As marketers we are big data hoarders, we want to quantify and categorize people, and try to create algorithms to predict their behaviors. However, human lives are unpredictable, cozier, messier, real and quite imperfect. We shove people into focus groups with two-way mirrors, feed them crap snacks and hope to understand who they are and how our brands can play a meaningful role in their lives. Bacardi has taken a brave and radical humans first research approach. It’s scary but brave. Let’s talk about how brands can get out of the “Consumer Matrix” and save the humans thru the fundamentals of humans-first based research.