KPMG: New Consumer Research Institute Launched

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

The Georgetown Institute for Consumer Research, Sponsored by KPMG, has been created. It is a collaboration of Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and KPMG LLP, the audit, tax, and advisory firm. The institute will focus on developing innovative, ground-breaking consumer research to illuminate the challenges and opportunities of understanding and marketing to technologically empowered consumers.

By bringing together Georgetown marketing scholars and students, KPMG internal talent, the wider business community, and other key stakeholders, the institute will support two to three targeted, high-quality research projects each year. In addition, it will sponsor a series of interactive dialogues that present new knowledge about consumer research or solutions to consumer issues. Existing research titles by Georgetown marketing faculty, such as “How to Stop Consumers from Fixating on Price,” “The Discriminating Consumer: Product Proliferation and the Willingness to Pay for Quality,” and “Go Green! Should Environmental Messages be so Assertive?” serve as examples of the areas the Institute will explore.

The Institute will be directed by Executive Director Robert Thomas, professor of marketing, and Research Director Kurt Carlson, associate professor of marketing, along with an Executive Committee comprising representatives from both Georgetown and KPMG.

Alton Adams, a KPMG principal and sponsor of the Institute commented:

“Working on research with a respected university like Georgetown provides an added level of academic rigor and intellectual horsepower to address the rapidly evolving world of consumer marketing,”he said. “Complexities around new technology-driven areas such as social media and the cloud, along with a general lack of fact-based research, have created a thirst for consumer behavior insight. The Institute aims to satisfy this demand by producing unique research that carries both an academic and a business world stamp.”