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2020 Top 50 U.S. Market Research and Data Analytics Companies

Diane Bowers

A full ranking of the top market research and data analytics companies in the U.S. for 2020

The “2020 Top 50 U.S. Report”—formerly known as “The Gold Report”—is developed by Diane Bowers and produced in partnership with the Insights Association and Michigan State University . The report is also sponsored by the AMA, ESOMAR and the Global Research Business Network . The report includes a ranking of the top 50 companies, a breakdown of trends by Bowers , and an analysis of the market research and analytics industry  by Michael Brereton, Melanie Courtright and Reg Baker.

50. RTi Research

Founded: 1979 2019 U.S. revenue: $12.9 million Percent change from 2018: -3% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $12.9 million U.S. employees: 45

In a world awash in data, the challenge is to turn data into something meaningful, something that can be communicated simply and acted upon effectively. RTi Research meets that challenge head-on, turning data into meaning through smart research design, flawless execution and innovative storytelling. Everything the company does is aimed at helping its clients move their ideas and insights through their organizations to influence change. 

RTi has conducted research in just about every category in the U.S. and globally. Informed by 40 years of experience across categories and cultures, RTi knows what works and what doesn’t, when to leverage new technology and methods, and when traditional approaches are best.

49. Hypothesis

Founded: 2000 2019 U.S. revenue: $18.3 million Percent change from 2018: -4.7% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $18.3 million U.S. employees: 61

Hypothesis uses insights, strategy and design to help important brands do amazing things. The company specializes in tough questions that take creative, multidimensional approaches, thoughtful strategy and a broad business perspective. Hypothesis’ approach combines inventive consumer-centric qualitative research, advanced analytics, strategic thinking and data visualization. Its award-winning design team translates complex information into compelling, easy-to-understand deliverables to socialize learnings and engage teams. 

In 2018, Hypothesis added important new capabilities with the launch of Momentum, a strategy that turns insight into application with downstream marketing and implementation planning. The Momentum team has worked alongside Hypothesis consultants on strategic engagements with clients focused on brand strategy, product development, and led dozens of workshops with senior and C-level executives to socialize insights and ideate on next steps. 

In 2019, Hypothesis’ focus on growth continued with its expansion to the Midwest and establishment of its Chicago office. From this office, the company will be able to service new and current clients in the Midwest and on the East Coast.

48. Bellomy Research

Founded: 1976 2019 U.S. revenue: $21 million Percent change from 2018: 1.4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $21 million U.S. employees: 116

Bellomy is a privately held, family-owned, full-service market intelligence company. Bellomy focuses on driving successful business outcomes through the design and delivery of solutions that yield deeper customer understanding. The company surrounds its clients’ business challenges with an unparalleled mix of knowledge and experience, marketing science and proprietary research technology. 

Bellomy’s work involves both B2C and B2B environments—with qualitative and quantitative insight solutions spanning market segmentation, customer experience and journeys (including digital user experiences), brand equity, product innovation, shopper insights, marketing optimization, social research platforms and research technology. Bellomy works with clients across a broad range of categories and industries including consumer packaged goods, financial services, automotive, retail, restaurant and hospitality, telecommunications and technology, apparel and textiles, utilities, healthcare, insurance and home improvement.

Bellomy serves as an extension of its clients’ marketing research and customer experience departments by integrating a broad set of capabilities and areas of expertise, including segmentation, customer (and digital experience), shopper insights, social research platforms, brand equity, product innovation and marketing optimization. In addition, Bellomy clients leverage SmartIDEAS, the firm’s enterprise consumer knowledge and insight platform. 

47. Edelman Intelligence

Founded: 1999 2019 U.S. revenue: $21 million Percent change from 2018: 12.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $11.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 35.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $32.5 million U.S. employees: 131

Edelman Intelligence (EI) is the global research and analytics consultancy of Edelman, the world’s largest global communications firm. Based in New York, with employees in 18 offices internationally, EI houses more than 200 consultants, strategists, researchers, data scientists, data visualization specialists and analysts worldwide. Its specialists are method-agnostic and leverage the best of primary and secondary research, advanced analytics and business science to solve business and communications issues for its clients. EI’s offering spans the full spectrum of client needs, from mapping the current environment and targeting key audiences, to optimizing content and measuring business impact. 

EI partners with early-stage start-ups and Fortune 100 companies alike, providing strategic research, analytics, and insights-based marketing and communications counsel for a broad range of stakeholders and scopes, including government and public affairs, corporate reputation and risk strategy, crisis and issues management, employee experience and talent advisory, executive positioning, strategic communications and public relations, marketing and branding strategy, customer experience and insights, mergers, acquisitions and market entry strategy and more.

Key accomplishments in 2019 included advancement of its Edelman Trust Management (ETM) capabilities, including an evolution of its offering focused specifically on providing guidance for measuring and building trust in brands. Developed building from its 20-plus years studying trust through the Edelman Trust Barometer and the initial iteration of ETM (which explores corporate trust), this proprietary model for brand trust measurement was created in partnership with renowned academics from Harvard Business School and INSEAD, Edelman Brand experts and external marketing thought leaders. In recent months, this model has been engineered to consider fundamental transformations to consumer/brand relationship dynamics that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated.

46. KS&R

Founded: 1983 2019 U.S. revenue: $21.7 million Percent change from 2018: -1.4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $3.6 million Percent from outside U.S.: 14.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $25.3 million U.S. employees: 100

KS&R is a privately held strategic consultancy and full-service marketing research company. For nine consecutive years, KS&R has received the highest Gold Index composite score of any provider in the Prevision/Inside Research survey of marketing research buyers. This is a testament to the company’s passion for excellence and client-first business philosophy—wherein KS&R empowers its clients with timely, fact-based insights so they can make smarter decisions and be confident in their actions.

KS&R creates and executes global custom market research solutions for some of the best-known corporations in the world in more than 100 countries and 50 languages. It has extensive and diverse industry experience with particular strength in healthcare (pharma and device), technology, entercom, transportation, professional services, and retail and e-commerce. Team members often include business strategists with client-side experience and deep industry knowledge.

In 2019, KS&R leveraged its expansive network of pharmacy panels to build world-class capabilities for pharma inventory measurement and healthcare insights. Its marketing scientists have driven marked advances in pricing decision support, which have now been validated by positive in-market results. KS&R expanded its portfolio to include insights fusion across multiple channels of content (primary research, social media, web-based information, etc.). And finally, it introduced its KS&R Win-Loss program that provides actionable insights for how organizations can improve their value proposition and sales performance to close more deals.

Founded: 1911 2019 U.S. revenue: $22.7 million Percent change from 2018: 12.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $22.7 million U.S. employees: 78

NAXION guides strategic business decisions globally in healthcare, information technology, financial services, energy, heavy equipment and other B2B markets, drawing on depth of marketing experience in key verticals and skilled application of sophisticated and inventive methodologies. The firm’s NAscence Group helps life science innovators develop commercialization strategy through clinical trials design and selection of target indications, forecasting, brand planning and other research-based consulting services.

Engagements routinely include market segmentation, opportunity assessment and innovation, demand forecasting and pricing, positioning, brand health, market monitoring and lifecycle management. The firm deploys multiple data streams including primary research (qualitative and quantitative), secondary data, customer databases and other complex datasets to develop an integrative perspective on business problems. The firm also builds custom panels for B2B markets.

Project leaders with sector experience and research proficiency are supported by in-house methodologists and a wide portfolio of advanced analytic tools, including proprietary modeling services and software, all of them highly customized. The firm continues to invest significant resources in intellectual capital to enhance enterprise decision support with cutting-edge methods, including specialized “small data” choice models, new predictive techniques using big data and brand-customized text analytics. Its Farsight suite supports the building of highly dynamic models capable of producing forecasts for complex market scenarios, including paradigm-shift technologies, and gives market monitoring programs a forward-looking perspective that guides timely market interventions. Other services include litigation and regulatory support, often involving expert testimony in cases involving trademark confusion, deceptive advertising and brand equity. NAXION’s strong commitment to operational excellence is reflected in ISO certification and in-house operations capabilities to deliver exceptional levels of quality control. 

Founded: 1991 2019 U.S. revenue: $24.2 million Percent change from 2018: -3.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1.2 million Percent from outside U.S.: 4.7% 2019 worldwide revenue: $25.4 million U.S. employees: 144

Gongos is a consultative agency that places customers at the heart of business strategy. Partnering with insights, analytics, marketing, strategy and customer experience groups, Gongos operationalizes customer centricity by helping companies both understand their customer needs and deliver on them better than anyone else.

From product innovation to portfolio management, customer experience to consumer journeys, pricing strategies to marketing optimization, and trend analysis to predictive modeling, Gongos provides both outside-in and inside-out approaches across organizations to drive greater customer attraction, retention and lifetime value.

Gongos further serves as a translator to help cross-functional teams fuel the competency to gain and apply consumer wisdom, transform decisions into action and navigate organizational change. Coalescing enterprise data with primary research and curating insights for multiple audiences further empowers stakeholders to achieve greater ROI by ensuring information is designed to influence actions and behaviors from executives to the frontline. 

Gongos’ consultative tools stem from change management principles that help organizations navigate the transformation often necessary to create a more outside-in perspective as they reorient around the customer. Gongos’ approaches to engage multiple audiences include communication strategies and tactics grounded in frameworks such as its adoption-to-advocacy model and human-centered design.

43. Maru/Matchbox **

Founded: 2016 2019 U.S. revenue: $28 million Percent change from 2018: 3.7% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $14 million Percent from outside U.S.: 33.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $42 million U.S. employees: 150

Maru/Matchbox began disrupting the market research industry in 2000. Powered by proprietary technology, its expert teams are deeply invested in key sectors of the economy, including consumer goods and services, financial services, retail, technology, healthcare, public services, and media and entertainment. Maru/Marchbox provides organizations with the tools and insights to connect with the people that matter most, so they can build and maintain a competitive advantage. 

In 2019, Maru/Matchbox released a series of innovative research solutions. 

• Digital Media Measurement is a campaign evaluation approach that enables clients to better understand how content, channels and brands interact to deliver effective communication. 
• Creative Insight measures people’s implicit and explicit responses to advertising, giving clients a complete picture of how their ad is working. It is designed to evaluate any type of ad or brand communication, across all channels, with best-in-class benchmarks.
• Lissted analyzes how members of communities relevant to clients react to content, tweets and even websites. 
• Brand Emotion utilizes visual semiotics to identify and leverage the emotional profile of a brand. 

Maru/Matchbox continues to demonstrate innovation and thought leadership through relentless publication of articles and whitepapers.

42. Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB)

Founded: 1984 2019 U.S. revenue: $28.7 million Percent change from 2018: 20.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $28.7 million U.S. employees: 90

CMB is a research and strategy firm, helping the world’s leading brands engage, innovate and grow amid deep disruption. The company leverages the best of advanced analytics, consumer psychology and market strategy to tackle critical business initiatives, including market identification, segmentation, brand health, loyalty and advocacy, and product and service development.

For more than 35 years, CMB has helped the most successful brands and their executives give voice to their market through a relentless business decision focus, creative problem-solving and storytelling, deeply consultative approach and flawless execution. With dedicated financial services, media and entertainment, tech and telecom, retail and healthcare practices, CMB’s expert teams understand the complex and evolving technological, social, cultural and economic forces that drive disruption and create opportunity.

In 2020, CMB continued its growth trajectory, including building expertise in gaming and digital platforms and expanding its qualitative and advanced analytics teams. A thought leader in the application of consumer psychology to real world business issues, CMB conducted self-funded research among tens of thousands of consumers to capture the four core benefits that motivate decision-making—identity, emotion, social and functional—providing an in-depth look at more than 80 global brands. Further self-funded research explored the accelerating journey and path to purchase of today’s gamers.

41. Screen Engine/ASI

Founded: 2010 2019 U.S. revenue: $33 million Percent change from 2018: 10% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1.9 million Percent from outside U.S.: 5.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $34.9 million U.S. employees: 132

Screen Engine/ASI is a research-based consumer insights firm that stands for delivering its entertainment and media clients actionable insights and recommendations, not simply data. SE/ASI strives to help clients mitigate risk and maximize the potential for success. Through its Motion Picture and TV Groups, SE/ASI works across all distribution platforms for both domestic and internationally produced content. 

The company is centered on assessing the “abilities” of content as it migrates from the earliest stages of development through multi-channel distribution. The Motion Picture Group is the leader in traditional and digital in theater and online recruited audience screenings. Offerings also include PostTrak, a syndicated domestic and international in-theater exit poll, and ScreenExperts, an early assessment of critical response, creative ad testing, positioning and brand studies, custom work, and location-based and online focus group research. A cross-platform team within this group works with home entertainment, over-the-top and gaming clients. 

The TV group is the leader in location-based ViewTrac dial testing of pilots, programs and ongoing series and conducts online dial testing as well. Other offerings include location-based and online focus groups, promo testing, positioning and brand studies, and a variety of custom studies including custom trackers. SE/ASI syndicates Tracktion trackers including a TV tracker, a theatrical movie tracker, a home entertainment tracker and a premium video-on-demand tracker. All groups work in the company’s media lab equipped for biometric and new technology research. When appropriate, SE/ASI engages in advanced analytics techniques including, but not limited to, segmentation, conjoint, maxdiff and TURF analysis. 

40. MarketVision Research

Founded: 1983 2019 U.S. revenue: $33.2 million Percent change from 2018: 2.5% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $33.2 million U.S. employees: 140

MarketVision Research is a full-service marketing research firm, providing clients with actionable insights about their markets, customers, brands and products. Research areas of focus include product and portfolio development, pricing, branding, segmentation and customer experience. The company offers a full suite of quantitative and qualitative research capabilities and works across industry groups. These include:

• Optimization and discrete choice modeling as it applies to product and service development, branding, packaging and pricing.
• Online communities that are managed and developed entirely in-house with a focus on improving participant engagement and with additional support for mobile participation.
• Hybrid research, which uses 20 in-house moderators, along with marketing science professionals and global project managers, to facilitate qualitative and quantitative research seamlessly.

39. The Link Group

Founded: 1994 2019 U.S. revenue: $34.2 million Percent change from 2018: 23.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $0.3 million Percent from outside U.S.: 0.9% 2019 worldwide revenue: $34.5 million U.S. employees: 85

The Link Group executes research for Fortune 500 firms in the healthcare, retail, CPG and finance industries across both qualitative and quantitative methodologies and around the globe. TLG attributes its success to its core business philosophy: smarter research and better service. Its commitment to smarter research has allowed the company to take a creative, custom approach to its clients’ business needs that results in actionable and insightful reports. TLG delivers better service by maintaining a consistent research team across projects, allowing the team to anticipate and respond to client needs. This business philosophy has resulted in 99% of revenue coming from repeat clients.

