Company lists · Data refreshed September 2026
Top 24 Brand research firms based in Chicago, United States
RevenueBase identified 38 brand research firms headquartered in Chicago, United States as of September 2026 and tracks 812 professional contacts across them, including 268 with verified work emails. New York is the largest hub.
This list covers brand research firms headquartered in Chicago, United States, matched on what each company actually does as described in its own words. Ranked by team size, largest first. Every row shows the company's own description, its RevenueBase Smart Search rating, and when it was last checked. Data refreshed September 19, 2026.
Published by RevenueBase, a B2B data infrastructure company. This list was built with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search RevenueBase customers use to build their own targeted lists and unlock verified emails and direct dials at the companies on them. How these lists are built and judged.
The 24 largest brand research firms based in Chicago, United States
Ranked by team size| # | Company | Contacts | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 229 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Blackstone Group is a full-service custom marketing research and consulting firm providing clients with actionable insights for over 25 years.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 2 | 154 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “At C+R Research, a full-service marketing insights agency, we’ve been helping brands grow for over 65 years, delivering great research, deep perspective, and committed client…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 3 | 100 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Shapiro+Raj is the sixth-largest independent insights and inspiration company in North America.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 4 | 100 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “More than 60 years ago, our founders were instrumental in developing the research methods that helped lay the groundwork for sensory science and consumer testing.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 5 | 48 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “The Sound is a Global Consumer Exploration, Brand Strategy and Product Innovation agency, applying leading edge market research techniques, technologies and marketing models to…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 6 | 29 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Designalytics provides the industry's first system for maximizing design-driven brand growth.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 7 | 21 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “We find inspiration in culture to advance the way brands connect with consumers.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 8 | 16 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Since 2006, we have offered unique customer insights essential for our clients to make informed business decisions-and we deliver.(Our own Net Promoter Score is 86%, and nearly…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 9 | 13 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “For over 25 years, RealityCheck has specialized in understanding how people use brands to tell themselves stories about who they are and who they want to be.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 10 | 10 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Sparketing is a data insights consultancy that brings a new, multi-disciplinary approach to market research, consulting and analytics.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 11 | 7 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Lab42 is a full-service quantitative market research firm that fills a gap by combining a highly consultative, professional approach while still being cost effective and nimble.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 12 | 5 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “MDC is a marketing research and strategy planning boutique based in Chicago.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 13 | 4 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “SA Market Insights (affectionately known as SAMI) is a full-service market research agency, with a twist.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 14 | 3 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “Linkage Research is passionate about partnering with brands to uncover consumer truths, data, and trends that drive action and unlock business growth.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 15 | 3 contacts → | ||||
Strong evidence “From tactical testing of marketing, to more strategic, multi-phase innovation and brand building assignments, Brand Riffs uses proven research tools and proprietary techniques to…” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 16 | 2 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 17 | 2 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “A marketing and brand consultancy for the higher ed, nonprofit and public sectors.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 18 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “AUBRY RESEARCH is a company based out of 1624 W DIVISION ST, CHICAGO, Illinois, United States.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 19 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Market research focused on design, strategy, and insight.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 20 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “The work of The Planning Practice is translating insights about people, products, and brands into profitable marketing strategies.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 21 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “Market research consulting with a strategic focus.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 22 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “Marketing consultant with a specialty in strategy, branding and marketing audits” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 23 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Indirect evidence “At Ready About, we use curiosity and empathy to better connect you with the humans behind the marketing data.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
| 24 | 1 contacts → | ||||
Partial evidence “At Erickson Research, we uncover and evaluate market opportunities that work for your business.” Source: RevenueBase Database · checked Sep 19, 2026Thanks. The Data Team will review it. | |||||
RevenueBase Smart Search
RevenueBase Smart Search assesses information from a company’s LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website, and other publicly available sources. It uses that information to rate how closely the company relates to this list’s category: brand research firms. Every row carries its rating and the description the rating was read from, so each one can be checked rather than taken on trust.
- Strong evidence
- The company's own public description of its business names brand research firms.
- Partial evidence
- Its own public description names part of brand research firms, so it works in or next to the category without describing itself that way.
- Indirect evidence
- The description shown does not name brand research firms. The match rests on the rest of the company's public profile rather than the one sentence quoted here, so this is the rating to check first.
RevenueBase Smart Search is how these lists are built: RevenueBase's data engine and AI assemble the companies that match a category defined in a user's own words, so a list can be about what companies actually do rather than about whichever industry code they were filed under.
Showing 24 of 38 brand research firms based in Chicago, United States
See the full list, filter by size, metro and specialty, and get verified emails and direct dials for all 268 reachable decision-makers.
Free signup · no credit card
Brand research firms based in Chicago, United States at a glance
As of Sep 19, 2026Companies by employee count
Email recency for this list is measured across the whole United States list rather than for Chicago, so it is reported there. Company counts and contact totals on this page are exact for Chicago, over 38 companies.
