Market Research Agency Chicago

Kadence delivers rigorous market research from Chicago to help brands understand audiences and grow. We are a global market research agency with a presence across the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and we can bring domestic and international perspective to every Chicago engagement.

 

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Kadence has spent over 30 years helping organisations make confident, evidence-based decisions. For brands operating in or targeting the Chicago market, we provide research that cuts through complexity and delivers insight worth acting on.

 

Research expertise for the Chicago market

Running research in Chicago means working out what a decision looks like in a market that can behave as a Midwest bellwether in one category and a distinctly urban one in the next. Kadence is set up for both, with study design shaped around the call that needs to be made rather than a pre-built regional template.

Chicago projects typically draw on areas like customer and category understanding, new product and proposition development, brand and communications testing and fieldwork management, alongside the full breadth of Kadence's research capability. The shape of any study is built around the decision behind the brief rather than a fixed service menu. Most briefs sit either inside the city and Cook County, across the wider Chicagoland region, or connect Chicago into a US or multi-market programme, and the decisions behind any of those shapes usually land with teams based locally.

Our Chicago work supports clients across sectors ranging from financial services (with research touching the CME Group, CBOE and CBOT ecosystems) and manufacturing through to food and CPG studies for the kind of brands headquartered locally (Kraft Heinz, Mondelez and Conagra among them), alongside healthcare, insurance, industrial tech and transportation and logistics. Fieldwork reaches across the city itself, through Evanston, Oak Park and the wider Chicagoland and Cook County footprint, up the Milwaukee corridor and into the wider Midwest, with project design reflecting how each sector actually operates in the region rather than leaning on a pan-US template.

With more than three decades partnering with some of the world's most recognised brands, Kadence brings both the scale of a global agency and the kind of specifics that matter for a Chicago study. That includes the city's status as the world's largest derivatives trading hub and a major HQ base for the food and CPG firms that shape US retail, two angles that change how briefs in those categories get designed.

Our US Offices

Kadence operates US offices in New York and San Francisco, giving us a strong foundation for research across the country. Our American team understands the regional variations that shape consumer behaviour from coast to coast, and our presence in both East and West Coast markets means we are well positioned to support research in Chicago and across the Midwest.

Having offices in the US means Kadence can manage fieldwork locally, recruit the right respondents efficiently and apply the cultural understanding that makes research more accurate and more useful. For Chicago-based clients, our US team provides a direct point of contact and hands-on project management throughout every engagement.

Our New York and San Francisco teams also connect to Kadence's wider global network, so projects that extend beyond the US benefit from the same level of local expertise in each market.

We’re consistently recognised as a leading market research agency across multiple markets.

AURA Innovation of the Year award

Innovation of the Year

Finalist

— The AURAs, 2021
Agency of the Year Awards, 2021

Market Research Agency of the Year

Winner – Gold

— Agency of the Year Awards, 2021
Marketing Interactive Agency of the Year, Winner - Gold, 2021

Consultant of the Year

Winner – Gold

— Agency of the Year Awards, 2021
Kadence team collecting Agency of the Year award

Consultant of the Year

Winner

— Agency of the Year Awards, 2020
Agency of the Year Awards, 2020

Market Research Agency of the Year

Finalist

— Agency of the Year Awards, 2020
Quirks Supplier of the Year Kadence International

Market Research Supplier of the Year

Winner

— Marketing Research & Insight Excellence Awards – 2019
Kadence International Market Research Agency of the Year Singapore

Market Research Agency of the Year

Winner

— Agency of the Year Awards, 2019
Kadence International is Highly Commended for Global Agency of The Year

Global Agency of the Year

Highly Commended

— Market Research Society Awards, 2019
Market Research Society's Operations Awards, 2019

Best Data Collection (face-to-face)

Finalist

— Market Research Society's Operations Awards – 2019
Best Data Collection, Finalist — Market Research Society's Operations Awards, 2019

Best Data Collection (telephone)

Finalist

— Market Research Society's Operations Awards, 2019
MRS Opperations Awards Trophy

Best Training and Development

Highly Commended

— Market Research Society's Operations Awards, 2019
MRS Young Researcher of the Year

MRS Young Researcher of the Year

Finalist

— MRS, 2023
ESOMAR Best Congress Paper

ESOMAR Best Congress Paper

Winner

— ESOMAR, 2023

Chicago Market Research

From our US offices, Kadence provides end-to-end market research services for organisations operating in Chicago and across the Midwest. We support brands at every stage, from early audience exploration through to strategic validation and growth planning. Our research helps businesses understand their markets, reduce risk and uncover opportunity - whether they are sizing a new category, testing a new product, refining customer experience or expanding into new regions.

