iModerate Research Technologies is an American qualitative market research firm that integrates instant messaging between consumers and professional moderators to generate market insights and to increase the quality of online surveys. iModerate is recognized for its one-on-one online interviews with consumers, which are designed to generate qualitative information about consumers’ emotions and decision-making processes. iModerate partners with organizations across a range of industries, including the food and beverage, retail, media, and entertainment industries. The company has worked with over 30% of the companies on the Fortune 100 list, and also works with political campaigns to test the effectiveness of political ads and messages. As of 2013, iModerate has conducted over 100,000 conversations with consumers. The company is headquartered in Denver, CO.
Background
iModerate was founded by Carl Rossow, Joel Benenson, Scott Rossow, Jen Drolet and Adam Rossow in 2004 to provide large organizations with more insightful market research. The company was created to introduce more extensive insights into market research by utilizing one-on-one, real-time conversations with consumers. The approach was considered novel at the time when most marketing research was being conducted through traditional focus groups and standard online surveys. Prior to founding iModerate, Carl Rossow led the Denver research firm Innovative Survey Research, and was the head of internal polling operations for U.S. President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 2000.
Product
iModerate moderators hold real-time, one-on-one conversations with consumers. The overall conversation-based approach is designed to provide the client with deeper consumer insights. During the conversations, iModerate moderators collect qualitative feedback from the consumer, such as the ways the consumer uses a given product or service. In many cases, the qualitative conversations are conducted in conjunction with online surveys for a more comprehensive hybrid research approach. iModerate’s qualitative offering is based on a proprietary approach and analysis framework called ThoughtPath. The framework is developed from cognitive theories and empirical information derived from previous conversations.
