisions.
Map the exact triggers, habits, barriers, and trade-offs that drive your category, so every campaign and launch addresses real buyer friction.
Brand Health Tracker
A repeatable pulse on awareness, perception, and loyalty.
Continuous visibility into whether marketing spend is genuinely building brand equity and moving consideration metrics.
Custom Learning Efforts
Primary research tailored to your highest-stakes calls.
Targeted deep-dives for specific inflection points: validating a new product concept, entering an adjacent category, testing packaging, or diagnosing win-loss dynamics.
Why Swell
More connected than a vendor. More flexible than a new hire.
Most mid-market businesses either stitch together one-off studies or stretch a single insights hire too thin. Swell lives in the gap: the strategy and continuity of an in-house team, with a budget that goes to research instead of headcount.
One-off research firms
Studies commissioned project by project
Swell
In-house customer intelligence, on tap
A full-time insights hire
One in-house researcher, on salary
Strategy
Impact
Investment
Research, without a strategy connecting it.
A full insights function, sized to a mid-market budget.
Take the Assessment →Expertise, without the budget to use it.
* Average U.S. base salary for a consumer insights manager ($88K) and a director of consumer insights ($172K), Payscale, 2026. Excludes bonus, benefits, payroll taxes, and recruiting costs.
Engagements
Three ways to put Swell to work for you.
Start with a plan, a foundational set of studies, or ongoing research leadership. Every engagement ends the same way: your next big decision, backed by evidence.
Engagements start at the fees below. Final scope and investment reflect your audience, research needs, and business priorities.
Tier 1 · Roadmap
Insights Roadmap Sprint
~4 weeks
Stop guessing which study to run. We audit your current knowledge, interview key stakeholders, and build a prioritized 12-month research roadmap tailored to your strategic goals, budget, and internal team capacity.
- An audit of what you already know and where the gaps are
- Stakeholder interviews to align on the decisions that matter
- A prioritized list of the research you actually need
- A 12-month roadmap your team can execute internally
Best for
Teams who want a clear plan before spending a dollar on research.
Tier 2 · Starter Kit
Insights Starter Kit
Up to 3 months · Complete foundational stack
Three mission-critical studies fielded, synthesized, and activated in one coordinated engagement: your Segmentation Study, A&U Study, and Brand Health Tracker, with full executive readouts.
- Segmentation Study: pinpoint your most profitable customers
- Attitudes & Usage (A&U) Study: de-risk product, pricing, and messaging
- Brand Health Tracker: a baseline you can track over time
- Full setup, fielding, and analysis handled
- Executive readouts included
The fee is all-inclusive: research hard costs such as sample, panel fees, and participant incentives are covered within the package price.
Best for
Businesses ready for their foundational growth studies without hiring an insights team.
Tier 3 · Fractional
Embedded Insights Leader
Annual retainer · Cancel anytime with 60 days' notice
A seasoned research executive embedded in your leadership team, steering your insights roadmap, managing study workflows, and presenting directly to the executive committee and board.
- Ongoing management of studies and research vendors
- Insight synthesis and analysis from every study
- Regular presentations to the executive committee and board
- On-call counsel for briefs, campaigns, and big decisions
- A research roadmap that evolves with the business
The retainer covers research leadership and synthesis. Study hard costs are funded separately; participant recruitment and panel costs pass through at net cost, with zero agency markup.
Best for
Businesses that want senior research leadership without a full-time hire.
Get in touch
Make knowledge your
competitive advantage.
Tell us about your customers and your market. We'll show you where deeper, continuous intelligence can uncover new growth and reveal the value already hiding in your business.