What Burke does

Burke, Inc. is a Cincinnati-based marketing research and decision intelligence consultancy founded in 1931 by Alberta Burke. The firm designs custom research projects (500 annually) and ongoing tracking programs for 150+ enterprise clients, including 10 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies across eight verticals: Consumer Goods, Financial Services, Health & Wellness, Manufacturing & Industrial, Restaurants & Food, Retail & Shopping, Tech & Telecom, and Travel & Hospitality. Burke is 100% employee-owned through an ESOP with 282 employees and a 12.8-year average full-time tenure, and the longest client relationship spans 39+ years. The company is structured around three units: the core Burke research practice, Seed Strategy as its innovation consulting arm, and Burke Institute as its training division (founded 1975, having trained nearly 90,000 marketing professionals).

Burke's product portfolio is built on a set of proprietary, trademarked frameworks including the Relevance + Momentum brand strength framework (powering Brand Strength Monitor and R+M Strategy Sprint), the Gravity Points customer experience framework (with Gravity Points Snapshot and Emotional Gravity), and the FAR Framework for evaluating synthetic data quality. These frameworks are delivered through an Expert-led AI platform that combines human-validated respondent data, connected data intelligence, and AI capabilities across text, video, and multimodal modalities, including AI-moderated interviews, conversational AI personas via Segment Live, and the BRAND ANSWER diagnostic for AI-driven brand analytics (developed in partnership with BrandRank.AI). Burke Labs functions as the R&D unit for testing new AI and technology solutions.

The business operates with a sales-led enterprise GTM motion, anchoring revenue in custom research projects and recurring tracking engagements, supplemented by innovation consulting revenue through Seed Strategy and recurring education revenue through Burke Institute programs (including the 2026 AI in Market Research and Insights Certificate Program). Burke holds ISO 20252:2019 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certifications, and serves clients in the U.S. and across LATAM markets (Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia). The company is privately held and does not disclose revenue.

Name

Burke

Legal name

Burke, Inc.

Website

https://burke.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1931

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Burke, Inc. is a 90+ year-old Cincinnati-based marketing research and decision intelligence consultancy serving 150+ clients annually, including 10 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies across eight verticals, via proprietary frameworks, human-validated data, and AI-augmented research, innovation, and training services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Marketing Research Services

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Corporate Strategy Advisory (BPAHADAA)

Keywords

• Marketing research services
• Brand strategy consulting
• Consumer insights analytics
• Innovation strategy consulting
• Customer experience research

Headquarters

HQ city

Cincinnati

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Custom Research Projects: Tailored marketing research services designed to meet specific client objectives, from brand strategy to customer experience to innovation. Projects range from custom research to 500 projects annually across various industries.
2. Burke Institute Training: Research and insights education division providing seminars and certificate programs to marketing professionals. Established in 1975, trained nearly 90,000 professionals. New AI in Market Research and Insights Certificate Program launched in 2026.
3. Ongoing Tracking & Monitoring: Continuous brand tracking, customer experience monitoring, and market research programs providing ongoing decision support to clients with long-term partnerships spanning 39+ years.
4. Innovation Consulting: Strategy consulting through Seed Strategy for innovation programs including opportunity identification, concept development, and portfolio optimization delivered via workshops and strategic sessions.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Burke, Inc. is a 90+ year-old marketing research and decision intelligence consultancy that sells custom research projects, brand strategy, innovation consulting, and customer experience research to enterprise clients. The firm delivers approximately 500 custom projects annually to 150+ clients, including 10 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, through a portfolio of proprietary frameworks (Relevance + Momentum, Gravity Points, FAR Framework) and an Expert-led AI platform combining human insight with data intelligence. It also operates wholly-owned training (Burke Institute) and innovation (Seed Strategy) divisions that generate recurring revenue.

