The 2013 Honomichl Top 50 Report

Transcription

The 2013 Honomichl Top 50 Report
The 2013 Honomichl
Top 50
Report
By Jack Honomichl
26
marketing news | June 2013
Exclusive feature
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The top-line numbers show slight industry growth, but an analysis of the
underlying facts behind the market research industry in 2012 points to a
weak, downward trend. Read on to see who’s making headway and who’s
struggling, prompting movement in the Honomichl Top 50 rankings.
Revenue Declines Growing Again
30
24
24
21
19
18
15
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
8
2007
2006
8
2005
2004
9
2003
More than $9.5 billion
was spent within the U.S. for marketing/advertising/public opinion research services in 2012
through U.S.-based, for-profit research firms
according to this, the 40th annual analysis of
market research industry trends.
Revenue inputs from 207 research firms
form the database for this analysis: the Top 50
firms by revenue plus 157 research organizations
that provide revenue information on a
confidential basis to the Council of American
Survey Research Organizations (CASRO). The
50 largest firms get line-item identity on the
Top 50 list starting on page 35. Each was asked
for calendar 2012 revenues sans nonresearch
activities and work done outside the U.S. That
then was compared with the comparable number
for 2011 to get the growth/decline rate. If a firm
made an acquisition or divestiture during the
year, adjustments were made to get an apples-toapples comparison.
Following the Top 50 list, you will find an
extensive profile of each Top 50 firm, including
ownership, top management, acquisition activity,
service offerings and revenues from outside
the U.S. In toto, the Top 50 firms had U.S.-only
revenues of $8.7 billion, or 91% of the 207 firms’
total. In 2012, 24 of the 50 firms reported a
revenue decline or an increase not large enough
to cover inflation. The chart at right shows how
that significant indicator of industry health has
trended in recent years.
Other input came from CASRO, which
provided together, in aggregate, revenues of
157 member firms not included in the Top 50
list. Each firm, on average, had revenues of $5.4
million. Together these 157 firms had revenues
of $847 million in 2012 (almost all within the
U.S.), or 9% of the total.
Top 50 firms reporting revenue declines
or growing less than inflation
June 2013 | marketing news
27
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Down Year
Jack Honomichl is founder
of the Inside Research
industry newsletter, a market
research trade publication
based in Barrington, Ill.
The database of 207 firms had U.S. revenues
of $9,539,700,000 in 2012, up 1.7% over 2011.
But after adjustment for inflation (2.1%), the
so-called “real growth” was -0.4%.
Another benchmark is Gross Domestic
Product, the estimated value of all goods and
services produced in the U.S., as calculated by
the U.S. federal government. As the chart below
shows, on average, between 1988 and 2012,
growth per year has run ahead of the GDP by
4.2%, a roundabout way of saying that its relative
value was running ahead of the economy in
general. But in 2012, research industry growth
was down 0.5% compared with the GDP. You’d
expect this trend to impact employment, and it
did. The Top 50 firms in 2012 had 33,506 fulltime employees, down 3.7% from 2011.
MR industry growth has
run ahead of GDP
Contributing Factors
It would be easy to attribute this dip to a sluggish
economy, but there are underlying factors that
help to make it more understandable, such as
government spending. The biggest spenders for
research services in the U.S. are, by far,
agencies of the federal government, which spent
an estimated $6.3 billion in 2012, and over recent
years, that has grown. But in 2012, the portion
of that expenditure that is contracted to the
private sector was down 18.3%. Three Top 50
firms are long-time suppliers to federal agencies:
Westat, No. 4 on the list, gets 96% of its revenue
from government agencies; Abt SRBI gets 83%;
and ICF International gets 70%. You’ll note that
Westat’s revenues were down 3.1% in 2012, the
first time since Westat made an appearance
on the Honomichl list that the company has
reported a downer year. Some of that may have
been attributable to governmental cutbacks.
Other factors contributing to the industry’s
performance include:
Focus Group Usage Slows: The 15th Annual
Focus Group Index, developed by Stamford,
Conn.-based FocusVision Worldwide, reported
that the number of focus groups conducted in the
U.S. grew by 1.9% in 2012, compared with 4% in
2011 and 5.4% in 2010. It could be that the mining
of social media websites has come to be preferred
for “insights” regarding consumers’ whims and
fades, in lieu of more expensive focus groups.
Online Data Collection Increases: The wellestablished trend toward the use of online
data collection for survey projects has revenue
implications. It is presumed that online
Industry Growth Higher Than GDP but Narrowing
Top 50 Firms’
8%
“Real Growth”
7%
After GDP
6%
Adjustment
5%
4%
3%
+4.1%
2%
1%
0%
Year
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2010
2005
2000
1995
1990
-1%
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Exclusive feature
data collection costs less than traditional data
collection methodologies and therefore one
can do the same amount of work for less—
and this reduces some survey revenues.
Online data collection
may lead to revenue
decline
Syndicated Service Stability Provides Some
Support: Total industry revenues in 2012 would
have been down much more but for the “floor”
established by those Top 50 firms that specialize
in syndicated services under long-term contracts,
such as Nielsen, IRI, Arbitron, J.D. Power &
Associates, NPD Group, comScore, Rentrak
and National Research Group.
These eight firms, in total, saw 2012 revenues
grow by 4.1%. The balance of 41 firms that
specialize in custom, ad hoc projects saw
revenues decrease by 0.7%. During hard times, it
is relatively easy to cut back on ad hoc work but
difficult to cut back on long-term contracts for
syndicated services—especially if they provide
input to corporate information systems.
Syndicated services
put brakes on revenue
declines
Election Year Bolsters Results: In U.S.
presidential election years such as 2012, many
ad hoc survey firms benefit, either directly or
indirectly, from an infusion of hundreds of
millions of dollars spent for political polling.
The decline of the industry’s ad hoc survey
segment would have been more but for this.
Changes in List
As usual, firms come and go from the Top 50 list,
and 2012 was no exception. There were seven
newcomers: Symphony Health Solutions, No.
15 on this year’s list, was formed in 2012 and
includes AlphaDetail, No. 45 on last year’s list.
Public Opinion Strategies, which has a strong
private-sector business base, also is a major player
in political polling and 2012 was a boom year.
The other five—Perception Research Services,
RDA Group, Leo J. Shapiro & Associates, LRA
Worldwide and Kelton—experienced especially
good growth in 2012 and they replaced firms that
did not or that declined to participate for reasons
of their own, or both.
Revenue per Employee
A by-product of this analysis is the ability to
calculate revenue per employee. For Top 50
firms alone, this was $259,000 per full-time
employee in 2012. You can see how this has
trended over recent years in the chart on the
previous page.
However, the Top 50 data are heavily
weighted towards large database companies
with syndicated services. You’d expect the
number for small, ad hoc survey firms to be
different, and it is. Looking just at the 157
full-service CASRO firms not in the Top 50,
their revenue per full-time employee was
$257,718.
Syndicated Services Support Industry
2012 Top 50 Firms’
Revenue Change
All top 50 Firms
+1.7%
+4.1%
9 Syndicated Firms
-0.7%
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41 Remaining Firms
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Industry Size Larger Than Top 50
$6.1B
$9.5 B
(207 Firms)
(Estimated
Additional)
Exclusive feature
These data demonstrate increased
productivity in the research industry, and
quantification of that is difficult because there
are so many factors at work: employee morale
and training, incentive programs, improving
management, etc. But one important factor,
certainly at play in the research industry,
is more capable, easier to use and lessexpensive software, and there has been a
profusion of that.
Total Spend
Total Industry Spend: 2012 =$15.6
While the 207 database firms in this year’s analysis
had revenues of $9.5 billion, there is a lot more to
research spend within the U.S. than that. Agencies
of the U.S. federal government spend $6.3 billion,
but we know that $735 million of that already is
included in the 207 database firms, so let’s add a
net of $5.6 billion to the $9.5 million, for a total
of $15.1 billion. In addition, there are dozens of
not-for-profit survey research centers, usually
associated with universities, such as the University
of Chicago’s NORC and the Survey Research
Center at the University of Michigan. Their work,
in toto, could easily add more than $100 million
to our running total, but since some is paid for by
agencies of the federal government, let’s just add
$100 million to be conservative. That brings our
running total up to $15.2 billion.
Numerous large U.S. corporations do
considerable research in-house, especially in the
area of customer satisfaction measurement and
new product development. This work could easily
add $300 or $400 million to our estimate, but
no one has a clue as to what that sum is. Adding
$300 million is conservative and that takes us
up to $15.5 billion. Numerous other marketing
service firms—like advertising agencies
and consultancies—have internal research
departments to back up their project work and
there is no knowledge of this sum, but it is safe to
assume that it would add at least $100 million to
our total, bringing it up to $15.6 billion.
While the total spend on market research
in the United States should be estimated, my
analysis of 207 research revenues is one way to
calculate, with some specificity, the trend vectors
and to help explain why they happened. m
Productivity Slows After U.S. Recession
Revenue Per
Top 50 Firm
Full-Time
Employee
2012
$259,000
2011
$241,000
2010
$258,000
2009
$263,000
2008
$257,000
2007
$239,000
2006
$215,000
2005
$219,000
2004
$199,000
Methodology
Invitations to market research firms with estimated annual U.S. revenue of more than $10
million are sent in January of each year requesting revenue information for the prior calendar
year, a company profile of activities and other company metrics. Top 50 rankings are based
on U.S. revenue. The rate of growth from year to year has been adjusted to account for
revenue gains or losses from acquisitions or divestitures. Verification of revenue is required of
each private firm for ranking by a third party, generally its outside accounting firm. For further
information, call Larry Gold at 847-526-0707 or Jack Honomichl at 847-382-3246.
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Top 50 U.S. Market Research Organizations
U.S. Rank
2012
2011
1
1
Organization
Nielsen
Holdings N.V.
Headquarters
Website
U.S. Research
Revenue **
($ in
millions)
% Change
From
2011 ***
WW Research
Revenue**
($ in millions)
NonU.S.Research
Revenue**
($ in millions)
%
Non-U.S.
Revenue
U.S.
Full-Time
Employees
$2,651.0
4.0%
$5,429.0
$2,778.0
51.2%
10,486
Kantar.com
929.4
-4.8
3,338.6
2,409.2
72.2
3,930
590.0
-5.5
2,300.0
1,710.0
74.3
1,996
491.1
-3.1
495.9
4.8
1.0
2,019
New York
Nielsen.com
2
2
Kantar*
London &
Fairfield,
Conn.
3
3
Ipsos
New York
Ipsos-NA.com
4
4
Westat Inc.
Rockville, Md.
Westat.com
5
5
Information
Resources Inc. (IRI)
Chicago
IRIworldwide.com
478.7
2.9
763.8
285.1
37.3
1,325
6
6
Arbitron Inc.
Columbia, Md.
Arbitron.com
444.1
6.7
449.9
5.8
1.3
982
GfK.com
330.9
0.5
1,946.9
1,616.0
83.0
1,131
IMSHealth.com
271.3
-4.0
775.0
503.7
65.0
540
NPD.com
191.8
1.5
272.0
80.2
29.5
875
191.2
7.5
239.7
48.5
20.2
1,152
Nuremberg,
Germany
Norwalk,
Conn.
Port
Washington,
N.Y.
7
7
GfK USA
8
8
IMS Health Inc.
9
9
The NPD
Group Inc.
10
10
ICF International Inc.
Fairfax, Va.
ICFI.com
11
11
comScore Inc.
Reston, Va.
comScore.com
183.4
5.1
255.2
71.8
28.1
813
12
14
Abt SRBI Inc.
AbtAssociates.com
157.4
23.5
175.6
18.2
10.4
995
13
13
J.D. Power &
Associates*
Cambridge,
Mass.
Westlake
Village, Calif.
JDPower.com
156.1
9.5
234.4
78.3
33.4
494
14
12
Maritz Research
Fenton, Mo.
MaritzResearch.com
154.0
-2.5
188.4
34.4
18.3
626
15
-
Symphony Health
Solutions
Horsham,
Penn.
SymphonyHealth.com
153.5
2.7
-
-
500
16
15
dunnhumbyUSA LLC
Cincinnati
dunnhumby.com/us/
118.1
5.1
420.0
301.9
71.9
254
New York
HarrisInteractive.com
85.3
-8.5
140.7
55.4
39.4
285
Los Angeles
LRWonline.com
72.9
-2.7
101.8
28.9
28.4
377
Lincoln, Neb.
NationalResearch.com
67.7
14.0
74.2
6.5
8.8
350
Livonia, Mich.
MarketStrategies.com
62.6
-12.8
64.0
1.5
2.3
234
Communispace Corp. Boston
Communispace.com
59.3
6.9
64.8
5.6
8.6
346
ORCInternational.com
56.5
-13.4
95.9
39.4
41.1
301
VisionCritical.com
51.0
6.3
78.4
27.4
35.0
69
MarketForce.com
50.5
-2.5
65.9
15.4
23.4
327
Burke.com
48.3
-4.9
54.4
6.1
11.2
214
POS.org
45.9
194.2
46.0
0.1
0.2
40
Morpace.com
43.3
11.6
49.5
6.2
12.5
152
DirectionsResearch.com
38.0
-8.7
38.0
-
126
17
18
19
20
Harris
16
Interactive Inc.
Lieberman Research
17
Worldwide
National
20
Research Corp.
Market Strategies
18
International
21
21
22
19
ORC International
Princeton, N.J.
Vision Critical
Communications Inc.
Market Force
Information Inc.
Vancouver,
B.C.
Louisville,
Colo.
Burke Inc.
Cincinnati
Public Opinion
Strategies LLC
Alexandria,
Va.
Farmington
Hills, Mich.
23
25
24
23
25
24
26
-
27
28
Morpace Inc.
28
27
Directions
Research Inc.
Cincinnati
-
-
June 2013 | marketing news
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Top 50 U.S. Market Research Organizations
U.S. Rank
2012
2011
29
38
30
-
Organization
30
Phoenix Marketing
International
32
35
YouGov
36
37
38
39
International
29 Communications
Research
Informa Research
36
Services Inc.
Radius Global Market
31
Research
Service Management
34
Group Inc.
MarketVision
40
Research Inc.
National Analysts
37
Worldwide
Market Probe Inc.
40
41
41
43 KS&R Inc.
41
44 The Pert Group
43
-
44
42
45
-
46
47
48
RDA Group Inc.
Gongos
Research Inc.
Leo J. Shapiro &
Associates LLC
49 The Link Group
Chadwick Martin
47
Bailey Inc.
RTi Market Research
48
& Brand Strategy
49
-
LRA Worldwide Inc.
50
-
Kelton
%
Non-U.S.
Revenue
U.S.
Full-Time
Employees
28.3%
176
PRSresearch.com
33.9
4.0
61.9
28.0
45.2
148
Affinnova.com
32.2
30.9
39.4
7.1
18.0
163
PhoenixMI.com
31.9
-2.7
37.4
5.5
14.7
109
YouGov.com
31.9
2.2
91.9
60.0
65.3
119
0.5
1.6
177
Media, Pa.
ICRsurvey.com
30.8
-6.7
31.3
Calabasas,
Calif.
InformaRS.com
29.2
8.6
29.2
New York
Radius-Global.com
28.8
-8.6
30.2
1.4
4.6
86
Kansas City,
Mo.
SMG.com
28.5
1.1
29.4
0.9
3.1
181
Cincinnati
MV-Research.com
26.0
13.0
26.0
-
-
105
Philadelphia
NationalAnalysts.com
23.2
-8.7
23.2
-
-
82
Milwaukee
MarketProbe.com
21.5
1.4
47.9
26.5
55.3
120
Syracuse, N.Y.
KSRinc.com
21.0
4.0
26.7
5.7
21.3
209
ThePertGroup.com
21.0
4.5
22.2
1.2
5.4
98
RDAgroup.com
19.1
8.5
19.1
Gongos.com
18.1
-10.8
20.2
Farmington,
Conn.
Bloomfield
Hills, Mich.
Auburn Hills,
Mich.
-
-
2.1
-
110
10.4
107
LJS.com
15.6
10.6
15.6
Atlanta
TLG.com
15.5
-3.1
17.4
Boston
CMBinfo.com
14.7
-12.5
14.7
RTiResearch.com
13.9
-16.3
13.9
LRAWorldwide.com
13.5
40.6
19.6
6.1
31.1
126
KeltonGlobal.com
12.9
4.0
14.1
1.2
8.5
41
$8,693.2
1.7%
$18,838.4
$10,298.9
54.7%
33,506
$846.5
1.5%
$1,004.5
$158.0
15.7%
3,445
$9,539.7
1.7%
$19,842.9
$10,456.9
52.7%
36,951
Stamford,
Conn.
Horsham,
Penn.
Culver City,
Calif.
All other (157 CASRO companies not included in the
Top 50)****
-
195
Chicago
Total
Total (207 companies)
NonU.S.Research
Revenue**
($ in millions)
$14.5
Teaneck, N.J.
32
WW Research
Revenue**
($ in millions)
$51.2
Perception Research
Services
Affinnova Inc.
% Change
From
2011 ***
44.0%
Rentrak.com
Waltham,
Mass.
Rhinebeck,
N.Y.
Palo Alto,
Calif.
U.S. Research
Revenue **
($ in
millions)
$36.7
Portland, Ore.
38
35
Website
Rentrak Corp.
31
34
Headquarters
-
54
10.9
48
-
-
67
-
-
46
1.9
*Estimated by Top 50 authors.
**U.S. and WW revenues may include nonresearch activities for some companies that are significantly higher, as well as revenues from other
MR companies. See individual company profiles for details.
***Rate of growth from year to year has been adjusted so as not to include revenue gains or losses from acquisitions or divestitures. See
company profiles for explanation.
**** Total revenues of 157 survey research companies that provide financial information on a confidential basis to the Council of American
Survey Research Organizations (CASRO).
36
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honomichltop50
Exclusive feature
1
Nielsen Holdings N.V.
Nielsen.com
David L. Calhoun, 56
Title
CEO
Education
B.S., Virginia Polytechnic
Institute
2012 U.S. Revenue
$2,651.0 million*
Change from 2011
+4.0%**
Non–U.S. Revenue
$2,778.0 million*
From Outside U.S.