This past year, TLG has continued to hone its research approaches to help elevate traditional research methods. For its messaging and positioning work, TLG developed a framework that triangulates quantitative survey data to determine how well messaging concepts will activate, communicate and engage the customer. In its segmentation studies, TLG blends science and art to create models that align with the client’s brand strategic vision by creating differences that are meaningful and actionable from a marketing perspective. TLG has leveraged its knowledge of behavioral economics to develop a validated, proprietary quantitative methodology—LinkEQ—that allows the company to reveal latent emotional associations.

Founded: 1983 2019 U.S. revenue: $34.3 million Percent change from 2018: -1.2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1.2 million Percent from outside U.S.: 3.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $35.5 million U.S. employees: 233

SSRS is a full-service market and survey research firm led by a core of dedicated professionals with advanced degrees in the social sciences. 

SSRS surveys support numerous media and academic partners looking to report on public attitudes and beliefs about a wide range of salient issues such as elections and public policy. SSRS is the polling partner for CNN, and conducts public opinion polling for ABC News, The Washington Post, Politico and CBS News. 

Beyond national polls, SSRS regularly conducts research at a state level, and among subpopulations such as Latinos and political partisans, and specializes in reaching hard-to-reach and low-incidence populations. SSRS has extensive experience in public policy, public affairs and health policy research. Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, SSRS has completed numerous studies surrounding its implementation and assessing Americans’ attitudes and experiences with the law. 

Since 2016, SSRS conducts the monthly Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll. SSRS is well-known for its weekly telephone Omnibus poll. The firm also offers the SSRS Opinion Panel, which allows clients to conduct probabilistic surveys quickly at low cost. The SSRS/Luker on Trends Sports Poll is the first and longest-running tracking study focusing on sports in the U.S. 

37. BVA Group **

Founded: 1970 2019 U.S. revenue: $36 million Percent change from 2018: 2.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $147 million Percent from outside U.S.: 80.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $183 million U.S. employees: 120

BVA Group is a fast-growing research and consulting firm, an expert in behavioral science, ranked in the top 20 worldwide agencies. BVA brings data to life and converts deep understanding of customers and citizens into behavior change strategies. BVA operates both for public and private clients with methodologies fueled by data science and behavioral science. 

Its FMCG specialist—PRS IN VIVO—is a global leader in packaging and shopper research. PRS IN VIVO helps consumer marketers to succeed through: 

• In-store and online studies to better understand shopper behavior, in both physical and e-commerce shopping contexts.
• Qualitative studies to develop, screen and refine new product, packaging and merchandising concepts.
• Quantitative studies to pre-test and quantify new packaging, merchandising and display systems (for physical stores and e-commerce).
• Volume forecasting and product testing for both innovations and brand restages.
• “Nudge” initiatives to facilitate behavioral change, create new consumer habits and drive category growth. 

BVA Group is a European leader in customer experience research. More than 100 leading brands use BVA’s behavioral insights to provide seamless shopper journeys and design successful new products and services, including solutions from its multi-awarded Global Nudge-Unit.

36. radius | illumination

Founded: 1960 2019 U.S. revenue: $42 million Percent change from 2018: — 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1 million Percent from outside U.S.: 2.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $43 million U.S. employees: 127

Radius│illumination is the product of a merger between Radius Global Market Research and Illumination Research in 2018. Together, it’s one of the largest independent custom insights providers in the world. Its focus is on guiding brands at critical points along their growth journey, tackling issues such as identifying compelling innovations, creating relevant customer segmentations and developing strategies for deeper loyalty and engagement.

Radius | illumination partners with Fortune 500 leaders as well as challenger, disruptor and emerging brands in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Its top sectors include financial services, personal care, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, technology, home improvement and durables, media and entertainment, packaged foods, beverage, retail and transportation.

Its 2020 initiatives to fuel brand growth for its clients include:

• Provide agile and robust solutions such as InnovationSprint to accelerate new product and service development.
• Increase its information design capabilities so clients can easily take action on the results.
• Focus on driving deeper insights by combining its advanced analytics strength with immersive customer understanding in its designs.
• Expand solutions through the integration of new technologies and behavioral approaches.

35. Market Force **

Founded: 2005 2019 U.S. revenue: $50 million Percent change from 2018: 2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $7 million Percent from outside U.S.: 12.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $57 million U.S. employees: 375

Market Force Information provides location-level customer experience management solutions to protect clients’ brand reputation, delight their customers and make them more money. 

Market Force operates at scale across the globe. Each month, the company:

• Completes more than 100,000 mystery shops.
• Collects, processes and analyzes millions of employee and customer experience surveys.
• Manages more than 100,000 inbound calls to its contact center.
• Hosts more than 1 million user logins on its KnowledgeForce reporting platform.

Market Force’s multi-location solutions provide a robust framework for measuring and improving operational excellence, customer experience and financial KPIs. Measurement channels include mystery shopping, customer experience surveys, contact center calls, social media and employee engagement surveys via the KnowledgeForce technology platform and Eyes:On mobile app. Market Force employs predictive analytics to determine what matters most and the ROI for investing in improvements. The firm takes a dual-headed approach to market research services (e.g., customer segmentation, attitude trial and usage studies and custom research projects) and strategic advisory services to design and implement effective measurement systems and improve performance.

Founded: 1991 2019 U.S. revenue: $52 million Percent change from 2018: 4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $6 million Percent from outside U.S.: 10.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $58 million U.S. employees: 400

As a leading customer experience management firm, SMG helps clients get smarter about their customers and employees to drive changes that boost customer loyalty and improve business performance. SMG combines technology and services to collect, analyze and share feedback and behavioral data, so it’s easier for clients to deliver and activate customer insights across their enterprise.

SMG partners with more than 350 brands around the globe to create better customer and employee experiences, which drive loyalty and performance. SMG uniquely combines technology and insights to help clients listen better, act faster and outperform competitors. SMG is a technology-enabled research firm with a global footprint—evaluating more than 150 million surveys annually, in 50 languages across 125 countries. 

Strategic solutions include omniCXTM, Brand Research and Employee Engagement. SMG’s omniCX solution uses multiple research methodologies in capturing solicited and unsolicited consumer feedback across in-store, online, contact center and social channels. Results are aggregated and reported via smg360TM—a real-time, role-based reporting platform providing access to all customer and related data. 

SMG’s research professionals partner with clients to derive business-changing insights. Within Brand Research, SMG offers traditional brand tracking as well as access to dynamic customer and competitor data through market intelligence tool BrandGeek. Fueled by SurveyMini—SMG’s location-based mobile research app—BrandGeek contains consumer feedback and behavioral data relating to more than 4,500 brands across more than 500,000 locations.

33. Hanover Research

Founded: 2003 2019 U.S. revenue: $52.7 million Percent change from 2018: 14.1% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $2.6 million Percent from outside U.S.: 4.7% 2019 worldwide revenue: $55.3 million U.S. employees: 358

Hanover Research is a brain trust designed to level the information playing field. Hanover is made up of hundreds of researchers who support thousands of organizational decisions every year. One of the industry’s fastest-growing companies, Hanover attributes this market success to its unique positioning as the only firm that provides tailored research through an annual, fixed-fee model. 

Hanover serves more than 1,000 organizations and companies worldwide from established global organizations, to emerging companies to educational institutions. Hanover’s research informs decisions at any level and across any department capitalizing on the exposure to myriad industries and challenges. 

Founded in 2003, Hanover operates on an annual fixed-fee model, and partnership provides its clients with access to a team of high-caliber researchers, survey experts, analysts and statisticians with diverse skills in market research, information services and analytics. There is no limit on the type of challenge that can be asked for on the quantitative and qualitative approaches Hanover uses to deliver solutions—most of which are very difficult to replicate internally.

Hanover’s custom research services include:

• Secondary research: market segmentation and evaluation; labor and demographic trends and forecasts; vendor and product reviews; best practices reports. 
• Survey: survey design, administration and analysis; open-ended response coding. 
• Qualitative primary research: focus group design and administration; in-depth interview design, outreach, administration and analysis. 
• Data analysis: data segmentation and mining; conjoint analysis; linear regression; descriptive and predictive analytics; data forecasting and modeling. 

32. Directions Research

Founded: 1988 2019 U.S. revenue: $54.2 million Percent change from 2018: 17.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $54.2 million U.S. employees: 181

Independently recognized as one of the leading business decision insight firms in the nation, Directions Research combines a highly experienced staff with a unique mix of innovative and proven approaches to answer pressing business issues. Directions and SEEK routinely combine primary and connected data from multiple sources to create holistic and actionable analytic stories for their clients. Through digital dashboards, infographics, written reports and other unique visualizations, the firm communicates its knowledge in a manner that is right for today’s leaders. 

Directions and SEEK excel in innovation, optimization, customer and brand experience, brand strategy, strategic business intelligence and visualization across a wide range of industries. The firm offers B2C and B2B services globally, surveying audiences using a broad selection of data collection techniques and combining those insights with existing client knowledge. Directions’ and SEEK’s staff have an excellent mix of client- and supplier-side experience. The organization allows senior researchers to work with clients on a day-to-day basis.

SEEK (acquired in 2018) is a qualitative insight and innovation consultancy, operating as an independent but connected division of Directions. SEEK empathically connects brands with the humans they serve, transforming the brand-to-consumer relationship into a human-to-human one. The SEEK approach builds brand advocacy for clients with the human-centric approach to innovation, activating empathy as an innate problem-solving capability.

31. Fors Marsh Group (FMG) *

Founded: 2002 2019 U.S. revenue: $57.5 million Percent change from 2018: 22.1% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: — Percent from outside U.S.: — 2019 worldwide revenue: $57.5 million U.S. employees: 263

FMG applies behavioral and data science to improve organizational processes, business solutions and customer experiences. This work is conducted within seven core U.S. markets: health, defense, technology, finance, homeland security, policy and consumer. 

FMG’s work for its clients wins industry and federal awards. FMG has been named as a top market research company by GreenBook and the American Advertising Federation and has been named to the American Marketing Association’s list of top market research companies in the U.S. for five consecutive years. FMG was also a finalist for the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council’s Igniting Innovation 2018 award for creating an innovative e-learning program that improved program awareness and usability for the General Services Administration’s Center for Acquisition Professional Excellence. 

For 2019 and beyond, FMG is focused on continuing this momentum and expanding in important areas. In its human capital practice, FMG is furthering its work in the cybersecurity industry to help the Department of Defense attract top cyber talent and to protect the nation’s infrastructure. FMG is also expanding its efforts in public service recruiting through new partnerships with the U.S. Army, U.S. National Guard and AmeriCorps. The company is proud that its partnership with these institutions will help shape the future of the U.S. For its health division, FMG is leveraging its deep experience in health communications to fight the opioid crisis by reducing stigma and removing barriers that victims face in receiving help—potentially one of the biggest challenges facing America today. 

30. National Research Group (NRG) **

Founded: 1978 2019 U.S. revenue: $59 million Percent change from 2018: 1.7% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $4 million Percent from outside U.S.: 6.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $63 million U.S. employees: 200

National Research Group, acquired by Stagwell Media from Nielsen in 2015, is a leading global insights and strategy firm at the intersection of entertainment and technology. Rooted in four decades of industry expertise, the world’s leading marketers turn to NRG for insights into growth and strategy for any content, anywhere, on any device. Working at the confluence of content, culture and technology, NRG offers bold insights for storytellers everywhere. 

Some agencies specialize in qual, others focus on quant—but NRG connects the two disciplines with hybrid teams expert in both modalities. The company is a one-stop, custom consultancy that tailors its approach to solve clients’ biggest challenges. 

The foundation of NRG’s qualitative work is a team of passionate, subject matter experts who connect deeply with consumers in any environment. NRG uses qual to discover the subconscious drivers that fuel our quantitative truths. Its quantitative work is anchored in sophisticated techniques with a focus on agility, creativity and rigor. NRG is method-agnostic and works collaboratively with its clients to solve complex problems in a simple way.

29. Cello Health * **

Founded: 2004 2019 U.S. revenue: $64.5 million Percent change from 2018: 23.3% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $58.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 47.6% 2019 worldwide revenue: $123 million U.S. employees: 260

Cello Health consists of four global capabilities that enable the company to offer best-in-class services and an integrated partnership approach to its clients. This unique mix of capabilities, combined with its collaborative approach, results in a unique fusion of expertise, providing powerful advisory and implementation solutions.

• Cello Health Insight is a global marketing research company, providing business intelligence to the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Cello Health Insight specializes in getting to the heart of its clients’ questions, using a large pool of creative and academic resources and providing design of materials and deliverables through a hand-picked project team—selected to best meet the needs of each individual project.
• Cello Health Consulting is the strategic consulting arm of Cello Health, focused on delivering business results by unlocking the potential within organizations, people, assets and brands. Cello Health Consulting works alongside clients to create practical solutions that ensure buy-in and build relationships. 
• Cello Health Communications combines science, strategy and creativity to unlock the potential of brands and assets. Its services underpin differentiated positioning and deliver brand optimization, focusing on multiple areas of development and launch, through commercial maturity.
• Cello Signal is a full-service digital capability bringing impactful messages alive in communications campaigns, content and film.

28. Macromill Group **

Founded: 2000 2019 U.S. revenue: $68.5 million Percent change from 2018: 2.2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $260 million Percent from outside U.S.: 79.1% 2019 worldwide revenue: $328.5 million U.S. employees: 275

Macromill Group is a rapidly growing global market research and digital marketing solutions provider bringing together the collective power of its specialist companies to provide innovative data and insights that drive clients’ smarter decisions. Macromill’s industry-leading digital research solutions deliver rapid and cost-effective solutions to the challenges businesses face today. 

The group’s leading business units are Macromill and MetrixLab. Macromill stands at the forefront of innovation, delivering unique marketing solutions. It offers exclusive access to the highest-quality online panels with more than 2 million members. Using its self-developed platform AIRs, Macromill provides full-service online research including automated survey creation and completion, data tabulation and analysis. Today, its business portfolio includes services such as offline quantitative research, mobile research, point-of-service database research (QPR), digital marketing (Accessmill), a DIY survey platform (Questant) and more. 

Metrixlab turns data from online surveys, social media, mobile devices and enterprise systems into valuable business information and actionable consumer insights. This helps leading companies drive product innovation, brand engagement and customer value. Owned and group panels provide expansive access to global respondents in mature and emerging markets. Its teams deliver strategic and tactical decision support by pushing the boundaries of data analysis innovation, combining cutting-edge technology with data science and proven marketing research methodologies. Clients across the globe rely on the company’s hyper-efficient data and insights ecosystem to deliver fast and affordable results.

27. C Space **

Founded: 1999 2019 U.S. revenue: $70 million Percent change from 2018: 2.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $18 million Percent from outside U.S.: 20.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $88 million U.S. employees: 354

C Space, part of the Interbrand Group, is a global customer agency that marries art and science to create rapid customer insight and business change. 

