The Saudi consumer's decision has fragmented. It used to be made at home, by a mother, for a household. Today it is made by individuals — younger, better informed, digitally connected — and it is remade constantly as their reference points shift.

The data most organisations rely on to navigate Saudi markets is widely available and largely backward-looking. It records what consumers bought and where categories grew. It is not designed to interpret what is changing in how Saudi consumers think, or how fast the assumptions underlying most commercial strategies are falling behind.

Saudi Arabia's organisations are data rich and insight poor. Not from a lack of investment in research. From a tendency to stop at what the data confirms rather than ask what it challenges.

Elaf Insights publishes intelligence for the senior commercial leaders ready to hear what their data is saying.