Last week, headlines lit up with news that US courts had blocked some of Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs, a decision with potentially significant implications for global trade. While it’s an eye-catching development, and one that might have major consequences down the line, it’s worth asking: how much does this really matter to UK consumers right now?

The answer? Not as much as you might think.

If you’ve been following the news in recent months, in amongst all the politics, conflict and cost-of-living coverage, you may have seen another smaller, but quite significant story. The Supreme Court has heard appeals relating to potential mis-selling of car loans, including Private Contract Purchase and Hire Purchase agreements, with a judgment expected in the coming months. Sounds all a bit legal-ese and boring? It shouldn’t. This ruling could impact millions of consumers who’ve bought cars on finance since 2007, with some estimates that over £30 billion in compensation could be on the table.

Customer expectations have changed when it comes to home deliveries, and smart brands are delivering more to cater for the increasingly complex logistics in their customers lives. 

Half of UK consumers say that real-time, accurate delivery updates are more important to them now than before the pandemic, and perhaps surprisingly this is significantly higher amongst those with a hybrid working arrangement. Maru have undertaken research to better understand what’s driving this change, and to identify the make-or-break experiences within this crucial touchpoint. 

As Marks and Spencer continue to suffer through one of the worst cases of cyber disruption in recent memory, all eyes are on their response and whether the fallout from the attack will continue to hit their bottom line in the long term. 
We wanted to see just how much of an effect a cyber-incident of this scale can have on an organisation, even one as established and reputable as M&S – and whether a brand’s reputation can actually help them to better survive an attack of this kind. 
Read the results of our snap polling below.

With long-running conflicts still raging on, Trump’s tariffs causing global economic uncertainty, constant reminders from Mother Nature about the impacts of human-led climate change, and a stagnating UK economy, you’d forgive consumers for feeling rather down in the dumps.

But somehow – despite a backdrop that’s increasingly akin to the plot of a disaster movie – optimism in the UK has actually been rising. Over the last few months Maru’s Optimism index has shown a general improvement in the feeling of UK consumers.

As the UK’s cost-of-living crisis continues to shape both the economy and people’s buying behaviours, an ever more turbulent political & economic environment brings with it increasing instability. In today’s business climate, it’s more important than ever for brands to have a key understanding of how their customers ‘think’ - and for businesses to truly understand what’s driving their customers’ actions. To fully grasp how customers are interacting with brands, businesses must understand the emotional drivers behind their behaviours.

At the start of 2025, UK consumers are focused on the creation of sustainable environments that allow them to thrive.
Contrary to the hype of new year resolutions, the first few months aren’t about dramatic transformation or high-pressure attainment: it’s about prioritising nurturing and taking incremental steps towards stability.

For many in financial services, Consumer Duty is proving to be more than a compliance exercise - with the new standards driving a significant shift in how companies are thinking about consumer protections and customer experience (CX).

The ideal airport lounge experience. Air travel has had its challenges over the last three years; airlines and airports need to entice their frequent flyers back to drive both volume and profitability, and one of the ways of doing this is through the airport lounge experience to ensure traveling is a pleasurable experience for premium and frequent flyers.

January is traditionally when people commit to a healthy start to the New Year, whether giving up alcohol with dry January, joining a gym to get fit, or altering their diet by giving up meat. We examined this using our weekly Omnibus study of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 people and uncovered some interesting facts about Veganuary.

Learning at all levels of the organization sets the foundation for success in many ways, including retaining top talent, increasing employee satisfaction in the workplace, and better customer service. This begs the question; how can organizations evaluate their L&D programs and provide the reassurance to continue investing time and resources into their employee’s growth?

While many companies recognize the value of keeping essential business software up-to-date, employee research techniques and solutions are often overlooked. Here are five signs that it’s time to upgrade your employee research.

We spoke to 1,000 nationally representative UK consumers to better understand how companies and brands can best respond and connect with consumers in times of financial stress, by taking a holistic view of stated attitudes and unlocking deeper emotional needs.

Consumer Duty is an opportunity for both improved customer outcomes and a deeper understanding.

Consumer Duty raises the bar of regulatory consumer protection in the financial services sector by shifting the regulation paradigm from a process-driven approach to one based on customer outcomes.

To achieve this, firms need improved customer insight to engage teams and consistently provide products, services, and communication to deliver good outcomes.

The cost-of-living crisis is dominating the media and occupying many people's minds. The cost of basic, essential items such as food and energy bills have increased rapidly in a short period of time and much faster than average household wages. We spoke to 1,000 nationally representative UK consumers to better understand how companies and brands can best respond and connect with consumers in times of financial stress by taking a holistic view of stated attitudes and unlocking deeper emotional needs.

We spoke to 1,000 nationally representative UK consumers to better understand how companies and brands can best respond and connect with consumers in times of financial stress, by taking a holistic view of stated attitudes and unlocking deeper emotional needs.

With the recent explosion in buy now pay later (BNPL) products, many financial institutions have entered this high-growth, pre-regulation market. Millions of consumers have embraced these services to spread the cost of their online shopping.

Maru conducted a survey of U.K. consumers of these products polling members of Maru’s Voice UK online panel. The results make the case for bringing in immediate regulations to protect vulnerable consumers from a growing and unmanageable debt gap they will be increasingly challenged to repay—avoiding a repeat of the payday lending crises of 2018.

With the recent explosion in buy now pay later (BNPL) products, many financial institutions have entered this high-growth, pre-regulation market. Millions of consumers have embraced these services to spread the cost of their online shopping.

Maru conducted a survey of U.K. consumers of these products polling members of Maru’s Voice UK online panel. The results make the case for bringing in immediate regulations to protect vulnerable consumers from a growing and unmanageable debt gap they will be increasingly challenged to repay—avoiding a repeat of the payday lending crises of 2018.

Equifruit, a Canadian company importing bananas into the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, saw the need for ethically sourced bananas and fair treatment of farmers. Their challenge was spreading the fair-trade message for fruit.

Unstructured data in Customer Experience (CX) programs needs to be analyzed and delivered at speed, essentially real-time. The program also must be able to go deep with understanding to optimize insight and action.

These principles of speed and depth are core to the Maru software ecosystem and are central to the delivery of understanding executed by our users either within the enterprise or via our advisory experts.

In the many proven use cases that we see there are a set of 5 best practice rules which guarantee outstanding delivery from unstructured data programs.