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A decade ago, Parton spotted an opportunity in the market research and insights industry. He observed how companies outside of the market research industry were beginning to use technology providers to deliver research and insights faster with higher accuracy than traditional insights agencies.
And while brilliant technology platforms, these providers didn’t have the required understanding or market research knowledge to identify and deliver business-changing insights. Parton thereby set out to create the Maru Group. “My vision was to create an insights services company with technology at its heart.”
Since its inception, Maru vouches to bring intelligent, swift and informed decision making to your fingertips with a fully-flexible service model. The Maru/HUB platform creates a technology ecosystem that is fit for the needs of the marketplace. Parton reports, “Our developers have worked closely with experienced researchers, leading innovators and world-renowned data scientists for over twenty years to create a platform that combines flexibility (affording a more commercial way of conducting research) with methodologies designed to uncover a more holistic understanding of consumer response.”
Maru’s offerings bring together leading technology and expert insights support with flexibility. Efficiency is becoming increasingly important to all businesses as clients in all markets grapple with the need to conduct business-critical research on a tighter budget and with limited resource. Yet, the current make-up of the insights industry will full-service or DIY technology offers little to no flexibility; either clients must sacrifice high chunks of yearly budgets to agencies to go it alone with no insights or research support.
Parton believes that it results in insights driven by agency timetables and often leaves clients unable to capitalize effectively on results or with a blinkered view of data that doesn’t take the sector or the cultural trends into account.
He adds, “Only Maru offers both. The launch last year of our direct access portal to Maru/HUB means clients can now use our technology the way our global research teams are using the technology. Users can access data whenever they need it, create, launch and analyze projects at the speed of business and access insights expertise and support as necessary.”
As well as a more efficient way of conducting research, Maru also offers businesses a more effective way of understanding consumer behavior and emotion with an integrated System 1 and System 2 toolkit. .“By uncovering a more holistic understanding of consumer response, we can support clients to proactively influence customer decision-making. Behavioral science has proven that how a person feels has just as much influence on how they behave as to what they think; but the majority of market research projects are still focused on attitudes and opinions. It is resulting in a consumer say-do gap and where the majority of concepts and innovations fail when they reach the market, despite rigorous testing.”
Parton believes that innovation is – and will continue to be – fundamental to Maru’s success. “We believe in innovation and using new technology to elicit feedback and insights in new ways. Our focus on innovation means we’re always looking to the edges of the industry to understand what’s on the horizon or missing from current toolkits. By marrying people and technology, we’ve built the industry’s largest technology ecosystem combining advanced research capabilities, agile types of research and smart pre-packaged solutions in one secure environment.”
In the last six months, Maru has launched eight products. Parton takes immense pride in the team that has shared a vision and worked hard to make it come to life.
“Our technology would be nothing without the tremendous talent we hold within our organization. Together, our teams have built a global technology ecosystem that acts as a platform for innovation. None of this could be achieved without the dedication, commitment and collaboration of our global teams; it’s something we observe, celebrate and reflect upon on a regular basis with our staff.”
Parton believes that continuous learning and a desire to build on the previous accomplishments is a part of innovation. “We regularly assess the industry to understand overall performance and appetite. But we also marry this data with our own internal explorations as to what’s missing and what can drive better outcomes.”
Recent releases and new products make Maru/HUB unique in the marketplace offering behavioral and emotional metrics in one insights platform. “”Maru/HUB is the only technology ecosystem to combine System 1 and System 2 research methodologies across the entire range of capabilities and solutions.”
“We’ve invested heavily in digital System 1 research techniques over the past twelve months and we will continue to grow and expand these capabilities so that our researchers and clients can better uncover and understand emotions and behavior across a wider set of research applications, including customer experience.
With recent releases and new products, Maru’s development team are turning their attention to white labelled Maru/HUB environments. “Our technology underpins everything we do, and we’ll continue to invest and develop in Maru/HUB to deliver a future-proofed research platform. Not only will our clients have the ability to access our technology directly in the way that our own researchers do, but they’ll also be able to opt for their own direct access portal environment where teams within organizations, or clients of other agencies, will be able to commission, launch or analyze projects themselves.”
With a growing product roadmap and clear vision, Parton believes that their capabilities are growing. By 2025, he wishes to witness Maru emerge as a global leader of research technology and advisory insights expertise.
Ged Parton is a veteran in the market intelligence industry, who has most recently held Global CEO roles at Synovate and Ipsos. A highly respected thought leader, Ged regularly publishes thought provoking material and can be seen on stage at events, including chairing the ESOMAR Congress in 2011.
With a strong grounding across a broad spectrum of research disciplines and success at a global level, Ged is passionate about guiding Maru Group’s vision to be an international insights pioneer. Based on his varied experience Ged understands that technology can and should be used to facilitate the fast and efficient delivery of information and intelligence and has therefore placed technology firmly at the core of Maru Group’s DNA.
Established in 2016, Maru Group is leading the way in delivering research, insight and advisory services powered by cutting-edge technology and innovation. Maru is developing a global portfolio of market-leading research, insights and technology companies, all with growth characteristics, talented management teams and highly collaborative cultures. The Group, which is backed by Primary Capital Partners LLP, has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Southampton, Toronto, Vancouver and Buenos Aires.
Website: marugroup.net
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Contact Number: +44 (01489) 772920 1489) 779780
Email address: [email protected]