C Space works with some of the world’s best-known brands—such as Walmart, Samsung, IKEA and more—to build customers into the ways companies work and deliver on customer-inspired growth. By building real, ongoing relationships with customers—online and in-person—brands can stay relevant, deliver superior experiences, launch successful products and build loyalty. Through its “customer as a service” approach of research, consulting and communications, C Space helps businesses minimize risk and maximize growth.

The company integrates customers into the ways its clients work. By bringing stakeholders together around the customer, C Space’s clients create greater clarity and alignment in the actions that will most effectively drive customer growth.

C Space’s customized programs are tailored based on specific business needs and include private online communities, immersive storytelling, data and analytics, activation events, innovation projects and business consulting. C Space continues to invest in its people, existing capabilities like data and analytics, as well as new initiatives.

26. Engine Insights**

Founded: 2004 2019 U.S. revenue: $71 million Percent change from 2018: 4.4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $44 million Percent from outside U.S.: 38.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $115 million U.S. employees: 240

Engine is a new kind of data-driven marketing solutions company. Powered by data, driven by results and guided by people, Engine helps its clients make connections that count—leading to bottom-line growth, an inspired workplace and business transformation. 

Engine Insights (formerly ORC International) connects traditional market research with cutting-edge products to deliver clients a 360-degree view of their customers, employees and markets. Engine’s extended suite of solutions and products are designed to support business growth, from helping clients understand and outperform the competition to operationalizing both survey and behavioral data to identify, attract, engage and retain their audiences.

Engine Insights’ client services and products include custom research and omnibus surveys; customer experience, customer retention and brand engagement studies; and data management and data analytics. 

These services help clients:

• Think beyond products and services to drive business revenue.
• Use insights to inform more relevant messaging and creative.
• Get a complete 360-degree view of their customers.
• Segment audiences for better targeting.
• Develop the perfect product and take it to market.
• Create unique experiences that engage their customers and keep them loyal for a lifetime.
• Build an internal culture that attracts, retains and engages the best talent.

Founded: 1931 2019 U.S. revenue: $71.1 million Percent change from 2018: 9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $6.9 million Percent from outside U.S.: 8.8% 2019 worldwide revenue: $78 million U.S. employees: 253

Since 1931, Burke has consistently redefined expectations in the marketing research industry. From segmentation to customer engagement programs, product innovation and brand tracking, Burke prides itself on designing and executing objectives-driven quantitative and qualitative research. Working across a variety of industries, Burke helps its clients gain actionable perspective on their most critical business challenges, providing a range of solutions from agile to integrated strategic decision support.

Today, Burke continues to push the boundaries of what marketing research can be, seamlessly uniting research, strategy and education. Backed by Seed Strategy—its strategic consulting subsidiary—Burke has the capabilities to support its clients throughout every phase of the product or service life cycle, with expertise in strategy, innovation, branding and marketing. In addition, Burke provides comprehensive training on research fundamentals and best practices through the Burke Institute—its dedicated education division and the industry’s leader in research and insights training. Wherever its clients find themselves on the path to success, Burke is uniquely equipped to help them move forward with clarity, confidence and purpose.

Continuing its long tradition of research innovation, Burke recently unveiled two new offerings: Geode|AI, an integrated insights system that analyzes multiple data sources to uncover patterns, relationships and critical insights that are often hidden; and Quantiment, a robust machine-learning solution that jointly extracts richer insights from structured and unstructured data.

24. YouGov *

Founded: 2000 2019 U.S. revenue: $76.8 million Percent change from 2018: 11.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $107.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 58.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $184.3 million U.S. employees: 212

YouGov is a global provider of analysis and data generated by consumer panels in 42 markets. Its core offering of opinion data is derived from the proprietary YouGov Global Panel of more than 9 million people. The YouGov Global Panel provides the company with thousands of data points on consumer attitudes, opinions and behavior. YouGov captures these streams of data in the YouGov Cube, its unique connected data library that holds more than 10 years of historic single-source data. In 2019, YouGov panelists completed more than 25 million surveys.

YouGov’s data-led offering supports and improves a wide spectrum of marketing activities of a customer base, including media owners, brands and media agencies. YouGov works with some of the world’s most recognized brands.

Its syndicated data products include the daily brand perception tracker, YouGov BrandIndex and the media planning and segmentation tool YouGov Profiles. Its market-leading YouGov RealTime service provides a fast and cost-effective solution for reaching nationally representative and specialist samples. YouGov’s Custom Research division offers a wide range of quantitative and qualitative research, tailored by sector specialist teams to meet users’ specific requirements. YouGov data is delivered through Crunch, the most advanced analytics tool for research data, combining fast processing with drag-and-drop simplicity. YouGov has a strong record for data accuracy and innovation. 

23. Phoenix Marketing International

Founded: 1999 2019 U.S. revenue: $77 million Percent change from 2018: -3.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $4.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 5.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $81.5 million U.S. employees: 343

Global advertising and brand specialist Phoenix Marketing International operates in all major industries, utilizing modern technology, innovative research techniques and customized approaches to help clients elevate their brand, refine their communications and optimize their customer experience. 

With the launch of Phoenix’s AdPi Brand Effect Platform, clients now have access to continuous advertising measurement and performance improvement insights through a single platform, providing the ability to analyze their campaigns at any stage in the advertising life cycle, and the flexibility to draw upon each piece as needed. Through more than 20 years of experience and testing thousands of ads per month, Phoenix developed 19 category-specific ad measurement models that uncover the drivers and creative attributes that explain the “whys” behind an ad’s creative performance, with forward-looking estimates for ad memorability and brand linkage.

Phoenix continues to evolve its CX solution, launching Competitive Customer Experience, a measurement of how consumers perceive their overall experience with a brand, including key touchpoints along the journey. Grounding recent experiences with a client’s brand, competitor brands and non-categorical benchmarking, Phoenix is able to evaluate brand opinion, understand what drives great CX outside of the category, focus on emotional drivers of brand CX, and provide an external view of culture, consistency and brand promises.

22. Concentrix **

Founded: 1983 2019 U.S. revenue: $95 million Percent change from 2018: 11.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $130 million Percent from outside U.S.: 57.8% 2019 worldwide revenue: $225 million U.S. employees: 253

Concentrix is a wholly owned subsidiary of SYNNEX Corp., specializing in technology-enabled customer engagement and improving business performance for clients around the world. With more than 225,000 staff in more than 40 countries, Concentrix provides services to clients in 10 industry verticals: automotive, banking and financial services, insurance, healthcare, technology, consumer electronics, media and communications, retail and e-commerce, travel and transportation, energy and the public sector. 

The Concentrix Voice of the Customer solution combines technology with experience management services provided by its in-house team of hundreds of CX professionals. 

Powered by analytic tools and artificial intelligence, its customer feedback platform ConcentrixCX helps companies listen, analyze and act on omnichannel customer feedback at any point in the customer journey, at scale. Features include data capture and integration, real-time reporting and analytics, and coaching and employee engagement tools. Concentrix continues to invest in enhanced platform functionality—for example, multi-source data expansion of its proprietary text analytics engine, including structured and unstructured customer feedback sources such as surveys, social, messaging, complaints and email. New digital data collection capabilities include a conversational feedback bot and embedded micro-journey surveys. 

Concentrix experience management services range from program management to strategic advisory services and are custom tailored to free clients’ internal teams to focus on transformational impact. Its CX experts specialize in quantitative and qualitative techniques, delivering data-driven insights through solutions such as survey design, relational loyalty research, CX journey analytics, digital channel optimization, customer segmentation, customer effort assessment and integrated CX analytics.

21. Escalent

Founded: 1975 2019 U.S. revenue: $97.1 million Percent change from 2018: -3.4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $5.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 5.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $102.6 million U.S. employees: 352

Escalent is a human behavior and analytics firm specializing in industries facing disruption. The company transforms data and insights into an understanding of what drives human behavior, and it helps businesses turn those drivers into actions that build brands, enhance customer experiences and inspire product innovation. 

Escalent specializes in automotive and mobility, consumer and retail, energy, financial services, health, technology and telecommunications. Focusing on select industries allows Escalent to function as a trusted business partner who knows the challenges its clients face and understands how to engage their most valuable audiences. 

Escalent has three centers of excellence: Qualitative Research combines emerging technologies, anthropology and ethnography to tap into human insights that reveal real needs and potential; Marketing & Data Sciences combine survey, behavioral, transactional and third-party data to solve tough research challenges; and Insight Communities provides private, online platforms for brands to engage with groups of stakeholders to quickly and easily draw insights.

20. dunnhumby **

Founded: 2001 2019 U.S. revenue: $100 million Percent change from 2018: -3.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $335 million Percent from outside U.S.: 77% 2019 worldwide revenue: $435 million U.S. employees: 230

Dunnhumby is a customer science company that analyzes data and applies insights for almost 1 billion shoppers across the globe to create personalized customer experiences in digital, mobile and retail environments. Its strategic process, proprietary insights and multichannel media capabilities build loyalty with customers to drive competitive advantage and sustained growth for clients. Dunnhumby uses data and science to understand customers, then applies that insight to create personalized experiences that build lasting emotional connections with retailers and brands. It’s a strategy that demonstrates when companies know and treat their customers better than the competition, they earn more than their loyalty—they earn a competitive advantage.

Dunnhumby was established in the U.S. to help retailers and manufacturers put the customer at the heart of their business decisions. Analyzing data from millions of customers across the country, dunnhumby enables clients to use this insight to deliver a better shopping experiences and more relevant marketing to their customers.

By putting best customers at the center of every decision, dunnhumby’s approach delivers measurable value, competitive edge and even more customer data to fuel ongoing optimization, setting clients up for long-term success.

Dunnhumby serves a prestigious list of retailers and manufacturers in grocery, consumer goods, health, beauty, personal care, food service, apparel and advertising, among others. Clients include Tesco, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Macy’s and PepsiCo.

19. Informa Financial Intelligence**

Founded: 2016 2019 U.S. revenue: $107 million Percent change from 2018: 1.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $36 million Percent from outside U.S.: 25.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $143 million U.S. employees: 500

Informa Financial Intelligence is a leading provider of business intelligence, market research and expert analysis to the financial industry. The world’s top global financial institutions and banks look to Informa Financial Intelligence for its authority, precision and forward-focused analysis. 

Informa Financial Intelligence consists of key research, analysis and industry experts, such as Informa Research Services, EPFR Global, Informa Global Markets, iMoneyNet, Informa Investment Solutions, eBenchmarkers and Mapa Research.

Informa Financial Intelligence provides fund and wealth managers, traders, insurers, analysts, and investment and retail bankers with the intelligent advantage to make informed decisions, understand past trends, forecast future performance, drive profitability and increase returns.

Because of their strong background in the financial industry, the research teams of Informa Financial Intelligence are highly qualified to help financial institutions with their market research needs. Informa’s researchers are experts in benchmarking studies, competitive intelligence, new product development and usability testing, customer and member satisfaction and loyalty research, brand and advertising awareness research, and mystery shopping services for sales and service quality evaluation, legal and match pair testing, compliance, discrimination and misleading sales practices testing. Informa is considered a leader in the use of market research to limit the risk associated with allegations of discrimination, UDAAP (unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices), predatory lending and misleading sales practices.

18. NRC Health

Founded: 1991 2019 U.S. revenue: $113 million Percent change from 2018: 10.8% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $3.6 million Percent from outside U.S.: 3.1% 2019 worldwide revenue: $128 million U.S. employees: 448

NRC Health (formerly National Research Corp.) has helped healthcare organizations illuminate and improve the moments that matter to patients, residents, physicians, nurses and staff for more than 38 years. The company offers performance measurement and improvement services to hospitals, healthcare systems, physicians, health plans, senior care organizations, home health agencies and other healthcare organizations. 

NRC Health solutions help organizations stay at the forefront of healthcare by understanding the totality of healthcare consumer and staff experiences. Primary solutions include: 

• Experience solutions capture personal experiences, while delivering insights to power a new benchmark: n=1. Developing a longitudinal profile of customers’ healthcare wants and needs allows for organizational improvement, increased provider and staff engagement, loyal relationships and personal well-being. 
• The Loyalty Index, composed of seven aspects that combine to provide a 360-degree view of healthcare consumer loyalty—a single, trackable metric to identify emerging trends in consumer behavior and benchmark against peers. 
• Market Insights is a large U.S. consumer database that gives partners access to the opinions of 310,000 healthcare consumers in 300 markets, and access to resources to better understand target audiences and gauge consumer response to communications.
• The Transparency solution calculates star ratings from existing patient, resident and family survey data, and publishes those ratings to organizations’ websites. 
• The Governance Institute supports the efforts of healthcare boards across the nation—to lead stronger organizations and build healthier communities. NRC Health partners with organizations to improve governance efficiency and effective decision-making by providing trusted, independent information, tools and resources to board members, executives and physician leaders. 

17. MaritzCX **

Founded: 1973 2019 U.S. revenue: $118 million Percent change from 2018: — 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $44 million Percent from outside U.S.: 27.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $162 million U.S. employees: 600

MaritzCX is a software and research company that focuses on customer experience management for big business. The company offers a unique combination of award-winning CX software, industry-leading data and research science, deep vertical market expertise and managed program services. MaritzCX provides a full-service professional CX approach designed to continuously improve the customer experience across an enterprise’s customers, employees, prospects and partners. 

MaritzCX’s research insights include its leading CXStandards competitive benchmarking research that delivers quarterly benchmarks for 55 CX categories across 16 industries. Its CXEvolution study of more than 10,000 practitioners’ feedback informed large enterprises of their CX gaps. 

The company’s focus is to leverage the MaritzCX platform, its industry-leading studies and research services to drive more meaningful experiences between its clients and their customers by adding product and research services and continued thought leadership in the CX market. In addition, MaritzCX has received CMS-certification for HCAHPS surveys, becoming the industry’s first CX platform company to offer an inclusive CX-based patient experience platform.

MaritzCX specializes in solutions for key industries, including automotive, financial services, retail, technology, B2B and more. Its global reach includes more than 900 full-time employees and 800-plus part-time or contract employees in 19 offices around the world. MaritzCX provides solutions to more than 500 clients and 1.6 million users who speak 72 languages in 100 countries. MaritzCX is committed to being its clients’ customer experience research partners.

In March 2020, InMoment acquired MaritzCX.

16. DRG (Decision Resources Group) **

Founded: 1990 2019 U.S. revenue: $140 million Percent change from 2018: 2.2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $53 million Percent from outside U.S.: 27.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $193 million U.S. employees: 399

DRG, the Health Science & Analytics Division of Piramal Enterprises, is a global information and technology services company that provides proprietary data and solutions to the healthcare industry. DRG has brought together best-in-class companies to provide end-to-end solutions to complex challenges in healthcare. DRG reframes these challenges, enabling its customers to see the opportunities. Pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical technology and managed care companies rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions critical to their success.

