Brand Keys

What Brand Keys does

Brand Keys is a privately-held, founder-led brand research consultancy founded in 1984 and headquartered in New York City (20 Beekman Place, Floor 9). The firm specializes in predictive brand equity, consumer loyalty, and engagement measurement, serving B2C, B2B, and D2C brands across 1,100+ brands in 35 countries, with offices in Dublin, Dubai, London, Madrid, Sydney, and Tokyo supporting international delivery.

The firm's core product is the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI), an annual subscription research assessment built on a proprietary psychologically-based algorithm that maps emotional and rational drivers of consumer behavior. Brand Keys reports 0.80–0.90 correlations between CLEI outputs and downstream business outcomes (sales, profitability, upsells, foot traffic, brand KPIs), and claims its insights precede those of traditional brand trackers and focus groups by 12–18 months. The portfolio extends CLEI into a stack of annual recurring research products—America's Most Patriotic Brands (25th edition released in 2026), Most Innovative Brands, a Back-to-School consumer survey, and a Sports Loyalty Index—plus ad hoc competitive intelligence engagements and a Media GPS tool for optimizing marketing-mix investment.

Brand Keys operates a sales-led B2B consulting model, monetizing through enterprise subscription assessments and bespoke consulting engagements priced on a quote basis. Distribution is direct to brand managers, CMOs, and corporate decision-makers, supplemented by a content-marketing engine (blog, YouTube channel 'key2loyalty', LinkedIn, X, Facebook, Flipboard, email newsletter) and validation relationships with The Advertising Research Foundation, the Association of National Advertisers, ESOMAR, and 24/7 Wall Street.

Name

Brand Keys

Legal name

Brand Keys, Inc.

Website

https://brandkeys.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Brand Keys is a New York-based brand research consultancy, founded in 1984, that runs the annual Customer Loyalty Engagement Index and related loyalty and engagement surveys for B2C, B2B, and D2C brands across 35 countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Research and Consulting Services: Brand Keys provides subscription-based loyalty and engagement research assessments for brands, offering annual surveys, competitive benchmarking, and consulting engagements. Services include the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, Most Patriotic Brands surveys, and custom brand research.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Brand Keys is a brand research consultancy that sells predictive brand equity, consumer loyalty, and engagement measurement services built on a proprietary psychologically-based algorithm. The flagship product is the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI), supplemented by annual surveys (Most Patriotic Brands, Most Innovative Brands, Back-to-School, Sports Loyalty Index), Media GPS marketing optimization, and Competitive Intelligence Assessments sold to B2C, B2B, and D2C brand clients.

Product overview

Brand Keys is a brand research consultancy offering a unified suite of loyalty and engagement measurement products. The core offering is the Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI), a psychologically-based predictive analytics platform that measures brand equity and forecasts consumer behavior. Supporting products include the annual Most Patriotic Brands Survey, Most Innovative Brands Survey, Back-to-School Survey, and Sports Loyalty Index. These are delivered through proprietary assessment methodology that correlates emotional engagement metrics with sales and profitability outcomes. The company operates internationally across 35 countries with validated correlations (0.80-0.90 range) between their loyalty metrics and business outcomes.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Customer Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI) Brand Keys' primary assessment product that measures customer loyalty and brand engagement through a psychologically-based algorithm predicting consumer behavior 12-18 months ahead of traditional research methods. The 27th annual survey engaged 96,608 consumers. Used by brand marketers across B2C, B2B, and D2C categories.
• Most Patriotic Brands Survey Annual survey identifying which brands consumers perceive as most patriotic, treating authentic patriotism as a driver of brand engagement, sales, and profitability.
• Most Innovative Brands Survey Annual survey identifying which brands consumers perceive as most innovative across D2C and B2C sectors.
• Back-to-School (B2S) Survey Annual consumer survey tracking back-to-school spending patterns across U.S. households with school-age children.
• Sports Loyalty Index Survey measuring fan and consumer loyalty to sports brands, leagues, and teams.
• Media GPS Tool for optimizing marketing investments by identifying consumer emotional engagement patterns and linking them to brand performance outcomes.
• Competitive Intelligence Assessments Custom analysis providing brands with insights into their performance relative to competitive sets and aspiration brands in other categories.

Quantifiable outcome

• Correlation range of 0.80 to 0.90 with sales, profitability, upsells, foot traffic, and brand KPIs
• +1 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered validation and media.

• The Advertising Research FoundationvalidationOthersIndependent validation of Brand Keys loyalty and engagement assessments. The Advertising Research Foundation (now part of ARF) has validated the company's measurement methodology.
• Association of National Advertisers (ANA)validationOthersIndependent validation of Brand Keys loyalty and engagement assessments through ANA endorsement.
• ESOMARvalidationOthersGlobal market research association providing independent validation of Brand Keys methodology.
• 24/7 Wall StreetmediaOthersIndependent validation partner providing coverage and credibility for Brand Keys research findings.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Kantar: Kantar is the global market research incumbent operating BrandZ, equity and brand tracking practices across 100+ markets, including MILLWARD BROWN brand equity. It directly overlaps with Brand Keys in loyalty and brand-equity measurement for enterprise CMOs, but offers a much wider portfolio (analytics, media, consulting).
• NielsenIQ: NielsenIQ (and Nielsen Holdings historically) provides consumer research, panel-based measurement and brand performance analytics to global brands. While its core is retail measurement, its brand and consumer engagement products serve the same CMOs and category buyers as Brand Keys.
• Forrester Research: Forrester is a subscription-based research and advisory firm that publishes syndicated research on customer experience, brand and loyalty. It sells annual research subscriptions to the same enterprise CMO/CXO buyers as Brand Keys and competes for brand-loyalty thought leadership.
• Gartner: Gartner is a large subscription research and advisory firm serving enterprise executives. While its primary verticals are technology and CMO, its marketing and customer experience research overlaps the brand and loyalty measurement categories where Brand Keys competes for budget.

Direct peers

• Ipsos: Ipsos is one of the world's largest market research firms with deep brand loyalty, customer experience and advertising effectiveness practices. Its loyalty and engagement trackers address the same CMO buyer as Brand Keys' CLEI and are the most direct competitor in syndicated brand research.
• Brand Finance: Brand Finance is a brand valuation and strategy consultancy publishing annual brand value rankings (Global 500, Most Valuable Brands). It targets the same CMO and CFO buyer as Brand Keys with a complementary brand equity methodology, making it a direct comparable for annual syndicated brand rankings.
• Prophet: Prophet is a brand and customer experience consultancy that combines brand research with strategy and activation work. It addresses the same brand-loyalty and engagement questions as Brand Keys but layers on transformation consulting, making it a near-direct peer for brand-driven engagement engagements.
• Gallup: Gallup is a global analytics and advice firm running the Q12 employee engagement and customer engagement practices, including large-scale loyalty and brand research. Its annual consumer and engagement surveys target a similar CX/brand-leader audience as Brand Keys' CLEI.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/brandkeysny
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/key2loyalty
• Facebookfacebook.com/BrandKeys
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/brand-keys-inc.

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Brand Keys