Partner & Chief Strategist · Schaefer

Seth Waite

Seth studies how food and beverage buyers actually make decisions — what they tell researchers, what they tell themselves, and what actually drives the purchase. He leads customer research at Schaefer and built the proprietary frameworks the agency runs on, all grounded in first-party F&B consumer data.

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Seth Waite
16
Proprietary frameworks authored
12
Perspectives published
10+
Years in F&B buyer research
What Seth Does

Buyer research as the foundation of every campaign.

Seth's work starts before a single dollar of ad budget is committed. His job is to understand what actually drives F&B buyers — the psychology beneath the surface-level preference for "organic" or "local" or "convenient" — and translate that understanding into strategy that moves product.

The frameworks Seth has built aren't abstract theory. They're tools distilled from years of consumer interviews, surveys, and in-store observation, applied directly to how Schaefer builds campaigns for its clients.

He also leads new client conversations — helping brands figure out whether Schaefer is the right fit, and what results are realistic to pursue.

01
Buyer psychology research
Leading consumer surveys, interviews, and in-store observation to find the real purchase trigger — not the assumed one.
02
Framework development
Building proprietary tools for F&B brands to understand their buyers, segment their audiences, and brief their creative.
03
Client strategy
Translating buyer insight into specific campaign and creative decisions — not just diagnosing the problem but prescribing the fix.
04
New client intake
Leading conversations with prospective clients to understand their brand, their market, and whether Schaefer is positioned to get them results.
Proprietary Frameworks

16 frameworks built from first-party F&B data.

These aren't borrowed from general marketing theory. Every framework Seth has built came from a specific problem Schaefer kept running into — and a structured answer built from real consumer behavior data.

Buyer Psychology
The Why People Buy Pyramid
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Demand Generation
See. Want. Trust.
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Creative Strategy
The Ad Translation Framework
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Creative Strategy
The Segment Creative Framework
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Campaign Management
The Creative Fatigue Framework
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Creative Process
The Creative Brief Audit
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Brand Strategy
The Kingpin Strategy
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Brand Strategy
The Challenger Brand Playbook
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Retention
The WPB Loyalty Framework
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Competitive Intelligence
The WPB Competitive Mapping Framework
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Audience Strategy
Segmentation 101
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Customer Research
The 5 P's of Understanding Customers
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Buyer Behavior
The Replacement Model
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Research Methodology
The Audience Assumption Test
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Research Methodology
The Data Layers for Understanding Purchase Decisions
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Media Strategy
The Marketing Efficiency Paradox
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Published Perspectives

Real brand strategy, annotated through buyer psychology.

Each Perspective takes a real brand move — a launch, a pivot, a growth story, a failure — and examines it through Schaefer's frameworks. Grocery, CPG, and QSR. The goal isn't to celebrate the win. It's to understand the mechanism.

QSR · Industry Analysis
QSR Loyalty's Discount Trap
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Deep Dive
Dr. Pepper: How America's #2 Soda Got There — and What Threatens It
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Competitive Analysis
Oatly vs Silk: Same Aisle. Opposite Playbooks.
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Brand Strategy
Gonanas: A Sleepy Aisle, Wide Open
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Challenger Brands
"Hot Girls Eat Tinned Fish." How Fishwife Turned a $2.6B Category Into a Cultural Moment
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Challenger Brands
Two College Kids Took Beating Heinz as a Dare. They Built a Mayo Empire Instead.
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Brand Strategy
Chomps Just Made a Smarter Move
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Brand Valuation
McCormick Paid $4.2 Billion for French's Mustard
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Brand Loyalty
Stock-Outs Destroy 18 Months of Brand Building in 18 Seconds
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Demand Strategy
The Oreo Strategy That Prints $3 Billion Annually
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Brand Loyalty
Brand Loyalty Is Buyer Psychology at Its Best
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Paid Media
Creative Is the New Targeting
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Work With Schaefer

Research-led campaigns for F&B brands that want real results.

Every Schaefer engagement begins with buyer research. Seth leads that process — and it's what makes the campaigns work.

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