51.2%*
U.S. Employees
10,486* ***
Nielsen Holdings N.V., incorporated in the Netherlands and
headquartered in New York, was founded in 1923 and sold to a
consortium of six private equity firms in 2006. In January 2011,
the firm was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Nielsen is a global information and measurement company
that provides a comprehensive understanding of consumers and
consumer behavior. It delivers media and marketing information,
analytics and industry expertise about what consumers buy and
what consumers watch (consumer interaction with television,
online and mobile) on a global and local basis.
The firm’s information, insights and services help clients
maintain and strengthen their market positions, and identify
opportunities for profitable growth. Nielsen has a presence in
approximately 100 countries, including many developing and
emerging markets.
Nielsen aligns its research business into two segments:
Consumer Watch (media audience measurement and analytics)
and Consumer Buy (consumer purchasing measurement and
analytics). These segments are built on a foundation of data assets
designed to yield insights for the company’s clients to measure,
analyze and grow their businesses, and to enhance the return on
investment of their advertising and marketing spending.
Consumer Watch
Nielsen’s Watch segment includes measurement and analytical
services related to TV, online and mobile devices, and offers
viewership data and analytics primarily to the media and
advertising industries. Its media clients use the data to price their
advertising inventory and maximize the value of their content,
and its advertising clients use the data to plan and optimize their
advertising spending and to better ensure that their ads reach the
intended audiences.
In the United States, Nielsen offers two principal TV
ratings services: measurement of national TV audiences and
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marketing news | June 2013
measurement of local TV audiences in all 210 designated local
TV markets.
Nielsen is a global provider of Internet media and market
research, audience analytics and social media measurement of
the behavior of online audiences for online publishers, Internet
and media companies, marketers and retailers. It measures and
analyzes consumer-generated media including opinions, advice,
peer-to-peer discussions and shared personal experiences on
more than 100 million blogs, social networks, user groups and
chat boards.
The firm offers consumer research and independent
measurement for telecom and media companies in the mobile
telecommunications industry, including mobile carriers and
device manufacturers. In the United States, its metrics are an
indicator of market share, customer satisfaction, device share,
service quality, revenue share, content audience and other key
performance measures.
Consumer Buy
Nielsen’s Buy segment provides retail transactional measurement
data, consumer behavior information and analytics primarily
to businesses in the consumer packaged goods industry. Its Buy
clients use the information and insights in an effort to better
manage their brands, uncover new sources of demand, launch
and grow new products, improve their marketing mix and
establish more effective customer relationships.
This segment is organized into two areas: Information, which
provides retail scanner and consumer-panel-based measurement,
and Insights, which provides a broad range of analytics.
The Information segment provides measurement data that is
used for measuring sales and market share in the CPG industry
by tracking sales transactions in retail outlets around the world.
Its database of retail and consumer information, combined with
its analytical capabilities, helps generate strategic insights for
business decisions.
The Insights segment uses consumer purchasing information
as its foundation to provide a selection of consumer intelligence
and analytical services. It draws insights from retail and
consumer panel measurement data sets, online behavioral
information and a variety of other
data sets. Its analytical services are organized to follow clients’
business development processes.
*Research only. U.S. research and nonresearch revenue in
2012 was $2.8 billion.
**The growth rate includes the 2011 and 2012 revenue for
the U.S. acquisitions of NeuroFocus Inc. in May 2011 and
Marketing Analytics Inc. in August 2011, and excludes the
revenue for the U.S. acquisitions of Perishables Group
Inc. in January 2012 and Vizu Corp. in July 2012.
***Estimated.
honomichltop50
Exclusive feature
•Kantar Media (KantarMedia.com) offers a range of media
insights and audience measurement services. It serves global
advertisers, agencies and media companies by providing
media and consumer research capabilities through its
traditional, social and digital media monitoring offerings.
2
Kantar
Kantar.com
Eric Salama, 52
Title
Chairman and CEO
Education
M.Sc., Birkbeck College,
London
2012 U.S. Revenue
$929.4 Million*
Change from 2011
-4.8%* **
Non–U.S. Revenue
$2,409.2 million*
From Outside U.S.
72.2%*
U.S. Employees
3,930
Kantar, based in London and Fairfield, Conn., was founded
in 1993 and is the Consumer Insights division of WPP plc, a
London-based public company.
Kantar’s research businesses work across the spectrum of
research and consultancy disciplines, offering business insights at
each point of the consumer life cycle.
The group now comprises the 12 research business units:
Added Value, IMRB International, Kantar Health, Kantar
Japan, Kantar Media, Kantar Operations, Kantar Retail, Kantar
Worldpanel, Lightspeed Research, Millward Brown, TNS (TNS/
Research International in selected markets) and The Futures Co.
Kantar’s worldwide services include the following in the
United States:
•Added Value (Added-Value.com) focuses on brand
development and marketing insight through its Brand
Connections methodology, providing services in the areas
of brand marketing, consumer insight, innovation and
communications.
Its services include cultural trend analysis; portfolio
strategy; market segmentation; mindset mapping and brand
portfolio management for identifying market opportunities;
brand positioning; ethnography and ideation; copy testing;
semiotic audits; and touch-point evaluation.
•Kantar Health (KantarHealth.com) specializes in healthcare
primary research and consulting. The group has seven
practice areas: marketing insights; strategic planning;
risk management, safety and surveillance; stakeholder
effectiveness and brand marketing; health economics and
patient outcomes; pricing and reimbursement; and forecasting
and epidemiology. Kantar Health maintains panels of
healthcare professionals and patients in the U.S. and Europe
who participate in Internet research.
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marketing news | June 2013
•Kantar Retail (KantarRetail.com) is focused on digitally
delivered intelligence on retailers and extending shopper
insights and consulting capabilities. Specialist areas include
retailer insights and trends, organization development
and virtual shopping insights. These areas are supported
by products and services including Kantar Retail IQ,
Shopcom, ShopperGenetics and ShopperScape, Kantar
Retail PowerRanking and Richmix.
•Kantar Worldpanel (KantarWorldpanel.com) is a global
provider of consumer panels that offer continuous
measurement and analysis of consumer purchasing and
usage behavior. The firm collects and analyzes data from
samples of consumers using technology matched to the
sophistication of local markets, including bar-code and
POS scanners, Internet, SMS text messaging and diary.
•Lightspeed Research (LightspeedResearch.com) provides
market research services by building and maintaining online
and mobile panels and associated services including survey
design consultation, sample management, programming,
hosting and data collection. They range from proprietary
online access panels to specialty panels, custom panels and
mobile surveys. Lightspeed also provides custom panel
services to address specific client needs.
•Millward Brown (MillwardBrown.com) provides a full
range of qualitative, quantitative and consulting services
focusing on brands, marketing communications, media and
marketing effectiveness. It works across a wide range of
industries and categories, operating in areas such as brand
strategy and experience; creative development and campaign
evaluation; consumer needs and values; media planning
and strategy; ROI, forecasting and investment management;
brand valuation and analytics; and demand and activation.
•TNS (TNSglobal.com) is a provider of both custom
market research services and qualitative research
services providing marketing knowledge and insights
into consumers and markets. It has experience in most
major sectors, particularly automotive, consumer, finance,
technology, political and social. The firm’s practice areas
are: stakeholder management, brand and communications,
product development and innovation, retail and shopper,
qualitative, and digital.
Exclusive feature
•The Futures Co. (TheFuturesCompany.com) monitors
what influences consumer values and attitudes to identify
current and future trends, and offers trends and futures
consulting, and future-facing qualitative and quantitative
research. Its work covers the categories of brand, category,
company, consumer and macro futures.
*Estimated, research only.
**The growth rate includes the 2011 and 2012 researchonly revenue for the U.S. acquisition of Global Market
Insite Inc. in September 2011 and excludes researchonly revenue for the acquisition of Adgooroo in
December 2012.
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media, public affairs research and survey management. The
firm’s researchers assess market potential, interpret market
trends, develop and build brands, test advertising, study
audience responses to various media and measure public
opinion worldwide.
Ipsos’ six areas of specialization are represented in North
America by the following brands:
•Ipsos ASI (Ipsos-NA.com/research/advertising/) is a
global provider specializing in advertising and brand
communications. It offers a full range of advertising research
services that employ measures predictive of in-market
performance. All stages of the advertising development process
are offered, from concept development to production, from
final execution and into post-implementation performance.
•Ipsos Loyalty (Ipsos-NA.com/research/loyalty/) provides
customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty research
globally. It measures, models and manages customer and
employee relationships.
3
Ipsos
Ipsos-NA.com
Didier Truchot, 66
Title
Chairman and CEO
Education
License, PantheonSorbonne University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$590.0 million
Change from 2011
-5.5%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1,710.0 million
From Outside U.S.
74.3%
U.S. Employees
1,996
Ipsos S.A., based in Paris, is a public company founded in 1975
and listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.
Ipsos is a global market research firm, controlled and
managed by research professionals. It provides services in six
areas of specialization: advertising, customer loyalty, marketing,
•Ipsos Marketing (Ipsos-NA.com/research/marketing/) is
organized around four global practices: innovation and
forecasting (Ipsos InnoQuest), market understanding
and measurement (Ipsos MarketQuest), healthcare (Ipsos
Healthcare), and qualitative (Ipsos UU). It offers contractual
models to better manage market research money, distributes
insights in real time within clients’ organizations by leveraging
technology and workshops, and integrates knowledge by
combining various sources of insights.
•Ipsos MediaCT (Ipsos-NA.com/research/media-contenttechnology/) covers the converging worlds of media,
content, telecom and technology. Its experience includes
audience measurement, content assessment, data analytics,
consumer behavior, and help with monetization and
innovation strategies. The staff combine research skills with
a focus on business fundamentals to help maximize clients’
return on investment.
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Exclusive feature
•Ipsos Public Affairs (Ipsos-NA.com/public-affairs/) is a
non-partisan, objective, survey-based research practice made
up of seasoned professionals. It conducts strategic research
initiatives for a number of American and international
organizations, based not only on public opinion research, but
also on elite stakeholder, corporate and media opinion research.
•Ipsos is the media polling supplier to Reuters News, and the
Hispanic polling partner of NBC Universal’s Telemundo
Communications Group. In Canada, Ipsos is the pollster of
record for Postmedia News/Global Television.
•Ipsos Observer (Ipsos-NA.com/research/observer) is the
firm’s survey management, data collection and data delivery
specialization serving researchers who have the means to analyze
data in-house. From creating surveys to delivering data, its team
of market research professionals manages projects across a broad
range of online and offline research methodologies including
online, telephone, face-to-face and mobile.
Ipsos has 24 offices in the United States and in 85 countries
worldwide.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of Synovate in October 2011.
4
Westat Inc.
Westat.com
James E. Smith, 63
Title
President and CEO
Education
Ph.D., University of
SOuthern California
2012 U.S. Revenue
$491.1 million
Change from 2011
-3.1%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$4.8 Million
From Outside U.S.
1.0%
U.S. Employees
2,019
Westat Inc. in Rockville, Md., is an employee-owned company
founded in 1963.
Westat combines a reputation for high-quality surveys with a
constant effort to innovate and build new capabilities. Its corporate
capabilities include statistical design and analysis, research
methodology, survey operations, scientific and clinical research,
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marketing news | June 2013
program evaluation, systems development, and other survey and
information services. The firm’s professional staff has significant
experience in a broad range of subject and program areas,
including health and medical studies, education, social services,
transportation and environmental protection, among others.
The firm’s clients are the agencies of the U.S. government,
as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local
governments. Its projects serve a broad range of needs: assessing
students’ educational achievement, understanding health and
environmental risks, gaining new knowledge of the causes and
treatment of disease, providing public health communications,
evaluating the performance of social programs, and supporting
the development of policy and regulations in many areas of
government. Westat also performs clinical trials work for the U.S.
government and for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients,
both domestically and through its international operations.
In addition, Westat continues to expand its methods research
and information dissemination capabilities. The firm operates a
behavioral research facility specializing in Web usability, along
with cognitive research and focus group facilities. It also manages
websites and call centers supporting federal agencies’ public
information programs.
Westat surveys are increasingly multimodal, often including
in-person, telephone, Web, mail and mobile device modes. It operates telephone research centers across the United States, a national
network of home-based telephone interviewers, and a nationwide
staff of field data collectors for in-person and institutional data
collection. To support these large, distributed operations, Westat
maintains an extensive, secure, nationwide multimodal computer
and communications management infrastructure.
The firm distributes and provides user training and support
for Blaise, a commercial, off-the-shelf software system for
computer-assisted telephone interviewing and complex survey
processing. Blaise was developed by Statistics Netherlands and is
used internationally. In 2012, Westat supplemented its WesVar
statistical processing software with the WesDaX module for
online data analysis and tabulations, and other software for data
and metadata dissemination and use.
Westat’s telephone interviewing, field interviewing and data
editing staff averaged about 1,200 during 2012. It also maintains
research offices in Durham, N.C.; Atlanta; Houston; Philadelphia;
and Cambridge, Mass.; and in five international locations.
*The growth rate excludes the 2011 and 2012 revenue
of GeoStats Services, acquired in November 2012.
honomichltop50
Exclusive feature
Industry Vertical Solutions: This business segment offers
5
Information Resources Inc.
IRIworldwide.com
Andrew M. Appel, 47
Title
President and CEO
Education
M.B.A., University
of Chicago
2012 U.S. Revenue
$478.7 million
Change from 2011
+2.9%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$285.1 Million
From Outside U.S.
37.3%
U.S. Employees
1,325
Information Resources Inc. (IRI), formerly SymphonyIRI
Group Inc., based in Chicago, was founded in 1979 and
became a public company in 1983. It was acquired in 2003
by Symphony Technology Group, and then in 2011 by
New Mountain Capital LLC, a private company and
majority shareholder.
IRI is a worldwide provider of information, analytics, business
intelligence and consulting services supported by technology
platforms, experienced teams and information on markets,
consumers and shoppers for transforming insight into impact.
The firm offers the IRI Partner Ecosystem that leverages
the skill sets of its retail tracking and panel staff to provide
“one answer” to business issues for more than 25 clients with
regional and global agreements.
IRI operates under two interconnected business segments:
IRI Market Measurement: Market Measurement provides
CPG and retail markets tracking information and insights via
access and visualization tools. This information is used
to analyze shopper activity and create new products, as
well as for packaging, pricing, promotion and merchandising
strategies.
•InfoScan Retail Tracking: The census-based InfoScan
point-of-sale (POS) tracking service provides access to
detailed information on sales, share, distribution, pricing and
promotion across a wide variety of retail channels
and accounts. In 2012, IRI began sharing Wal-Mart
POS-based insights.
•AllScan Convenience Store Tracking: The AllScan tracking
service provides scanner-based POS data across the entire
convenience channel, using data from more than 15,000
sample convenience stores.
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marketing news | June 2013
vertical experience and customized products and services for
multiple industry verticals, including healthcare and wellness,
center store, confections, beer, wine, spirits, tobacco, bakery
and dairy. These include:
•Healthcare Insights: The firm’s Healthcare Solutions Group
provides pharmaceutical, healthcare and CPG manufactures
and retailers with consumer intelligence, targeting and
analytic services for the healthcare marketplace. It offers a
suite of retail tracking, consumer panel, and analytics-driven
products and services under the RxPulse brand.
•Beverage Alcohol and Tobacco Industry Insights: IRI provides
insights through an integrated view of the beverage alcohol
and tobacco industry. The retail tracking products and
analytics are scaled to specifically meet the beverage alcohol
and tobacco industry needs, providing manufacturers and
distributors with retail sales trends, and purchase behavior
and consumer insights in grocery, drug, mass merchandise,
convenience, liquor and club stores.
Solutions & Services Group
Consumer & Shopper Marketing offers CPG and retailers a
range of services focusing on delivering consumer and shopper
insights, test marketing services, new media services, shopper
segmentation and targeting, and shopper marketing services.
These services are delivered on the IRI Liquid Data technology
platform and supported by experienced teams.
IRI’s Consumer & Shopper Marketing capabilities provide
enhanced consumer and shopper insights include market
structure and consulting, brand and retailer loyalty analyses,
attitudinal segmentations and individual user profiles. In support of Wal-Mart’s customer-centric initiatives, IRI
provides Web-based shopper insights and collaborative planning
through the Customer Advantage platform. It delivers Wal-Martfocused shopper insights and supports Wal-Mart’s collaborative
planning process by providing a dedicated shopper insights
portal of customizable reports shared between Wal-Mart and
its supplier partners. This contains multiple custom features,
including Wal-Mart-defined shopping trips, geographies
and customer segments, as well as custom report templates
that support Wal-Mart’s planning process with its supplier
community.
The firm offers a series of new digital media services that
integrates IRI’s Consumer Network (panel) purchase data,
predictive modeling techniques and analytical experience
with a number of online research and advertising capabilities
through a series of partnerships to provide consumer insights,
segmentation, targeting and campaign-specific, return-oninvestment (ROI) analysis capabilities for online advertisers.
Exclusive feature
IRI Advantage is a suite of business intelligence software
services for trade management, merchandizing, shopper
marketing and in-store execution powered by the Liquid Data
technology platform. It is delivered by an Advantage Portfolio
of business applications that include:
•IRI Brand Advantage is a user-friendly online media
planning and analytical application that is delivered over
the Web. The application provides diagnostic reporting to
compare alternative scenarios and determine the best media
mix to drive business goals.
•Consumer & Shopper Insights Advantage provides insights
into shopper behavior combining content, such as built-in
scorecards and best-practice analysis templates.
•Customer Advantage, developed from a partnership
between IRI and Wal-Mart, provides shopper insights that
feed Wal-Mart’s joint business planning process. It delivers
intuitive, user-friendly, customizable reports, which are
shared between Wal-Mart and its supplier partners. The
solution includes Wal-Mart-defined trip types, food shopper
segments, product hierarchy and retail geographies.
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•Market Advantage identifies emerging trends and growth
drivers (e.g., health and wellness) before the competition and
elevates their retailer partnerships from “category” captain to
“aisle” or “department” champion.
•Price & Trade Advantage gives insight on price sensitivities,
gaps, thresholds, competitive implications and sales volume
decomposition.
IRI’s Analytics group provides a combination of predictive
analytical techniques, proprietary rapid-modeling platforms,
automated services and experienced analytics consulting
talent. It focuses on the strategic and operational needs in sales
and category management, marketing and brand management,
strategy and demand planning.