Framing the current status and future trends in target healthcare markets using data, primary research and secondary research is a core competency of DRG. Product offerings include high‐value analytics, syndicated research, proprietary databases, decision support tools and advisory services.

DRG has a number of key specialties, including syndicated research focused on new therapeutic opportunities; portfolio planning, changing industry dynamics and global treatment patterns; insights and data on physician and consumer healthcare e‐marketing; and proprietary databases and analytics covering more than 90% of the U.S. managed care markets. 

15. Wood Mackenzie **

Founded: 1973 2019 U.S. revenue: $150 million Percent change from 2018: 3.4% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $335 million Percent from outside U.S.: 69.1% 2019 worldwide revenue: $485 million U.S. employees: 337

Wood Mackenzie, a Verisk business, is a leading research and consultancy business for the global energy, chemicals, metals and mining industries. Wood Mackenzie launched in 1923 as a small, relatively unknown, Edinburgh, Scotland-based stockbroker. By the 1970s, it had become one of the top three stockbrokers in the UK, renowned for the quality of its equity research. 

Its success has always been underpinned by the clear and simple principle of providing trusted research and advice that would make a difference to clients. This was true when the first oil report was published by its equity analysts in 1973 and remains just as relevant to it today. So much so that, over the past four decades, Wood Mackenzie has drawn upon its heritage to create a global research and consultancy business that has grown alongside the needs of its clients. 

Having cultivated deep expertise in upstream oil and gas, Wood Mackenzie has carefully broadened its focus to deliver the same level of detailed insight for every interconnected sector of the energy, chemicals, metals and mining industries it now serves around the world. But heritage is more than just history. Its expert analysts and consultants have connected the company to some of the most significant events of our time—creating insight for governments, boards and CEOs who have helped shape the future direction of the world’s natural resources industries and their impact on society. 

14. Material *

Founded: 1973 2019 U.S. revenue: $166.7 million Percent change from 2018: 0.3% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $57.9 million Percent from outside U.S.: 25.8% 2019 worldwide revenue: $224.6 million U.S. employees: 1,038

In 2019, Material (under the name LRW Group) acquired five companies: Killer Visual Strategies, an award-winning visual communication agency based in Seattle; Greenberg Strategy, a Bay Area research and strategy consultancy with a strong presence in the tech community; Karma Agency, a strategic communications firm based in Philadelphia; Salt Branding, a Bay Area consultancy; and T3, an Austin, Texas-based digital marketing agency. This year, Material is taking steps to unify these companies under one brand, integrating their services and building a collaboration that will provide seamless, end-to-end marketing solutions for clients. This year, LRW Group rebranded as Material, formally integrating 10 companies into one modern, unified offering.

Material is a radical collaboration of the top research and analytics firms seamlessly paired with the most creative and strategic marketing agencies, all with the shared mission of igniting growth for the world’s top B2B and B2C brands, from Fortune 500 companies to disruptive start-ups. Material offers a full range of marketing services—from data analytics and insights, to consulting and strategy development, to customer experience programs and creative executions. Material employs a roster of 1,200 strategists, creators, technologists, designers, researchers and storytellers that work side-by-side with clients to solve modern-day problems, build customer loyalty and make an impact on the world around us.

Founded: 1969 2019 U.S. revenue: $173.7 million Percent change from 2018: 0.5% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $52.6 million Percent from outside U.S.: 23.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $226.3 million U.S. employees: 5,311

ICF is a global consulting services provider with more than 7,000 professionals focused on making big things possible for its commercial and government clients in the U.S., Europe and Asia. 

Clients work with ICF on issues that matter profoundly to their success, whether it’s a product or program that matters to the business or a social issue or policy that matters to the world. ICF offers comprehensive survey research services that empower clients to gain valuable and actionable insights on issues that matter. 

For more than 40 years, ICF has demonstrated design, methodological and statistical knowledge through the implementation of large and complex survey research projects. Its clients consist of U.S. federal, state and local agencies, universities, nonprofits and commercial organizations. 

Its survey research services include: 

• Analyzing, reporting and presenting findings.
• Conducting surveys through a variety of data collection methods. 
• Designing samples, data collection protocols and instruments.
• Protecting all processes and data through quality assurance and system security.

ICF recently completed the installation of a state-of-the-art, fully integrated and security-enhanced data collection system, allowing the company to securely and most efficiently collect survey research data across all modes. ICF continues to be dedicated to solving the world’s most complex challenges and tackle problems with ingenuity on issues that matter profoundly to its clients.

12. J.D. Power **

Founded: 1968 2019 U.S. revenue: $217 million Percent change from 2018: 3.3% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $113 million Percent from outside U.S.: 34.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $330 million U.S. employees: 744

J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. Those capabilities enable J.D. Power to help its clients drive customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. J.D. Power offers market research, forecasting, consulting, training and consumer surveys of product and service quality, customer satisfaction and buyer behavior. The company’s independent industry benchmark studies, innovative data and analytics products, and customized advisory services provide insights and help companies improve quality, engagement and business performance.

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 opinions and perspectives of consumers who have used the products and services being rated. 

J.D. Power is most often recognized for its work in the automotive industry, where its metrics have become the industry standard for measuring product 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. 

11. Forrester Research Services **

Founded: 1983 2019 U.S. revenue: $233.7 million Percent change from 2018: 32.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $65 million Percent from outside U.S.: 21.8% 2019 worldwide revenue: $298.7 million U.S. employees: 525

Forrester Research Services is the research component of Forrester, one of the most influential research and advisory firms in the world. Forrester works with business and technology leaders to develop customer-obsessed strategies that drive growth. Its unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 675,000 consumers and business leaders worldwide, rigorous and objective methodologies, and the shared wisdom of its most innovative clients. 

Forrester’s research offerings consist of a library of cross-linked documents that interconnect its playbooks, reports, data, product rankings, best practices, evaluation tools and research archives. Research access is provided through role-based websites that facilitate client access to research and tools that are most relevant to their professional roles, including community tools that allow interaction between and among clients and analysts.

Forrester’s research and decision tools enable clients to better anticipate and capitalize on the disruptive forces affecting their businesses and organizations, providing insights and frameworks to drive growth in a complex and dynamic market. 

Founded: 1934 2019 U.S. revenue: $320 million Percent change from 2018: 3.2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1,280 million Percent from outside U.S.: 80% 2019 worldwide revenue: $1,600 million U.S. employees: 860

GfK connects data and science. Innovative research solutions provide answers for key business questions around consumers, markets, brands and media—now and in the future. As a research and analytics partner, GfK promises its clients all over the world “Growth from knowledge.” 

The increasing speed of product innovation, the rise of new channels and emerging customer needs are all part of business today. GfK’s clients are businesses around the globe. To make the best possible business decisions every day, they need more than purely descriptive data—they require actionable recommendations based on advanced analytics and powered by leading-edge technology. GfK is in the unique position to leverage proprietary and third-party data to create indispensable predictive market and consumer insights and recommendations.

GfK’s industry focus provides its market researchers with a thorough understanding of business issues and questions specific to their concerns. Industries covered include automotive, consumer goods, fashion and lifestyle, media and entertainment, retail, technology, and travel and hospitality.

9. comScore * **

Founded: 1999 2019 U.S. revenue: $336.1 million Percent change from 2018: -6.5% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $52.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 13.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $388.6 million U.S. employees: 870

ComScore is a global information and analytics company that measures advertising, content and the consumer audiences of each across media platforms. ComScore creates its products using a global data platform that combines information on digital platforms (smartphones, tablets and computers), television and movie screens with demographics and other descriptive information. 

ComScore has developed proprietary data science that enables measurement of person-level and household-level audiences, removing duplicated viewing across devices and over time. This combination of data and methods enables a common standard for buyers and sellers to transact on advertising. This helps companies across the media ecosystem better understand and monetize their audiences and develop marketing plans and products to more efficiently and effectively reach those audiences. ComScore’s ability to unify behavioral and other descriptive data enables it to provide audience ratings, advertising verification and granular consumer segments that describe hundreds of millions of consumers. 

ComScore offers several solutions to help advertisers maximize cross-platform marketing effectiveness—be it measuring brand impact, viewability or ad and audience delivery validation—as well as power cross-platform advertising for better targeting and stronger advertising ROI. ComScore Advanced Audience segments go beyond age and gender to help advertisers better target consumers based on lifestyles, behaviors, demographics and interests. ComScore pioneered this concept in digital, local and national TV. 

8. The NPD Group

Founded: 1966 2019 U.S. revenue: $339.5 million Percent change from 2018: 8.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $104.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 23.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $444 million U.S. employees: 1,185

NPD’s global information and advisory services help the world’s leading brands achieve data-driven growth. NPD combines data, industry expertise and prescriptive analytics across more than 20 industries to help its clients measure markets, predict trends and improve performance.

NPD syndicated services include retail tracking, distributor tracking and consumer tracking. NPD offers weekly data, store-level enabled data for looking at geographies or custom store groupings and account-level information for participating retailers. Point-of-sale data is collected from more than 600,000 doors worldwide, plus e-commerce and mobile platforms. Consumer information is collected via online surveys and NPD’s Checkout service, which uses receipt harvesting to track and analyze purchasing and behavior. Prescriptive analytics include market forecasting, new product forecasting, pricing and promotion evaluation and segmentation. 

With deep expertise in more than 20 industries, NPD provides thought leadership to the C-suites of many of the world’s leading brands. Senior industry advisors are available for strategy sessions to guide long-range planning or address specific needs, such as preparing for earnings calls. Topics include industry and category performance, the state of retail and winning strategies of best-in-class companies.

7. Westat **

Founded: 1963 2019 U.S. revenue: $590 million Percent change from 2018: 3.5% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $7 million Percent from outside U.S.: 1.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $597 million U.S. employees: 1,900

Westat is a 100% employee-owned research and professional services company. Westat provides extensive survey design and operations capabilities in support of modern data collection from households, institutions, businesses and individuals. Westat applies multiple modes of data collection and survey management to achieve maximum response rates.

The company’s focus areas and capabilities include: 

• Statistical analysis and methodological research in survey design, experiments and testing, data science and analytics, statistical disclosure control and qualitative research.
• Program, process and outcome evaluation using diverse methodologies from design to implementation to guide each program to success.
• Health research, including behavioral and mental health, clinical studies and clinical trials, public and international health, healthcare delivery, patient safety and health communications campaigns.
• Social policy research and technical assistance for implementing innovative evaluation, quality improvement and service delivery systems.
• Education programs for supporting teachers, conducting evaluations and providing technical assistance.
• Transportation studies of travel behaviors, safety and human factors using advanced technologies such as instrumented vehicles and simulators, field observational studies, and online and mobile device-based surveys.

To support its research projects, Westat designs tailor-made approaches for clients as well as invests in many general and specialized IT technologies and products. Westat also provides licensing, training and support for Blaise, a major data collection software system produced by Statistics Netherlands and used internationally. 

Founded: 1975 2019 U.S. revenue: $682 million Percent change from 2018: 16.2% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1,685 million Percent from outside U.S.: 71.2% 2019 worldwide revenue: $2,367 million U.S. employees: 2,025

Ipsos, through its subsidiaries, engages in collecting, processing and delivering survey data for brands, companies and institutions primarily in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It explores market potential and market trends, tests products and advertising, helps clients build long-term relationships with customers, studies audiences and their perceptions of various media and measures public opinion trends. Ipsos offers advertising research services, including advertising tracking and brand equity evaluation services that help advertisers in the development, evaluation and improvement of their advertising efforts.

It also provides marketing research services that help clients to identify business opportunities and innovation platforms, develop strategies at point of sale, generate insights and ideas, develop and optimize their mix, and model and forecast sales volumes, as well as offers custom innovative products and solutions to address stakeholder experience and brand-building business goals.

In this unique year, Ipsos has remained strong and reaffirmed its ambition and sense of purpose to deliver reliable information for a true understanding of society, markets and people. Ipsos activates this vision for more than 5,000 customers through its presence in 90 markets both globally and locally. Ipsos covers the whole information production and analysis chain, from the collection of raw data to the activation of the insights. It has a solid tradition of innovation expressed by new methodological developments and continuously renewed product range.

5. Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) **

Founded: 1979 2019 U.S. revenue: $815 million Percent change from 2018: 1.9% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $510 million Percent from outside U.S.: 38.5% 2019 worldwide revenue: $1,325 million U.S. employees: 3,639

IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help consumer packaged goods, over-the-counter healthcare organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. A confluence of major external events—a change in consumer buying habits, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and personalized consumer activation—is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quest to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth.

In 2019, IRI announced the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into its leading suite of analytics solutions, retained 100% of its major CPG clients and welcomed new strategic partnerships with top retailers in the U.S. IRI added several innovators to its leadership team while continuing to invest in its employees by providing ongoing training. 

4. Kantar **

Founded: 1993 2019 U.S. revenue: $950 million Percent change from 2018: 2.7% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $2,900 million Percent from outside U.S.: 75.3% 2019 worldwide revenue: $3,850 million U.S. employees: 3,585

Kantar is one of the world’s largest data, insights and consulting companies, bringing together some of the world’s leading research, data and insights expertise. Kantar’s offer covers the breadth of techniques and technologies, from purchase and media data to predicting long-term trends; from neuroscience to exit polls; from large-scale quantitative studies to qualitative research, incorporating ethnography and semiotics. 

In April 2019, all services and offerings of the various Kantar companies were combined under the Kantar brand name. This operational change enables Kantar to build platforms and offers on a global scale and to remove barriers to collaboration and co-creation within the organization to better meet clients’ needs. 

As part of this branding strategy, Kantar launched several initiatives:

• Kantar Marketplace, a global on-demand research and insights store.
• Kantar’s new Brand Guidance System that intelligently integrates validated survey measures with social, search, sales media and behavioral data to provide actionable insights to optimize brand or campaign performance.
• Integration of big data, artificial intelligence and analytical capabilities from across the company into one resource that unlocks deeper insights to fuel growth.

3. Gartner Research **

Founded: 1972 2019 U.S. revenue: $1,800 million Percent change from 2018: 4.7% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $1,474.5 million Percent from outside U.S.: 45% 2019 worldwide revenue: $3,274.5 million U.S. employees: 4,500

Gartner Research delivers independent, objective advice to leaders across an enterprise through subscription services that include on-demand access to published research content, data and benchmarks, and direct access to a network of approximately 2,300 research experts located around the globe. Gartner Research is the fundamental building block for all Gartner products and services. It combines its proprietary research methodologies with extensive industry and academic relationships to create Gartner products and services that address each role across an enterprise. Gartner’s research agenda is defined by clients’ needs, focusing on the critical issues, opportunities and challenges they face every day. Its proprietary research content, presented in the form of reports, briefings, updates and related tools, is delivered directly to the client’s desktop via its website or product-specific portals.

