The Market Research Society (MRS) is a professional body for market research based in London, England. [1] It was established in 1946 at the offices of the London Press Exchange. [2] It represents the views of its members to government [3] and in the press.
MRS recognise 5,000 individual members and over 500 accredited Company Partners in over 50 countries. As the regulator, they promote the highest professional standards throughout the sector via the MRS Code of Conduct. [1] MRS is the world’s largest association serving those with professional equity in provision or use of market, social and opinion research, and in business intelligence, market analysis, customer insight and consultancy. [4]
In 2015, it jointly ran an inquiry with the British Polling Council into the failings of polling before the British general election of that year. [5] [6] The inquiry found that the failure of polling to correctly predict the result was the result of unrepresentative polling samples. [7]
The Market Research Society was born on the 5th of November, 1946 in the offices of the London Press Exchange. With 23 founder members, the early meetings operated as a luncheon club where practitioners of market research met to learn the business and maintain an understanding of industry developments. [8]
In 1954 The Society adopted its first Code of Standards – covering ethics, reporting and survey standards. 1957 saw the first Conference held in Brighton. The first volume of the Journal of the Market Research Society was published in 1959. [9] In 1977 the MRS Secretariat moved to larger offices at 15 Belgrave Square, London. A few years later in 1986, the Society Secretariat moved to 175 Oxford Street, London as the total membership reached 5,247. [9] [1] In 1990, MRS purchased its current headquarters at 15 Northburgh Street where it remains today. [9] [1]
MRS has support services for professionals and organisations to stay connected. [10]
Research Live - industry news, opinion, special reports and feature articles for market and social researchers, data analysts and consumer insight professionals. [11]
Research Buyer’s Guide - Used by client researchers and procurement professionals, RBG is the source of accredited research suppliers in the UK and Ireland. [1] [12]
Fair Data - Fair Data is a data compliance mark enabling consumers to make educated choices about their personal data. [13]
Research Jobfinder - a specialist job board for the insight sector, with approximately 700 jobs. [14] [1]
International Journal of Market Research - a source of information for best practice and new thinking in market research. [15]
Impact Magazine - quarterly magazine on research, insight and business intelligence. [16]
Training in market research - the MRS offers training in quantitative and qualitative research techniques and approaches. These can be used as part of the MRS's CPD programme which seeks to promote professionalism in the market research sector. [17]
Professional development, also known as professional education, is learning that leads to or emphasizes education in a specific professional career field or builds practical job applicable skills emphasizing praxis in addition to the transferable skills and theoretical academic knowledge found in traditional liberal arts and pure sciences education. It is used to earn or maintain professional credentials such as professional certifications or academic degrees through formal coursework at institutions known as professional schools, or attending conferences and informal learning opportunities to strengthen or gain new skills.
Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining competitiveness. Market research helps to identify and analyze the needs of the market, the market size and the competition. Its techniques encompass both qualitative techniques such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, and ethnography, as well as quantitative techniques such as customer surveys, and analysis of secondary data.
An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is called an entrance poll. Pollsters – usually private companies working for newspapers or broadcasters – conduct exit polls to gain an early indication as to how an election has turned out, as in many elections the actual result may take many hours to count.
YouGov plc is a British international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
An open-access poll is a type of opinion poll in which a nonprobability sample of participants self-select into participation. The term includes call-in, mail-in, and some online polls.
Ipsos Group S.A. is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1 July 1999.
"Shy Tory factor" is a name given by British opinion polling companies to a phenomenon first observed by psephologists in the early 1990s. They observed that the share of the electoral vote won by the Conservative Party was significantly higher than the equivalent share in opinion polls. The accepted explanation was that "shy Tories" were voting Conservative after telling pollsters they would not. The general elections held in 1992 and 2015 are examples where it has allegedly affected the overall results but has further been discussed in other elections where the Conservatives did unexpectedly well. It has also been applied to the success of the Republican Party in the United States or the continued electoral victories of the People's Action Party in Singapore.