In 2012, IRI continued the expansion of its Consulting
and Innovation Practice, delivering advisory services in sales
and marketing for C-level management within the CPG and
retail industries. The group focuses on four key practice areas:
strategic pricing, growth and innovation, shopper marketing,
and customer and channel management. IRI Consulting is
composed of experienced consultants from top-tier strategy
June 2013 | marketing news
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Exclusive feature
consulting firms who have successfully completed hundreds
of engagements focused on developing long-term strategic
and collaborative relationships.
IRI has 11 offices throughout the United States and in the
United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece,
Italy and Spain.
6
Arbitron
Arbitron.com
Sean R. Creamer, 48
Title
President and CEO
Education
M.S., Georgetown
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$444.1 million
Change from 2011
+6.7%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$5.8 Million
From Outside U.S.
1.3%
U.S. Employees
982
Arbitron Inc., based in Columbia, Md., was founded in 1949
and in 2001 became a public company listed on the New
York Stock Exchange. In December 2012, Arbitron agreed
to be acquired by Nielsen Holdings N.V. following U.S.
government approvals.
Arbitron is a leading media and marketing research firm
primarily serving radio broadcasters, advertisers, advertising
agencies, cable and broadcast TV, retailers, out-of-home
media, online media, mobile media, telecommunications
providers and print media.
The firm has commercialized its Portable People Meter
radio ratings service in 48 of the largest United States radio
markets. It is gradually deploying the new PPM 360 device,
which uses wireless cellular technology to transmit media
exposure data directly from the meter to Arbitron.
Arbitron has four main services:
•Measuring local market and network radio in the U.S.:
Arbitron provides syndicated radio ratings services in
local markets in the U.S. to radio broadcasters, advertising
agencies and advertisers. National services estimate the size
and demographic composition of national radio audiences,
and the size and composition of audiences of network
radio programs and commercials. Broadcasters use the
ratings data primarily to price and sell advertising time, and
advertising agencies and advertisers use the ratings data
when purchasing advertising time.
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marketing news | June 2013
•Measuring media other than radio: In July 2011, Arbitron
acquired Zokem Oy, a Finland-based mobile audience
measurement company, which now operates as Arbitron
Mobile. Arbitron also offers services estimating the
media consumption and behavior of audiences to content
distributed on multiple platforms, and offers services
estimating the size and demographic composition of
audiences of media other than radio, such as TV viewed
outside the home. In 2012, together with comScore Inc.,
Arbitron announced an agreement with ESPN to develop
a five-platform initiative across radio, television, PCs,
smartphones and tablets to help ESPN understand how
users consume ESPN content across all five platforms.
•Providing qualitative information about consumers:
Arbitron also provides qualitative information about
consumers, including their lifestyles, shopping patterns,
and use of media in local markets and across the U.S.
These services are marketed to customers of syndicated
radio ratings services who wish to demonstrate the value
of their advertising propositions. The quantitative and
qualitative audience and consumer information also
is marketed to customers such as the advertising sales
organizations of local cable TV companies, national cable
and broadcast television networks, and out-of-home media
sales organizations.
•Providing software applications to access and analyze media
audience and marketing information data: Arbitron software
applications provide the ability to analyze this information
for sales, management and programming purposes. Some
software applications also allow access to data owned by
third parties, provided the customers have a separate license
to use such third-party data.
In addition to its headquarters, Arbitron has five
regional sales offices located in the metropolitan areas of
New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles; and
operations offices in Dallas; Birmingham, Ala.; Espoo,
Finland; and Kochi, India. The survey research, technology
and data collection/production operations are located in the
Columbia facilities.
For more on Arbitron, comScore and ESPN’s
cross-platform audience measurement initiative,
turn to page 116.
honomichltop50
Exclusive feature
to see when and where is best to launch new products,
assessing the market and brand readiness, and highlighting
optimum consumer segments.
7
GfK
Gfk.com
Matthias Hartmann, 47
Title
CEO of GfK SE
Education
B.A., University of
Cooperative education,
Stuttgart, Germany
2012 U.S. Revenue
$330.9 million
Change from 2011
+0.5%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1,616.0 Million
From Outside U.S.
83%
U.S. Employees
1,131
GfK USA comprises the U.S. operations of GfK SE, a
public company based in Nuremberg, Germany, which
was established in 1934 and is listed on the Frankfurt
Stock Exchange.
GfK is one of the world’s leading market research
companies. In the United States, the firm offers access to
several of the world’s largest databases combined with a
full range of ad hoc research services. It provides services
developed from a 360-degree view of client markets and
tailored to the digital age. These services are delivered in
the following practice areas and services:
•Market insights and growth opportunities: GfK can
continuously track and analyze the major trends within
markets, consumer segments, retail, technology and
products to identify what factors are becoming more or less
influential, and how these might impact a client’s business.
Then it adds a clear understanding of what factors are
driving each trend, across all channels, and looks at the
likely future demand and benchmarks current performance
against competitors. The firm identifies the priority
customer segments for each trend and combines the insight
to develop a detailed, strategic plan.
•Product design and optimization: By matching up the latest
consumer and market trends, GfK identifies important
white spaces and helps design ideas that are in line with
market opportunities, and runs idea screening to filter
the most favorable options. The firm examines clients’
product concepts, pricing and packaging to maximize their
potential, then continuously tracks consumer retail activity
in certain industry groups to identify what is currently
successful, where and at what price. It also looks ahead
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marketing news | June 2013
•Brand value optimization: GfK starts with the big trends
on what brands and why, then analyzes key customer
segments to reveal their different values and attitudes, and
how these affect their brand choices. Benchmarking brand
performance against competitors, GfK explores the details
of consumer-to-brand relationship, competitive positioning
and potential brand extension. It identifies how and to
what extent products, channel experiences and promotions
feed into brand value, and helps optimize each element.
The firm runs ongoing evaluations of overall brand vitality,
along with brand reputation among key consumer and
customer segments.
•Advertising and communication optimization: GfK
identifies the right consumer segments for a client’s
brand, products or services, and where the best growth
opportunities lie. It evaluates the full retail landscape
and projections on demand, and benchmarks current
performance across all channels to understand what is
working and what areas need support. Then GfK tests
variations of advertising and communication across
multiple channels, including POP, to identify what achieves
the best result. It monitors the ongoing effectiveness of
advertising and communications to help demonstrate ROI
and react fast to market changes.
•Channel and category optimization: GfK helps to optimize
channel mix and categories—adjacencies, product
assortment, shelf space, in-store communication and
price planning—by exploring the areas of channel trends
and mixes, shoppers’ path to purchase, and the in-store
experience, online experience and mobile experience.
•Price optimization: GfK analyzes global retail markets to
identify what consumers are buying and at what price,
providing wider insight into what is influencing their
purchase decisions. It looks at how different prices affect
the performance of a product and the full category to
identify the optimal pricing for single products and
product bundles. For consumer goods and technology
markets, GfK uses daily tracking at the SKU level, across
multiple channels, to confirm that new pricing is delivering
the planned profitability and volume of sales.
•Customer experience and loyalty management: The
firm looks at the major consumer segments to identify
a potential customer base, and whether products and
Exclusive feature
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services are in tune with key
segments and their personal values.
For each segment, GfK examines
customer behavior across online,
mobile and physical retail, adding
a comprehensive review of the
experience points that it has with
products and services, across all
channels. Then it provides ongoing
tracking of customers’ current
satisfaction. This includes insight on
the key factors that drive their loyalty
and early warning on customer churn
to help retention strategy.
*The growth rate includes the 2011
and 2012 revenue of Knowledge
Networks Inc., acquired in
January 2012.
8
IMS Health Inc.
IMSHealth.com
Ari Bousbib, 50
Title
Chairman and Ceo
Education
M.B.A., Columbia
University
2012 U.S. Revenue $271.3 million*
Change from 2011 -4.0%* **
Non–U.S. Revenue $503.7 Million*
From Outside U.S. 65.0%*
U.S. Employees
540*
IMS Health Inc. in Danbury, Conn.,
was founded in 1954 and was acquired
by TPG Capital, the Canada Pension
Plan Investment Board and several
other investors.
IMS is a leading worldwide provider
of information, technology and
services for the healthcare industry
around the world. The firm draws on
its global technology infrastructure
and combination of evidence,
analytics and software platforms to
June 2013 | marketing news
49
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Exclusive feature
better understand the performance and value of medicines.
Customers include pharmaceutical, medical device and
consumer health manufacturers and distributors, providers,
payers, government agencies, policymakers, researchers and
the financial community.
Operating in more than 100 countries, IMS has assembled
data banks of healthcare information, covering prescription
data, de-identified patient records, medical claims, electronic
health records, transaction processing information, genomic
data, and provider and consumer attitudes and behaviors—
anonymized and linked through a patented encryption
engine. This data bank has more than1.4 million healthcare
products, 80% of all pharmaceutical sales worldwide,
more than 300 million de-identified patient-level records,
8,000 payers and health plans, and 5 million physicians and
providers and their organizational affiliations.
With access to granular, de-identified patient
information, provider/payer dynamics and health outcomes,
IMS information, insights and services help to understand
the performance and value of treatments, as well as the
effectiveness of providers and health management strategies.
IMS’s principal market research products include:
•Pharmaceutical Audits measure the sale of pharmaceutical
products to pharmacies, supplemented in some countries by
data collected from dispensing physicians, retail chains and
discount stores.
•Consumer Health information provides detailed product
movement, market share and pricing information for
over-the-counter, personal care, patient care and
nutritional products.
•Oncology Analyzer audits collect longitudinal patient
information regarding the diagnosis and treatment across all
treatment modalities for major pharmaceutical markets.
•IMS’s Syndicated Analytics combine relevant IMS data with
analysis across more than 40 therapeutic areas, including
insights for key indications, geographies, biotech, devices and
pipeline innovations.
IMS has eight offices in the United States and in 73
countries worldwide.
*Research only, estimated.
**The growth rate excludes the 2011 and 2012 researchonly revenue for the U.S. acquisition of SDI Health
LLC in October 2011.
9
The NPD Group Inc.
•Prescription Audits contain projected national estimates of
the rate at which drugs move out of the pharmacy and into
the hands of consumers.
•Medical Audits are based on information collected from
panels of practicing office-based physicians and contain
projected national estimates of the number of consultations
for each diagnosed disease with details of the therapy
prescribed.
Karen Shoenbart, 55
Title
President and coo
Education
B.A., University of
Massachusetts
2012 U.S. Revenue
$191.8 million
Change from 2011
+1.5%* **
•Hospital Audits contain data projected to national and
regional estimates, and show the sale of pharmaceutical
products to hospitals by therapeutic class.
Non–U.S. Revenue
$80.2 Million*
From Outside U.S.
29.5%*
U.S. Employees
875*
•Promotional Audits contain national estimates of pharmaceutical
promotional activities for individual branded products, including
sales force promotion and journal and mail advertising based
on information received from panels of physicians and from
monitoring medical journals and direct mail.
The NPD Group Inc. (NPD), based in Port Washington, N.Y., is a
privately held corporation founded in 1966.
NPD provides global information and advisory services to
manufacturers, retailers and other businesses by tracking their
markets, understanding consumers, addressing business needs
and driving profitable growth.
Information is available for the following industries:
automotive, beauty, consumer electronics, entertainment,
fashion, food/foodservice, home, luxury, mobile, office
supplies, sports, technology, toys and video games.
•MIDAS is an online, multinational, integrated analytics
technology platform to assess and analyze global trends in
multiple markets. It provides online access to pharmaceutical,
medical, promotional and chemical data that IMS compiles.
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NPD.com
marketing news | June 2013
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Exclusive feature
NPD offers retail, consumer and distributor tracking.
Retail tracking services were enhanced and new account
level reports were introduced in 2012 following the addition
of Wal-Mart and other retailers. Distributor tracking,
currently offered for the technology industry, will be
extended to the foodservice industry when NPD launches
SupplyTrack in 2013.
The firm continues to expand its portfolio of analytic
services to address specific business needs, including category
management, forecasting, price evaluation, market evaluation
and testing. Its advisory services, NPD DisplaySearch, NPD
Solarbuzz and NPD Connected Intelligence, are concentrated
in the technology sector, providing global trend information,
industry forecasts and reports developed by a global team
of analysts.
In addition to its core offerings in the U.S., in the Americas
NPD offers services in Canada, Mexico and Brazil. NPD also
offers tracking services and analytic solutions in 12 countries
in Europe, and tracking services in five countries in AsiaPacific. In 2012, CREST foodservice tracking was launched in
Russia and sports tracking was launched in Korea. Advisory
services also are available in Asia through NPD DisplaySearch.
In addition to the launch of SupplyTrack, NPD’s POS
service based on foodservice distributors’ deliveries, NPD
is planning for several more retail POS database launches.
This includes mobile phones and an expanded mobile
accessories service, which includes most carrier data, this
spring and launches later in the year of tablets, diamonds
and sports equipment.
NPD has offices in 27 offices worldwide.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of In-Stat in January 2011.
•com
Want to see how Jack Honomichl’s analysis of the marketing
research industry in 2012 compares with 2011? Access last year’s
Honomichl Top 50 Report at MarketingPower.com/marketingnews.
10
ICF International Inc.
ICFI.com
Sudhakar Kesavan, 57
Title
Chairman and Ceo
Education
M.S., Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
2012 U.S. Revenue
$191.2 million*
Change from 2011
+7.5%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$48.5 Million*
From Outside U.S.
20.2%
U.S. Employees
1,152
ICF International Inc. (ICF), based in Fairfax, Va., was
founded in 1966 and acquired Macro International in 2009.
It was listed on the Nasdaq stock market in 2006.
ICF provides survey research services to U.S. government
agencies, as well as international organizations and
multinational corporations. The firm serves the aviation,
climate, community development, defense, education,
energy, environment, families and communities, health,
homeland security and transportation markets.
The firm’s products and services are in seven areas of
specialization:
•International Research and Evaluation: ICF provides
training and technical assistance to assist national
governments, in-country organizations and international
donor agencies with developing indicators and metrics,
monitoring and collecting data, formulating policy and
disseminating findings to target audiences.
•Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research: The firm
addresses the full life cycle of experimental and quasiexperimental research services, including methodology
and study design, quantitative and qualitative data analysis,
database and systems development, and reports and the
publication of results.
•Monitoring and Evaluation Capacity Building: ICF
provides services to help clients build program monitoring
and evaluation capacity that include managing change and
communicating developments to grantees or awardees,
adjusting data collection systems or indicators to reflect
program changes, producing report snapshots to show
continued progress, and leveraging existing resources to
expand capacity in monitoring and evaluation.
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•Performance Measurement: The firm’s life cycle
approach supports U.S. federal agencies, nonprofits and
commercial firms with performance measurement tools
and techniques, including developing meaningful and
measurable indicators, creating dashboards and balanced
scorecards, setting targets and goals for continuous quality
improvement programs, and designing and implementing
Web-based data management and reporting systems.
•Program Evaluation: ICF applies analytic methods and
tools including randomized control trials, propensity score
matching, quantitative analysis of designs, ethnographic
studies and social network analysis.
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of complex systems and analytic methods; and cost
benefit analysis.
•R&E Surveys and Analysis: The firm’s surveys incorporate
emerging methodologies and generate defensible
response rates. Services include questionnaire and manual
development, quality control, FISMA-moderate data
security capacity, software development, and the analysis
and dissemination of findings.
ICF has 38 full-service offices in the United States plus
offices in Brazil, China, India, Russia and the United Kingdom.
*Research only.
•Quantitative Methods and Analysis: ICF provides a range
of quantitative methods and analysis, including: Web,
telephone, paper and mail, in-person and hybrid surveys;
cell phone data collection; sampling and weighting;
database development and data management; modeling
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11
comScore Inc.
comScore.com
Gian M. Fulgoni, 65
Title
Executive chairman and
co-founder
Education
M.S., University of
lancaster, United
kingdom
2012 U.S. Revenue
$183.4 million*
Change from 2011
+5.1%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$71.8 Million
From Outside U.S.
28.1%
U.S. Employees
813
ComScore Inc. (cS), based in Reston, Va., was founded in 1999
and was listed on the Nasdaq in June 2007.
cS continuously measures the digital behavior of a global
cross section of 2 million Internet users (including 1 million in
the United States) who provide their browsing and transaction
behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Its panelists
also participate in survey research that captures their attitudes,
lifestyles, product preferences and purchase intentions, which
can be integrated with their observed online behavior.
cS services fall into four primary segments of digital analytics:
Audience Analytics
comScore Media Metrix (CMM) provides digital audience
measurement for advertising agencies, publishers, marketers
and financial analysts. CMM reports details of online media
usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the
home, work and university audiences across 100 local U.S.
markets and around the world, including detailed reporting for
40 individual countries. Its syndicated measurement is based
on the Unified Digital Measurement methodology, which
combines both panel-based and site-census measurement.
CMM offers tools for reach and frequency analysis,
day-part planning, online and offline local market analysis, and
emerging applications. Other services in the CMM suite include
Video Metrix for measurement of online video viewing; Mobile
Metrix, for measurement of mobile Web and app audiences;
qSearch for measurement of search behavior; Ad Metrix, for
measurement of online display advertising; Plan Metrix, which
ties lifestyles and attitudes to online behavior: Segment Metrix,
which describes the online behavior of various consumer
segments (e.g., Prizm and PersonicX); and Search Planner, a
search marketing intelligence tool. cS also introduced Media
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marketing news | June 2013
Metrix Multi-Platform, an audience measurement tool that
synthesizes Web, video and mobile users into a unified view of
digital audiences.
cS Marketing Solutions (CMS) combines the cS Internet
user database with the experience of cS analysts to deliver
insight into the online behavior of consumers for clients in
the automotive, consumer packaged goods, entertainment,
financial services, media, pharmaceutical, retail, technology,
telecommunications and travel industries.
CMS also integrates online behavior with offline purchase
and product ownership data. cS matches its online database
with offline buying databases (such as grocery store loyalty card
databases) to create large “datamarts” that allow measurement
of the impact that online marketing has on offline buying
behavior. In conjunction with IRI’s Consumer Network panel,
cS also has the capability to measure the impact of online
marketing campaigns across retail channels.
