What Brandtrust does

Brandtrust is a Chicago-based brand strategy and behavioral research consultancy founded in 2000 (with a 1998 referenced origin in some firmographic data) by Daryl Travis. The firm applies methodologies grounded in applied social and behavioral sciences to uncover what it terms "Human Truth" — the nonconscious drivers behind consumer decisions that account for an estimated 95% of thought, emotion, and decision-making. Its proprietary research stack includes Emotional Inquiry® (a trademarked interview methodology), Narrative Inquiry, Original Inquiry, and the Storycasting strategic planning framework, all delivered through one-on-one interviews, workshops, and consulting engagements.

The company serves enterprise brand leaders across multiple verticals — pharmaceuticals and healthcare (Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Amgen, Blue Cross, Aetna), consumer goods and F&B (McDonald's, ABInBev, Conagra, KitchenAid, Walgreens, Lowes), financial services (Chase, Schwab, Vanguard, Capital One, Hartford), and manufacturing/energy/logistics (GE, BP, FedEx, Chrysler, Cadillac, 3M). Its core service portfolio spans five interconnected practice areas: Insights (research), Brand (strategy), Culture (internal alignment), Experience (customer journey design), and Behavior (behavioral science applications). The firm also monetizes thought leadership through the Human Truth Workshop Series, published books (Emotional Branding, How Does It Make You Feel?, Little Things Big Returns), and a podcast series.

Brandtrust operates as a premium-priced, custom-engagement professional services firm with no publicly disclosed pricing, revenue, or funding. GTM motion is enterprise-focused direct sales supported by conference presence (TMRE, Quirk's, Pharma Market Research Conference), webinars, and workshop programs. The company holds an ISO 27001 certification and is privately held with no disclosed external institutional investment, parent organization, or M&A activity. Headcount is reported as 1-10 employees, with leadership distributed across CEO Alex Millet, founder Daryl Travis, Managing Director Stephan Leman, and several senior directors and consultants.

Name

Brandtrust

Legal name

Brandtrust

Website

https://brandtrust.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Brandtrust is a Chicago-based brand consultancy that uses applied social and behavioral sciences to uncover nonconscious consumer drivers, serving enterprise clients across pharma, CPG, financial services, and manufacturing with proprietary Emotional Inquiry® research and brand strategy services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Research and Consulting Services: Professional services engagements including insights research, brand strategy, culture consulting, experience design, and behavior science advisory. Services delivered through one-on-one interviews, workshops, and strategic consulting engagements.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Brandtrust is a brand consultancy that delivers research, strategy, culture, experience, and behavior consulting services using proprietary methodologies grounded in applied social and behavioral sciences. Their core offerings include Insights (research services), Brand (strategy), Culture (internal alignment), Experience (customer journey design), and Behavior (behavioral science applications), delivered through proprietary methods such as Emotional Inquiry®, Narrative Inquiry, and Original Inquiry.

Product overview

Brandtrust is a human behavior research and brand strategy consultancy that operates as a unified service offering rather than a software platform. The company applies methodologies grounded in the applied social and behavioral sciences to help brands uncover Human Truth—the nonconscious drivers behind customer decisions. Their core service portfolio spans five interconnected areas: Insights (research), Brand (strategy), Culture (internal alignment), Experience (customer journey design), and Behavior (behavioral science applications). These services are delivered through proprietary methodologies including Emotional Inquiry®, Narrative Inquiry, and Original Inquiry. The company also offers educational resources including the Human Truth Workshop Series and published books on emotional branding.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Insights Research services applying methodologies based in social and behavioral sciences to uncover nonconscious drivers of customer behavior and reveal Human Truth for enterprise clients.
• Brand Brand strategy services focused on building brands grounded in Human Truth, creating shared stories, meaningful impressions, and deeper customer connections for enterprise clients.
• Culture Internal culture consulting services that help organizations align internal brand culture with external brand expression for unified brand experiences.
• Experience Customer experience design services applying human psychology and the Peak-End Rule to create memorable brand experiences that drive loyalty.
• Behavior Behavior science consulting services applying behavioral economics principles to drive customer actions and design for behavior change.
• Human Truth Workshop Series Educational workshop series covering questioning techniques, storytelling, behavioral economics, empathy, knowledge mapping, and Storycasting, available as private team sessions and open cross-industry sessions.
• How Does It Make You Feel? Why Emotion Wins The Battle of Brands (Book) Book by Daryl Travis exploring how brands use emotional connections to create customer loyalty and the role of feelings in brand building.
• Little Things Big Returns (Book) Book revealing how companies can close the customer experience gap and realize big returns by focusing on emotional connections with customers.
• Emotional Branding: How Successful Brands Gain the Irrational Edge (Book) Book by Daryl Travis teaching how to instill brand loyalty through emotional connections using intuitive thinking and brand mystique.