Within the research segment, Global Technology Sales sells products and services to users and providers of technology, while Global Business Sales sells products and services to all other functional leaders, such as supply chain, marketing, human resources, finance, legal and sales. 

2. IQVIA * **

Founded: 2016 2019 U.S. revenue: $2,220 million Percent change from 2018: 8.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $2,166 million Percent from outside U.S.: 49.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $4,386 million U.S. employees: 6,000

IQVIA is a global provider of information, innovative technology solutions and contract research services focused on helping healthcare clients find better solutions for patients. Formed through the 2016 merger of Quintiles and IMS Health, IQVIA applies human data science—leveraging the analytic rigor and clarity of data science to the ever-expanding scope of human science—to enable companies to reimagine and develop new approaches to clinical development and commercialization, speed innovation and accelerate improvements in healthcare outcomes. 

IQVIA has three operating segments: Technology & Analytics Solutions, Research & Development Solutions and Contract Sales & Medical Solutions. Powered by the IQVIA CORE, IQVIA delivers unique and actionable insights at the intersection of large-scale analytics, transformative technology and extensive domain expertise, as well as execution capabilities to help biotech, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, medical researchers, government agencies, payers and other healthcare stakeholders tap into a deeper understanding of diseases, human behaviors and scientific advances, in an effort to advance their path toward cures.

IQVIA has one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of healthcare information in the world, which includes more than 800 million comprehensive, longitudinal, non-identified patient records spanning sales, prescription and promotional data, medical claims, electronic medical records, genomics and social media. Its scaled and growing information set contains more than 35 petabytes of proprietary data sourced from more than 150,000 data suppliers and covering more than 1 million data feeds globally. Based on this data, IQVIA delivers information and insights on more than 85% of the world’s pharmaceuticals, helping its clients run their organizations more efficiently and make better decisions to improve their clinical, commercial and financial performance. 

1. Nielsen **

Founded: 1923 2019 U.S. revenue: $3,875 million Percent change from 2018: 1.6% 2019 non-U.S. revenue: $2,623 million Percent from outside U.S.: 40.4% 2019 worldwide revenue: $6,498 million U.S. employees: 10,300

Nielsen is a global measurement and data analytics company that provides a complete and trusted view of consumers and markets worldwide. Nielsen is divided into two business units: Nielsen Global Media and Nielsen Global Connect. 

Nielsen Global Media provides media and advertising clients with unbiased and reliable metrics that create the shared understanding of the industry required for markets to function, enabling its clients to grow and succeed across the $600 billion global advertising market. Nielsen Global Media helps clients define exactly who they want to reach and optimize the outcomes they can achieve. The company’s cross-platform measurement strategy brings together the best of TV and digital measurement to ensure a more functional marketplace for the industry.

Nielsen Global Connect provides consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers with accurate, actionable information and a complete picture of the complex and changing marketplace that brands need to innovate and grow their businesses. Nielsen Global Connect provides data and builds tools that use predictive models to turn observations in the marketplace into business decisions and winning solutions. The business’ data and insights, combined with its open, cloud-native measurement and analytics platform that democratizes the power of data, continue to provide an essential foundation that makes markets possible in the rapidly evolving world of commerce. With Nielsen Global Connect’s set of guiding truths, businesses have the tools to create new opportunities.

* ‘% change’ calculation reflects adjustment of previously reported 2018 U.S. research revenue due to acquisition or divestiture activity or other business change during 2019.

** Some or all figures are not made available by this company so instead are based on research and estimation by the report author.

Diane Bowers is a consultant to research and data analytics businesses and industry associations in the U.S. and internationally. She previously served as the president of CASRO, board chair of the Global Research Business Network, a board member of the Americas Research Industry Alliance and a board member of The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University. She is also a past president of the Market Research Council and the Research Industry Coalition, and a long-time member of American Association for Public Opinion Research, AMA and ESOMAR.

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20 Top Market Research Companies (2024)

Self-serve market research tools are helpful when you need answers fast. But a market research company can be a great asset when you want data on a more personalized or granular level.

The data collected by a top market research firm can help you optimize your product marketing, communications strategy, customer experience, online user experience, and more.

From completely bespoke services to expert reporting on the topics that matter most to your audience, these are 20 of the best consumer and business-to-business market research companies.

Ipsos is a market research company that connects businesses with online communities.

When you work with Ipsos, you'll be matched with a community of people that share traits with your ideal customers. These similarities help you figure out what your ideal customer or user may respond well to.

Ipsos’ wide range of services covers multiple industries, including retail, healthcare, transportation, politics, and automotive.

With Ipsos, you can do things such as:

• Assemble custom panels of consumers
• Record interviews and mystery shopper journeys that document retail experiences
• View reports about key consumer insights and demographics
• Run brand, packaging, and product testing
• Conduct message testing for public affairs projects
• Develop studies measuring the quality of healthcare and patient satisfaction
• Engage in public opinion polling

You can also work with an Ipsos strategist to get further insights about your market.

Ipsos recruits its panel and community members through a variety of advertising channels, and participants aren’t paid for their involvement. Instead, members receive points they can later redeem for prizes.

Because Ipsos services are so customizable, you’ll need to get in touch with the Ipsos team to discuss your needs and receive a price quote.

2. Edelman DXI

Edelman Data & Intelligence (DXI) provides its customers with insights related to their target markets, customer behaviors, and broader economic trends .

The company is part of the Edelman global communications firm. By working with their DXI unit, you can get help with:

• Social listening and analysis
• Competitive market analysis
• Content auditing
• Paid media planning
• Risk forecasting
• Workforce analytics

Edelman DXI has offices throughout the world, so they can provide insights across a wide variety of global markets and audiences.

Because Edelman DXI services will be unique to each client, you’ll need to get in touch with the company to learn more about how much it will cost to become a client.

3. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is an alternative to traditional market research firms.

Rather than relying on a small panel sample or audience group selected by a firm, you can glean insights from what might be the world’s largest repository of consumer wants, needs, and insights: the internet.

First, we use artificial intelligence (AI) to listen to conversations happening across:

• News outlets
• Social networks

Next, our data analysis experts use this information to help identify the top market trends, topics, brands, and technologies that interest consumers and businesses today.

We enter these findings into our searchable database—and use it as the basis for insightful, actionable reports that break down the top trends you need to know about right now.

Our data stretches back 15 years and covers over 40 industries. Plus, it’s updated every day—so you always have fresh insights to work with.

Whether you rely on our reports or prefer to search the database yourself, you can use Exploding Topics data to support your:

• Entry into new markets
• Product development
• New marketing strategies
• Startup investing
• Competitor acquisition
• New business formation

You can access some of our trend data and reports for free right now. For complete access to every Exploding Topics data point and report—including our Meta Trends feature that shows how trends intersect—you’ll need a paid Exploding Topics Pro plan.

It’s just $1 for the first two weeks of your Exploding Topics Pro membership, and as little as $39 per month (billed annually) after that.

Gartner ’s market research services overlap with those offered by Ipsos, but cover a few additional industries including education, energy, and finance.

As a Gartner customer, you can:

• Review prepared reports
• Engage in personalized consulting services
• Attend industry events

The data gleaned from these reports and activities can help your company enhance its internal business operations as well as improve consumer-facing products or campaigns. Gartner’s information can be useful for:

• Understanding how to best position your brand
• Improving project strategy development and decisions
• Estimating tech lifecycles and improving corporate purchasing
• Evaluating your top market competitors
• Developing a more sustainable business strategy
• Determining how AI may impact your business
• Preparing for economic changes
• Improving your company’s market share

Some of Gartner’s reports are available for free on their website, so you can get a taste of what the company offers. If it seems like the right fit for your needs, you’ll need to get in touch with the Gartner team to get a price quote.

5. IMS Marketing

IMS is a full-service marketing agency—but they offer a market research arm to help B2B clients better understand how to position their brand and products.

Their customized services can help with:

• Understanding customer feedback
• Testing the feasibility of a new product or market
• Analyzing the competitor landscape
• Creating market segments
• Researching new audience groups
• Identifying and improving brand perception
• Pinpointing gaps in existing or prior research attempts

IMS Marketing is like Edelman DXI in that its services are entirely bespoke—the company doesn’t offer prepared reports like Gartner or Exploding Topics.

You can only become an IMS client after meeting with the company and allowing them to get a full understanding of your business, market, and objectives. Prospective clients can take the first step by getting in touch with IMS to set up a consultation.

6. Forrester

Forrester is a market research firm that provides insights for business, government, and technology operations.

While B2C businesses can use Forrester, a lot of the firm's data is especially valuable for B2B markets.

You can use Forrester insights to:

• Explore what business customers need and want
• Develop your tech stack to keep pace with competitors
• Prepare for supply chain and development challenges
• Review prepared sales strategy templates
• Discover competitor weaknesses

Forrester offers advisory services and access to data-rich reports, so you can choose whether you’d like to take a more self-directed approach or have hands-on help.

A single Forrester report may cost $1,000 or more, and advisory services are custom quoted based on your needs. Anyone interested in working with Forrester directly will need to get in touch with their sales team to discuss options.

Kantar offers market research services for a range of B2C industries, including consumer packaged goods (CPG), fashion, hospitality, retail, and technology.

Kantar’s research solutions include:

• The collection of qualitative consumer data in over 80 global markets
• Customized research surveys with panels prepared from a network of over 150 million respondents
• The development of healthcare professional and patient panels
• Expert survey design

The company also offers Kantar Marketplace, a do-it-yourself market research platform that lets users guide their own data collection and analysis efforts.

Marketplace access is available on either a pay-per-use plan or with an annual commitment starting at $50,000.

You can’t sign up on the Kantar website, though—for access to Marketplace as well as bespoke Kantar research services, you’ll need to get in touch with their sales team.

8. Bellomy Market Intelligence

Bellomy Market Intelligence is a consulting firm that works with retail, healthcare, financial, technology, energy, and consumer goods businesses.

Like several of the other market research firms on this list, Bellomy offers its clients access to panels of consumers that meet relevant B2B or B2C audience criteria.

You can then use these panels to:

• Run quick polls with rapid response times
• Host open-ended discussions to collect feedback
• Create ongoing focus forums for asynchronous discussions
• Watch as a Bellomy moderator leads members of your panel in an online chat
• Conduct one-on-one, in-depth interviews
• Track consumer behaviors and motivations with repeated daily online surveys
• Host in-person focus groups and retail events to collect data

Bellomy then uses AI tools to help its clients glean insights from qualitative and quantitative research results.

As with many other market research groups, you’ll need to get in touch with Bellomy to learn more about its available services and prices.

Campos is a market research firm focused on branding, product development, and customer experience data.

Campos works with corporations and public institutions seeking a rebrand. Its services overlap with those provided by IMS and Bellomy, and include:

• Product pricing research
• Consumer segmentation and analysis
• Demand forecasting
• Focus group creation
• In-depth interviews for customer journey mapping
• In-store observations

Unlike many research firms that conduct most of their analysis online—such as through video interviews and web-based simulations—Campos specializes in face-to-face analysis.

The company maintains a research center in Pittsburgh, where they're able to:

• Assemble and interview large panels
• Host software usability testing sessions
• Create model stores and homes for interaction testing
• Run mock jury simulations

Campos clients may watch the studies in action through two-way mirrors or view a live stream of research activities. The firm can also arrange for similar in-person experiences at partner locations around the U.S.

Campos services are based on scope and need, so you'll need to get in touch with the firm if you're interested in working with them.

10. Matrix Sciences

Matrix Sciences is a research and testing firm for agriculture and food brands.

The company's research arm conducts studies to discover consumer opinions around food products. They deliver a mix of quantitative and qualitative data through processes like:

• In-home product usage analysis
• Whole-household evaluations and interviews
• Panel discussions and interviews about food products or ideas
• Studies around how product packaging stands out in stores

Matrix Sciences also maintains a panel of expert sensory researchers who provide research and feedback around how a food item may be perceived. This process considers a product's:

• Visual appearance

Like Campos, much of Matrix Science's research happens in-person. The firm maintains 14 testing locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Prospective customers must get in touch with the company to discuss tests, options, and pricing.

Knit is an AI-powered research platform that quickly delivers panel data and analysis to clients.

You can use the tool to conduct qualitative and quantitative research. Tell Knit what you need, and the platform will assemble a panel from their database of over five million consumers.

Knit panelists range from 13 to 65 years old and are verified as real through a process involving both video and AI-generated questions.

Panelists can answer questions via video or survey form, depending on how the Knit study is set up.

You won't have to watch hours and hours of video, though. Knit uses GPT-4 to analyze these recordings and create:

• Video summaries
• Quick takeaways
• Key theme summaries
• Highlight reels

The platform also includes an AI research assistant that can answer questions about the data you get from Knit.

YouGov is a public opinion polling service.

The company offers opinion polling data for free on its website. These free data sets cover public opinion on topics related to:

• Business and economy
• Digital technology and media
• Entertainment, arts, and culture
• Health and science
• International affairs
• Politics and current affairs
• Travel and transport

You can dig down into each area of interest to learn about people's thoughts on specific people, brands, events, and more.

YouGov also provides data about survey respondents' habits. For example, they provide data on Americans' typical hours of sleep per night:

The ability to sift through all of YouGov's collected polling data may be enough for some users. If not, the company offers self-serve surveys, prepared surveys, and even custom research solutions for paying customers.

By working with YouGov, you can survey 26 million panelists living in 55 markets.

Because the company offers several bespoke solutions in addition to its free data, you'll need to set up a call with YouGov to learn more about options and pricing.

13. Fieldwork

Fieldwork is a qualitative market research firm offering solutions for focus groups.

You can engage Fieldwork to run a consumer focus group at their facilities throughout the U.S., your office, or another location around the world. Online focus groups are also an option for Fieldwork customers.

Fieldwork's support for medical and legal testing sets them apart from some other market research firms on this list. The company maintains permanent and portable medical simulation labs, and can also support:

• Medical device testing for FDA approval
• Medical device usability testing
• Mock jury research
• Trial simulations

If you're interested in working with Fieldwork to run a focus group, you'll need to submit a request for proposal through the company's website.

14. Kadence

Kadence is an international marketing and scientific research firm.

The company offers research services that can help you:

• Better understand customer preferences
• Improve market segmentation
• Plan the best way to enter a key market
• Streamline retail shopping experiences
• Evaluate how well marketing assets resonate with customers
• Assess brand metrics
• Find new market opportunities

Kadence conducts their research in several ways, including through:

• In-person focus groups
• Phone interviews
• Online communities
• In-person testing

They even offer sensory research and testing that's guided by neuroscience. This includes measuring eye movements and brain states when evaluating the reaction to a marketing campaign.

Kadence maintains offices in 13 countries. If you're interested in working with the Kadence team, you'll need to get in touch to request a price quote.