CMS offers a full range of custom and syndicated survey
research services for a variety of industries, using the cS panel
with offline and online applications. CMS survey services
address business issues such as consumer segmentation,
customer satisfaction, product and advertising evaluation,
and brand performance tracking. It also integrates survey
responses with online behavior passively captured for the
same respondents.
cS data and services support numerous applications,
including market and competitive intelligence for any online
category; benchmarking and opportunity gap/SWOT analysis;
customer profiling and segmentation models; the integration
and study of online behavioral data with offline purchase data;
choice models based on pricing, taxes and promotions, among
other factors; controlled measurement of the effectiveness of
interactive marketing programs; and scoring of customer files
for direct marketing programs using markers and propensities.
Advertising Analytics
cS offers several services under the Advertising Analytics
umbrella, including advertising planning tools, campaign
validation and effectiveness measurement, and ad creative
copy testing. Products in comScore’s AdEffx suite include
Brand Survey Lift, BSL Pulse, Action Lift, Offline Sales Lift
and validated Campaign Essentials (vCE).
This service provides understanding audiences and
verification that a campaign actually reached its intended
target, and quantifies the impact of digital advertising on
attitudes and behaviors as well as on online and in-store
sales. The suite of products for both digital and cross-media
campaigns allows for in-flight optimization and overall
improved campaign ROI. cS also offers its ad viewability
measurement to determine whether display or video ads are
actually delivered in-view to the end user.
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Mobile Operator Analytics
cS uses both passive on-device measurement and surveys
of mobile users, and works with handset manufacturers and
network operators worldwide. Its Subscriber Analytix software,
powered by XPLORE, utilizes digital subscriber data to identify
opportunities to maximize ARPU, reduce churn and grow
market share. SA enables better digital targeting, Quality of
Service (QoS for voice and data services) insight, and network
capacity management and planning.
Digital Business Analytics
cS Digital Analytix is a results-focused analytics platform
that helps analysts and business executives understand
and drive business outcomes by combining analytics and
audience demographics. The DA platform stores data in
its raw form, enabling the analysis and delivery of results
in real time.
cS has offices in six U.S. cities and in 16 countries worldwide.
*The growth rate excludes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of AdExpose in August 2011.
Abt SRBI Inc.
AbtAssociates.com
Kathleen L. Flanagan, 52 (pictured)
Title
president and Ceo of Abt
associates
Education
M.S., University of
Rochester
Mark A. Schulman, 66
Title
Ceo of Abt srbi, the
survey subsidiary of abt
associates
Education
Ph.d., rutgers university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$157.4 million*
Change from 2011
+23.5%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$18.2 Million*
From Outside U.S.
10.4%
U.S. Employees
995
Abt SRBI Inc. in New York is the survey research subsidiary
of Abt Associates Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., an employee-owned
company founded in 1965.
marketing news | June 2013
•Marketing Insights Division focuses on integrated strategic
research approaches, particularly in the CPG, restaurant
and retail sectors. This includes Abt SRBI’s large-scale
customer satisfaction surveys using innovative methods and
technologies, including IVR.
•Health Policy Division conducts large-scale, health-related surveys
and tracking studies for many U.S. government agencies. They
include epidemiological surveys, healthcare, military veterans,
immigration, domestic violence and program evaluations.
12
56
Abt Associates is a global firm in research and program
implementation in the fields of health, social and environmental
policy, and international development. Known for its approach
to solving complex challenges, the firm has program offices in
nearly 40 countries.
Abt SRBI (SRBI.com) is a full-service global research and
consulting firm whose survey research capabilities range
from sample design and instrument development, through
data collection (telephone, in-person, IVR, Web) and data
management, to analysis and market strategy.
Abt SRBI has nine divisions and groups:
•Analytic and Consulting Division has specialized practice
groups in banking and finance, insurance, healthcare and
media research. Its domestic and global B-to-B research is
conducted here.
•Public Policy and Public Affairs Division conducts largescale public policy and public opinion surveys for university
researchers, foundations, research institutes and the media.
This division is responsible for Abt SRBI’s public opinion
polling for Time magazine and other media.
•Transportation and Regional Planning Division provides
passenger and customer research to leading public transit
authorities, transportation planners and engineering firms.
This includes household travel surveys, origin and destination
studies, new product and service testing, pricing and passenger
satisfaction research.
•Utilities Division serves the electric utility industry. Studies
include customer satisfaction and loyalty, marketing issues and
the impact of industry deregulation.
•Interviewing Services Division conducts telephone, mail,
Internet, IVR and in-person interviewing for other marketing
research firms. Abt SRBI has five centralized, fully supervised
CATI facilities with nearly 450 stations.
•Advanced Methods Group provides consulting support in
areas such as complex sample design, nonresponse bias, cell
Exclusive feature
and dual-frame sample designs, weighting, imputation and
geographic information systems.
•Banking, Finance and Insurance Group works with financial
institutions on client satisfaction, new product development,
branding and positioning issues.
The firm has offices in Cambridge, Mass.; Bethesda, Md.;
Atlanta; Durham, N.C.; and New York
*Research only. Total U.S research and nonresearch
revenue in 2012 was $212.9 million.
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ions and expectations of consumers who have owned the
products and used the services being rated.
JDPA is most often recognized for its work in the automotive industry, where its metrics have become the industry
standard for measuring quality and customer satisfaction. A
team of associates worldwide conducts quality and customer
satisfaction research across industries including automotive,
financial services, insurance, telecommunications, travel,
healthcare, utilities and consumer electronics.
The firm’s clients include many Fortune 500 companies
in the United States and internationally. JDPA has seven U.S.
offices and 15 offices worldwide.
*Estimated.
**The growth rate excludes 2011 and 2012 revenue
from the sale of its automotive forecasting division
in November 2011.
13
J.D. Power & Associates
JDPower.com
Finbarr O’Neill, 60
Title
President
Education
J.D., Fordham
University
Law School
2012 U.S. Revenue
$156.1 million*
Change from 2011
+9.5%**
Non–U.S. Revenue
$78.3 Million*
From Outside U.S.
33.4%
U.S. Employees
494
J.D. Power & Associates (JDPA) in Westlake Village, Calif., was founded in 1968.
In April 2005, it was acquired by The
McGraw-Hill Cos. based in New York.
JDPA is a global marketing
information services company that
conducts independent consumer surveys
of product and service quality, customer
satisfaction and buyer behavior.
Services include industry-wide and
client-commissioned research, B-to-B
consulting and media research.
Annual syndicated studies are based
on survey responses from millions of
consumers and business customers
worldwide. The firm does not review,
judge or test products and services for its
syndicated studies; it relies on the opin-
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15
Maritz Research
Symphony Health Solutions
MaritzResearch.com
SymphonyHealth.com
Michael Brereton, 52
Frank Lavelle, 63
Title
President
Title
Ceo
Education
M.B.A., Bowling Green
State University
Education
B.S., Pennsylvania State
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$154.0 million
2012 U.S. Revenue
$153.5 million
Change from 2011
-2.5%*
Change from 2011
+2.7%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$34.4 Million*
U.S. Employees
500
From Outside U.S.
18.3%
U.S. Employees
626
Maritz Research, based in Fenton, Mo., was founded in 1973
and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Maritz Holdings Inc.
Maritz Research provides services that improve
performance by understanding the integrated dynamics
between customers, employees and channel partners.
The firm’s specialized divisions focus on the automotive,
financial services, hospitality, technology and retail sectors.
The firm designs, launches and operates customer
experience intelligence programs related to the customer
voice. Its approach allows better listening to and acting upon
whatever customers say, wherever they say it. Customer
voice is further understood through the integration of
multiple voice-of-the-customer sources, tying insights to
business outcomes and distilling findings to core messages
that drive meaningful customer experience improvements.
In 2013 and beyond, the company will continue to elevate
its customer experience intelligence programs.
The firm’s research findings are positioned to be acted on
through other Maritz businesses. These businesses combine
to offer synergy to develop loyalty and motivation programs
that deliver brand-enhancing customer experiences.
Maritz Research offices are located in Chicago; Detroit;
Hamburg, Germany; High Wycombe, U.K.; Kansas City,
Kan.; Kirksville, Mo.; Lorrach, Germany; Los Angeles;
Minneapolis; Ontario, Canada; Shanghai; St. Louis; Toledo,
Ohio; and Wiesbaden, Germany.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of Evolve24 in January 2011. Maritz
Holdings’ U.S. revenue in 2012 was $1.3 billion.
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marketing news | June 2013
Symphony Health Solutions (SHS), based in Horsham,
Penn., was formed in 2012 as a wholly owned unit of
Symphony Technology Group LLC, a private equity firm.
SHS provides information, analytics and technology
services to the healthcare industry. It connects and integrates
a broad set of primary and secondary health research,
analytics and consulting experience to deliver knowledge
products, leveraging the data available to transform
businesses.
The firm is a provider of healthcare market data,
visualization tools, and custom analytics and services
used to help life science companies improve commercial
effectiveness. Its integrated data platform drives a portfolio
of products and services designed to help pharmaceutical
companies move to a more customer-centric focus,
providing an understanding of how payers, patients and
providers influence treatment, and dispensing behavior at
all levels of geography. The firm also provides the custom
analytics and professional services needed to convert data
into answers for strategic business questions.
ImpactRx, an SHS provider of mobile healthcare research
and in measuring the impact of promotion on physicians’
attitudes and prescribing behavior, offers consultative and
analytically based commercial effectiveness services to
the healthcare industry. It is driven by longitudinal and
normative data assets, an Internet-enabled network of more
than 4,000 targeted physicians and research technology.
SHS’s AlphaDetail focuses on healthcare custom
market research, and partners with clients to shape global
healthcare R&D and marketing decisions through market
insight. Its research services deal with pharma and biotech
business needs throughout the product pipeline, from
early stage forecasting, to KOL identification and mapping,
and in-market tracking and ATU studies. AlphaDetail’s
global research experience, therapeutic knowledge, and
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consulting analytics integrated with ImpactRx and Source
Health Analytics behavioral and attitudinal data enable
SHS to deliver services for informed and effective decisions
around marketing strategy, field and channel execution, and
pre-launch and launch planning.
SHS has offices in San Mateo, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz.,
and one soon to open in London.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenues from
the acquisitions of ImpactRx in April 2011 and
TargetRx in September 2011, and the acquisitions of
AlphaDetail in March 2012 and Source Healthcare
Analytics in May 2012.
16
dunnhumbyUSA
dunnhumby.com/us/
Stuart Aitken, 41
Title
Ceo
Education
M.S., University of
Strathclyde, Glasgow
2012 U.S. Revenue
$118.1 million*
Change from 2011
+5.1%*
Non-U.S. Revenue
$301.9 Million*
From outside U.S.
71.9%*
U.S. Employees
254*
dunnhumbyUSA, based in Cincinnati, was founded in 2003 by
joint owners The Kroger Co. in Cincinnati and dunnhumby Ltd.
in London, latter sole-owned by Tesco plc. in London.
dunnhumbyUSA provides insights to improve customers’
experience and brand and retailer communications. It analyzes
a combination of granular shopper data with other data sources
at the household level to deliver a complete view of the customer
and to uncover insights about those customers.
The firm’s source of information is customer transaction data
from retailers’ customer loyalty (frequent shopper) programs,
POS sales and traditional market research methods, reflecting
what shoppers actually do in terms of what, how and why
they buy, targeting best customers and identifying the biggest
opportunities for retailers and brands.
dunnhumbyUSA uses an algorithm that identifies purchase
patterns within and between a customer’s shopping trips to
derive a set of attributes for each customer based upon the
products he buys, the frequency of his shopping trips, and his
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marketing news | June 2013
sensitivity to specific marketing levers (e.g., price, merchandising,
coupons, assortment). This “Customer DNA” profile, determined
by the collective set of individualized attributes, is the basis for all
subsequent targeting, segmentation and analysis, with analytical
insights delivered via software tools and custom insights.
dunnhumbyUSA’s flagship service is its Web-based
dunnhumby Shop that provides access to anonymized sales and
customer insights used across sales, marketing and category
teams. dunnhumby Shop, used by Kroger and its CPG partners,
analyzes more than 3.7 billion shopping baskets of nearly 60
million households. These insights are used to understand the
drivers of retailer, category and brand sales performance.
Custom insights are generated using the same granular
database of shopper data linked to other data sources, providing
analytical services that deliver insights to custom business
issues, from strategic to operational, across all product and retail
disciplines, including category management, store location and
operations, customer engagement, brand management and
demand planning.
Price and promotion software and analytics are provided
through KSS Retail, which dunnhumby acquired in 2012.
This includes science-based pricing intelligence, shopper
insights, optimization and modeling solutions for the grocery,
convenience, chain drug and general retail industries.
dunnhumbyUSA partners with other media data and
solution providers to deliver an integrated suite of media
capabilities. These solutions enable clients to leverage shopper
data with media exposure data to optimize the planning,
execution, activation and measurement of media. This service
allows advertisers to target customers who are most likely
to purchase the advertised product, and delivers analyses to
measure advertising ROI, understand the drivers of campaign
effectiveness and optimize the impact of their media over time.
Specific services include both multichannel and channel-specific
offerings:
•Personalized direct-to-consumer: With its retail and
manufacturer partners, dunnhumbyUSA plans, executes and
evaluates personalized, relevant coupon offers targeted to
individual households and personal preferences.
•Online advertising, display and video: The firm offers two
services for online advertising: Improve online ad performance
via better targeting and measuring the impact on sales, and
understand the impact of online advertising on sales both
online and offline by leveraging a panel of 135,000 households
to measure lifts of online actions against in-store sales.
•TV advertising: Leveraging a single-source database of
500,000 U.S. households, this service offers a direct link
from TV viewership data to household-level, in-store
shopper data. It provides an understanding into which
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TV shows and networks their brand buyers are viewing,
enabling them to buy time on the right shows and
determine the impact of creative, frequency, length and
time of day by measuring the effectiveness in-store.
•CRM solutions: dunnhumbyUSA works with
manufacturers to evaluate and improve the efficiency
and effectiveness of their CRM programs across online
and offline touch points. The linkage of CRM program
behavior and in-store purchase behavior enables the firm
to analyze behavior at an individual user level and provides
a closed loop for strategy, activation and measurement.
•Word of mouth: dunnhumbyUSA links purchase behavior
to consumers in social media, allowing brands to target
loyal customers to drive advocacy through social media
and word-of-mouth campaigns, and then measure key
retail metrics, including sales lift and ROI. In the U.S.,
the firm’s BzzAgent unit, a provider of word-of-mouth
marketing, puts products in the hands of hundreds of
thousands of consumers, and helps them share their
opinions with friends and family via reviews, Facebook
posts, photos and videos, blog posts and more.
BzzAgent Pulse, built on combined word-of-mouth
and in-store purchase data, tracks social-media presence
on behalf of brands on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere,
tracks reviews and attributes sales lifts to WOM programs.
It also tracks campaign impact by shopper segment, for
example, identifying how much came from new buyers vs.
existing ones.
In 2012, dunnhumbyUSA partnered with Datalogix for
targeting and measurement of digital display and video
advertising campaigns; conducted and published a joint
research initiative with Accenture and comScore, “Are
Your CPG Brands Maximizing the Return of Your Digital
Investment?”; conducted and published a study with TRA on
“Measuring the Impact of In-Store Marketing Tactics With
TV Advertising”; and published research with BzzAgent
called “Social Advocacy Programs Utilizing Shopper Data.”
In 2013, the firm’s plans include securing a partnership
with Rentrak for measuring the effectiveness of TV
advertising.
dunnhumbyUSA has offices in Cincinnati, New York,
Boston and Chicago.
*Research only
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marketing news | June 2013
17
Harris Interactive Inc.
HarrisInteractive.com
Al Angrisani, 63
Title
President and ceo
Education
A.P.c., New York University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$85.3 million
Change from 2011
-8.5%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$55.4 Million*
From Outside U.S.
39.4%
U.S. Employees
285
Harris Interactive Inc. (HI), based in New York, was founded
in 1975 as Gordon S. Black Corp. and together with Louis
Harris and Associates, which was founded in 1956, it became
a public company in 1999, listed on the Nasdaq.
HI is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the
world’s longest-running, independent opinion polls, and for
pioneering innovative research methodologies. It uses a mix
of media, tools and methodologies to turn relevant insights
into actionable foresight for its clients.
The firm offers services in the areas of market and
customer insight, corporate brand and reputation
strategy, and marketing, advertising, public relations and
communications research. In addition, it has a portfolio
of multi-client offerings that complement the firm’s
custom services.
HI serves clients in more than 196 countries and
territories through its North American and European offices.
The firm offers experience in a wide range of industries
including healthcare, technology, public affairs, energy,
telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media,
retail, restaurant and consumer package goods. It works
outside and beyond conventional methodologies, and
embraces all information sources.
HI has offices in four U.S. cities, and international offices
in the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany.
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18
Lieberman
Research
Worldwide
LWRonline.com
David Sackman, 55
Title
President and ceo
Education
B.A., University of
california at
los angeles
2012 U.S. Revenue
$72.9 million
Change from 2011
-2.7%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$28.9 Million*
From Outside U.S.
28.4%
U.S. Employees
377
Lieberman Research Worldwide (LRW),
based in Los Angeles, is a privately held
corporation founded in 1973.
LRW is a full-service custom market
research firm with experience across
a wide range of industries, including
entertainment, pharmaceutical
technology, consumer packaged goods,
healthcare, retail, food service, financial
and business services, automotive
and more. Through its main offices
and affiliate network of more than 60
companies, the firm conducts research
in more than 80 countries.
LRW uses a research-based “So
What?” consulting model to drive
business impact. Its staff consists of
senior executives from marketing,
consulting, advertising, academia and
marketing research. Its Marketing
Science team is experienced in a variety
of modeling techniques including
conjoint, choice, latent class, maximum
difference, Hierarchical Bayes and
agent-based modeling, as well as
market segmentation, price testing and
optimization, demand forecasting and
modeling, brand equity modeling and
other custom techniques.
Through its Pragmatic Brain Science
Institute launched in 2012, LRW has
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been able to take a more holistic and comprehensive approach
to research that incorporates survey-based, scalable techniques
that get at consumer emotions and non-conscious associations
with implicit methodologies that have been established through
extensive academic research.
LRW emphasizes five core areas of research experience:
•Strategy development featuring segmentation research:
Strategy experience is LRW’s core strength. In
segmentation research, the firm determines targets,
optimizes marketing mix and develops strategies to
maximize performance within target segments. It also
deploys techniques and analytic processes to understand
where value resides within brands, along with the
implications for brand building. LRW uses both Fusion
and Segmentation by Optimization for reaching unique
segments and gaining a clearer understanding of needs.
