Modest Growth Overall for US Research Firms

The American Marketing Association has teamed up with research body CASRO to produce this year's AMA Gold Top 50 report, ranking US research suppliers. The report suggests total US research revenue for 192 surveyed firms grew in real terms by 1.6% in 2014. Four companies grew revenue by more than 40 percent.

The report, which is now in its 42nd year, was originally created by veteran research industry journalists Jack Honomichl and Larry Gold. Following Honomichl's death in 2013, the report was renamed after his business partner Gold, who unexpectedly passed away in March this year. Now CASRO (the Council of American Survey Research Organizations) President Diane Bowers and CASRO Board member and 2013 Chair Michael Brereton have stepped in to jointly research, analyze and produce the AMA Gold Top 50, which has been published in the June edition of AMA's Marketing News.

For the latest report, the pair analysed revenue inputs from 192 US-based, for-profit research businesses, including 142 full-service research firms that are members of CASRO. Total US research revenue in 2014 for these 192 companies was $10,632.7m, up 3.2% from 2013. After adjustment for inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 1.6%, the 'real growth' rate for 2014 was 1.6%, compared with 2.1% the previous year. The Top 50 companies account for $9,895.6m in US research revenue, which represents 93% of the total US revenues for all 192 companies combined. In contrast, the remaining 142 companies contribute just $737.1m to the total, which Bowers and Brereton say demonstrates clear evidence of the Top 50 firms' influence and reach in the US marketplace. From their business conducted outside of the US, the Top 50 companies brought in a total of $11,962.5m in 2014, or 54.7% of their worldwide revenue total of $21,858.1m.

This year's revenue increases and decreases include fifteen companies with double-digit increases in revenue; sixteen with single-digit increases that exceed inflation; and nineteen firms whose revenues were flat (did not exceed the rate of inflation) or decreased. Of the 'double-digit increase' companies, there were four that experienced 'remarkable' revenue increases in 2014 - Public Opinion Strategies tops the list with a 115% increase in revenue, with half of this attributable to political polling for more than 75 congressional and senatorial candidates during the 2014 election year.

Three other companies achieved more than 40% revenue increases - LRA Worldwide, whose core business is in the hospitality industry, recorded a 62% revenue increase; Hanover Research, with a focus on education and healthcare, had a 50% revenue increase; and Rentrak, with its movies, TV, home entertainment and box office measurement services, increased its revenue by 46%. Nielsen continues its dominance of the list; accounting for one third of the total US 2014 revenues, and a quarter of the total non-US research revenues of the 192 companies in the report. During the period Nielsen acquired both Harris Interactive and Affinova, which were previously ranked at 17 and 32 respectively on the 2014 Top 50 list.

The full report can be accessed through the AMA web site: www.ama.org ( https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/the-2015-ama-gold-top-50-report.aspx ).

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.