How this list was built
Company categories are rarely black and white. RevenueBase reads each company's own description of its business to decide whether it belongs among brand research firms, so some rows will be adjacent to the category rather than pure plays. The description and RevenueBase Smart Search rating on every row are there so you can check each match yourself.
- Source
- The RevenueBase company graph: 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts resolved from primary sources, queried with RevenueBase Smart Search, the natural-language company search available to every RevenueBase user.
- What qualifies
- Companies headquartered in Chicago, United States whose own description of what they do matches “brand research firms”. Matching reads each company's description, not its industry code or its name.
- RevenueBase Smart Search
- RevenueBase Smart Search is how this list is assembled and how each row is rated. RevenueBase's data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to a category defined in a user's own words. Each row is rated strong evidence (its own description names brand research firms), partial evidence (it names part of the category) or indirect evidence (the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile). The description supporting each rating is quoted on the row.
- What we exclude
- Companies whose own description does not clearly place them among brand research firms, and records with no verified work email. Companies headquartered outside Chicago are excluded even when they keep an office there.
- Match quality
- In blind human judging of this matching method, 86% of matched companies were on target. Expect roughly 1 in 7 rows to be adjacent to the category rather than a pure play. Every row shows the company's own description and its RevenueBase Smart Search rating so you can judge each match yourself. Read the full methodology: how the lists are built, how the judging worked, and what the figure means.
- Ranking
- Team size, largest first: companies are ordered by the number of professionals RevenueBase tracks at each one. Employee ranges shown are reported bands, for context.
- Verification
- Every listed company carries at least one verified work email, 268 across the full list. Contacts re-verify on a rolling cadence, and each contact's own verification date is shown inside RevenueBase.
- Refresh
- This page's figures were pulled from the company graph on September 19, 2026. Lists refresh periodically as the graph is re-checked.
- Corrections
- Wrong category, wrong headquarters, or a company that has closed? Use “Report an issue” on any row. Reports go to the RevenueBase Data Team and feed back into the company graph.
Brand research firms by metro in the United States
- Brand research firms in New York87
- Brand research firms in Chicago38
- Brand research firms in Los Angeles34
Frequently asked
What is RevenueBase Smart Search?
RevenueBase Smart Search is how RevenueBase decides which companies belong on this list and how strongly each one fits. Its data engine and AI assess a company's LinkedIn profile, information supplied directly by the company, its website and other publicly available information, then relate it to the category the list is about. Each row is rated strong evidence when the company's own description names brand research firms, partial evidence when it names part of the category, and indirect evidence when the description shown names none of it and the match rests on the rest of the company's profile.
How many brand research firms are there based in Chicago, United States?
RevenueBase identified 38 brand research firms headquartered in Chicago, United States as of September 2026, matched on each company's own description of what it does rather than its industry code.
What is the largest company on this list?
Blackstone Group, headquartered in Chicago, tops this list with the largest team on record.
Which city has the most brand research firms?
New York leads with 87 headquartered companies, followed by Chicago (38) and Los Angeles (34).
How do I get contact information for these companies?
A free RevenueBase account lets you run this exact search and work the top results, verified emails and direct dials included. Upgrading unlocks all 268 verified decision-maker contacts tracked across these 38 companies.
How current is this list?
The list refreshes periodically as the company graph is re-checked. This page's figures were pulled on September 19, 2026.
Ready to reach these companies? Verified emails and direct dials for all 38 brand research firms based in Chicago, United States. Start with a free account, no credit card.
Download this list →Related lists
Brand research firms by geography
- Brand research firms based in Mumbai, India
- Brand research firms based in New Delhi, India
- Brand research firms based in Los Angeles, United States
- Brand research firms based in New York, United States
- Brand research firms based in Australia
- Brand research firms based in Brazil
- Brand research firms based in Canada
- Brand research firms based in Chile
- Brand research firms based in France
- Brand research firms based in Germany
- Brand research firms based in India
- Brand research firms based in Indonesia
About this data
RevenueBase is a B2B data infrastructure company. Its company graph covers 60 million companies and 398.9 million professional contacts, with emails verified on a rolling cadence rather than scraped once and left to decay. These company lists are generated directly from that graph with RevenueBase Smart Search, the same natural-language company search every RevenueBase user has: describe a market in plain words, get the companies that match, and add verified emails and direct dials for the people at them. It is the same data that powers RevenueBase's B2B data products, and a free account includes 500 credits to start. How these lists are built and judged.
More company lists
- All company lists
- Lists by location
- Lists A-Z
- New lists
- Brand research firms based in Mumbai, India
- Brand research firms based in New Delhi, India
- Brand research firms based in Los Angeles, United States
- Brand research firms based in New York, United States
- Brand research firms based in Australia
- Brand research firms based in Brazil