Sarah Thomas

Sarah is an experienced consumer insights practitioner, whose background in qualitative research provides a skill set that is sensitive to understanding the complexities of individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Sarah works closely with clients to fully comprehend their research needs and respond with tailored study designs that deliver solutions to technical challenges and/or inform new product development. She manages the Consumer Insights team at Campden BRI, whose commercial focus is to provide meaningful and actionable insights that support clients’ innovation and renovation activities.

Sarah studied Hospitality Management and completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing at Bournemouth University before starting her career in hotel management. Later, she returned to university as a Research Assistant, progressing to Lectureship whilst studying for her doctorate in managerial cognition and productivity improvement within the UK hotel industry. Sarah received her doctorate in 2000 from the University of Central England. Subsequently, she was appointed Co-ordinator of Research (External) at University College Birmingham, where she developed and managed commercially funded research, and instigated knowledge transfer initiatives. In 2005 Sarah joined the Consumer and Sensory Research team at Campden BRI where she initially worked on long term consumer research projects concerning diet and health, satiety, portion size and labelling. In more recent years Sarah’s role has changed in line with the increased recognition that consumer insights have a vital role to play in supporting all aspects of a business’ operations.