15. Second to None

Second to None provides mystery shopping services and conducts customer experience research.

You can work with the firm to conduct primary market research campaigns. These include:

• Customer surveys
• Brand reputation research
• Online community feedback
• Online and in-person mystery shopping

Second to None offers solutions for both B2C and B2B brands in a variety of industries including:

• Foodservice
• Financial service
• Consumer products and services
• Retail sales

Like many of its competitors, Second to None doesn't publish its pricing online. If you think the company's services are the right fit for your brand, you'll need to request an initial consultation with the firm.

16. Civicom

Civicom is a market research services group offering online and offline options.

The company can facilitate a variety of market research projects, including:

• Online focus groups
• Recorded in-person panels
• Mock jury trials
• Usability testing
• Hybrid online and in-person focus groups

Civicom also offers its own AI-powered report generation tool called Quillit. Civicom's clients can use Quillit to create summaries, produce research reports, and format documents. The tool is GDPR and HIPAA compliant, too.

The company's ability to conduct hybrid focus group sessions is notable—if you aren't sure what kind of market research work you need, Civicom is a good place to start.

You'll need to call, email, or chat with Civicom team members online to learn more about options and pricing.

17. Cascade Insights

Cascade Insights is a custom market research firm for B2B technology companies.

Cascade Insights works with companies that produce a product or service related to:

• Generative AI
• Cybersecurity
• Internet of Things (IoT) devices
• Computer hardware
• IT infrastructure

You can work with Cascade Insights to learn more about your ideal B2B customer through several types of market research services including:

• Customer experience research
• Product research
• B2B marketing and sales enablement research

Unlike some of its competitors, Cascade Insights continues to support its customers beyond the handoff of research findings. Every report comes with a plan for implementing the firm's findings.

The company also provides additional optional consulting and support services including strategy mentorship, marketing audits, and done-for-you marketing content.

If you're interested in working with Cascade Insights, you'll need to get in touch with the company to request a consultation and price quote based on your market research goals.

18. C+R Research

C+R Research is a qualitative and quantitative market firm delivering customer insights.

The firm serves a variety of consumer companies, including those focused on:

• Food and beverage
• Consumer packaged goods (CPG)
• Consumer equipment
• Financial services
• Media and telecom

The company provides support for their clients through qualitative, quantitative, and agile research services including:

• Advertising tests
• Package tests
• Pricing analysis
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Research panels and focus groups
• Online discussions
• In-depth interviews

C+R Research can also provide support for audience segmentation, customer journey mapping, and workshop facilitation.

If you're part of a consumer-focused brand and are interested in C+R Research services, you'll need to contact the firm to schedule a consultation.

Radius is a data science company focused on consumer research.

The company conducts more than one million quantitative surveys and 3,000 qualitative research sessions every year across 60+ countries. Radius conducts different types of research, including:

• Choice-based analysis
• Targetable segmentation
• Perceptual mind mapping
• Maximum difference scaling (MaxDiff)

The company applies these different techniques to research activities like:

• Retail shopping analysis
• Virtual and augmented reality experiences
• Ideation workshops
• Consumer chats
• Immersive insight sessions

Radius also says that it develops projects using a customized mix of non-traditional approaches—so if you've found it difficult to get the right research for your brand, Radius is worth a closer look.

To learn more about the company's techniques and methods, you'll need to contact the Radius team and schedule an initial meeting.

20. Corona Insights

Corona Insights is a bespoke market research services firm.

Like Cascade Insights, Corona works with its clients to develop a complete plan of action. This may entail:

• Identification of research needs
• Development of a research plan
• Execution of market research activities
• Review of findings
• Development of action plans

The company's primary and secondary data research services are broad, and include:

• Scientific surveys
• Online and in-person focus groups
• Statistical analysis
• Observational research
• Journey mapping
• Literature reviews
• User experience (UX) testing
• Econometrics

The company offers multilingual research, too. Coupled with the breadth of options, this makes Corona Insights a good fit for many companies across different industries and regions.

Potential clients must contact Corona Insights via their website to learn more about market research costs and services.

If you want a custom research solution, it's best to explore working with a market research consulting firm like Ipsos, Kantar, Corona Insights, or Radius.

For more self-directed or self-paced market analysis , tools like Exploding Topics and Knit might be a better fit.

Make sure that the tool you choose has the industry data, panelist profiles, or research approach you need to get the most accurate data for your company. With insights from the right market research agency, you'll be able to accurately and effectively improve strategy, product development, and more.

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How to conduct a market survey that works

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Knowing your audience is the backbone of success whether you’re a small business or a household name. And to know your audience, you need to do some all-important market research. But what’s the best way to go about doing that? Well, the easy answer is to use our market research platform to get on-demand insights into your existing audience and your potential customers.

But, if you want to take the long route, you could conduct a good old fashioned market research survey yourself.

What is a market research survey?

We’re glad you asked. A market research survey is a way of gaining information, insights, and attributes about your target consumers, so you can better understand them and what makes them tick. These surveys are typically conducted by market research companies . More information means more knowledge, which leads to more understanding – helping drive more successful campaigns.

But market research surveys don’t just help you improve your targeting and create campaigns that have impact. They provide valuable insight into the feelings, attitudes, and preferences of your audience – guiding everything from concept testing and launching new products, to brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

But what does it really take to conduct a market survey that works? Let’s get into it.

1. Set a clear goal 2. Know who to survey 3. Get help from survey-savvy people 4. Figure out the best way to get answers 5. Focus on the execution 6. Understand analysis is the answer 7. Uncover the bigger picture

1. Set a clear goal

Start by setting a clear objective of what you want from your market research. This will be determined by your marketing goals. If you’re launching a new product, for example, you’ll want to know what the demand is, how aware people are of your existing products/brand, if they currently use a competitor, and how frequently they buy.

Be precise about the outcome you’re looking for so you can get the answers you need to nail your future marketing campaigns .

• Why are you doing the survey?
• What do you want to find out from your research?
• Is it for product improvements with an existing audience?
• Are you looking to launch a new product into the marketplace and therefore need to know if there’s sufficient demand?
• Are you looking to improve your customer experience?

Knowing what you want to find out will help you identify what information you need. And it’ll help you determine whether a qualitative or quantitative approach works best.

The aim is to find out what your customers are looking for and improve satisfaction with your brand. 

Uncovering consumer attitudes could reveal some invaluable insights that will guide your strategy with the customer at the heart.

2. Know who to survey

Market research starts with identifying which market you’re targeting. Who’s your audience? Are you looking at existing customers? Or are you looking to find out more about potential customers? 

Think back to your goal here. Keeping in mind what you’re looking to achieve from your market research can help guide who you survey. For example, if you want to build on your customer offering by introducing a priority service, you may just want to gather information from people living in a certain area or earning over a certain amount.

Use regional data to attain precise information about the target customer whose data you need, and narrow it down to support your ultimate goal. 

Determine key demographics of your target audience like where they live, their age, gender, or income bracket. You’ll also need to establish the market size of your target market in order to calculate your sample size.

3. Get help from some survey-savvy people

Who knows about surveys? We do. 

We teased this at the start, but turning to an existing, ongoing survey (or multiple) could save you a helluva lot of time – and money. So if you need a faster way to understand digital consumers, we give you an on-demand window into their worlds. All in a few quick clicks, in one reliable audience insights platform.

GWI data spans 53 markets and represents over 2 billion internet users, making it the world’s leading market survey on digital consumers. 

We provide a level of detail you can’t find elsewhere. Survey research is tricky. So why not leave it to the market research experts? And if you want something super bespoke for your business needs, our Custom research offering might be just the thing. 

4. Figure out the best way to get answers

Cast your mind back to steps 1 and 2. Thinking about who you’re looking to survey and what you’re looking to gain will help determine how you get those answers from the right target market. 

Knowing the difference between primary research and secondary research, as well as qualitative and quantitative, can go a long way to helping you figure out the best approach. 

For example, primary market research is where you gather data that hasn’t been collected before – it’s new, essentially. You can gather primary research via surveys or observations. On the other hand, secondary market research is where you gather data that’s already been collected or conducted before by other people. You can find secondary research in published reports or studies. 

Surveys can be carried out in a number of ways, no longer exclusive to telephone surveys and focus groups. The online survey is another option that allows you to take a step away from the time-consuming paper survey. You can also conduct market research in groups or on an individual basis. 

Once again, the optimum approach for your brand will depend on your goals and the information you’re trying to capture, as well as your target audience, market share potential, and overall preferences.

If you want to gather in-depth information from Gen Z , for example, you might want to head over to Instagram. With 28% of Gen Zs saying that Instagram is their favorite social media platform, you’re most likely to find them scrolling here where you can try out polls to get answers, and  ask follow-up questions that dig a little deeper.

Using quantitative panel data to back this up, market researchers can come away with powerful insights and market analysis they can trust.

 5. Focus on the execution

Once you’re clear about your goals, the data you want, the people you need to talk to, and the best way to gather your survey data, it’s important to maximize the sample size. 

This means reaching people at the right time, checking out where they’re likely to be, and setting a realistic timeframe for them to share their thoughts.

You’ve got to really keep your target audience in mind here. If you’re physically interacting with people, think about the places they’re likely to visit, and at what times they’ll be there. There’s no use setting up camp at the mall on a weekday if you’re looking to talk to corporate big fish.

If it’s an online survey, understanding which social media platforms or websites they are likely to hang out on, and at what times they tend to be online is vital to getting those survey form completion numbers to hit the high notes. 

Conducting some data analysis ahead of the survey can go a long way in helping make the survey easier to reach the right audiences. Take the guesswork out of your marketing research.

6. Analysis is the answer

Once you’ve gathered your market survey responses, they need to be analyzed thoroughly to pull out key trends and findings to allow you to gain some tasty, actionable insights from the data. So, what do you need to be looking at?

• Examine qualitative answers for stand-out quotes and detailed feedback about attitudes and behaviors
• Calculate averages from your quantitative answers
• Compare your results against global and local secondary market research

There are plenty of ways to cross-examine and analyze your market research data based on the type of data you’ve collected and what you’re looking for.

7. Uncover the bigger picture

Conducting a single market research survey is invaluable to brands, but when carried out in isolation, market research can lack real-world relevance.  

To get more from your analysis, large-scale market survey data allows you to compare your findings across multiple data points. You can cross-reference it with local subgroups and compare against global averages to clearly see where the value truly lies.

Use case: Identifying affluent consumer behaviors on social media

Here’s a hypothetical example. Let’s say you sell a luxury product. You’ve identified from your own survey results and analytics that social media is prominent in your customers’ lives. 

But you need more detail to target high-earners on the channels where they’re most active.

By using a deep data set to dig down into their activity on social media, you can uncover exactly where they spend their time:

Combining this with questions designed to reveal their motivations for using social media takes your understanding to the next level:

Here, 30% of affluent consumers follow/subscribe to companies and brands they purchase from, so we’re more inclined to say they can be targeted with a good social media strategy from brands to be enticed into buying from them. 

Uncovering insights like this is key to delivering a well-positioned message that sticks. 

Now, you can create a campaign specifically targeted to hit your ideal target market, where they hang out and in a way that speaks to their interests.

Market research surveys are pivotal to success

Market surveys can be used in a variety of ways to help a brand focus more on its target audience and take a more people-based approach.

You can use it to get a better understanding of the perceptions around your brand, test the appetite for a new product, and find customer demographics to accurately pitch an ad campaign. A marketing research survey enables you to gather information about your audience and help to build a buyer persona for each sector of your target audience for more personalized, effective marketing strategies.

Data holds the answers you need to achieve almost every business goal.

But data is powerless without effective analysis. And without effective analysis, no insights can be drawn. So it pays to have third-party survey data sets at your disposal to contextualize your findings. A skillfully-planned market survey that catches customer feedback and experience will deliver findings that could spell the difference between success and failure in a marketing strategy. Leveraging GWI’s data platform means getting clued up on your audience fast, and making decisions you can stand behind.

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Top 17 market research companies in the United States (US) 

5. pollfish, 6. ascendant consulting firm, 8. ready to launch research, 9. antedote, 10. b2b international, 13. nielsen, 15.  forrester research services, 16. momentive, 17. veridata insights.

Your company can’t navigate the constantly changing marketplace without understanding business landscapes, consumer needs, or buying habits. Market analysis is key to how you find and capitalize on market trends before your competitors do. You can start by outlining research goals and needs. But let’s be real, making data-driven decisions is a whole lot easier with top market research firms by your side. 

The right market research agencies, platforms and companies do more than just surveys to offer actionable insights so you can make smarter decisions for business growth. They make consumer research easy with strategic zero-party data collection, comprehensive data analysis, and intelligent insights. 

If you’re tired of searching through market research companies in the United States, this article leads you straight to the best ones out there.

Here’s a quick rundown of the top US market research companies:

Looking to dive deep into the minds of your target audience? Sign up for a demo to see how Attest makes it effortless to gain consumer insights from 125 million consumers across the globe. 

Attest is one of the top market research companies in the US. This consumer research platform lets you collect data from 125 million diverse respondents in 59 countries. You can use Attest to do market research for branding , consumer profiling, market analysis, and much more! 

Every Attest customer has access to expert research advice from their in-house Customer Research Team. Whether you’re new to research and need some guidance, or a research pro looking for a second pair of eyes on your market research project, Attest’s Customer Research Team is here for you.

Besides speedy surveys and quick responses, this platform features an intuitive results dashboard that turns data into mesmerizing stories. You can also send surveys on a recurring basis to spot changes in responses or compare data from two groups. Plus, expert advice is only a click away when you aren’t sure about choosing market research tools or reaching market research goals.

Attest has been really instrumental in driving home the reality of the consumer need, and surfacing that it is much harder to get a younger demographic to engage with pensions. Georgie Burks , Head of Brand Marketing, Penfold

Trustpilot relied on the Attest market analysis solution to research consumer attitudes among marketers and engage them in eight key markets. Here’s what they think about the value Attest brings.

We were thinking about how businesses could look within their reviews and understand what was important to their consumers, but we didn’t actually know what the most important things consumers cared about were. So we decided the best way to find out was just to ask consumers themselves. Gillian Harris , Global Marketing Program Manager, Trustpilot

Location: London

Founded: 2015

Pricing: Pricing on request

Best for: 

• Market analysis: unlocks new market opportunities
• Brand tracking: measures brand health and performance
• Creative testing: validates the creative impact of ad campaigns
• Consumer profiling: dives deep into existing and future customers
• New product development: tests product ideas or marketing messages with your target market

Get reliable consumer insights fast with Attest

With Attest you get high-speed insights, so you can make informed decisions when they matter. And you get designated research advice from the experts in the Customer Research Team—they’re with you at every step of your research journey!

Bixa is a market research studio specializing in mobile youth research and custom UX research services. Their qualitative and qualitative research offerings are best for those trying to validate new markets, gather product feedback, or understand the target audience better. 

