We are a full-service brand strategy and communications research agency working with a deep roster of medium and large brands.
Equation manages more than 1 million surveys each year on its proprietary surveyLAB platform across the U.S. and more than 40 countries worldwide.
Founded In
2000
23 Dedicated Employees
Always 100%
Remote
What If You Found A Trusted Research Partner?
- Who had experienced, dedicated, research rock stars – with all ‘A’ players and nobody coasting – everyone pulling the train to make sure we knock every project out of the park.
- Who was not a technology company that knew a little bit about research, or a research company that knew a little bit about technology, but a company with deep roots in both so we can seamlessly handle complex projects.
- Who was hyper-focused on data quality and understood the research sample landscape better than any other company on the planet.
- Who understood that for a project to have the desired impact we had to be intellectually curious about your business to understand what made each project a success.
Would You Be Interested In Talking Further?
Because We Sure Would
Surveys Are Ubiquitous, But Quality Data And Insights Are Scarce.
POOR QUALITY DATA
20%+ fraud rates after initial panel screening
USELESS “INSIGHTS”
100+ slide data dumps create more work for clients
Answering Big Questions Through Quality Data And Invaluable Insights.
BUSINESS INSIGHTS
- Highly experienced, senior teams
- Analysis with a business lens
- Curated and concise reports hat tell a story
DATA COLLECTION
- Collection from reputable sources
- Constant source monitoring so you don’t have to
ADDED QUALITY CONTROL
- In-house quality control on all surveys
- Sophisticated fraud systems including CleanID
- Analyst review of open-ends
Overview Of Our Three Core Services Areas
Brand Strategy
Guiding Your Brand
- ✓ Equity and positioning
- ✓ Consumer segmentation
- ✓ Shopper marketing insights
- ✓ Awareness and competitive
Communications
Measuring Effectiveness
- ✓ Ongoing brand tracking
- ✓ Pre + post comms tracking
- ✓ Sponsorship measurement
- ✓ Cross-platform evaluation
Concept Testing
Determining Interest
- ✓ Concept + creative testing
- ✓ Name, logo, tagline testing
- ✓ Product + service innovation
- ✓ Multi-channel evaluation
And These Are Our Most Frequently Deployed Research Products
BrandLAB
Our deep dive into fully understanding the relationship your customers and prospects have with your brand and your core competitive set. Includes top and bottom of the funnel metrics, drivers of loyalty and trial/engagement barriers, and media consumption. An exhaustive list of equity attributes is assessed for your brand and competitors using Equation’s proprietary Share-of-Mind methodology to completely understand attributes you own, those owned by competitors, and the opportunities available for future strategy.
AdLAB
Our approach to creative evaluation. While we do have norms and a wealth of context for interpreting results, the true goal is understanding how creative ideas and executions are working against your strategy. The results both inform good decisions now and provide learnings for forward-looking optimization. We provide a range of tools plus the know-how to help you apply the right approach at the right time.
ExperienceLAB
Evaluating brand partnerships, sponsorships, events, experiences and more. A sensitive, tailored approach to understand how consumer experiences move the needle in perceptions and behaviors with your target audience.
CommunityLAB
Building customer panels for our clients that can be accessed for on-demand research applications quickly and cost-effectively. We believe in removing as much pain and work from the process as possible for our clients; providing them with the opportunity to focus on the much more important applications for the insights.
SegmentLAB
Identifying, classifying and profiling consumer segments to deliver results you can act on. We often take a needs or occasions based approach to segmentation to ensure that the output is actively used to inform product, service, marketing and experiential elements for your customers and prospects.
ConceptLAB
A nimble suite of research tools for testing ideas, products/services, positioning, messaging, taglines, packaging and more. We have a wealth of experience evaluating concepts at all stages and the knowledge to give you confidence in choosing and optimizing the best path forward.
ChatLAB
Adding qualitative depth in real-time to any quantitative survey. Allows you to understand the ‘whys?’ and qualitative learnings that bring the numbers to life with insights into emotions, deep-dive perceptions and how these change across different audiences. Equation’s qualitative tools include one-on-one moderated interviews, video interviews, online multi-day bulletin board discussion groups/diaries, along with offline in-depth interviews, focus groups, or tablet-based face to face interviewing.
Operational Excellence Delivered By A Seasoned Team
Fully-remote Model
- ✓ Always 100% remote model
- ✓ Enables hiring top tier talent
Senior Analysts
- ✓ Client leads have 20+ years experience
- ✓ No junior or intern report writers
Deep Relationships
- ✓ Effectiveness from understanding
- ✓ Top clients are all annual scopes
- ✓ Enables better results over time
Sample Clients
Meet The Team
If you work with us, you will definitely bump into many of the following people…we’re looking forward to meeting you!