The Harris Poll is an American market research and analytics company that has been tracking the sentiment, behaviors and motivations of American adults since 1963. In addition to the traditional consulting offered, Harris has developed software data platforms that allow brands to track health and campaign success. The firm works with clients in three primary areas: brand strategy and tracking, corporate reputation, and research for public release.
ICM Research is a public opinion research company that was founded in 1989. ICM is a subsidiary of Creston Insight, a marketing services company, and is a member of the British Polling Council under its new name Walnut Unlimited.
The Levada Center is a Russian independent, nongovernmental polling and sociological research organization. It is named after its founder, the first Russian professor of sociology Yuri Levada (1930–2006). The center traces back its history to 1987 when the All-Union Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) was founded under the leadership of academician Tatyana Zaslavskaya. As one of Russia's largest research companies, the Levada Center regularly conducts its own and commissioned polling and marketing research. In 2016, it was labelled a foreign agent under the 2012 Russian foreign agent law.
The Australian Market and Social Research Society Limited (AMSRS) is a professional membership body that represents approximately 2,100 market research professionals who specialize in the standards and awareness of both market and social research in Australia. AMSRS states that its principal aims are to improve professional standards and ethics in marketing and social research and assist members in career development.
Savanta is a market research consultancy based in London, England. Established in 2003 as Communicate Research Ltd, then ComRes, it was a founding member of the British Polling Council in 2004, and, by 2016, it was described one of the UK's "most respected" polling companies. In 2022, it became known as Savanta.
Angus Reid is a Canadian entrepreneur, pollster, and sociologist. He is the chairman of the Angus Reid Institute and CEO and founder of Angus Reid Global. He is director of the Reid Campbell Group which operates Rival Technologies and Reach 3 Insights. He has written numerous columns on environmental, legal, economic, social, and political issues, as well as the best-seller Shakedown: How the New Economy is Changing our Lives (1996).
PSB Insights is a consultancy firm founded in 1997 by Mark Penn and Douglas Schoen.
Opinium is a market research and insight agency established on 7 September 2007. It is headquartered in New York and London. Its chief executive is James Endersby. The agency works across five practice areas: Brand & Communications, Product & Service Development, Stakeholder Research, and Thought Leadership. It is chiefly known for its full service market research and insight consultancy for clients ranging from Vodafone, Unilever, Santander, MetLife, Dawn Foods, Direct Line Insurance, Itsu, Next, Amnesty International, to the London School of Economics and Canderel.
Survation is a polling and market research agency based in London, England. Survation have been conducting research surveys since 2010. Surveys are conducted via telephone, online panel and face to face as well as omnibus research for a broad range of clients including television, newspapers, charities, lobby groups, trade unions, law firms and political parties. Damian Lyons Lowe is the company founder and Chief Executive.
Morning Consult is an American business intelligence company established in 2014. It was named one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America by Deloitte in both 2018 and 2019 and was valued at more than one billion dollars in June 2021. The company specializes in online survey research technology and has offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, and San Francisco.
This is a list of opinion polls taken on the Presidency of Donald Trump in 2018.
This is a list of opinion polls taken on the presidency of Donald Trump in 2019. Polls throughout the year showed that more disapproved of Trump than approved of him, generally by a margin of between five and fifteen percentage points. The polls also showed that the margin may have been stronger or weaker in some states, when compared with the national polls.
Verian Group is an independent research, evidence, evaluation, and communications agency, headquartered in Millbank, London, UK. It has offices in continental Europe, the Asia–Pacific, and US. Verian conducts social research, program evaluation, and media analysis for governments, local communities, interest groups, trade unions, NGOs, and private sector organisations. British Politics and Policy, a blog run by the London School of Economics (LSE), evaluated Verian's polling on the run up to the 2016 UK Brexit referendum; Verian was one of a minority to correctly forecast the result and had the lowest bias. Verian's opinion polling for the 2024 United Kingdom general election also came closest to the final result.