They make marketing research a breeze by completing the entire cycle of participant recruitment to report delivery in three to four weeks. Besides conducting customer surveys, user testing, and mobile ethnography, Bixa also offers market research consulting for companies looking to jumpstart their product and marketing research.

Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Founded: 2012

Pricing: Available on request

• In-depth interviews
• Product research
• Hyper-profitable targeting
• Customer surveys
• Usability testing
• Website and app review
• Team coaching

Suzy is a leading qualitative market research software with iterative research capabilities. Its end-to-end consumer insights platform offers qualitative insights into complex research questions. The best part is that you can get real-time data from Suzy’s proprietary audience of one million consumers. On the other hand, Attest offers a larger audience in more countries, making it ideal for those with market research campaigns spanning the globe. In addition, Attest provides designated advice from experienced researchers for all customers.

Suzy offers qualitative research solutions such as product development, advertising, shopper and behavioral insights, and tracking and measurement. Industries ranging from finance to media use Suzy to improve business performance through qualitative studies.

Location: New York

Founded: 2017

• Concept testing
• Competitive analysis
• Consumer profiling
• Positioning strategy
• Shopper and category insights
• Tracking research services
• UX design research

Remesh is one of the top market research firms in New York City. They offer artificial intelligence-driven research solutions to companies looking to streamline qualitative and quantitative insight discovery. This marketing research firm makes it easy for companies or governments to speak to thousands of customers or citizens at the same time. Then it analyzes interactions and opinions to offer key insights. 

Market researchers use Remesh to get actionable feedback on product ideas, messaging, and packaging from online focus groups. You can also use their online surveys to improve employee listening and boost corporate reputation. 

Founded: 2013

• Packaging testing
• Civic engagement
• Consumer insights
• Collective intelligence
• Employee engagement
• Shelf placement testing
• Product issue identification
• Employee experience and engagement

Pollfish is a modern survey research platform that uses artificial intelligence to help you create surveys in seconds. This DIY market research company helps you gain real-time insights from over 250 million consumers worldwide. The platform also comes loaded with cutting-edge technology capabilities for dynamic sampling and random device engagement.

Attest is a great alternative to Pollfish for conducting primary market research. Attest’s platform detects bad-quality responses that contain non-relevant, incomplete, and conflicting answers. Additionally, Attest is much easier to use and provides advice from experienced researchers.

Pricing: Starts at $95

• Brand awareness
• Brand perceptions
• Advertising testing
• Logo testing
• Brand diagnostics
• Product concept testing

Ascendant Consulting Firm is one of the best in the marketing research industry. They specialize in competitive intelligence, consumer insights, and market feasibility services. With 95+ years of collective experience in market research analysis, they help you make data-driven business decisions for business expansion, market entry, and assessments. 

The team at Ascendant is also adept at advanced quantitative analytics suitable for financial and strategic marketing analyses. Other key capabilities include full service market research, survey design, and secondary data research. 

Location: Miami

Founded: 2010

• White label research
• Product market research
• Market opportunity evaluation
• Survey reporting and analysis
• Employee experience and satisfaction research
• Consumer attitude, usage, and trends research

Isurus offers bespoke market research services to B2B and technology companies. This market research company leverages multiple statistical analysis tools to help you gain a 360° understanding of markets and decision-makers. Moreover, they also make it effortless for you to evaluate competitors for competitive advantage or validate market opportunities. 

Business software, manufacturing, and financial services companies rely on Isurus to keep a pulse on what customers want and find the right pricing strategies. The team at Isurus can also help you with brand tracking and creative performance testing. They specialize in quantitative, qualitative, international, and secondary research.

Location: Burlington

Founded: 2000

• Persona analysis
• Competitor profiling 
• Pricing strategy research
• Brand perception research
• Market segmentation research
• Customer satisfaction analysis
• Market assessment and planning
• Brand audit, tracking, and management

Ready to Launch Research is a California-based market research agency that serves a wide variety of industries with qualitative, quantitative, and digital research strategies. Whether you want to quantify consumer behavior or get qualitative consumer journey insights, they have the expertise to handle all your needs.

They leverage the following research methods to get you the insights you need.

• Creative testing
• Online discussions
• Home use test (HUT)
• Focus group moderation

Ready to Launch Research serves many dynamic industries ranging from pet to education to consumer electronics. Once you reach out to them with research requirements, they’ll get in touch to know more details and design the research process.  

Location: Los Angeles

Founded: 2014

• Ethnography
• Focus group discussions
• Advertising research
• Online communities research services

Antedote is an innovation consultancy that delivers strategic market research insights by combining data science, in-depth research, and next-generation digital tools. What makes them different is their ability to use different qualitative and quantitative research tools instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all approach. 

The team at Antedote helps you uncover insights in various areas such as user research, cultural research, and scenario planning. You can also partner with them for creating innovation roadmaps or concept development and visualization. Antedote’s plug-and-play approach means you have an agile and collaborative team that makes problem-solving easy with guidelines and blueprints. 

Location: San Francisco

• Brand positioning
• Concept crafting
• Demand space segmentation
• Internal engagement programs
• Price and proposition optimization
• Product and portfolio development
• Workshop design and facilitation

B2B International by Merkle is one the largest market research agencies in London , with several locations in the United States. This market research company serves B2B companies looking to gather business insights and intelligence. They can help you with customer loyalty testing, pricing effectiveness, and market size analysis. 

B2B International also specializes in delivering research services for go-to-market strategy, customer journey mapping, and voice-of-customer surveys. Their experience of working across different industries ranging from chemicals to media to logistics makes them uniquely qualified for B2B market research. 

Location: London (with offices in Boston, Chicago and New York)

Founded: 1998

• Market sizing research
• Customer journey research
• Thought leadership research
• Product and proposition research
• Customer research and segmentation

Ipsos is one of the top market research companies trusted by top brands and companies across the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Besides market strategy and innovation services, Ipsos also offers marketing management analytics, brand health tracking, and advisory services. 

With tailored market research solutions for every need, Ipsos helps you optimize brand positioning, discover shopper journeys, and understand consumers. The team can also help you with product testing, package research, and creative idea assessment. Other services include brand health tracking, employee engagement research, and channel performance optimization. 

Location: Paris (with locations in New York)

Founded: 1975

• Mystery shopping
• Brand health research
• User experience study
• Innovation and forecasting
• Social intelligence analysis 
• Creative development and assessment

Dynata is a first-party data platform that helps you gather and analyze business intelligence for efficient decision-making. Their platform streamlines the entire research workflow so you can focus more on insights. Dynata lets you ask questions to their proprietary 67 million consumers and visualize those responses effortlessly. 

The Dynata insights platform lets you build surveys for concept testing, creative testing, and ad-hoc market research. Other research services include market segmentation, brand health monitoring, campaign measurement, and voice of the customer surveys. With real-time dashboards and research reports, Dynata makes it easy for you to gain useful data insights. 

Location: Plano, Texas

Founded: 1940

• Survey authoring
• Digital ethnography
• Online research panel
• Online qualitative research
• Data analytics and reporting
• Brand performance tracking

Nielsen is a global data, analytics, and audience measurement company that offers bespoke research solutions to help you discover audience intelligence across channels and platforms. This market research company divides its services into four core categories:

• Media planning
• Content metadata
• Marketing optimization
• Audience measurement

Audience measurement is all about using quantitative and qualitative research to discover shifting habits of audiences. Media planning, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive understanding of competitive intelligence, audience segmentation, and scenario planning. Marketing optimization research services help you analyze and boost campaign performance. Finally, content metadata improves customer experience with easy audio and video content discovery.

Founded: 1923

• Scenario planning
• Competitive intelligence
• Audience segmentation
• Cross-platform audience measurement
• Marketing campaign performance analysis

Westat is a 100% employee-owned market research company that delivers superior quantitative and qualitative research services in transportation, health, social policy, and education. They specialize in survey research, statistical sciences, and providing technical assistance. 

Westat’s expertise in integrated data collection strategies helps them create focus groups, run web surveys, and create questionnaires for finding the right data. Plus, they use a research-driven communications framework to engage audiences effortlessly. They also use machine learning and artificial intelligence-assisted interviewing systems to solve your research challenges. 

Location: Rockville

Founded: 1963

• Custom research
• Clinical trials
• Survey and analytical needs
• Biomedical science research
• Behavioral health and health policy research

Forrester Research Services is the market research wing of the global research and advisory firm Forrester. Their customer-obsessed approach helps companies turn their strategic research needs into reality. They currently offer market research services to companies in technology, sales, B2B marketing, product, B2C marketing, customer experience, and digital business space. 

Forrester offers research services in the following domains:

• Sales operations optimization
• Marketing strategy formulation
• Competitive market intelligence
• Product lifecycle process research
• Corporate communications strategy
• Integrated campaign strategy planning
• Business change management strategy
• Customer insights collection and analysis
• Customer acquisition and retention research
• Route-to-market configuration and optimization
• Account-based marketing and demand generation research 

Location: Cambridge

Founded: 1983

• Public sector research
• Sales and product management 
• Customer experience analysis
• Digital business transformation
• B2B and B2C marketing research

Momentive is an artificial intelligence-powered market research platform that helps you gather on-demand customer and market feedback for actionable insights. This market research company is known for its agile experience management solution that lets you better understand markets, competitors, or even internal teams.

Their purpose-built market insights solutions offer you actionable insights from consumer panels. You can also decode buyer attitudes, understand consumer segments, and monitor buyer preferences. Mometive’s AI solutions also make it easy for you to conduct customer experience research, track product experience, and transform employee engagement. 

Location: San Mateo

Founded: 1999

• Market sizing
• Idea screening
• Industry tracking
• Shopper insights
• Customer effort score
• Mobile app experience 
• Customer segmentation
• Post-purchase experience
• Product and price optimization
• Custom market research services
• Employee engagement and retention

Veridata Insights is another top-rated market research company with recruitment capabilities to serve 100+ countries. Whether you want to analyze complex data with quantitative methodologies or need qualitative insights, they can help you with it all. 

The team at Veridata Insights strives to deliver stress-free, budget-friendly, and timely research services that keep you ahead of the competition. Apart from their proprietary technology and global reach, they’re known for data quality and panel strength. They can also help you gather business intelligence with data processing and easy-to-understand dashboards. 

Location: Dallas

Founded: 2019

• Consumer research
• Online data collection
• Survey programming
• B2B audience research
• Dashboards and analytics

Break into your US target market with Attest

Choosing the right agency isn’t easy, especially with so many players in the market research industry. Businesses often struggle with finding one that delivers accurate and valuable insights while simplifying their findings. Plus, the biggest challenge is targeting the right audience that matters to your business. 

Attest solves all these problems by letting you handpick the target audience you want to reach. You can use filters and quotas to filter the most appropriate audience from 125 million people in 59 countries. Moreover, the platform empowers you to run surveys that bring in results in days instead of weeks. With hybrid research and a three-layer data quality check, you’ll never have any nonsense answers. And you also get to interact with the data, thanks to the interactive dashboard. 

Ready to transform your business with easy-to-access consumer insights? Sign up for a dem o to see how Attest can be your ally in conducting market research effortlessly.

Make decisions based on reliable consumer insighs

Insights with Attest are triple-checked for data quality, so you know that you’re making smart decisions based on data you can trust.

Nikos Nikolaidis

Senior Customer Research Manager 

Nikos joined Attest in 2019, with a strong background in psychology and market research. As part of Customer Research Team, Nikos focuses on helping brands uncover insights to achieve their objectives and open new opportunities for growth.

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What Is a Market Research Agency and Do You Need One?

When it comes to conducting market research, you may have come upon the term market research agency. 

Nowadays, there are agencies for virtually all industries, so it is unsurprising that they exist in the research space. As such, using this kind of agency is one of the many available market research techniques .

The market research industry has more than doubled in revenue since 2008 , exceeding $76.4 billion in 2022. 

US market research companies have been dominating this space , as they generated over $47 billion dollars in revenue. This means that market research companies in the US yield more than half of the total revenue of the market research industry globally. 

But what exactly is this kind of agency in the realm of market research? And how do you know if you may need to utilize its services?

Perhaps, you may need its services, but can make better use of a different method to conduct research on your consumers.  

This article expounds on the premise of the market research agency, and its four main types, and compares it with another major method of conducting research to help you determine if you need it.

Defining a Market Research Agency 

This is a kind of agency that offers various market research services to its clients. It is made up of a core group of researchers and administrators . 

This kind of agency can conduct either quantitative market research and qualitative market research . It may also offer both kinds of research.

These agencies will approach market research in their own manner . Thus, they may offer a specific service, or various services. As such, market research agencies may provide the following services:

• A series of interviews
• Consultancy services
• Focus groups
• A survey campaign 

(See the below section to better understand the four main types of these agencies).

A market research agency can exist in the form of a single company, a division of a company, or even an individual who specializes in carrying out market research campaigns. 

Such an agency can take different approaches to research, such as a full-service process, fieldwork or only data analysis. 

It typically works by gathering and analyzing information about your customers, competitors, vendors and distributors and other people and forces in your industry. 

Most of these firms provide services that are commissioned by companies for particular purposes. Many also c ollect data beforehand and then attempt to sell it to interested parties . Because of this, these firms are part of syndicated research . 

The Four Main Types of Market Research Agencies 

There are four main types of market research firms. They differ based on the services they focus on and offer to their clients. Understanding these four major forms will allow you to decide whether you need this form of research, along with what specific services are most important for your research endeavors. 

Field Service Agency

This kind of agency conducts research with your target market . Focused on data collection, it engages customers at the ground level to gain insights based on a specific question. The methodology it uses involves surveys, interviews, focus groups, observation, and other data collection methods. 

The “field” in this agency refers to the act of engaging respondents itself and collecting data.  

A field service agency doesn’t design research campaigns or analyze the findings of the research. Their area of focus is specifically on gathering and documenting data.

Also referred to as a fieldwork firm, this agency is typically commissioned by other market researchers that have already begun a research study and use the firm to get data to back up their research. 

The field service agency sends the data to the researchers, so that they can then apply it to their studies. 

Intercept and Mystery Shopper Agencies

These agencies are specialized field service firms that collect data via real-life interactions with customers. This involves face-to-face interaction with respondents for intercepts along with disguising participants as shoppers who observe customers through mystery shopping.

Mystery shopper firms collect and measure mock customer experience by having participants working as if they were actually paying customers in a transactional environment.

In this way, the firm researches how typical customers of a business experience its brand. The mystery shoppers collect valuable data that can help businesses alter their services and frontline interactions to meet consumer preferences and needs. 

This type of market research is useful for brands that seek to observe in-the-moment reactions and engagement of their customers. This is also useful if you’d like to see if the location of business dealings affects the customer experience. 

This type of firm may also rely on online intercept tools with mobile availability given the presence of market research tools in the digital world.

