For nearly 50 years, Beacon Design by ChemArt has adorned America’s Christmas trees with original ornaments and licensed collections. In 2026, the company aimed to deepen its understanding of what customers truly value—beyond historical sales data—and tapped First Insight’s AI-driven platform to guide design decisions for its new collection.
This case study explores how Beacon Design used consumer insights and Agentic AI from First Insight to validate new concepts, refine messaging, and determine whether legacy ornaments should return, be refreshed, or retired.
Beacon Design has five decades of sales history and ongoing feedback from its thousands of retail partners. However, selling primarily through retailers creates a blind spot: visibility into end-customer sentiment.
To address this gap, Beacon Design used First Insight to evaluate designs and gain deeper clarity on what customers value. After early success, the company expanded its use of First Insight’s platform to conduct large-scale tests across its upcoming 2026 line.
Beacon Design focused on three strategic priorities:
The insights would validate instincts—but also challenge assumptions—to ensure the 2026 collection aligned with real-world demand.
First Insight collected large-scale consumer input and used its Agentic AI to assign each ornament a Value Score™ rating between 1 and 10.
The Value Score predicts potential market performance based on weighted demand indicators.
Beacon Design’s thresholds:
This framework allowed Beacon Design to blend artistry and craftsmanship with measurable consumer data.
1. “Grandmas” Ornament – Emotional Validation
Beacon Design created a sentiment-driven ornament intended as a gift for grandmas. Consumer comments confirmed strong emotional resonance—something the team historically wouldn’t know until long after the season.
2. “Take It Outside” Ornament – Resolving Internal Uncertainty
A camping-themed ornament with the phrase “Take it outside” raised concerns about interpretation. Testing showed that customers embraced the sentiment, validating the design direction.
3. “Needs-to-be-Updated” Ornament – Data Over Instinct
Although the team planned to refresh an existing ornament for “newness,” insights revealed that consumers preferred the original. The data guided Beacon to release the ornament unchanged.
4. “Scene” Ornament – Breaking the Focal Point Rule
One ornament lacked a single focal point—unusual for Beacon’s design philosophy. The team questioned whether it was compelling. Consumers overwhelmingly loved the scenic composition, reinforcing that exceptions can delight.
“Before partnering with First Insight, we relied heavily on what we saw in the market and what our sales team was hearing, but that still left a blind spot—we didn’t have the end consumer’s voice,”
– Sheryl Erb, Director of Marketing, Beacon Design
Erb highlighted a pivotal moment: two design directions for one ornament had split the internal team. First Insight showed that consumers strongly preferred the version some team members dismissed. This became a turning point for Beacon’s process.
For a company that doesn’t sell directly to end consumers, emotional clarity is difficult—and impossible to scale—without AI.
“Beacon Design has an exceptional instinct for its category, but even the best teams can’t always see what customers will feel when they bring a product into their home,”
– Greg Petro, CEO, First Insight
Petro emphasized that AI transforms scattered consumer signals into clear, actionable insights—a necessity in today’s competitive retail environment.
With First Insight:
The result is Beacon Design’s first consumer-informed and AI-guided ornament collection, available to retail buyers in January 2026 and to consumers nationwide the following holiday season.
For the full announcement, see the official press release.
Major brands and retailers—including Under Armour, Woolworths, Boden, and Family Dollar—use First Insight to:
Beacon Design’s adoption of First Insight aligns them with leaders leveraging native AI to reduce guesswork and increase financial impact.
First Insight is a global retail platform that uses native AI to turn real-time customer feedback into profitable strategies for over 600 brands and retailers. Companies depend on First Insight to understand:
The company’s Value Score™ predicts product viability and demand. First Insight’s Voice of the Customer platform includes 360M+ consumers across 180 countries and 67 languages. Founded in 2007.
Beacon Design by ChemArt is a leading U.S. manufacturer of custom-designed keepsake ornaments crafted entirely in Lincoln, Rhode Island. For over 50 years, Beacon has partnered with nonprofits, museums, foundations, historical associations, and organizations of all sizes to create meaningful keepsakes for fundraising, revenue growth, donor engagement, and commemorative moments.
Beacon also offers curated retail collections—including annual series and America 250 commemoratives—designed, etched, finished, and assembled in-house.