Quantifiable outcome

• Helped Team World Vision raise over $30 million, bringing clean water to over 600,000 people within 3 years of partnership
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers32 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• EMI Research SolutionscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOngoing research partnership for mental health studies and complex topic research. Collaborated on Narrative Inquiry methodology combining qualitative/quantitative approaches with strategic sample blending. Joint webinar presentations and event participation at Quirk's Chicago.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Prophet: Prophet is a global brand and marketing consultancy that combines strategy, innovation, and customer experience work for enterprise clients. Like Brandtrust, it sells bespoke brand-transformation engagements grounded in consumer insight, and competes for the same CMO/brand-leader buying center.
• Lippincott: Lippincott is a brand strategy and design consultancy (part of Oliver Wyman) that helps enterprises define brand purpose, identity, and experience. It is a direct competitor to Brandtrust's Brand and Culture service lines for large Fortune 500 brand strategy mandates.
• Interbrand: Interbrand is a global brand consultancy (part of Omnicom) focused on brand strategy, naming, valuation, and experience design. It competes head-to-head with Brandtrust for enterprise brand strategy engagements and has deeper global reach and technology (CBI) capabilities.
• Landor & Fitch: Landor & Fitch is a WPP-owned brand consulting and design firm combining strategy, brand identity, and experience design. It targets the same enterprise brand leader buyer as Brandtrust and offers a comparable mix of strategic and creative output.
• Siegel+Gale: Siegel+Gale is a brand strategy, design, and customer experience consultancy focused on simplicity and clarity. It overlaps directly with Brandtrust's Brand and Experience service lines for large enterprise brand and CX transformation work.
• Superunion: Superunion is a WPP-owned brand and design consultancy that delivers brand strategy, identity, and experience work for global enterprises. It competes for the same CMO/brand-leader engagements as Brandtrust and offers deeper creative and international production scale.
• MetaDesign: MetaDesign is a Publicis-owned brand strategy and design agency that helps enterprises build brand identity, experience, and digital products. It overlaps with Brandtrust's Brand and Experience practices and operates with similar client rosters in CPG and automotive.
• EquiBrand Consulting: EquiBrand is a U.S. brand strategy consultancy offering brand positioning, architecture, and research-driven strategy work. It targets the same mid-to-large enterprise buyer as Brandtrust and competes for CPG and B2B brand strategy mandates.

Broad incumbents

• Havas Creative Group: Havas is a global advertising and communications holding company whose brand strategy and CX agencies compete for enterprise brand insight and engagement work. It represents a broader incumbent with significantly more scale and resources than boutique firm Brandtrust.

Emerging players

• SandboxAQ (and other AI-research platforms): SandboxAQ and similar AI-driven research and behavioral-analytics platforms apply large quantitative models to brand and consumer decision analysis. They represent an emerging category that intersects with Brandtrust's Emotional Inquiry® and Narrative Inquiry offerings by automating parts of qualitative insight generation.

Market position

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat3 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/brandtrust
• Facebookfacebook.com/brandtrustinc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/brandtrust

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 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 Brandtrust