Wrightsville
Beach, NC
Estes Park, CO
Mike Travis
Founder/CEO
Mike’s passion for innovation and experimentation are an integral part of Equation’s business model. He started the company 22 years ago as an experiment to see if people from all walks of life and all corners of the country could work together in harmony on the most complex and demanding research projects. The fact that they could do this in their pajamas from wired homes helped, but Mike will tell you the real secret is simply the dedication of a very smart and motivated team. Mike has nurtured, grown, and guided this team into an amazingly successful company.
On his off-days you can find Mike paddle boarding at sunset on a calm inlet in Wrightsville Beach, fishing with his son, playing the African Drums, knocking an ice hockey puck around or trying (unsuccessfully) to finally win Equation’s Fantasy Football League.
Phoenix, AZ
New York, NY
Chris Burke
Vice President, Research and Development
As a former client, Chris admired the Equation team from afar before hopping the fence to join them in 2007. Since then, it’s been a wonderful adventure working with some of the smartest, nicest people he’s come across professionally or otherwise.
Chris has spent most of his career designing, analyzing and helping to implement strategic research. He’s a master at taking a business problem and churning out a unique, insightful research solution.
When he’s not thinking about research, Chris takes advantage of Equation’s distributed business model to travel somewhere new and exciting (or at least aspires to since he is now outnumbered with 3 year old twins!). When he’s not doing that, Chris is equally at home on a bike or a hike catching some fresh air, or walking his beloved dog in the wee hours of the morning.
Sebastopol, CA
Wellington, NZ
Paul Soldera
Chief Research and Strategy Officer
Like Chris, Paul joined Equation as a previous client – admiring the speed, flexibility and just out-and-out fun the people at this strange little company were having! Since then he hasn’t looked back.
Paul brings over 25 years of experience in a host of research roles. Even though no previous jobs quite prepared him for the pajama dominated environment of Equation Research, he has perfected thinking about difficult research problems in boxers and a t-shirt. When he’s not thinking in his night-clothes, you can find him working to direct Equation’s strategy, helping clients solve difficult business problems, and finding ways to tell compelling stories with otherwise dry research data.
Paul hails from New Zealand where he brings a love of all things nature. Outside of work, you can currently find him renovating his home in West Sonoma County, California or spending time with his two beautiful children.
Pleasantville, NY
Martha’s
Vineyard, MA
Elizabeth Kwiat
Vice President, Client Services
Since Equation opened its virtual doors more than a decade ago, Elizabeth has been there (and done that). She now serves as the Equation Traffic Tower, keeping our virtual team connected, coordinated and working seamlessly to deliver great results to our clients.
Elizabeth is a key part of delivering consistently on the Equation Experience – the way we support clients and each other using four principles known as A2R2 … Available, Approachable, Reliable and Responsive.
On a more personal note, Elizabeth married her college sweetheart and they have two children and a trusted chocolate lab (her office mate). They enjoy spending time with family on Martha’s Vineyard and at various vacation spots in upstate New York.
West Palm
Beach, FL
Madison, WI
Daniel Blackman
Vice President, Research and Operations
Dan has also been there from the start. And when you are involved with something from conception, it’s always interesting to see how carefully laid plans evolve. One of the most rewarding parts of Dan’s job is participating in the continuing evolution of Equation. As ‘the man behind the curtain’, it’s Dan’s job to make sure everything runs like clockwork to ensure clients get fast, accurate, usable results.
Dan is ‘sneaky smart’. He graduated from Grinnell College, earning a degree in Mathematics with an interdisciplinary concentration in computer science and technology. He holds a Masters degree in Sport Management from the University of Maryland.
Gone are the days of playing golf till dusk, traveling the world and playing with his dog. Only to be replaced with equally rewarding quality time with his two young children (although he still makes time for the dog). And, as does any good Wisconsinite, he follows the Packers on Sundays during football season.
New Zealand
Hoboken, NJ
Troy Wing
Chief Technology Officer
To boil it all down to its very essence, Troy works with computers. He is the brains behind Equation technology, including our proprietary surveyLAB platform for online survey programming and reporting. Whether he is working out a complex solution to a client’s specific survey design task or coordinating real-time data integration API’s with client data warehouses, he is constantly working to ensure Equation is at the forefront of research technology.
Get In Touch
For more information about Equation, any specific research services or products, or to schedule an introductory call please contact:
Chris Burke, VP of Research and Development
646.709.6606
cburke@equationresearch.com
Mike Travis, CEO
970.227.2239
mtravis@equationresearch.com
E-mail general information
info@equationresearch.com