Blending the two segmentation approaches with trade-off
analyses enables the firm to optimize product coverage and
line demand for target segments.
•Brand strategy and tracking: LRW continues to expand its
brand practice with its LRW Brand Health Optimizer, an
approach to brand measurement that integrates survey and
non-survey data to understand and monitor the rational,
emotional and non-conscious underpinnings of brand
choice. A key component is the Relevant Clarity brand
paradigm, which links brand equity directly to financial
performance, helping to manage the contribution of brands
to changes in sales and profitability.
•Customer satisfaction diagnostic evaluation and tracking:
LRW’s experience in analyzing consumer attitudes and
behavior has enabled the firm to link customer satisfaction
to financial performance. The firm’s approach helps
to identify specific behaviors and actions that can be
undertaken to improve financial results. It provides
continuous improvement and feedback delivered directly
to stakeholders via dashboards and other online analytical
tools.
•New product development: Using analytical techniques,
LRW provides product optimization studies with
actionable deliverables. The firm uses methodologies
including ideation and evolution to generate approaches to
new product development.
•Advertising: ImpliCT is LRW’s approach to improve the
effectiveness of advertising by evaluating the core centers
of brain decision making through the use of traditional
survey methods combined with facial recognition software,
Rapid Choice Subconscious Association, WOM simulation,
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marketing news | June 2013
VOICE-IT that includes linguistic coding, and delayed
memory recall, allowing deep understanding of the emotional,
non-conscious and rational reactions to advertising.
In 2013, LRW will continue its R&D efforts to expand
its Pragmatic Brain Science Institute. During its 8th-annual
private Client Symposium, the firm plans to unveil a
non-shopping virtual reality tool developed through an
exclusive partnership with the premier provider of VR tools.
In the United States, LRW’s data collection capabilities
include Web hosting of 2,000-plus simultaneous surveys,
740-plus IVR ports across 15 servers at multiple locations,
and three telephone centers with 400 CATI stations and the
capability to conduct interviews in more than 67 languages.
In addition to its Los Angeles headquarters, the company
has offices in London; Shanghai; New York; Chicago;
Charlotte, N.C.; and Huntington Beach, Calif.
19
National Research Corp.
NationalResearch.com
Michael D. Hays, 58
Title
President and ceo
Education
B.S., university of
nebraska
2012 U.S. Revenue
$67.7 million
Change from 2011 +14.0%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$6.5 Million*
From Outside U.S.
8.8%*
U.S. Employees
350
National Research Corp. (NRC) in Lincoln, Neb., founded in
1981, has been a public company since October 1997 when it
was listed on the Nasdaq.
NRC offers performance measurement and improvement
services to hospitals, healthcare systems, physicians, health
plans, senior care organizations, home health agencies and
other healthcare organizations. Its services address key client
objectives to provide the ability to improve performance in
the following areas:
•Growth offerings: These services are marketed under
the Healthcare Market Guide and Ticker brands. NRC’s
growth offerings are subscription-based services that
include measurement of community perception (Market
Insights), brand tracking (BrandArc) and advertising
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testing (Advoice). Market Insights is the largest online U.S.
healthcare survey, measuring the opinions and behaviors of
270,000 healthcare consumers in the top 250 metropolitan
areas annually.
•Retention offerings: These are marketed under the NRC
Picker, My Innerview and NRC Picker Canada brands.
They include patient and resident experience, physician
engagement, and employee experience measurement
and improvement tools. These services enable clients to
comply with regulatory requirements and to improve their
reimbursement under value-based purchasing models.
Also, these applications are used to positively impact
patient experience through the use of NRC’s prescriptive
analytics to enable improvement planning and implementation
of best practices.
With a growing body of research linking employee and
physician satisfaction levels to provider quality and patient
experience, NRC’s offerings also measure satisfaction from
those constituents and integrate that data into prescriptive
analytics for improvement.
•Engagement offerings: Historically, these services have
been marketed under the Illuminate, Payer Solutions
and OCS brands. They include NRC’s patient outreach
and discharge call program (Illuminate), health risk
assessments (Payer Solutions) and post-acute analytics
(OCS). The services enable NRC’s clients to understand
the health risks associated with populations of patients,
analyze and address readmission risks, and efficiently reach
out to patients to impact their behaviors outside of the
healthcare provider settings.
NRC’s health risk assessment services help to stratify and
manage care for those who are most at risk, engage individuals, increase preventative care and manage wellness programs
to improve patient experience and outcomes. NRC’s patient
outreach and discharge call services are provided to healthcare
organizations on a subscription basis.
*Research only. Total U.S. research and nonresearch
revenue in 2012 was $79.9 million.
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20
Market Strategies International
MarketStrategies.com
Rob Stone, 48
Title
ceo
Education
Ph.D., Columbia University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$62.6 million
Change from 2011
-12.8%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1.5 Million
From Outside U.S.
2.3%
U.S. Employees
234
Market Strategies International (MSI) in Livonia, Mich., was
founded in 1989. In 2006, Veronis Suhler Stevenson acquired
a majority stake.
MSI is a market research consultancy that drives business
decisions through traditional methodologies; social media,
ethnographic and community research platforms; and the
application of advanced analytics to behavioral, financial,
attitudinal, demographic and firmographic information.
The firm focuses on six industries, including
telecommunications, technology, financial services and
consumer goods. It researches and consults on all facets of
the healthcare industry, from pharmaceutical and medical
device companies to health insurers and providers. An energy
practice includes 20 of the top 30 regulated energy utilities and a
nationally based benchmarking service.
MSI’s senior staff experience is based in the industries they
serve, as marketers, communications practitioners, customer
experience advocates, and market research and competitive
intelligence experts. The firm’s client-facing consultants provide
research-based conclusions and recommendations, drawing
upon primary and secondary data, predictive modeling and their
own industry experience.
The traditional studies that MSI conducts include customer
experience research to drive satisfaction and advocacy, communications research to design and track communications through
traditional and new media channels, brand research to build
equity from brand positioning and messaging, product development research from concept to launch, and segmentation research
to select optimal targets for products and services. Its engagements
rely on leading research methodologies and advanced analytics
provided by its Marketing & Data Sciences Group.
MSI has invested in its own research infrastructure, which
includes four data collection centers in North America,
supporting the research lifecycle from sample design, through
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data collection and processing, to analysis. Its extranet portal
becomes the data repository and analytical center for the firm to
interact with clients to mine and report findings.
In 2012, the firm launched Market Strategies Qualitative, an
insights boutique that builds on its legacy as one of the United
States’ largest providers of qualitative research. It has hired more
than a dozen senior researchers from a variety of backgrounds,
including brand consulting, advertising and behavioral sciences.
In May 2013, MSI acquired Cogent Research, a market
research and strategic consulting firm with a focus on wealth
management and a suite of syndicated products that provide
intelligence for executives in the asset management and
investing sector.
MSI also has invested heavily in quality processes and
procedures. It is certified in SAS 70 and ISO 20252, the global
standard for organizations conducting market, opinion and social
research. In 2012, the firm conducted research in 75 countries.
It is a partner and part owner of Link Analytics, a Big Data
analytics firm that serves the same clients and industries as MSI.
The firm has regional offices in Atlanta; Baltimore, Md.;
Philadelphia; Little Rock, Ark.; Portland, Ore.; Ramsey, N.J; and
Hong Kong.
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Communispace Corp.
Communispace.com
Diane Hessan, 58
Title
President and ceo
Education
M.B.A., Harvard
Business school
2012 U.S. Revenue
$59.3 million*
Change from 2011
+6.9%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$5.6 Million*
From Outside U.S.
8.6%*
U.S. Employees
346
Communispace Corp. (CC) in Boston, Mass., was
founded in 1999 and acquired by the Diversified
Agency Services division of Omnicom Group Inc. in
February 2011.
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Communispace Corp. creates online market research
communities by providing technology together with consulting,
management and insight reporting services. The firm’s
offerings—from activity levels through reporting formats—let
clients create the solution that best fits their business needs.
CC has in-depth experience in managing custom
communities for global companies across a variety of
industries and applications. With community members
coming from more than 96 countries, the firm knows the key
cultural nuances and methods to make a global community
successful, and is able to provide services in a suite of
languages, including but not limited to English, Spanish,
Mandarin, simplified Chinese, French, Portuguese, German
and more.
The firm employs a range of tools to enable real-time,
immersive, brand-to-consumer interactions, including
webcam chats, and has consulted on a wide range of ideation
and co-creation projects.
In 2012, CC’s Research and Innovation group developed
and rolled out new methodologies for eliciting and
understanding emotional drivers and responses, including
EmotionCentric and Emotive Elicitation. It also expanded
its suite of mobile interactions, conducting a wide range of
mobile journaling, survey and ethnography projects. It piloted
and rolled out its Prediction Markets for use in prioritizing,
optimizing and predicting the success of new concepts,
products, messages and offers. It also piloted and rolled out
virtual shop-alongs and other mobile-based methods for
media-rich, real-time interactions with consumers.
CC wrote and released seven new studies and white
papers in 2011, including topics such as conducting online
communities in China, consumers’ trust in financial
institutions, the accuracy of prediction markets, and
mobile vs. online survey response quality.
In 2013, CC will write a series exploring the differences
and synergies between human-to-human approaches and
Big Data. It will continue to develop and test the value
of differentiating new methodologies and technologies,
focusing on innovations that enable and demonstrate how
people make meaning, create narratives and connect in
small, immersive experiences (e.g., brand identity and
affiliation work, mobile journaling/ethnography, virtual
shop-alongs and webcam chats).
In addition to its Boston headquarters, the firm has
offices in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, San Francisco,
London, Sydney and Shanghai.
*Estimated.
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22
ORC International
ORCInternational.com
Simon Kooyman, 56
Title
ceo
Education
M.B.A., Vlerick University,
Belgium
2012 U.S. Revenue
$56.5 million
Change from 2011
-13.4%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$39.4 Million
From Outside U.S.
41.1%
U.S. Employees
301
ORC International (ORC), based in Princeton, N.J., (formerly
Opinion Research Corp.) was founded in 1938 and was acquired
by Lake Capital in July 2011.
ORC is a global market research firm providing services in
customer strategies, employee research, and business growth
and innovation. Through its Integrated Intelligence framework,
the firm offers the opportunity to select the right research
methods, industry and research experts, products, services and
technologies to fit specific needs and budgets.
•Customer strategies: ORC works with organizations to help
measure, interpret and act upon their customer feedback,
believing that an in-depth understanding of customers can
increase satisfaction rates and drive performance.
•Employee research: The firm offers experience across
every stage of the employee lifecycle. It helps understand
how to attract, engage and retain employees to maximize
organizational performance and profitability.
•Innovation and growth: ORC delivers knowledge and objective,
external perspectives needed to expand business and generate/
advance product development and innovation lifecycles.
ORC offers research capabilities that include:
•People: Research professionals offering industry knowledge
and experience in financial services, consumer packaged goods,
healthcare and pharmaceutical, industrial/manufacturing,
technology/emerging markets and public sector research. An
expert network includes 15,000 industry and subject matter
specialists for technical insight.
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•Methods: The linkage of insight sources, including primary and
secondary methodologies, social analytics, expert network and
competitive intelligence.
•Technology: Reporting tools, dashboard services and portals
that support ease of access to information, together with data
management services.
•Insights: Services for key business issues concerning markets,
customers and employees, insights from analytics to mine
information databases, and focused reporting.
ORC has been a partner of CNN since 2006 on the CNN/
ORC International poll and has partnered with NYSE Euronext
on its Annual NYSE Euronext CEO Report for a sixth
consecutive year.
The firm has nine offices in the U.S. and in four
countries internationally.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenues from
the acquisition of Marketing Research Services Inc. in
December 2012.
The firm also offers a suite of products to complement its
Integrated Intelligence offering, including:
•Innovation Monitor: New, customized research service aimed
at boosting knowledge of the marketplace, competitors and
trends. It is used for pre-ideation processes, next generation
product development/innovation, competitive tracking, trend
tracking and social media monitoring of brands.
•Reputation Monitor: New service for the healthcare industry
to help monitor, manage and enhance reputation online.
•Proprietary Panels: Combines a platform with panel
development experience to create an online panel for
clients’ own use without the complication and investment
of building it themselves.
•Customer Equity Model: Provides insight into the needs and
expectations of customers. It helps identify loyal customers
and the drivers of their behavior to prioritize action in
building customer equity.
•Engage: Cost-effective, flexible employee engagement survey
product for mid-size companies.
•Strategic Intelligence Solutions/On-Demand Research:
Research product to meet business information needs including industry monitoring, market sizing, competitive analysis,
adjacency analysis, new product opportunities and more.
•Social Buzz: Suite of products integrating social media and
analysis tools with traditional research methodologies.
•iPortal: Web-enabled customized portal and dashboard
technology that consolidates multiple streams of information
for ease of access and availability.
•CARAVAN: Suite of omnibus surveys, shared cost, multiclient omnibus approach to survey research for quick answers
at a fraction of the cost of an ad-hoc study.
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marketing news | June 2013
23
Vision Critical Communications Inc.
VisionCritical.com
Scott Miller, 48
Title
Group ceo
Education
B.A., Albion College
2012 U.S. Revenue
$51.0 million
Change from 2011
+6.3%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$27.4 Million
From Outside U.S.
35.0%
U.S. Employees
69
Vision Critical Communications Inc. (VC), based in
Vancouver, B.C., is a privately held firm founded in 2000.
VC is a leading provider of insight communities to
Fortune 500 companies and global organizations, currently
supporting more than 650 brands worldwide. It builds
software and provides comprehensive services to engage
groups of customers and stakeholders on a continuous basis
for extracting and managing insight.
The firm combines design, engineering and sector
specialists to encourage meaningful, efficient and
comprehensible dialogue in structured surveys or guided
peer-to-peer discussions. Its product offerings include
surveys, discussions, applications, customer experience
management and online insight communities.
VC deployed more than 14,000 surveys in 2012 that
reached more than 50 million people. Its Sparq survey
authoring software supports 26 languages.
The cloud-based software that powers engagements is
built around matching an accessible user interface with
fully featured modules for survey authoring, community
management, discussion forums and reporting. It also allows
exploring cross-study reports, and tweaking weights and
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setup filters to build tables and charts instantly, as well as
tracking the participation of individuals and groups over
time, monitoring panel health and sharing results
with respondents.
VC continues to invest heavily in R&D, new sales capacity
and IT infrastructure to offer a perspective in almost every
industry niche, from consumer goods, retail and technology
to financial services, health, public affairs and media.
In 2013, the firm completed its first acquisition,
DiscoverText, a text analytics solution. It launched the
Brand Equity Relationship Assessment (BERA) platform
to bridge the gap between marketing and finance. More
product launches are planned, together with continued
global expansion.
VC has 14 offices across North America, Europe, Asia
and Australia.
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new product services; and making acquisitions.
MF offers a suite of customer intelligence services that
measure store-level operations and customer attitudes
through mystery shopping, customer feedback, market
audits and merchandising services, coupled with the
analytics to drive targeted improvements.
MF provides services throughout North America and
Europe, and the rest of the world through partners. The
firm has four centers of excellence: Norcross, Ga., providing
mystery shopping services; Albany, N.Y., providing auditing
research, theater and merchandising services; Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada, providing customer satisfaction, contact
center and social media outreach services; and Milton Keynes,
U.K., providing European customer intelligence services.
There are two additional offices in Paris and Madrid.
•com
24
The Honomichl Top 50 Goes Digital
Market Force Information Inc.
To access a digital flipbook version of this issue, visit
MarketingPower.com/marketingnews.
MarketForce.com
Karl Meier, 45
Title
Founder and CEO
Education
B.A., Bowdoin College
2012 U.S. Revenue
$50.5 million
Change from 2011
-2.5%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$15.4 million
From Outside U.S.
23.4%
U.S. Employees
327
Market Force Information Inc. (MF),
based in Louisville, Colo., is a privately
held corporation founded in 2005.
MF is a leading global customer
intelligence services firm for businessto-consumer companies including
major retailers, restaurants, grocery and
convenience stores, financial institutions,
entertainment studios and consumer
packaged goods companies. It has more
than 300 of the world’s largest B-to-C
companies as clients.
The firm is driving its growth with
three basic strategies: growing organic
sales with existing clients and garnering
new accounts; developing and launching
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25
Burke Inc.
Burke.com
Jeff Miller, 50
Title
President and ceo
Education
M.B.A., University of
Cincinnati
2012 U.S. Revenue
$48.3 Million*
Change from 2011
-4.9%* **
Non–U.S. Revenue
$6.1 million*
From Outside U.S.
11.2%*
U.S. Employees
214
Burke Inc., based in Cincinnati, was founded in 1931 and has
been an independent, employee-owned company since 1989. It
became 100% ESOP in 2008.
Burke is a full-service custom marketing research firm
with experience in research design, execution, analysis and
interpretation of results of complex studies.
The firm’s high-quality standards, advanced analytical
techniques and technology provide decision support to clients
across all major industry sectors. Burke’s core competencies
include customer loyalty, linkage and integration, and
employee-related research. It provides best practices in
marketing research and consumer insights through courses
conducted by its educational group, the Burke Institute.
The firm has experience in a broad range of industries,
both domestic and international, and across many data
collection methods, including online and mobile. All of Burke’s
core competencies are supported by an active commitment to
internal research and development programs.
Burke’s primary areas of focus include:
•Brand assessment: Burke’s portfolio of brand management
products provides services for assessing the current health of
brands and strategic direction for growing these assets.
•Product and service development: Burke offers a holistic
approach to product development with a range of services
from market assessment and concept screening through
product optimization and pricing.
•Customer loyalty and employee engagement: The firm
helps develop and deploy customer loyalty and relationship
management systems that focus internal resources on
customer requirements. Burke’s Digital Dashboard online
reporting service provides secure, real-time access to survey
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marketing news | June 2013
findings. It also offers a full set of tools to help advance and
support employee engagement and retention management.
•Linking data sources: Burke implements linkage programs to
optimize organizational performance through quantitatively
linking financial, customer, operational, employee and
secondary data to make financially optimal decisions.
