Social Standards

About Social Standards

Social Standards operates as a market research company, providing consumer insights by analyzing social media conversations. The company was co-founded in 2015 by twins Devon and Trevor halfnight, alongside Chris Tieri. The genesis of the company is rooted in Devon's experience in the beverage industry, where he identified a critical gap in understanding consumer behavior that traditional market research methods failed to fill. He observed that consumer conversations on social media contained a wealth of unsolicited, authentic feedback on products.

The company's core offering is a platform that leverages artificial intelligence to analyze billions of social media posts, identifying consumer preferences, emerging trends, and the underlying drivers of consumer behavior. This service is primarily aimed at brand and insights leaders within consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies, particularly in the beauty, personal care, beverage alcohol, and food & beverage sectors. Social Standards provides these clients with actionable data to inform product development, marketing strategies, and overall brand health. The business model is based on providing clients with access to this granular, real-time consumer voice data, which is structured to reveal not just what consumers are buying, but why.

The platform's methodology goes beyond simple keyword tracking or sentiment analysis. It categorizes and contextualizes conversations to deliver a nuanced understanding of consumer motivations. For instance, instead of just noting that a product is popular, it can identify that its popularity is driven by its use in specific situations or its appeal to certain values, like sustainability. This allows brands to make more informed, data-driven decisions. In 2021, Social Standards was acquired by the consumer analytics firm DecaData, a move intended to enhance its analytical capabilities by integrating social media insights with actual retail sales and panel data.