Product overview

Burke, Inc. is a marketing research and decision intelligence consultancy offering a portfolio of interconnected products and services centered on brand strategy, innovation, and customer experience. The core platform combines human insight, data intelligence, and AI capabilities. Key offerings include the Relevance + Momentum™ brand strength framework powering Brand Strength Monitor and R+M Strategy Sprint; Gravity Points™ customer experience framework with Gravity Points Snapshot and Emotional Gravity products; and Expert-led AI platform encompassing synthetic data (FAR Framework™), conversational AI personas (Segment Live), and integrated data intelligence. The company operates through two divisions: Seed Strategy (innovation and strategy) and Burke Institute (education and training). The BrandRank.AI partnership enables the BRAND ANSWER diagnostic for AI-driven brand analytics. Burke Labs™ serves as the R&D unit for testing new AI and technology solutions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Seed Strategy: The innovation arm of Burke, harmoniously uniting business strategy, breakthrough creativity, and innovation expertise.
• Burke Institute
• Burke Healthcare
• BRAND ANSWER
• Gravity Points
• Relevance + Momentum
• Brand Strength Monitor

Products and services

• Custom Marketing Research Projects Tailored marketing research engagements designed around each client's specific business objectives, spanning brand strategy, innovation, customer experience, segmentation, and ongoing tracking. Delivered for 150+ enterprise clients annually, including 10 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies.
• Brand Strength Monitor Assessment tool measuring a brand's Relevance + Momentum to provide a clear path toward growth. Provides direction for marketing strategies and focuses on key business outcome drivers such as topline growth.
• R + M Strategy Sprint Fast and focused brand assessment engagement using the Relevance + Momentum framework to turn existing insights into clear direction and an executive-ready growth path.
• BRAND ANSWER Diagnostic tool that reveals how AI portrays brands, identifies gaps between brand messaging and AI perception, and compares brand performance against competitors in AI-generated responses. Co-developed with BrandRank.AI.
• Gravity Points Snapshot Engagement product that unifies fragmented CX data into a clear empathy-led view of the core customer journey using the Gravity Points framework, combining AI scale with human judgment.
• Segment Live AI-powered deliverable that transforms segmentation outputs into dynamic conversational personas that teams can interact with through text and video in real time to explore consumer needs and behaviors.
• Emotional Gravity Empathy insights offering that runs alongside CX tracking, using AI-enabled qualitative modules to capture real customer voice around pain points, delighters, and opportunities.
• Opportunity Wayfinder Innovation offering that uncovers promising innovation opportunities by combining jobs-to-be-done data with market context, emerging signals, and competitive analysis, delivered via Seed Strategy.
• Idea Refinery Innovation offering that transforms early ideas through expert concept writing and creative development into clear, compelling stimuli designed for accurate consumer testing, delivered via Seed Strategy.
• Digital Dashboard Universal client access portal that provides flexible, real-time access to Burke research data with an intuitive interface for deep exploration of metrics across ongoing tracking programs.
• FAR Framework Framework that evaluates synthetic data quality across Fidelity (alignment with source of truth), Authenticity (realistic variation vs. reproducing existing data), and Resolution (preservation of relationships between variables, segments, and business conclusions). Developed through Burke Labs.
• Burke Institute Training and Certificate Programs Education and certificate programs covering market research, consumer insights, and (as of 2026) applied AI for insights professionals. Sold via individual course registration and discounted complete certificate program enrollment.
• AI in Market Research and Insights Certificate Program First-of-its-kind six-course live certificate program for insights professionals covering practical AI applications across research design, analysis, synthesis, and storytelling, with emphasis on responsible AI use.
• Seed Strategy Innovation Consulting Strategic and creative innovation services combining business strategy, breakthrough creativity, and innovation expertise. Delivered through workshops, illumination, and activation sessions using Jobs-to-be-Done frameworks.
• Burke Healthcare Research Specialized healthcare research services leveraging Burke's consumer insights expertise for health and wellness industry clients, including medical device companies, healthcare providers, and health brands.

