Company Description

Our Perspective

AI, big data and algorithms can only tell you so much about your products, services, brands and communications. If you really want to know what your customers, competitors’ customers, stakeholders, voters or employees really think and feel, you need to talk with them as people — complex human beings shaped by hopes, fears, needs and wants. You need to understand the values, beliefs and culture that shape their perspectives, their sense of self and how they see themselves as members of their communities.

To access all that, you need a partner who gets people. Someone who can listen with empathy, ask probing questions, embrace complexity and accept contradictions. Someone who cares, is relentlessly curious and seeks points of connection. Having a great sense of humor and the ability to improvise doesn’t hurt either.

Engel Research Partners. Deeply human.

Our Experience

For over 25 years, Marc Engel been a trusted partner to companies across multiple industries; creative agencies, marketing and research companies around the world; political consulting firms; social, educational and cultural organizations; and professional associations. He has conducted over 2,000 focus groups, interviews, ethnographies, shop-alongs, coffee-klatches, quantitative and ideation/innovation work – in-person and online – speaking with thousands of people of all ages and walks of life.

Prior to starting Engel Research Partners, Marc was a partner with B/R/S Group, a boutique research agency.

Marc Engel may be the only marketing researcher whose path to research includes both law and comedy, two seemingly divergent worlds that shape and complement his work. His legal training (Member of the California Bar, graduate of the UCLA School of Law) provides the discipline for constructing persuasive arguments, drawing evidence-based conclusions and using precise language. Writing and performing comedy (standup, sketch and improv in L.A.) helps him connect with others, uncover unique perspectives and insights and be simpatico with his clients and their creative work.

Marc developed Out of Focus Groups®, a proprietary approach to insight-generation, co-creation and ideation, based on applied improvisation that empowers you and your team to address your marketing challenges in novel ways. Marc extends this approach with fellow researcher-partner-actor Pascal Patenaude on a solution called, Blocks + Clay™ to help clients build and shape their brands, products, marketing, communications and corporate culture – and solve their marketing and communications challenges.

Marc is adept at making people of all ages, backgrounds and situations comfortable sharing their feelings and opinions—whether talking with C-suite executives, swing voters, new moms, medical professionals, trade professionals or just about anybody else.

Our Expertise

We work a wide range of verticals, including food and beverage, health and wellness, consumer packaged goods, beauty, technology, sports and entertainment, retail, hospitality, automotive, professional services, consumer electronics and financial services on:

• Brand image/positioning/expansion
• New product development/enhancement
• Concept testing
• Packaging design/redesign
• Advertising, PR, marketing campaigns
• Category/white-space exploration
• Corporate reputation/social responsibility/crisis management
• Naming/taglines/logos
• Use of retail space

Marc also has vast experience in political research — presidential, Congressional and judicial candidates as well as issues exploration — and the nonprofit world.

Marc’s expertise is enabling all kinds of participants to share their opinions; conducting conversations whether they be straightforward, sensitive or complex; and making such of the barrage of information presented. Marc brings creativity and discipline to every project, whether it involves moderating, interviewing, facilitating or just research strategy, making for a rewarding and sustained partnership to enhance your business.