‍Social Advisors

From KPI to KBI (Key Behavioral Indicators): The New Standard in Consumer Behavior Research

In an environment where consumers act in increasingly emotional, impulsive, and contextual ways, traditional KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) have lost their explanatory power. They are useful for measuring the outcome of an action—sales, awareness, traffic, engagement—but they don’t answer a critical question: why do consumers make the choices they do?

At Social Labs, we are redefining how brands understand consumers. We propose an evolution toward KBI (Key Behavioral Indicators): behavior-centered metrics designed to reveal the real mechanisms behind decision-making—beyond what is merely observable.

What are KBIs?
Key Behavioral Indicators do not focus solely on the outcome (purchase, choice, share), but rather capture the internal and emotional logic behind behavior:

  • What heuristic was activated (price, habit, brand, reward, convenience).
  • What emotions dominated the decision (trust, desire, rejection, doubt).
  • What level of involvement was shown (quick vs. reflective decision).
  • What context influenced the decision (channel, moment, company, device, etc.).

KBIs enable more precise business strategies, because they connect directly to how people think, feel, and decide.

The Key Role of Missions in Generating KBIs
At Social Labs, missions are the main engine for collecting behavioral data. They are not just surveys—they are living environments of interaction where consumers act, choose, compare, narrate, and reflect.

Through these active missions, we can capture deep behavioral signals that are later processed through our cognitive tools.

Most useful types of missions to generate KBIs:

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How Do We Do It at Social Labs?
At Social Labs, we use a combination of behavioral science, cognitive models, and advanced semantic processing to capture KBIs across our different platforms:

Play to Data: analyzes consumer micro-decisions through interactive exercises, measuring reaction time, instinctive choices, and emotional coherence.

Talk to Data: transforms open-ended responses into cognitive patterns using generative AI and deep semantic analysis.

Interaction Labs and Connection Labs: allow us to observe the evolution of behavior within live communities, with interactions that reveal friction points, motivators, and shifts in attitude.

Why Is It Strategic to Adopt KBIs?
Because KPIs measure the outcome, but KBIs explain the origin of that outcome.

This enables brands to:

  • Anticipate behavioral shifts before they are reflected in KPIs.
  • Design more relevant value propositions, aligned with real motivations.
  • Reduce risk in product launches by validating not just stated preferences, but actual decision patterns.
  • Segment beyond demographics, understanding the mindset and dominant consumption logics of each profile.

Towards a New Era of Actionable Indicators
The era of KPIs has been essential for professionalizing marketing and research. But today, the complexity of consumer behavior demands a deeper layer of understanding.

KBIs represent that evolution: metrics built from behavior, processed with cognitive technology, and designed to transform business decisions.

Which Brands Are Already Doing It?
Leading brands in food, beauty, technology, and financial services are working with Social Labs to develop their own KBI models. The result: greater agility, reduced uncertainty, and strategic decisions grounded in the behavioral truth of the consumer.

Are you ready to stop measuring only what’s visible?
Contact us to design your next KBI-oriented missions.

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Thank you for continuing to trust us!

Best regards, and see you in the next newsletter.

The Social Labs Team
Passion for Software & Love for Innovation

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