•Market segmentation: The firm has experience collaborating
with clients to define actionable market segments that
inform strategic decision making. It adds value by combining
reclassification techniques with product optimization
modeling to help clients more effectively develop and market
new products and services to targeted groups.
•Shopper research: Burke offers a set of qualitative and
quantitative shopper research services. The firm’s qualitative
services include “shop-alongs,” in-store observations and
in-home interviews. On the quantitative side, Burke offers
shopper segmentation, retailer loyalty, shopper decision
hierarchy, and general shopper habits and practices studies.
•Research education: Burke Institute has trained more than
80,000 participants from 10,000 companies through more
than 3,000 public and in-house customized marketing
research seminars in 40 countries. Seminars cover research
topics such as general marketing research, qualitative and
online research, questionnaire design, customer loyalty, and
analytical tools and techniques.
26
Public Opinion Strategies LLC
POS.org
Bill McInturff, 60
Title
Co-founder and partner
Education
B.S., Boston
university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$45.9 million
Change from 2011
+194.2%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$0.1 million
From Outside U.S.
0.2%
U.S. Employees
40
Public Opinion Strategies LLC (POS), based in Alexandria,
Va., is a partnership of 13 founded in 1991.
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POS is a national political and public affairs research
firm that has conducted more than 6 million interviews
with voters and consumers in all 50 states and more than
24 foreign countries. Its qualitative experience comes
from conducting more than 2,700 focus groups across
the country.
About half of POS’ research is dedicated to winning elections.
Its political client base includes 15 U.S. senators, six governors,
more than 75 members of Congress and numerous state
legislative caucuses.
The other half of its work is involved in public policy
battles, working with industry coalitions, government entities
and private companies. This work includes corporate image,
community relations and crisis management research for local
companies, Fortune 500 corporations and industry associations.
POS employs a number of research techniques:
•Quantitative research: Quantitative polling is the firm’s
specialty. It owns a telephone center and has access to more
than 500 CATI-enabled data collection stations.
POS controls the entire research process in-house, from
questionnaire and sampling design, to survey briefing, to data
processing and analysis. This allows the firm total quality
control over every project that it completes, and allows it to
meet deadlines no matter how tight the timeframe.
•Telephone surveys: POS’ use of telephone polling runs
the gamut of research: nightly tracking surveys, monthly
national omnibus surveys, single-issue surveys, benchmarks,
brushfire surveys and business-to-business interviewing.
With the rise of cellphone-only households, the firm blends
samples of landline and cellphone records for its telephone
research projects.
•Internet surveys: The firm’s Internet surveys allow for
both close-ended and open-ended questions. Respondents
can be presented with and evaluate advertising concepts
and messaging components. The firm has had success using
Internet-based surveys for specialized audiences, including
hard-to-reach audiences and organizations’ member bases, and
for quantitative measurement of advertising concepts.
•Qualitative research: POS’ qualitative research methodologies
serve to provide color and nuance to its quantitative results,
and also stand on their own as a valuable research tool. The
firm has conducted thousands of focus groups in all parts
of the country and internationally. It has years of experience
in conducting various qualitative research methods,
including traditional in-person focus groups, in-person
triads, Internet focus groups, Perception Analyzer dial
groups for testing advertisements, and executive one-onone in-depth interviews.
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marketing news | June 2013
POS has offices in Redondo Beach, Calif., and
Golden, Colo.
27
Morpace Inc.
Morpace.com
Francis J. Ward, 67
Title
CEO
Education
B.A., Wayne State
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$43.3 million
Change from 2011
+11.6%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$6.2 Million
From Outside U.S.
12.5%
U.S. Employees
152
Morpace Inc., based in Farmington Hills, Mich., is a privately
held corporation founded in 1941.
Morpace is a full-service market research and strategic
consulting organization that executes large-scale qualitative
and quantitative research globally.
The firm offers in-depth experience in five core industries:
automotive, financial services, healthcare, retail/consumer
goods and technology. Industry experts work closely with
research professionals in three specialties: brand and
communications; customer experience management
including satisfaction, loyalty and retention; and market
and product development.
Morpace’s analytics and modeling and qualitative insights
teams complement the efforts of the industry experts and
areas of specialization through specialized approaches from
choice modeling and text analysis to online qualitative and
visual storytelling.
The firm offers a full range of research tools and consulting
services that help clients make more informed strategic
decisions designed to help improve client performance. These
include:
•Morpace eCommunity, a qualitative/quantitative online
community in which consumers share their opinions
and experiences.
•Morpace Dynamic Dashboards, in which highly visual results
deliver key findings while allowing interactive deep dives.
These dashboards offer a flexible appearance tailored to areas
of responsibility.
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•Mobile Ethnographies, which capture consumer behavior as
it naturally occurs, via video, photos and written expressions
at any location with no travel required.
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Directions Research Inc.
•Strategic Optimization of Complex Offerings (SOCO), a
configurator-based research service designed to complement
choice modeling by optimizing features or services.
•Brand Barometer, which identifies a brand’s core equity and
provides strategic, qualitative insight on how to move a brand
forward.
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DirectionsResearch.com
Randy Brooks, 65
Title
founder and president
Education
M.B.A., University
of Cincinnati
•Predictive Research Optimization Model (PROM), which
strengthens the relationship between research findings and
business decisions by allowing “What if?” scenarios.
2012 U.S. Revenue
$38.0 million
•Morpace Omnibus, which provides insights on issues among
consumers and small-business owners.
Directions Research Inc. (DR) in Cincinnati is a privately held
company founded in 1988. Ownership is held by 28 members
of DR’s senior staff.
DR is a full-service custom research company that
develops long-term client partnerships with experienced
and dedicated client teams leading the design, analysis and
presentation of results.
Morpace has a large, highly skilled software development
team that uses a combination of in-house-developed and
off-the-shelf tools to provide customized services, including
a customizable data collection system that manages online
research in virtually any language. It
provides development, tracking and
reporting tools on a real-time basis.
Morpace’s quality initiatives
include ISO 9001:2008 certification,
an internationally recognized quality
management system. Many industry
practices also have received recognition
for their quality standards.
The firm has offices in Los Angeles,
London and Shanghai.
Change from 2011
-8.7%
U.S. Employees
126
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DR’s staff has a mix of client-side and supplier-side experience. The firm is structured to allow senior researchers to work
with clients on a day-to-day basis, doing research, rather than
handing it off.
The firm supports all industry sectors but has concentrations in packaged goods, restaurants, retail, financial services,
technology, consumer health and pharmaceuticals. It offers
B-to-C and B-to-B services internationally, surveying consumers, professionals, restaurant employees, medical staff and other
difficult-to-reach audiences worldwide using a broad selection
of data collection methods. DR partners with industryleading experts who provide high-quality data and information
at competitive prices.
DR has a mix of innovative and proven approaches that
it customizes to the research challenge. The firm’s core
competencies include concept and product testing with success
modeling; sensory testing; attitude, trial and usage; brand
and product quality tracking; product, package and pricing
optimization; retail messaging and positioning; market attitude,
positioning and segmentation; brand equity and customer
loyalty; complex experimental design and analysis; and custom
database development and volume forecasting.
The firm regularly invests in R&D projects designed to
examine issues of interest to clients, prospective clients and
the industry. In 2012, R&D efforts included three projects: a
study of the correlation of multiple scale methods to marketing
stimuli and purchase behavior; development of early ideation
and marketing optimization approaches; and multiple projects
integrating mobile, social media and primary research insights.
DR has senior client services staff in close proximity to key
accounts with offices in Chicago; Dallas; Minneapolis; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh; and Seattle.
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Rentrak Corp.
Rentrak.com
William L. Livek, 57
76
Title
Ceo
Education
b.s., Southern Illinois
university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$36.7 million*
Change from 2011
+44.0%**
Non–U.S. Revenue
$14.5 Million*
From Outside U.S.
28.3%
U.S. Employees
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marketing news | June 2013
Rentrak Corp., based in Portland, Ore., was founded in 1977
and is a public company that was listed on the Nasdaq in 1986.
Rentrak is a global provider of consumer viewership
information, providing worldwide viewing behavior of movies
and television. The firm provides audience measurement
services to movie, TV and advertising professionals for
targeting advertising across numerous platforms including box
office, multiscreen TV and home video.
Television
•Rentrak’s TV Essentials services provide TV networks and
advertising agencies with viewing information from more
than 235 TV networks viewed on more than 22 million
TVs nationwide. Its Advanced Demographics services help
determine more accurate target audiences using TV viewing
information paired with third-party consumer behavior
information from sources like R.L. Polk, Experian, Epsilon
and MasterCard. Exact Commercial Ratings is data metric to
determine how specific national commercials perform within
an ad pod.
•StationView Essentials measures local viewing from more
than 20 million TVs in all 210 local markets, including all
satellite, telecom, cable and over-the-air viewing built from
the ZIP code level up.
•OnDemand Everywhere measures video on demand
everywhere consumers watch, providing a better
understanding of how to reach and connect with viewers
across multiple platforms. Services include OnDemand
Essentials, measuring more than 107 million TV sets in the
U.S. and Canada across more than 40 cable, telecom and
satellite providers including all operators offering VOD;
VOD Monitor, which tracks and reports on the viewership of
VOD content across cable, telecom and satellite systems from
more than 120 million TVs; AdEssentials, which measures
VOD advertising across a national footprint of operators;
Mobile Essentials, which measures both VOD and live content
accessed via any mobile device and over-the-air TV viewed
on mobile devices; Internet TV Essentials, which measures
ad-supported and subscription-based TV programming
streamed online; and Digital Download Essentials, which
provides reporting and auditing results for purchased and
rented movie and TV content downloaded or streamed via
the Internet.
Theatrical
•Box Office Essentials and International Box Office Essentials
collect, process and report on how many people go to the
movies and how much they spend in every theater in North
America and across 36 countries in five continents.
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•PostTrak, an exit polling service, reports real-time U.S. box
office audience demographics and the aspects of each title that
trigger interest and attendance.
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Home Video
Perception Research Services
•Studio Revenue Share Essentials gives content providers access
to a source of inventory tracking, plus measurement of how
both their home entertainment products and retailers are
performing.
•Home Video Essentials provides title-level, weekly home
entertainment rental transactions throughout the U.S. and
Canadian markets.
•Retail Essentials delivers U.S. and Canadian home
entertainment sell-through data for DVD and Blu-ray discs.
•Video Game Ad Monitor is an interactive database of
advertising circulars from major bricks-and-mortar and online
retailers.
•Rentailer Essentials, a Web-based ordering and product
management service, monitors rental and sales activity, tracks
ordering results and reviews product terms for one store or
across multiple locations.
In 2012, Rentrak created custom ratings for the Obama for
America campaign, created with iTVX a combined service
to report on branded entertainment usage in linear TV, and
launched PostTrak, a theatrical unit in collaboration with Screen
Engine. In 2013, Rentrak will launch Rentrak Connect, which
will provide consumer exposure across linear TV, VOD, digital
downloads, mobile and streaming media at the program level.
Rentrak has offices Los Angeles, New York and Miami/Ft.
Lauderdale, and throughout Europe, North America, South
America and Australia.
*Research only (AMI division). Total research and
nonresearch revenue in 2012 was $95.2 million.
**The growth rate excludes 2011 and 2012 U.S. revenue
from the acquisition of Media Salvation in January
2011.
PRSresearch.com
Scott Young, 45
Title
President
Education
M.B.A., Northwestern
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$33.9 million
Change from 2011
+.4.0%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$28.0 Million
From Outside U.S.
45.2%
U.S. Employees
148
Perception Research Services (PRS), based in Teaneck, N.J., is a
private company founded in 1972.
PRS specializes in retail research to understand shopping
behavior, and to develop, validate and enhance packaging and
shopper marketing efforts.
The firm has pioneered the use of eye-tracking technology in consumer research, providing new services and technologies such as PRS Mobile Eye-Tracking, PRS Virtual Aisles and
emotional measurement (via facial coding).
PRS is the packaging research partner to many CPG
companies, working with marketers and design agencies from
development through the screening and validation of new
packaging systems. Its services include:
•Store-based studies with PRS Mobile Eye-Tracking (PRS Shopping Eyes) to uncover shopping behavior and assess current
in-store marketing communications.
•In-home ethnographic research (Structural Discovery) to
identify opportunities and guide new product/packaging
development.
•Qualitative exploration and screening (PRS Retail Lab) to
screen and refine packaging and POS/merchandising concepts.
•Quantitative validation studies with PRS Eye-Tracking
(PRS On-Shelf Evaluation) to pre-test and quantify new
packaging, shelving and POS systems via central location
and Web-based studies.
Examples of recent PRS studies include:
•An in-store study (across several countries and retail channels)
to help a technology marketer optimize in-store marketing
communication via packaging, POS and product displays.
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•A PRS Virtual Aisles study to pre-test the impact of three
alternative aisle configurations on visibility, shop-ability and
purchase patterns for personal care products.
•A PRS qual/quant study to screen, assess and enhance
alternative packaging and POS display options for a leading
beverage brand.
The firm has regional offices in New York, London, Geneva,
Rome, Mexico City and Singapore.
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Affinnova Inc.
Affinnova.com
Waleed Al-Atraqchi, 49
Title
President and ceo
Education
M.B.A., Tepper School of
business, carnegie
mellon university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$32.2 million
Change from 2011
+30.9%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$7.1 Million
From Outside U.S.
18.0%
U.S. Employees
163*
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•Affinnova Studio is a Web application that that lets users create
and provide input into each other’s concepts, eventually leading
to more interesting, alternative product, messaging and design
ideas that can be optimized with consumer feedback.
•Affinnova’s optimization process asks consumers to evaluate
the many different concepts created in Affinnova Studio using
a “survival of the fittest” process. It applies an interactive,
evolutionary algorithm to interpret consumer choices and
quickly identify the top concepts.
•Once top concepts have been identified, statistical models
benchmark and predict how an idea will perform in the
current marketplace against competing brands. This enables
informed go/no go decisions, limiting financial risk and
damage to brands.
In 2012, Affinnova launched an optimization and
benchmarking service specific for packaging design and
integrated with Adobe Creative Suite software. This process uses
evolutionary optimization to select a top design from a wide
range of potential concepts. It also recreates a virtual shelf space
enabling consumers to evaluate designs in a competitive context.
Affinnova has a global footprint, with multiple offices in
Europe, research across 41 countries and reach to more than 15
million consumers through a global network of panel partners.
Affinnova Inc., based in Waltham, Mass., is
a privately held company founded in 2000.
Affinnova provides technology services
to assist clients’ marketing innovation
processes. It provides the means to explore
the creative space of product messaging
and design ideas, and uses predictive
analytics and insights to identify what
will perform best in-market. Affinnova’s
optimization platform can be applied to
product concepts and packaging, mobile
applications, websites, brand positioning,
advertising and retail store layouts.
The firm is used by global Fortune 500
companies and serves CPG, life sciences,
financial services, retail and consumer
electronics, hospitality and technology,
among other industries.
Affinnova’s technology platform is
composed of three main components:
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32
Phoenix Marketing International
YouGov
PhoenixMI.com
YouGov.com
Allen R. Decotiis, 60
Doug Harrison, 52
Title
Chairman and ceo
Title
Education
Ph.D., Emory
University
President of YouGov
America
Education
B.S., Cornell University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$31.9 million
2012 U.S. Revenue
$31.9 million
Change from 2011
-2.7%
Change from 2011
+2.2%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$5.5 Million
Non–U.S. Revenue
$60.0 million
From Outside U.S.
14.7%
From Outside U.S.
65.3%
U.S. Employees
109
U.S. Employees
119
Phoenix Marketing International (PMI) in Rhinebeck, N.Y.,
is a privately held company founded in 1999.
PMI is a global, full-service marketing firm offering
insight into customers and markets with its existing
proprietary data coupled with custom research products
using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The firm
combines primary and syndicated marketing research
expertise with database analytics and modeling proficiency.
PMI has extensive research experience across the affluent,
automotive, CPG, financial services, healthcare, media,
multicultural, technology, and travel and leisure sectors.
Coupled with its tools and latest research techniques, PMI
provides salient insights into business issues.
The firm’s research experience includes qualitative
and quantitative research conducted throughout the
Americas, Europe, Asia and emerging markets featuring
communication and brand work involving concept
development, customer satisfaction, brand and market
measurement, service quality measurement and financial
measurement. It conducts a large-scale syndicated tracking
advertising/communication audit and performance
evaluation system (AdPi and BrandPi Audits) for companies
in industries such as automotive, financial services,
healthcare and technology. Syndicated products include
AdPi Express, Global Wealth Monitor, Automotive Concept
X, Consumer Convergence 360, QuadPlay, Asian American
Report, Virtual Mailbox, Hotel BASE and Hotel SCORES.
PMI has offices in New York; Boston; San Francisco
and El Dorado Hills, Calif.; Chicago; Philadelphia; Miami;
Detroit; Raleigh-Durham; Branchburg, N.J.; Salisbury,
Md.; and East Granby, Conn.; with EU offices in London
and Madrid.
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YouGov, based in Palo Alto, Calif., began operating in
the United States in 2007 as a unit of YouGov plc, based
in London, a public company listed on the London
Stock Exchange.
YouGov is a global market research company providing
insights for brands, institutions, investors and media across the
world, and delivering custom research and syndicated products
built upon continuous streams of data.
Its units and services in the United States include:
•Custom Research: YouGov offers a full range of quantitative
and qualitative research and consulting services addressing
business questions related to market structure and composition,
innovation and product development, product and service
optimization, customer experience, branding and market
effectiveness.
The custom research practices deliver the insights to
inform strategic and tactical decisions, and the frameworks
to test future options with accuracy and confidence.
The YouGov Definitive Insights unit delivers fact-based
research focusing on tangible, financial-based implications
and outcomes, and operating across a wide range of
industry sectors.
•BrandIndex: This service is a daily measure of brand
perception, tracking thousands of brands across multiple
sectors. Subscribers gain a real-time picture of their own
brand’s health, as well as their competitors and whole sectors.
It is available in 14 countries and surveys 5,000 people daily
in the U.S., with more than 2.5 million interviews conducted
worldwide every year.
•Ominibus: The YouGov Omnibus is a multi-client, shared-cost
approach for fast turnaround studies.
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•Public Affairs: The Washington, D.C.-based Public
Affairs practice leverages online and traditional research
methods to measure stakeholder opinion and sentiment
on critical issues.
