CASE Study: Verizon SME / Business services & audience insight

Understanding small businesses that want to make an impact

scenarioDNA’s work for Verizon challenged the assumption that small businesses primarily wanted to become big. The published case describes owners who wanted to be impactful but encountered persistent roadblocks.

The question: What does ambition mean to a small business?

The work questioned a familiar assumption: that small businesses wanted to become large businesses. Verizon needed an understanding of ambition that reflected what small-business owners wanted to achieve.

The research: Recognizing impact and the barriers around it

The published project account identifies a different emphasis: small businesses wanted to be impactful, while encountering constant roadblocks. That distinction changed the audience question from business size alone to the goals owners valued and the obstacles in their way.

The application: Reframing the understanding of small business

The work shifted the interpretation of small-business ambition toward impact. This offered a more relevant basis for thinking about the audience and its needs, grounded in what businesses wanted to accomplish and what prevented them from doing so.

Explore our approach: Culture Mapping · Cultural Research & Intelligence