It’s 9pm. Do you know where your consumers are? Executives at RealityMine say they do. The research company recently released a study that pegs the peak time for personal grooming is 7am, with 9:30pm coming in second.
 

Furthermore, people worldwide are most likely to be on their own (80%) during their daily beauty routines. During the same half hour that’s devoted to personal grooming, TV (45%) and mobile (44%) are the most consumed media channels.

 
How do RealityMine executives know so much about consumers? They tell them! The firm’s platform enables market researchers to actively engage with opt-in panelists regarding their daily behavior, while passively collecting and analyzing their digital activity across devices including mobile phones, tablets, PCs and smart TVs.  

 
“We need granular and big data, and we need an understanding why people do things,” explained Alice K. Sylvester, chief growth officer, RealityMine. “Marketing is connecting with a consumer and finding out when they are more receptive. You can’t do that with big data alone.”

 
RealityMine is said to combine proprietary passive mobile metering technology with active eDiary and other in-the-moment survey tools to quantify the context of consumers’ daily lives and their media consumption behaviors. The company recruits consumers (5000 in the US alone) to use the app and they are compensated to keep track of what they are doing and all the media they consume. RealityMine has operations in the US, UK and Canada, as well as preliminary operations in France, India, Turkey and Norway. But why would anyone agree to be tracked?

 
“They like participating in research studies,” explained Sylvester. “We ask them to download the app, we pay them on a sliding scale and they participate for a week.”

 
RealityMine is focused on consumers ages 18 to 64; but as nearly everyone knows, it’s Millennials who most prefer to be multi-tasking with phone in hand.

 
“Millennials are very social,” noted Sylvester. “When Baby Boomers go to a restaurant, they’re eating a meal. Millennials are socializing.”

 
And heading in different directions at once. In France, for example, women are most recently engaged in a hobby before tackling their beauty routines. That kind of insight may help brand owners develop unique partnerships to differentiate themselves from competitors.
 

Multi-tasking aside, what other nuggets of insights did RealityMine’s beauty research uncover?

 
“Women associate their beauty ritual with happiness and confidence,” explained Sylvester. “Beauty and presenting yourself to the world is a happy contented moment for women. It makes them feel confident and ready to take on the day.”

 
At the end of the day, women unwind in part, by taking off their makeup, but the process has to be simple.

 
“You have to make it effective and fast,” said Sylvester. “Marketers must understand that they are between a very busy day and a good night’s sleep.”

 
And what about that middle portion of the day, you know, the part where you’re stuck in traffic, rushing from one appointment to the next and just getting overwhelmed in general?

 
“It’s that afternoon slump,” conceded Sylvester, who recommended beauty companies team up with Starbucks or a similar retailer to offer pick-me-up coupons. Or, she suggested, brands could differentiate themselves by offering fragrances designed specifically for mornings and ones that invigorate women for that end-of-the-day push.

 
“People can really fall apart in the afternoon,” she told Happi. “It’s a new moment of truth for marketers to take advantage of.”

 
And with new ways to keep track of consumers’ moves every waking moment, RealityMine may be ushering in a new era of 24/7 marketing.