•Scientific Research: This group provides full-service survey
research for academics, health researchers, policy think
tanks and unique corporate clients. Highly trained survey
methodologists serve the challenging needs of clients who
conduct survey research intended for peer-to-peer review.
Survey research includes multi-wave panels, cross-national
studies, surveys with complex experimentation and embedded
media, and hard-to-reach target populations.
•Investor Research: The Household Economic Activity Tracker
(HEAT) delivers monthly indicators of consumer confidence and
the ability of consumers to spend. It is available across all subsections of the U.S., the U.K. and the Chinese consumer population.
YouGov InvestorView brings consumer insights to investors and
strategic decision makers, anticipating the consumer behavior
that drives revenue, profitability and the market.
Besides its headquarters, YouGov has U.S. offices in New
York; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Lawrenceville, N.J.;
Waterbury, Conn.; and Portland, Ore. Worldwide, the firm has
21 offices in 10 countries. The YouGov online panel currently
engages nearly 2 million people in more than 30 countries.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of Definitive Insights in April 2011.
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34
International Communications
Research
ICRsurvey.com
Melissa J. Herrmann, 40
Title
Executive Vice
President
Education
M.A., Annenberg School
Of Communications,
University of
Pennsylvania
2012 U.S. Revenue
$30.8 million*
Change from 2011
-6.7%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$0.5 Million*
From Outside U.S.
1.6%
U.S. Employees
177
International Communications Research (ICR/SSRS) in
Media, Pa., was founded in 1983. Since 1986, it has been a
subsidiary of Mount Laurel, N.J.-based AUS Inc., a privately
held company.
ICR/SSRS is a full-service market research firm
specializing in designing customized services. Its in-house
resources include four interviewing centers and a corporate
staff of experienced researchers.
The firm has experience in the CPG, pharmaceutical,
telecommunications/technology, financial services/banking/
insurance, healthcare services, B-to-B,
utilities/energy, media/entertainment and
retailing markets.
Its Social Science Research Solutions
(SSRS) division is focused on public
opinion polling, social science research
and policy research in the areas of health,
current events, education, religion, and
sports and leisure.
ICR/SSRS designs and executes
custom research for market sizing and
segmentation, concept and product tests,
pricing, brand positioning, messaging,
strategy and motivational research,
advertising effectiveness, usage tracking,
and customer loyalty and satisfaction. It
is experienced in surveying low-incidence
and multicultural populations.
The firm is a provider of omnibus
research services in the United States,
including EXCEL, a twice-weekly sample
Exclusive feature
of 1,000 adults age 18 and older that includes interviewing
with cellphone households; TeenEXCEL, a monthly study
among 500 teens ages 12 to 17; Thinksmall business omnibus,
a quarterly study among 500 decision makers at companies
with fewer than
100 employees; and HispanicEXCEL, a monthly omnibus
targeting a nationally representative sample of 1,000
Hispanics in the U.S.
*Research only. Total U.S. revenue in 2012 was
$34.5 million.
35
Informa Research Services Inc.
InformaRS.com
Michael E. Adler, 49
Title
President and managing
director
Education
M.B.A., Marshall School
of Business, university of
southern california
2012 U.S. Revenue
$29.2 million
Change from 2011
+8.6%
U.S. Employees
195
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and recognizing superior and consistent employee
performance. Clients come from all financial sectors,
including retail banks, credit unions, bank-owned and
independent mortgage companies, insurance brokerages and
mutual funds.
The firm’s researchers are highly experienced in
competitive intelligence, new product development and
usability testing, customer satisfaction and loyalty research,
brand/advertising awareness research and mystery shopping
services for sales and service quality evaluation, legal and
matched pair testing, compliance, discrimination and
misleading sales practices testing.
IRS is a leader in the use of market research to limit the
risk associated with allegations of discrimination, UDAAP,
predatory lending and misleading sales practices. The
firm pioneered the use of mystery shopping and matched
pair testing for this purpose, and developed the technique
for post-application testing to detect discrimination and
predatory lending.
The firm also provides post-transaction interviewing
and Web-based reporting tools to measure and report
customer satisfaction and customer problems within hours
of a recent customer experience. It maintains a Web panel of
160,000-plus “Informed Consumers” for mystery shopping,
interviewing and online surveys.
Informa Research Services Inc. (IRS), in
Calabasas, Calif.,
was founded in 1983 as Meyer Interest
Rate survey,
acquired in 1993 by BISYS Group and
then acquired again by London-based
Informa plc in 2000.
IRS is a market research firm
specifically engaged in competitive
intelligence, sales and service evaluation,
regulatory compliance testing and lead
generation services for the financial
services industry in which it conducts
daily competitive intelligence and market
analysis.
The firm helps financial institutions
compete more effectively and improve
employee sales and service. Its mysteryshop programs help increase deposits,
new account growth, cross-sales and
depth of accounts by motivating
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OptionDeveloper to maximize the impact of a new concept.
LineDeveloper selects the right pathway to line extensions.
36
Radius Global Market Research
Radius-Global.com
Chip Lister, 59
Title
Managing director
Education
B.A., Temple University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$28.8 million*
Change from 2011
-8.6%**
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1.4 Million*
From Outside U.S.
4.6%
U.S. Employees
86
•Radius Satisfaction gains an understanding of how to build
upon or improve customer loyalty. LoyaltyDeveloper helps
prioritize what factors optimize loyalty, while LoyaltyCheck
monitors progress at influencing consumers.
•Radius Shopper Insights assesses subtle and complex influences
upon the in-store purchase decision. EyeScan measures the
impact of packaging on shelf and among competitors, while
Virtual Environments simulates in-store elements through an
innovative computer technology.
The firm has offices in seven U.S. cities and an international
presence in London with Radius EMEA.
Radius Global Market Research in New York is a privately held
corporation founded in 1960.
Radius is a full-service custom marketing research firm
that provides a number of approaches that address a range of
development, marketing and communications issues.
•Radius Brand assesses a brand to build higher profit margins. It
provides understanding of a brand’s value and proposition with
Equity Builder, then monitors and strengthens equity factors
with Equity Check.
37
Service Management Group Inc.
SMG.com
Andy Fromm, 45
•Radius Communication makes messaging as compelling as
possible. Message Optimizer identifies the optimal positioning
platform by maximizing both the emotional and rational
aspects. AdvertisingCheck helps evaluate ongoing marketing
and advertising programs.
•Radius Competitive Assessment increases a brand’s perceived
value among consumers. Opportunities and Barriers helps
evaluate and improve competitive position, while MarketCheck
provides an ongoing monitor of the landscape and competitive
relationships.
•Radius Market Strategy enhances a brand’s position in the
competitive landscape. Configure provides insights into the
structure of the market, while Segmenter identifies core targets.
Predictor links survey and marketing data to increase sales.
•Radius Price discovers how to leverage the right price point
to achieve profitability and market success. PriceDeveloper
identifies the optimal pricing strategy in a competitive context
for both new and existing brands.
•Radius Product leverages more accurate and cost-effective
approaches to guide the decision-making process. It uses
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marketing news | June 2013
Title
President and Ceo
Education
B.A., Boston university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$28.5 million
Change from 2011
+1.1%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$0.9 Million*
From Outside U.S.
3.1%
U.S. Employees
181
Service Management Group Inc. (SMG), based in Kansas
City, Mo., is a privately held firm founded in 1991 as a unit
of Barkley Evergreen and spun off as a separate company
in 1999.
SMG’s model focuses on experiences that drive loyalty and
link to financial performance.
The firm originally designed its research platform for
multi-unit retail, restaurant and service-based companies.
The platform enables researchers and clients to use its
technology to produce insights that improve their business.
The SMG customer experience platform is used by clients in
68 countries who speak 32 languages.
SMG has created benchmark databases for the retail,
restaurant and service-based industries segment that house
millions of customer responses—allowing clients to compare
their customer experience scores to others in their industries.
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The firm provides several services:
•Customer experience measurement: SMG’s customer
experience measurement service captures and analyzes the
customer metrics that deliver financial results. This offering
enables clients to continuously monitor service levels and
satisfaction in each location. Data is collected primarily via
Web and IVR surveys. Customer feedback is reported on a
real-time performance dashboard that includes online
analytics and service improvement tools.
MarketVision Research Inc.
MV-Research.com
Tyler McMullen, 43
Title
President and Ceo
•Employee engagement: SMG measures employee loyalty
plus satisfaction and commitment. Employee surveys are
used to reveal the strength of the relationships between
the attitudes of employees and the key drivers of customer
satisfaction and loyalty.
Education
M.b.a., university of
virginia
2012 U.S. Revenue
$26 million
Change from 2011
+13.0%
U.S. Employees
105
•Conversion, non-purchaser and lapsed customer studies: Using
a variety of techniques such as customer intercepts, targeted
panel studies and GPS location technologies to garner the best
response, insights from these studies complement transactionbased research and identify opportunities to increase conversion.
MarketVision Research Inc. (MVR), based in Cincinnati, is a
private company founded in 1983.
MVR is a full-service custom marketing research
consultancy providing insights about markets, customers,
brands and products. Research areas of focus include product
and portfolio development, pricing, branding, segmentation
and customer satisfaction. The firm offers a full suite of
quantitative and qualitative research capabilities, and works
across industry groups.
MVR completes research in both consumer and business
sectors. Major industries covered include consumer goods,
retail, healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial services,
agribusiness, travel and leisure, and durables.
The firm invests in its research-on-research program,
particularly in the area of advanced quantitative research design
and analysis, which is frequently shared with the research
community. It also leads a variety of qualitative research
training and development programs for clients and individuals.
MVR is focused on providing insight-driven deliverables as
part of every research endeavor, which may include easy-to-use
interactive simulators for “What if?” analyses and storytelling
techniques to help bring research to life for client business
partners.
The firm’s capabilities include:
•Optimization: MVR’s Marketing Sciences Group blends
technical skills with creative approaches to deliver insights
into clients’ businesses. It is especially skilled in discrete
choice modeling and optimization, with application to
areas such as product and services development, branding,
packaging and pricing.
•Brand research: SMG uses a targeted and qualified sample with
the latest research techniques to analyze a brand’s competitive
landscape, extending knowledge beyond the brand and its core
customers to include top competitors, their customers and the
key drivers that influence customer loyalty.
•Social media analytics and engagement: The firm’s social media
service searches millions of sources, like blogs, social networks,
news sources, Twitter and forums, to find the insights behind the
online chatter.
•Text analytics: SMG’s text analytics service leverages natural
language software to read text comments, categorize them and
extract pertinent data that helps clients understand the customer
experience. Text analytics output is displayed on an online text
analytics dashboard so that clients can stay tuned in to what
customers are saying.
In 2012, SMG acquired Locately, a company providing
consumer location analytics. Its visit-detection technology
provides mobile-enabled customer intercept research.
In the past year, SMG has conducted research and published
several white papers covering various topics in the industry,
including best practices for the use of mobile surveys and the
Net Promoter Score. Its plans for 2013 include a continued focus
on product development, global expansion and location-based
research.
SMG has offices in Kansas City, Mo.; Boston; London;
and Tokyo.
86
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marketing news | June 2013
•Innovation: MVR has a team of 15 moderators and qualitative
research specialists, as well as an experienced client and
project services team. Many are former client-side research
directors. The group conducts much research around
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innovation, using qualitative research with consumers to fill
in the gaps in the innovation process, and matching it with
quantitative research.
•Viewpoint Forum: The firm’s Internet panel and research
platform have an average cooperation rate of 50% and
recovery of 90% on home-use tests. Panelists are not
permitted to sign themselves up to participate in the
research; rather, MVR selects who is invited to participate
and compensates all respondents.
•Online Communities (MROCs): MVR provides online
communities that are completely managed and developed
in-house. The platform is mobile-enabled and clients are
provided proactive research plans with timely deliverables.
MVR has two platforms for data collection:
•Viewpoint Forum: MVR’s Internet panel and research
platform is where the firm selects who is invited to
participate and compensates all respondents.
•MarketVision/Gateway: These dedicated research facilities
at the Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando and
Los Angeles provide a national sample with access to hardto-reach groups such as families, adult men, teens and
children. Respondents are engaged with iPads and other
mobile devices.
In 2012, MVR launched an enhanced MROC platform
with engaging graphics and easier-to-access tasks for
community members, all accessible
via mobile anywhere in the world, and
conducted research around storytelling
and how this technique is effectively used
in other industries.
MVR has six client service offices,
two qualitative research centers, a research
call center and two in-person data
collection centers.
39
National Analysts Worldwide
NationalAnalysts.com
Susan Schwartz McDonald, 63
Title
President and Ceo
Education
Ph.D., University of
Pennsylvania’s
Annenberg School
2012 U.S. Revenue
$23.2 million
Change from 2011
-8.7%
U.S. Employees
82
National Analysts Worldwide (NA) in Philadelphia was
established as the world’s first market research unit in 1911 by
Curtis Publishing Co. (publisher of The Saturday Evening Post
and Ladies Home Journal). It became a separate corporate entity
in 1943 and was reorganized as an employee-owned company
in 2004.
NA is a hybrid market research and consulting firm that
addresses strategic business issues in specialized industry sectors,
including healthcare, information technology, financial services,
communications and B-to-B. Its depth of marketing experience
in key verticals, combined with its inventive research capabilities
and advanced analytics, supports a consultative approach to
strategy development and implementation.
•com
Access the AMA’s Journal of
Marketing Research
For the latest high-level academic research
on a range of marketing topics, visit
MarketingPower.com/jmr.
June 2013 | marketing news
87
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Types of projects routinely conducted by NA include market
segmentation, opportunity assessment and demand forecasting,
pricing, positioning and market entry strategy, innovation and
transformation, brand health and life cycle management.
Project leaders are supported by an in-house team of
methodologists and a portfolio of modeling tools and software
customized to address marketing problems and applications,
including the Farsight suite forecast modeling services. NA’s
innovation history includes the development of probability
sampling, the early development and application of focus group
methodology, and its work in consumer and business market
segmentation.
NA is widely known for building integrated forecasting
and revenue models that reflect the interactions of multiple
stakeholders and customers (in markets such as healthcare and
B-to-B marketing). Specialized services that draw on research
design capabilities include litigation and regulatory support,
often involving expert testimony.
40
Market Probe Inc.
MarketProbe.com
T.R. Rao, 72
Title
President and ceo
Education
ph.d., Michigan State
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$21.5 million
Change from 2011
+1.4%*
Non–U.S. Revenue
$26.5 Million
From Outside U.S.
55.3%
U.S. Employees
120
Market Probe Inc. (MP), based in Milwaukee, Wis., is a privately
held company founded in 1976.
MP is a full-service global marketing research and consulting
firm specializing in stakeholder measurement and a wide array
of custom research assignments. The firm is building long-term
partnerships based on its team of professionals with research
understanding, industry knowledge and technical experience
to create a worldwide presence to serve multinational clients.
Its voice-of-the-customer, brand and employee-satisfaction
experience reaches businesses around the world.
The firm has introduced several new research models and
analytical tools in the last two years:
• Text Analytics: New software, mapping
tools and text mining offer more effective
and timely services. MP uses this software
to code comments more accurately and
map comment groups by a dependent
variable for clarity of presentations to
management, and to quantify comment
areas in terms of their impact on
satisfaction, loyalty or advocacy. It has
developed services to integrate survey
comments and social media comments.
• Diagnostic Psychographics: Two additional
tools used for healthcare research may find
wider applications in other sectors. Diagnostic psychographics is a segmentation
tool focusing on the buyer’s cognitive style
and belief structure. Case studies of this
tool and its impact on behavioral data were
developed in the healthcare sector but can
be expanded to other sectors.
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•Message Sensor: Using heat maps and Web methodology,
large samples of potential customers can be sampled by
MP as a cost-effective tool for applications in concept or
advertising testing. MP has found this to be more reliable
and cost-effective than other methods like eye tracking.
Outcome measures are customer behavioral intentions in
stages of the product of acquisition process leading to
actual purchase.
41
KS&R Inc.
KSRinc.com
Rita L. Reicher, 60
•Mobile Research: Mobile surveys are more cost-effective for
focused, “push” surveys dealing with products, transactions
and events, as well as for “pull” surveys commonly used
in the retail sector. MP offers mobile surveys that can be
formatted to fit different tablet devices. The technology
helps integrate data collection and the reporting of results
into a single stream.
•Advocacy and Passion: While MP offers stand-alone
customer advocacy and brand passion models for customer
experience management and brand communications, the
firm has developed new thinking regarding the relationship
between these two and their combined multiplier impact on
customer loyalty. It can bring this new thinking to enhance
current tracking programs and relevant ROI analysis by
measuring customer attitudes and behaviors.
•Online Reporting Tool: The firm’s new reporting tool,
Insight Manager, is the modular online reporting system
for CEM engagements. IM allows managers to combine
customer feedback with their internal metrics to provide
actionable information. This reporting system provides
respondent-level feedback as well as employee-level
feedback, resulting in better customer recovery initiatives,
targeted employer training and coaching for building
customer loyalty.
MP’s senior researchers have authored seven books on the
topics of customer advocacy and customer satisfaction and
loyalty, and numerous award-winning papers.
MP operates CATI call centers in the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Dubai, Beijing and
Singapore. The firm has formed several partnerships with
field agencies throughout the world. There are full-service
offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom,
Belgium, UAE, India, Singapore, Hong Kong and China.
*The growth rate includes 2011 and 2012 revenue from
the acquisition of Richard Day Research Inc. in
October 2011.
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marketing news | June 2013
Title
President and founding
partner
Education
ph.d., Yale university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$21.0 million
Change from 2011
+4.0%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$5.7 Million
From Outside U.S.
21.3%
U.S. Employees
209
KS&R Inc. (Knowledge Systems & Research Inc.), based in
Syracuse, N.Y., is a privately held company founded in 1983.
KS&R provides a full range of integrated qualitative,
quantitative and consulting services. It uses research designs,
analytic techniques and technology to provide marketing
knowledge, strategic insights and decision support services.
The firm’s diverse client list includes industries such as technology, telecommunications, transportation and healthcare/
medical devices. Clients are served by a dedicated business
team that specializes in that client’s industry. Team members
include business strategists with client-side experience, qualitative specialists and experienced analytical professionals.