Quantifiable outcome

• LLM-based synthetic panels produced false conclusions in ~60% of tested business scenarios at 80% accuracy level
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability13 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• UC Center for Business Analytics and AIminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 5 May 2026Partnership supporting the 14th annual Analytics and AI Summit on May 5, 2026 at Sharonville Convention Center. Burke participated as a key sponsor with keynote presentations on AI and data foundations.
• BrandRank.AIcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 April 2026Strategic partnership to help brands compete in marketplace shaped by AI. Combines Burke's deep understanding of consumer behavior with BrandRank.AI's ability to track how brands are represented in AI-generated answers. Initial offering BRAND ANSWER diagnostic reveals how AI portrays brands, identifies gaps from key consumer questions, and compares brands to competitors in AI-driven responses. Burke leverages BrandRank.AI's analytics platform while BrandRank.AI incorporates Burke's data expertise and Relevance + Momentum brand strategy framework.
• Burke InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1975Burke Institute is the training division of Burke, leading the industry in research and insights education. Has trained nearly 90,000 marketing professionals over 40+ years. Launches new certificate programs including AI in Market Research and Insights Certificate Program in 2026.
• Seed StrategycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSeed Strategy is the innovation arm of the Burke family, harmoniously uniting business strategy, breakthrough creativity, and innovation expertise. Provides strategic consulting for innovation programs through work sessions, illumination and activation. Collaborates on strategic projects including brand strategy, segmentation, and innovation activation using Jobs-to-be-Done frameworks.
• The Dragonfly Foundation (TDF)minorOthersCommunity partnership helping Dragonfly Foundation understand how companies supported families affected by pediatric cancer post diagnosis, during treatment, and in survivorship. Passion project where Burke employees donated time to uncover key insights.
• Freestore FoodbankminorOthersCommunity partnership supporting Freestore Foodbank's Hunger Walk benefiting Cincinnati community including soup kitchens, community centers, and partner-in-education school Rees E. Price Academy.
• Maslow's ArmyminorOthersCommunity partnership providing Cincinnati's vulnerable populations access to foundational necessities through company volunteering and support.
• Rees E. Price Academy (REPA)minorOthersOne of the longest school community partnerships in Cincinnati Public Schools spanning 35+ years. Activities include Burke Student Art Gallery, Burke Pen Pals, and sponsored co-curricular programs.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Circana (formerly IRI): Market research and analytics firm specializing in CPG, retail, and media measurement. Comparable to Burke on path-to-purchase and shopper journey research, but with much larger syndicated data assets.
• NielsenIQ: Global consumer intelligence and measurement firm combining retail data with consumer research. Overlaps with Burke in CPG brand and shopper insights, but with much broader portfolio spanning panels, retail measurement, and predictive analytics.
• Kantar: World's largest marketing data and analytics company offering brand strategy, consumer research, and media measurement. Comparable to Burke across brand strength measurement, CX, and innovation work, but with vastly larger scale and global footprint.
• GfK: Global market research firm offering consumer behavior, brand, and innovation insights. Overlaps with Burke across CPG, retail, and tech verticals, with broader international reach (especially in Europe).
• Forrester Research: Global research and advisory firm serving enterprise technology, marketing, and customer experience leaders. Overlaps with Burke on CX research and brand strategy advisory, but primarily serves technology buyers via subscription research.

Direct peers

• Ipsos: Global market research and consulting firm offering brand, innovation, and customer experience research. Directly comparable to Burke in methodology (custom research, brand tracking, segmentation) and target market (enterprise CMOs across CPG, financial services, healthcare, retail).
• Mintel: Market research firm focused on consumer products, retail, and financial services insights. Directly comparable in CPG and consumer research methodology, syndicated + custom offerings, and enterprise subscription model.
• Escalent: Custom market research and analytics firm serving financial services, healthcare, and consumer industries. Closely comparable to Burke in industry verticals, custom research methodology, and enterprise go-to-market.
• The Hartman Group: Consumer insights and market research firm specializing in consumer goods, food, beverage, and wellness. Comparable to Burke on health & wellness and CPG research methodology.
• Material: Strategic insights, innovation, and brand strategy consultancy. Comparable to Burke in brand strategy, innovation consulting, and integrated research-plus-strategy delivery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/burke-inc-
• Instagraminstagram.com/burkeinc
• Xx.com/burkeinc
• Facebookfacebook.com/burkeinc

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Subsidiaries3 records

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 Burke