Decision Analyst (company)
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| Founded | 1978 |
|---|---|
Key people | Jerry W. Thomas, President and CEO c.1998[1] |
Decision Analyst (founded 1978) is an American marketing research and consulting firm based in Arlington, Texas. It also operates the American Consumer Opinion online panel, which is made up of over eight million people.
Decision Analyst provides global research and analytical consulting services to major corporations, advertising agencies, and marketing consultancies in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Decision Analyst was founded in 1978 and is wholly owned by its 150 employees. The firm is headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas.
History
- 1978 – Decision Analyst founded by Jerry W. Thomas
- 1981 - Data Preparation and Data Tabulation Departments were added in April 1981.
- 1982 - Software development began in September 1982.
- 1982 - The Data Collection Department was added in November 1982.
- 1986 - The American Consumer Opinion mail panel was launched in early 1986.
- 1996 – Decision Analyst first offered its STATS statistical software free to marketing researchers.
- 1996 - Decision Analyst won the David Ogilvy Award for its marketing research accomplishments on behalf of Tropical Freezes, a new frozen drink introduced nationally in 1995.
- 1996 – The American Consumer Opinion panel was converted to an online survey panel, and started accepting members worldwide.
- 1999 – The Technology Advisory Board, Physicians Advisory Council®, and Contractor Advisory Board® online survey panels were added.
- 2000 - The Executive Advisory Board online survey panel was added.
- 2002 - The Imaginators consumer ideation panel was launched
- 2003 - The Medical Advisory Board online panel was added.
- 2007 – Decision Analyst was part of the team that won the 2007 David Ogilvy Award in the Beverage Category.
- 2008 - For its work with Target, Decision Analyst won Target's Vendor of the Year award for marketing research services.
- 2008 – Decision Analyst ranked #1 in Customer Satisfaction according to MarketResearchCareers.com 2008 Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals.
- 2009 – Decision Analyst released STATS 2.0 statistical software, its free software for marketing researchers. STATS 2.0 allows users to load, manipulate, and analyze custom data sets through cross-tabulation, correlation, regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis.
- 2011 – Decision Analyst was ranked #1 in customer satisfaction among buyers of full-service marketing research according to MarketResearchCareers.com, Annual Survey of Market Research Professionals released in February 2011.
- 2012 - Decision Analyst programmers developed an R Language choice-modeling software package called ChoiceModelR. The software is free to download.
Marketing Research Services
Decision Analyst conducts multinational marketing research studies on marketing strategy, market segmentation, product optimization, advertising testing, package optimization, new product concept testing and forecasting, website optimization, and customer experience optimization. The firm blends qualitative research, secondary data analysis, survey-based research, econometrics, and advanced analytics (modeling, simulation, and optimization) to solve the most difficult marketing problems. Sophisticated survey-based research, using Decision Analyst’s worldwide online panels, is a core strength. Surveys can include 3-D animation, uploaded photos, sound, videos (uploaded or shown), and timed exposure of stimuli. Surveys are conducted globally on a common, unified software platform (Logician®) so that methods are identical from country to country. Qualitative services include in-person depth interviews, focus groups, ethnography, and an array of online methods: Time-Extended Online Forums, online group discussions, online depth interviews, online communities, and mobile ethnography. Ideation and innovation services, using hypercreative individuals, are offered to develop new product concepts, new positionings, new packaging, and new advertising claims
Software and Resources
Decision Analyst provides the following software and resources as a public service to the research industry:
- STATS 2.0 for marketing research, an easy-to-use, Windows-based statistical software package for marketing research.
- ChoiceModelR, an open-source software package written in the R language by Decision Analyst statistical programmers. It is designed to analyze data from choice modeling experiments across a wide array of industries, based on surveys of how target market consumers react to many different marketing and product stimuli at different price points (i.e., different scenarios).
- Marketing Research Glossary
- Marketing Research Articles
Published Articles and Data
Below are some of Decision Analyst’s published articles and survey results:
- A bird's-eye view of what mobile can do
- Putting choice modeling to work for new product sales forecasting
- Ten keys to defusing political land mines in the back room
- Qualitative Analytics
- Qualitative Package Design Research
- Multidimensional Segmentation
- Concept Testing (And The “Uniqueness” Paradox)
- COMFORT FAQ: How Can HVAC Installation Contractors Better Serve Customers?
- From HIRI, a deep data dive in Orlando: Researchers come to grips with new tools
- Index points to slow growth
- Small-Business Owners Forecast a Warm Summer According to Survey
- Big-ticket purchases: How consumers shop
- Home Improvement Shoppers: Brand Loyal?
- Little Data vs. Big Data: Nine Types of Data and How They Should Be Used
See also
References
- ^ Dykes, David (August 2, 1998). "Chilvalry isn't dead; pick up your cell phone and find out why". Business. The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina: William deB. Mebane. p. 2. Retrieved January 19, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.