Every study is built around a specific business question, using qualitative and quantitative methods managed by our American team. From brand health tracking and creative evaluation through to consumer segmentation and concept testing, our research delivers clear, actionable insight that informs real decisions.

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FAQs

How diverse is Asia Pacific culturally?

The short answer is that Asia is incredibly rich and nuanced from a cultural standpoint: the multitude of religious beliefs, histories, languages, and other cultural markers means that each market is more different than similar. This can make Asia Pacific market research challenging without the right partner to help you understand the intricacies of each country. That said, though, the ‘urban Asia’ experience is similar to some extent, and popular culture does form the basis to link up a couple of the Asian markets, so there can be ways to seek out common threads amidst the vibrancy of difference.

Do I need to do all my market research in Asia in local / vernacular languages?

As a rule yes. By conducting research in the local language, consumers will have the capability and confidence to express their thoughts and feelings toward the brands, products or services in question. Unlike some market research agencies in Asia, Kadence has a range of languages in-house thanks to our network of Asian offices, so local language moderation is a service we can provide. That said, it is possible to carry out research in English in some markets (e.g. Singapore, India, Philippines), depending on the subject matter and education level of the respondents you want to reach.

For large Asian markets like China and India, how many cities do we need to cover with our research?

We recommend at least a combination of 1st tier and 2nd tier cities, as well as 3rd tier and rural locations, if possible. On top of getting a read on geographic and demographic differences in the reactions to your products and services, lifestyle / intra-market attitudinal variations exist, so the wider you are able to carry out your research, the more comprehensive your resulting understanding of the market will be.

Are there certain research approaches or methodologies that work better in one Asian market, compared to another?

Yes. Cultural differences between Asian markets mean that you need to carefully consider your methodology. For instance, we find that in-depth interviews, rather than group-based discussions, can work better for some topics in markets like Japan, where there can be a tendency to ‘self-censor’. In contrast, the one-on-one format lends itself better to building trust and establishing bonds between interviewer and respondent, often leading to more productive conversations. 

You’ll also need to consider the technological infrastructure of the markets you’re researching. In India, for instance, you’ll need to take a mobile first approach for reaching those outside metros and tier 1 cities. This is also true of mobile-first markets like Indonesia and China. Whilst cultural considerations can be diverse and numerous, we’re on hand to help, based on our long history of conducting market research in Asia.

Does the sequence of which markets I do my research first in Asia matter?

Unless there are specific roll-out plans that have strategic importance for your product or service across markets, our experience has taught us that any order comes back down to organizational preference. Your internal stakeholders may want to start the research in a market that is a stronghold for the brand to establish ground understanding, then venture into unfamiliar grounds to gather ‘new news’, or vice versa. Ultimately, Kadence is flexible in terms of how / when / where to start a piece of research, and in the absence of real preference, is willing to provide our suggestions and justifications for any arrangements.

Our Customers

View all case studies
Bloomberg
Unilever
Samsung
Panasonic
Mitsubishi
Mars
Arla
Discovery Networks Asia Pacific
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FAQs

Why choose Kadence for market research in Chicago?

Kadence combines deep US market experience with the perspective of a global research agency. Our offices in New York and San Francisco support Chicago research with local recruitment, fieldwork management and cultural understanding. For brands that also operate internationally, our global network delivers consistent, comparable insight across markets.

Can Kadence run multi-city US studies that include Chicago?

Yes. Our US team regularly coordinates research across multiple American cities, ensuring consistent methodology and comparable data. Whether the study covers Chicago and two other metros or spans the entire country, we manage fieldwork and recruitment centrally through our American offices.

What makes the Chicago market distinct for research purposes?

Chicago's size, demographic diversity and mix of established industries and emerging sectors make it a valuable bellwether for national US trends. Consumer attitudes here often reflect broader patterns while retaining distinct Midwestern characteristics, making it a strategic location for brand, product and communications research.

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