KPMG Establishes New Consumer Research Institute with Georgetown University

By Michael Foster, Big4.com Blogger

KPMG has partnered with Georgetown University to launch a new Consumer Research Institute based in Washington D.C.

The new CRI will be established in Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, and the university will establish resident scholars to study consumer behavior and how marketing can change that behavior.

While KPMG has not released details on the financial level of their commitment, Vice Chair Advisory Lynne M. Doughtie said that KPMG hopes their partnership will help the firm understand changes in consumer behavior. “Thought leadership from the institute will be particularly relevant, given the seismic shifts in consumer behavior and buying patterns,” she said in a statement.

Professor Robert Thomas will lead the Institute. Thomas is a professor of marketing at Georgetown, and he will be joined by associate professor of marketing Kurt Carlson, who will act as Research Director of the institute. “Georgetown’s outstanding research programs, faculty, and students, teamed with KPMG’s deep understanding of the marketplace, will provide powerful new research that can be put to use immediately to help businesses understand consumer behavior and build stronger customer relationships,” Thomas said.

Georgetown has previously published several high-profile marketing studies. “The Discriminating Consumer: Product Proliferation and the Willingness to Pay for Quality” was published earlier this year in the Journal of Marketing Research, and was co-written by Professor Luc Wathieu of Georgetown with professors at London Business School and Columbia University.