All marketing research services and models are customdesigned. Specific capabilities include new service
innovation and product development; market opportunity
assessment (sizing and segmentation, attitudes and usage);
brand strength and customer experience, including
measurement; advertising testing and management; channel
and partner strategy; pricing optimization and buyer
behavior research.
KS&R owns and operates INSITE, a global survey contact
center offering a unified data collection platform through
its partner network, and maintains centers of excellence in
qualitative and quantitative research.
In 2012, KS&R experienced significant gains in its
medical devices and technology sectors, including research
in vision care, veterinary products, and other healthrelated disciplines. Its enCOMPASS “listening” program
was re-launched, using research to deepen existing sales
relationships and forge new insights and knowledge.
The firm has offices in New York; Atlanta; Memphis,
Tenn.; and Frankfurt, Germany.
Exclusive feature
41
The Pert Group
ThePertGroup.com
Doug Guion, 39
Title
President
2012 U.S. Revenue
$21.0 million
Change from 2011
+4.5%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1.2 Million
From Outside U.S.
5.4%
U.S. Employees
98
The Pert Group (TPG), based in Farmington, Conn., is a
privately held firm founded in 1978.
TPG is a research-based consulting firm that integrates
financial, attitudinal, market and behavioral information to
bring clarity to business, brand and marketing decision making.
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TPG facilitates growth strategies and improves business
outcomes for local, national and international clients by
helping them to innovate, differentiate, evaluated and create.
Working with a variety of industries, the firm specializes in
CPG, including food, beverage and HBA, restaurant, retail,
animal care, finance, government, healthcare insurance and
manufacturing.
The firm works from ideation to activation, synthesizing
qualitative and quantitative research, as well as behavioral, financial and market data to identify the critical patterns emerging
from the wide range of information sources. Its services include:
•Planning to harness the wealth of information that exists to
draw insights, including secondary, company data, industry experts and social media, providing a customer-centric
market response.
•Qualitative to explore unmet needs, emotional connections
and reactions to new ideas and concepts through IDIs, focus
groups, ethnography and online qualitative, while also characterizing target populations and developing hypotheses that
then would be quantified.
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•Quantitative to measure equity and affinity of brands, products
and services, and explore causality.
•Activation to transform data into knowledge, action and
measurable results. TPG helps clients create and activate strategies and tactics, engaging the organization and providing a road
map for implementation.
Along with its headquarters and London location, the firm
has offices in Kansas City, Mo.; Pittsburgh; and Stamford, Conn.
43
RDA Group Inc.
RDAgroup.com
Donald Peitrowski, 51
Title
President
Education
m.b.a., oakland university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$19.1 million
Change from 2011
+8.5%
U.S. Employees
110
RDA Group Inc. (RDA), based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is a
privately held corporation founded in 1969.
RDA is a full-service market research and consulting
company that provides strategic perspective regarding
customer behaviors and attitudes to businesses in a broad
range of industries including automotive, financial services,
utilities, healthcare, insurance, advertising, recreational vehicle,
temporary staffing, housing and food.
Using quantitative and qualitative methods, RDA offers
insight into customer satisfaction, product quality, customer
loyalty, statistical modeling, product development, customer
profiling, and custom research and consulting services. The
firm employs cross-disciplinary knowledge to custom-design
research that meets each client’s specific information needs.
RDA uses its Quality Management System to conduct
Internet, mail and telephone surveys, central location testing,
focus group research, one-on-one interviews and intercept
research. Research and industry experience is complemented
by database integration, advanced statistical analysis and data
mining.
The firm addresses a variety of research needs including:
•Customer satisfaction and loyalty: Designing tools for
analyzing customer satisfaction to determine what drives
satisfaction and loyalty.
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marketing news | June 2013
•Product quality: Leveraging positive product attributes, as
well as identifying those that hurt customer perceptions
of quality.
•Global research: Adapting research design, survey
development, data collection, language and analytical insights
to fit the local culture and conditions worldwide. RDA
developed a global Internet CATI system, e-CATI, that allows
for central management of research studies.
•Statistical modeling and consulting: Integrating data from
multiple sources, RDA’s statistical capabilities range from
multivariate techniques to customized modeling and analysis.
•Internet research: The firm conducts online research among
businesses and consumers, as well as website usability testing.
•Advanced product research: The firm gathers and interprets
consumer opinion throughout the product development
process, including the creation of customer profiles, product
usage profiles, concept ideation, prototype evaluations and
marketplace launches.
•Qualitative research: Using focus groups, one-on-ones and
executive interviews, online groups and telepanels, the firm
uncovers information important to marketing endeavors.
The firm operates a 105-seat call center and two focus group
research rooms at their offices in Michigan.
AMA’s Annual Marketing Conference
Sept. 9-11, 2013, New Orleans
Research, analytics, Big Data and other hot marketing
topics will be discussed in-depth at the AMA’s Annual
Marketing Conference. Presenters include:
Mary Garrett , vice president of marketing and
communications for IBM Global Sales and Distribution.
Garrett will provide insights on how, with the optimal
tools, talent and techniques, marketers can deliver
the insights and relevance required to target the right
message to the right person at the right time.
Eric Rasmussen , vice president of consumer insights
at Groupon. Rasmussen will discuss incremental
marketing and will share research on how to effectively
attract new customers.
Learn more at AMA.org/annualconference.
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44
Gongos Research Inc.
Gongos.com
Camille Nicita, 43
Title
President and ceo
Education
M.B.A., wayne state
university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$18.1 million*
Change from 2011
-10.8%
U.S. Employees
107
Gongos Inc. (GR), based in Auburn Hills, Mich., is a privately
held company founded in 1991.
Gongos is a full-service marketing research firm whose
approach to consumer intelligence supports decision-making for
Global 1000 companies. Fusing technology with custom research
and insights curation, Gongos offers clients multiple levels
of engagement to address their ongoing business challenges.
Its newly launched data integration practice, O2 Integrated,
harmonizes enterprise and research knowledge through
consultative retainerships.
The firm serves the consumer products, retail, financial
services, transportation and technology sectors with its
primary research and market intelligence. It has developed
techniques to shape stories that can be readily socialized
within client organizations.
Gongos’ strategy focuses on identifying and addressing
industry paradigm shifts. It uses online research communities to
actualize their untapped potential through its i°Communities and
metaCommunities platforms. The firm’s immersive approach
was further advanced with the launch of the i°Communities
mobile app for iOS and Android. It also is developing practices
in modular mobile survey design and smartphone-enabled
ethnography through SmartFly, and has tested the effect that
mobile engagement has on consumer authenticity.
The firm’s primary research division, Gongos Research,
partners with corporate research and insights teams on initiatives
spanning the entire product and marketing life cycle. Focuses
include concept and product development, voice of the customer,
price/feature optimization, emotional connections, shopper
immersion, positioning and segmentation. Its holistic approaches
incorporate both qualitative and quantitative techniques.
In 2013, the company will deepen its global footprint through
technology-enabled approaches while developing innovative
ways to transform insights and empower its clients.
FORMERLY
BIG DATA
BAYESIAN METHODS
ANALYTICS
The new partnership between
marketers and insight hunters
The universal recipe for
handling inference problems
7 pillars for successful
analytics implementation
MARKETING
RESEARCH
SPRING 2013
AMERICAN MARKETING
ASSOCIATION
MARKETINGPOWER.COM
HIRING the
RESEARCHERS
of TOMORROW
Recruiting, developing and
nurturing data scientists
Marketing Insights, the
AMA’s newly redesigned
quarterly magazine, offers
expert-written information
on everything from survey
methodologies to Big Data
and analytics. Learn more
at MarketingPower.com/
marketinginsights.
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marketing news | June 2013
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45
Leo J. Shapiro & Associates LLC
LJS.com
Matthew Smith, 61
Title
president
Education
B.A., University of Illinois
at CHicago
2012 U.S. Revenue
$15.6 million
Change from 2011
+10.6%*
U.S. Employees
54
Leo J. Shapiro & Associates LLC (LJS), based in Chicago, is a
privately held company founded in 1953.
LJS is a strategic research firm that combines market
research with strategic insights and recommendations
connecting back to the client’s core business issues. The firm
brings a multidisciplinary team of professionals trained in
business, strategy, marketing, and the social and behavioral
sciences. Most of its professionals have more than 10 or 20
years of experience.
LJS and its key staff have developed experience across a
range of industries, butit focuses on three main practice areas:
•Consumer packaged goods and retail services: Product
innovation, brand differentiation and extension;
merchandise and channel strategy; and customer
development and loyalty.
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LJS utilizes a range of research methodologies such as
qualitative research, including focus groups, one-on-ones
and projective methods; quantitative approaches, such
as online, phone, IVR, mobile and hybrid multi-modal
methods; and technology-enabled data collection, including
social media analysis, and virtual product and store research.
The firm conducts research predominantly in the United
States but also works regularly in all of the developed and
advanced developing regions of the world. Clients range in size
from the largest global companies to early-stage startup firms.
LJS has developed several research approaches and
products that have been refined over time, including:
•Natural Share Model: Draws on thousands of food store
market research studies to provide guidance about what is
achievable for a chain given its position with consumers.
•Guided Deliberations: Employs jury research techniques
to conduct structured but “unmoderated” focus group
discussions.
•Visual Laddering: Taps visual communication to help
uncover emotional decision drivers.
LJS reinvests a significant portion of its profits back into
data collection and R&D efforts to help keep itself and its
clients informed on key consumer trends. A primary piece
of this work is the LJS National Poll, which has tracked
consumer shopping attitudes and behaviors continuously
since 1973.
•Legal, financial and professional
services: Evidentiary survey research,
primarily for intellectual property
and false advertising; litigation/jury
strategy; B-to-B and C-suite-level
research including CEOs, CFOs and
CIOs of the largest global firms; private
equity market and customer due
diligence; and client development and
retention modeling.
•Pharmaceuticals: Decision dynamics of
therapy stakeholders (patient, caregiver
and physician); brand message and
communication; emotional insights
into decision drivers; clinical trial
optimization; and REMS compliance.
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46
47
The Link Group
Chadwick Martin Bailey Inc.
TLG.com
CMBinfo.com
Tom Pfeil, 45
Title
Anne Bailey Berman, 65
Founder and managing
partner
Education
m.b.a., university of texas
at austin
2012 U.S. Revenue
$15.5 million
Change from 2011
-3.1%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1.9 Million
From Outside U.S.
10.9%
U.S. Employees
48
The Link Group (TLG) in Atlanta is a privately held
company founded in 1994.
TLG’s marketing research model of client-centric service
is based on two complementary approaches: better service
and smarter research. Its better service approach is a single,
end-to-end point of contact for an entire project with no
hand-offs, no salespeople, no questionnaire writers, no
report writers, etc. This allows a more fluid, flexible and
responsive approach. Its smarter research approach is
focused on custom-designing research to meet the objectives
of each individual study, being respectful of research budgets
and completing projects cost-effectively.
Clients of TLG are typically Fortune 500 companies in the
healthcare, technology, retail and consumer packaged goods
industries. They have significant international experience,
most frequently among developed economies and international
markets in Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America.
While the firm conducts all manner of qualitative and
quantitative research, the fastest-growing component of
its business is Onsite Insights ethnography. Its OI group
conducts in-home interviews, onsite observations, out-ofthe-box experience research and other ethnographic
approaches.
TLG’s staff is divided between offices in Atlanta and
Durham, N.C.
Title
President
Education
m.b.a., Boston
University
2012 U.S. Revenue
$14.7 million
Change from 2011
-12.5%
U.S. Employees
67
Chadwick Martin Bailey Inc. (CMB), based in Boston, is a
privately held corporation founded in 1984.
CMB is a global custom market research firm providing
research, analytical techniques and methods, and a
consultative approach to translate multiple data sources into
informed insights and business insights.
The firm uses market science in a forward-thinking,
practical, flexible, problem-solving way, applied across each
of its six practice areas: financial services, technology and
telecom, travel and hospitality, retail/e-commerce, healthcare
and insurance.
CMB’s areas of specialization include:
•Customer satisfaction and loyalty: Using multiple-method
research tools and techniques to enhance, retain and
cultivate relationships with key customers.
•Brand tracking and customer experience measurement:
Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative techniques to
drive customer acquisition and market share by linking
customer experience to the brand message.
•Product and service development: Providing practical
and innovative services that support the development,
positioning and launch of new products and services.
•Segmentation: Identifying high-potential growth
opportunities and providing step-by-step direction to
realize growth.
•Social media research: Helping to understand the social media
audiences that are most relevant to brands by measuring
impact. Social media insights at CMB are part of each project to
gather qualitative insights into all phases of a project.
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In 2012, CMB introduced Pinpoint Suite, a software platform
that integrates with existing customer experience measurement
programs to allow action on real-time customer feedback.
The firm has established the Pulse Research Program focused
on key consumer and B-to-B topics. Past topics include overthe-top TV, customer satisfaction research, and mobile banking
and shopping. The CMB Consumer Pulse and B2B Pulse studies
have been featured in leading publications such as The New York
Times, USA Today, MediaPost, Ad Age and Forbes magazine.
CMB maintains a methodological center of excellence
and provides client-centered strategic consulting from
marketing experts.
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RTi Market Research
& Brand Strategy
RTiResearch.com
Dave Rothstein, 46
Title
Ceo
Education
m.b.a., university of
Rochester
2012 U.S. Revenue
$13.9 million
Change from 2011
-16.3%
U.S. Employees
46
RTi Market Research & Brand Strategy (RTi), based in Stamford,
Conn., is a privately held company that was founded in 1979.
RTi is a global market research firm comprising seasoned
research professionals who provide custom research services to
a broad and diverse client base. The firm’s knowledgeable team
of principals and staff provide marketing-focused research and
brand strategy services.
In addition to its offering of traditional research tools and
methods, RTi relies on its internal marketing science function
for continuous development of specialized products and
analytics in support of increasingly complex business decisions.
These include:
•Product Component Optimization: RTi is experienced at
leveraging choice-based techniques and modeling to provide
in-depth and holistic understanding of how
all product components (taste, packaging,
label graphics, brand name, etc.) work
together.
•Portfolio Manager: This service is used
to identify the best incremental volume
items, the least-negative volume impact
for de-lists and the best line-up if starting
from scratch or re-launching. Its analytic
model produces relative volume estimates
for every possible line combination, which
is a stronger directional indicator of
potential sales and line profitability than a
simple “reach” proportion.
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•Social Media Analysis and Tracking: RTi helps clients listen,
analyze and track what’s being said about their brands through
a program that was designed by researchers for researchers to
collect and transform unstructured social media conversations
into information for better business decisions.
RTi’s series of Quick Courses and webinars provides
education and professional development to corporate researchers
in easy-to-digest, one-hour seminars.
The firm has additional offices in Matawan, N.J., and
Westerville, Ohio.
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LRA Worldwide Inc.
LRAWorldwide.com
Rob Rush, 58
Title
President and ceo
Education
b.s., Cornell university
2012 U.S. Revenue
$13.5 million
Change from 2011
+40.6%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$6.1 Million
From Outside U.S.
31.1%
U.S. Employees
126
LRA Worldwide Inc. (LRA), based in Horsham, Penn., is a
privately held company that was founded in 1981.
LRA is a full-services market research firm with offerings
that are focused on helping to define and measure the current
state of the customer experience, and then identify measures
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to enhance or reinvent that experience to drive customer
satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, and positive customer
outcomes and behaviors.
The firm’s core business is in the hospitality industry, but it
also works across multiple industry sectors, including timeshare/
vacation ownership; gaming; sports, entertainment and leisure;
travel and transportation; healthcare/senior living; and food and
beverage/restaurants.
The firm’s offerings include qualitative/exploratory research
(focus groups, IDIs); customer tracking survey research;
customer relationship studies; employee engagement studies;
conjoint/decision modeling studies; customer segmentation
and personae development studies; touch point/“moment of
truth”-focused surveys; modeling the emotional connection of
customers to a company and its impact on behavior, spending
and share of wallet; mystery shopping/quality assurance
auditing; and the TrueView mystery shopping platform, using
existing customers to gather field research.
LRA’s 2013 plans include further development of its
Emotional Connection Model and its linkage to customer
spending and revenue growth, and the continued build-out of
its “TrueView” mystery shopping/research approach, which
leverages existing customers to provide mystery shopping data in
industries that have been “difficult to shop,” traditionally.
LRA also supports global projects via field offices in Toronto,
Salzburg and Singapore.
Kelton
KeltonGlobal.com
Tom Bernthal, 39
Title
founder and ceo
Education
b.s., university of
wisconsin-madison
2012 U.S. Revenue
$12.9 million
Change from 2011
+4.0%
Non–U.S. Revenue
$1.2 Million
From Outside U.S.
8.5%
U.S. Employees
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•Quantitative research: Brand health, A&U, customer
segmentation, consumer choice modeling, pricing models,
line extension analysis, assortment analysis, messaging/
positioning testing, package testing, new product testing, and
brand and ad testing
•Design: Innovation, customer journey mapping, prototype
optimization, visual merchandising, information design, concept
ideation, path-to-purchase and new product development.
•Communications: Information design, video documentary,
language and message development and thought-leadership
research.
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100
Kelton, based in Culver City, Calif., is a privately held company
that was founded in 2003.
Kelton is a consumer-insights-based consultancy that
combines research experience with problem-solving capabilities
and storytelling. The firm creates brand relevance and resonance
by taking a creative, thoughtful and rigorous approach to
interpreting insights, developing strategies and designing
solutions that deliver what consumers want. Its work spans more
than 30 countries worldwide.
The firm’s capabilities include qualitative consumer insights,
market assessment, brand positioning, communication and
advertising, customer understanding, issues management, public
relations research and online communities.
Kelton’s offerings include:
•Qualitative research: Applied ethnographies, customer focus
groups, in-depth interviews, in-situ observations, online smart
communities, trend scanning, semiotic analysis, archetype
studies and analysis, and digital research.
•Strategic consulting: Brand landscape analysis, brand
positioning, marketing strategy, agency briefing and
new concepts.
At the end of 2012, Kelton partnered with Purple Market
Research in London to provide support and synergies
internationally for U.S.-based clients. The firm also has several
sister companies that support and augment its work, including
The Omnibus Co., providing omnibus polling, and Jury Insights,
a litigation consulting group.
Kelton is headquartered in Culver City, Calif., and has offices
in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco. m