Research Report Purveyor

This type of agency aggregates and assembles market research on particular industries, demographics, psychographics and market trends. This tends to include conducting secondary research, or buying data from the other types of agencies aforementioned. 

The purveyors put together reports for businesses interested in the data they gathered. A syndicated research approach, the reports from the original study were self-funded using indications that the information will be of interest to different buyers in an industry. 

This type of agency is best suited for businesses or other research firms that need broader market data and don’t have the time or resources to invest in custom research. 

Full-Service Agency

As its name suggests, this type of agency supplies end-to-end, customized market research services . These services can include the following: 

• Identify the research problem to be solved.
• Determine a viable research design.
• These typically involve both online and offline activity such as respondent sampling, survey data collection, various analyses, such as a customer behavior analysis and reporting.
• Implement the insights that were garnered.
• Prepare reports of the findings. 

A full-service research firm is often used as a consultant, given that it may also implement the collected data due to the demand for actionable outcomes. In this way, the research is simply a means to other business-related activities they provide. 

DIY Survey Research: A Market Research Agency Alternative

When it comes to market research agencies, most businesses and researchers typically use one type of agency or approach, rather than two or more, as this can be expensive and not worth the hassle. 

However, some also choose to pair a market research firm with the DIY survey approach. That’s because surveys are invaluable tools of customer insights . Moreover, they can be used to research virtually any audience. That’s why some research firms conduct them.

However, conducting DIY market research is more ideal than relying on a third party to conduct the survey research for you. While surveys offer colossal support, they are only as useful as you make them. 

That’s because when you rely on other companies to run your survey campaign , they wield full control over the direction of the survey campaign , including its specific questions and target audience. 

It is therefore far more optimal to conduct market research yourself with a DIY survey platform. Such a platform would grant you full control over every aspect of your market research campaign. You can customize it to your liking in various ways, including:

• The survey target audience
• The targeting criteria
• The screener questions
• Adding multiple audiences 
• The questionnaire
• All of the question types
• The wording of the questions
• The order and logic paths of the questions
• The thank you note and introduction
• The dashboard
• This includes the survey results dashboard , which you can filter
• You can choose your own imports and visualizations 

We recommend using survey research to accompany any market research agency you use to conduct your research campaigns. Specifically, we recommend using a multi-functional survey platform, one that not only creates and deploys surveys, but enables you to carry out various market research efforts , such as conducting a conjoint analysis , pricing research, A/B testing and more.  

With such a survey platform, you will get a holistic market research approach , as it allows you to deploy a multitude of survey types, research different business matters and even perform other market research practices. 

Because of this, a strong survey platform allows you to replace or entirely forgo using a market research agency . After all, c onducting your own surveys is cheaper, faster and more relevant to your particular research needs. 

Getting Market Research Right

As per the verdict of this article, it is useful to rely on both market research firms, along with a DIY survey platform . 

You can even abandon using a research agency entirely, as survey research grants you all the relevant information for your survey campaign in a timely manner. 

However, the efficacy of your survey campaign is highly dependent on the platform you use. You wouldn’t want to gain slow or subpar data.

You should therefore select your market research platform carefully. A strong market research company will allow you to fulfill all of your online market research activities. This includes all the activities mentioned in this article and beyond.

The Pollfish online survey platform allows you to create a thorough survey data collection, one you can customize to your liking, view however you choose and organize to the max.

We offer an advanced method to distribute your survey to millions of random users online via the organic sampling method. 

Random Device Engagement (RDE) is a kind of polling that relies on advertising networks and other digital portals on devices, to engage random people where they are, voluntarily.

This way, they won’t feel pressured to answer in a particular way, as survey panelists would, as they are completely anonymous and randomized. 

Researchers can reap a wide breadth of information on their respondents and access a wide pool of insights in their survey results dashboard .

We also offer the advanced skip logic feature, which routes respondents to relevant follow-up questions based on their previous answers.  

In addition, you can send your survey to specific respondents and on specific digital spaces, by simply using the Distribution link feature . This allows you to post your survey anywhere you wish, along with emailing it to those you want to research. 

With such a multi-functional platform, you’ll be able to conduct any market research campaign and gain high-quality data which you can use to take action.

Do you want to distribute your survey? Pollfish offers you access to millions of targeted consumers to get survey responses from $0.95 per complete. Launch your survey today.

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

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Programs National Mortgage Database Program

Introduction

The National Mortgage Database (NMDB®)  [1]  program is jointly funded and managed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  (CFPB). This program is designed to provide a rich source of information about the U.S. mortgage market. It has three primary components: 

• the National Mortgage Database  (NMDB),
• the quarterly National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO), [2]
• the annual American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers  (ASMB). [3]

The NMDB program enables FHFA to meet the statutory requirements of section 1324(c) of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992, as amended by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, to conduct a monthly mortgage market survey. Specifically, FHFA must, through a survey of the mortgage market, collect data on the characteristics of individual mortgages, including those eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and those that are not, and including subprime and nontraditional mortgages. In addition, FHFA must collect information on the creditworthiness of borrowers, including a determination of whether subprime and nontraditional borrowers would have qualified for prime lending.  [4]

For CFPB, the NMDB program supports policymaking and research efforts and helps identify and understand emerging mortgage and housing market trends. CFPB uses the NMDB, among other purposes, in support of the market monitoring called for by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, including understanding how mortgage debt affects consumers and for retrospective rule review required by the statute.  

No information on borrower names, addresses, Social Security numbers, or dates of birth is ever used or stored by FHFA or CFPB as part of the NMDB program.  Furthermore, safeguards are in place to ensure that information in the database is not used to identify individual borrowers or lenders and is handled in full accordance with federal privacy laws and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

National Mortgage Database

The National Mortgage Database (NMDB) is the first component of the National Mortgage Database program. NMDB is updated quarterly for a nationally representative five percent sample of closed-end first-lien residential mortgages in the United States.  

The purpose of NMDB is to inform and educate FHFA, CFPB and other federal agencies about lending products and mortgage market health. The database is comprehensive, and there are many possibilities for how it may be used. Some examples include:

• Studying the subprime mortgage crisis:  Because the data goes back to 1998, the database can be used to assess possible causes of the recent subprime crisis.
• Monitoring new and emerging products in the mortgage market:  The database allows agencies to monitor volume and performance of products in the mortgage market and help regulators identify potential problems or new risks.
• Monitoring the relative health of mortgage markets and consumers:  The database provides detailed mortgage loan performance information including whether payments are made on-time, as well as information regarding loan modifications, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. This can help policy makers better understand how various products are being used and how they are performing.
• Evaluating loss mitigation, borrower counseling, and loan modification programs:  The database can be used to evaluate the efficacy and potential impact of counseling programs.
• Monitoring affordable lending:  Since the database is updated quarterly, it provides information on mortgage access and mortgage terms for low-income borrowers and communities faster than data required by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, or HMDA. Currently, HMDA data does not become available until the year following origination.
• Performing stress tests and prepayment/default modeling:  The database can be used by policy makers, researchers, and regulators to improve prepayment and default modeling and to implement stress-test scenarios for the entire national mortgage market.

Description

The NMDB assembles credit, administrative, servicing, and property data for a nationally representative five percent sample of closed-end first-lien residential mortgages in the United States. The database includes the following information:

• mortgage performance from origination to termination;
• mortgage terms;
• property value and characteristics;
• type and purpose of the mortgage product;
• sale in the secondary mortgage market; and
• credit-related information on all mortgage cosigners, including second liens, other past and present mortgages, and credit scores from one year before origination to one year after termination.

Related Docum​ents

Notice of Revision to an Existing System of Records: National Mortgage Database Project  (12/28/2016)

Revised System of Records-National Mortgage Database Project  (8/28/2015)

FHFA Update About the National Mortgage Database  (8/1/2014)

System of Records: National Mortgage Database Project  (4/16/2014)

Privacy Impact Assessment  (11/6/2013)

Notice of Proposed Establishment of New System of Records  (12/10/2012)

Privacy Impact Assessment  (9/17/2012)

National Survey of Mortgage Originations

The National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) is the second component of the  National Mortgage Database program . The NSMO is conducted quarterly and is jointly sponsored by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  (CFPB).  

The purpose of the NSMO is to collect voluntary feedback directly from mortgage borrowers about their experience obtaining a mortgage. The information will provide researchers, policy makers, and others with data that they can analyze to inform housing and mortgage-related public policy and to understand consumers’ experiences taking out a mortgage. The data will help shape policies in the future to better protect consumers.

For Survey Respondents

If you are here, you probably received our letter asking for your help with an important national survey of mortgage borrowers.

If you obtained a mortgage to purchase or refinance either a personal home or a home for someone else (such as a rental property), we would like to know more about your experience in obtaining that mortgage. Hearing directly from borrowers provides valuable information about the functioning of the mortgage market that will help us improve lending practices and the mortgage process for future borrowers.

This survey is jointly sponsored by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), two Federal agencies that are working together to improve the safety and transparency of the lending process for all consumers.

The responses to this survey will remain anonymous. The questionnaire does not ask you for any identifying information, so please do not identify yourself in any way on the envelope or the returned questionnaire. The code numbers on the survey are there to aid in the scanning process and to keep track of returned surveys.

We greatly appreciate your effort to answer the questions and return the questionnaire. We thank you for your help with this important national survey.

For those who have been selected to be a part of the survey, it can be completed online. Go to  www.NSMOsurvey.com  and enter your personal PIN number that was included in the letter mailed to you.

If you have any questions about this survey, please feel free to call us at 1-​855-531-0724. We look forward to hearing from you.

Current Survey Cover Letter and Questionnaire

Survey Cover Letter

Survey Qu​estionnaire

Related Documents

30-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (N​SMO) Information Collection  (4/14/2023)

60-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Information Collection  (12/6/2022)

30-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Information Collection  (4/3/2020)

60-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Information Collection  (12/10/2019)

30-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Information Collection  (9/13/2016)

60-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) Information Collection  (12/28/2016)

Proposed Collection; Comment Request: National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers  (30-Day Notice) (7/1/2013)

Proposed Collection; Comment Request: National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers  (60-Day Notice) (4/25/2013)

American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers

The American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) is the third component of the  National Mortgage Database program . The ASMB is conducted annually and is jointly sponsored by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the  Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  (CFPB).  

The purpose of the ASMB is to collect voluntary feedback directly from mortgage borrowers about their experience with their mortgage and property. ASMB respondents are representative of the overall population of borrowers with a mortgage loan, including those who recently took out a loan and those who have had their loan for multiple years. The feedback collected by the ASMB includes information about a range of topics related to maintaining a mortgage and property, such as borrowers’ experiences with managing their mortgage, responding to financial stressors, insuring against risks, seeking assistance from federally-sponsored programs and other sources, and terminating a mortgage loan. The information will provide researchers, policy makers, and others with data that they can analyze to inform housing and mortgage-related public policy and to understand consumers' experiences maintaining a mortgage. The data will help shape policies in the future to better protect consumers.

If you have or recently had a mortgage on a personal home or a home for someone else (such as a rental property), we would like to know more about your experiences with your mortgage and with property ownership. Hearing directly from borrowers provides valuable information about the functioning of the mortgage market that will help us improve lending practices and the mortgage process for future borrowers.

For those who have been selected to be a part of the survey, it can be completed online. Go to  www.ASMBsurvey.com  and enter your personal PIN number that was included in the letter mailed to you.

If you have any questions about this survey, please feel free to call us at 855-339-7877. We look forward to hearing from you.

30-Day Notice of Submission of Information Collection American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) for OMB Approval​  (5/19/2022)

60-Day Notice of Submission of Information Collection American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers for Approval from OMB​ (12/18/2021)

30-Day Notice of Submission of American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) Emergency Information Collection - Correction  (8/7/2020)

30-Day Notice of Submission of American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) Emergency Information Collection  (7/31/2020)

30-Day Notice of Submission of American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers (ASMB) Information Collection  (3/24/2016)

60-Day Notice of Submission of National Survey of Existing Mortgage Borrowers (NSEMB) Information Collection  (11/10/2015)

[1]  NMDB® and FHFA® are federally registered trademarks of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA Marks) and are subject to all applicable laws governing the use of trademarks. FHFA Marks may be used for educational, informational, non-promotional and non-commercial purposes. FHFA requires all third parties referring to FHFA Marks to do so in a manner that does not imply a relationship with the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Material in which FHFA Marks appear must acknowledge that the trademarks are federally registered trademarks of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

[2]  The National Survey of Mortgage Originations was originally called the National Survey of Mortgage Borrowers. The name of the survey was changed to avoid confusion with the American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers, effective May 9, 2016.

[3]  The American Survey of Mortgage Borrowers was originally called the National Survey of Existing Mortgage Borrowers. The name of the survey was changed to avoid confusion with the National Survey of Mortgage Originations, effective March 24, 2016.

[4]  FHFA interprets the NMDB program as a whole, including the NSMO, as the “survey” required by the Safety and Soundness Act. The statutory requirement is for a monthly survey. Core inputs to the NMDB, such as a regular refresh of credit-bureau data, occur monthly, though the NSMO is conducted quarterly.​​​​​​

Pag​e last updated: May 9, 2024

Press Release

F​HFA and CFPB​ Release Updated Data from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use  (12/13/2022)

​F​HFA and CFPB​ Release Updated Data from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use  (7/29/2021)

F​HFA ​Announces New and Expanded Statistical Products from the National Mortgage Database  (6/30/2021)

FHFA and CFPB Release Additional Data from the National Survey of Mortgage Originations for Public Use  (2/20/2020)

FHFA Releases U.S. Mortgage Statistics from the National Mortgage Database  (12/12/2018)

FHFA and CFPB Release National Survey of Mortgage Originations Dataset for Public Use  (11/8/2018)

FHFA and CFPB Partner on Development of National Mortgage Database  (11/1/2012)      

NMDB Aggregate Data  (3/31/2023)

NSMO Public Use File  (3/3/2023)   

Technical Documentation

NMDB  (12/28/2022)

NSMO  (12/13/2022)

FHFA Stats Blog

What Types of Mortgages Do Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Acquire? (4/14/2021)

Mortgage Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic  (2/2/2021)            

NMDB Staff Working Papers

18-02: First-Time Homebuyer Counseling and the Mortgage Selection Experience  (3/14/2018)

18-01: Mortgage Experience of Rural Borrowers  (3/14/2018)

NSMO Symposium in Cityscape

Link  to  Cityscape       

NMDB Staff at FHFA

Daniel Grodzicki Principal Economist

Elizabeth Hoeffel Senior Survey Statistician

Ian Keith Senior Program Analyst

Ismail Mohamed Senior Financial Analyst

Saty Patrabansh Associate Director ​ Office of Data and Statistics

Jay Schultz Senior Economist

Jonathan Spader Manager

Matthew Streeter Economist

Rebecca Sullivan Economist