Q | Agentur für Forschung

What Q | Agentur für Forschung does

Q | Agentur für Forschung GmbH (operating as 'Team Q') is a Mannheim, Germany-based market research consulting agency founded in 2008 and owner-managed by managing partners Kerstin Klär and Oliver Tabino. The firm delivers qualitative and quantitative research—social listening, ethnography, Market Research Online Communities, concept testing, scenario planning, and strategic consulting—to enterprise B2B clients across FMCG, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, media, luxury goods, and healthcare. Named customers include Roche, REWE, Techniker Krankenkasse, a global beverage industry player, and a TV broadcaster.

The product portfolio is organized around a four-phase methodology (Discover, Understand, Decide, Change) and combines traditional methods (in-depth interviews, focus groups, ethnographic in-homes, design thinking workshops, agile research sprints) with proprietary technology. Notable technical components include a self-developed multi-country web crawler, an LLM-based insights data pipeline with custom dashboards and automated adverse event reporting, AI persona simulation, collaborative LLM-driven concept development in Extended Creativity Groups, and an award-winning LLM-based chatbot interview approach (DGOF Impact & Innovation Award 2026). A strategic platform partnership with Kernwert extends the firm into flexible, community-based research infrastructure.

Commercially, Team Q monetizes exclusively through customized professional services engagements priced per project scope, acquired via direct enterprise outreach, website contact forms, and industry events. There is no public pricing, no product catalog, no subscription or SaaS revenue stream, no disclosed funding, and no parent company. The firm operates with approximately 15 named professionals across a single Mannheim office and serves both DACH and selected international markets.

Name

Q | Agentur für Forschung

Legal name

Q | Agentur für Forschung GmbH

Website

https://teamq.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2008

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Q | Agentur für Forschung (Team Q) is a Mannheim-based boutique market research agency providing AI-enhanced qualitative and quantitative research services—social listening, ethnography, and consulting—to enterprise clients in FMCG, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and media.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Services

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

B2B / Industrial Market Research (MPAAALAA)

Keywords

• Market research services
• Social listening research
• Consumer insights consulting
• Qualitative research methods
• Trend research analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Mannheim

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Market Research Services: Full-service market research agency providing qualitative and quantitative research services including consumer insights, social listening, trend research, and strategic consulting to B2B clients across multiple industries

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Q | Agentur für Forschung (Team Q) is a German market research agency offering qualitative and quantitative research services combined with AI-enhanced analysis. Core offerings include social listening, AI-based deep research with human-in-the-loop, data science and text mining, Market Research Online Communities, ethnographic Experience Days, concept testing, agile research sprints, scenario planning, and design thinking workshops. The agency delivers these as customized B2B research projects across FMCG, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, and media sectors.

Product overview

Q | Agentur für Forschung (Team Q) is a German market research agency offering a portfolio of interconnected research methodologies and consulting services. The core offering is organized around social listening and social media research, AI-based deep research (featuring LLM-powered analysis pipelines, automated labeling, AI summarization, and collaborative LLM concept development), data science and text mining, Market Research Online Communities (MROC), Experience Days (ethnographic in-home visits), qualitative methods (IDIs, focus groups), design thinking workshops, concept testing, agile research sprints, scenario planning, and trend scanning. Supporting these, the company operates a proprietary crawler and monitoring infrastructure and partners with Kernwert for a flexible research platform. The portfolio is structured around four solution logic phases—Discover, Understand, Decide, Change—and serves clients across pharmaceuticals, FMCG, telecommunications, media, and other industries.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Social Listening & Social Media Research Continuous monitoring and analysis of digital discussions across forums, social media platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit), and stakeholder-specific websites to identify topics, trends, sentiment, and stakeholder perspectives for enterprise clients.
• AI-Based Deep Research AI-powered research combining structured prompting with market research expertise, including automated labeling, LLM-based analysis pipelines, AI-generated summaries and translations, and collaborative concept development with consumers using LLMs during creativity groups.
• Data Science & Text Mining Application of data science methods including text mining for linguistic analysis, automated scraping of public data sources, buzzword identification, and top-user analysis to identify patient journeys and stakeholder needs.
• Market Research Online Community Longitudinal online community platforms for sustained consumer engagement, enabling multi-week research communities, food diaries, daily tasks, and individual follow-up interviews to uncover consumer rituals and behavioral patterns.
• Experience Days (Ethnography & In-Homes) Multi-hour in-home visits with observation and interview phases designed to immerse researchers in consumers' lives using all senses, including shared meals, shopping trips, and prime-time TV experiences.
• Trends & Future / Trend Scanning Trend identification and monitoring services combining digital landscaping, trend scouting, and trend reporting to supply client teams with emerging trends, hypes, and product innovations across industries such as beauty and food.
• Consulting & Strategy Strategic advisory services including KPI development, innovation and communication project evaluation, and brand management support, translating insights into actionable strategic direction and measurable outcomes for enterprise clients.
• Design Thinking Workshops Innovation workshops that place consumers at the center of new service development, linking customer centricity and innovation through structured creative workshops and work phases with interdisciplinary client teams.
• Qualitative Research (IDIs & Focus Groups) Traditional qualitative methods including in-depth individual interviews (IDIs), focus groups, and studio interviews conducted in parallel with subsequent group discussions for agile research sprints.
• Concept Testing & Packaging Tests Concept evaluation and testing services as part of a multi-component research and consulting process including target group workshops, naming workshops, trend scanning, and concept writing for product launches.
• Agile Research Sprints Rapid, iterative qualitative research rounds designed for product developers, with parallel studio interviews, group discussions, and 24-hour turnaround reporting to support fast product optimization cycles.
• Scenario Planning Strategic foresight methodology linking technology trends with consumer-centric scenarios for a 10-year outlook, including SWOT analyses, dilemma derivation, and identification of strategic challenges and actionable to-dos.
• Netnography Online ethnographic research method analyzing digital communities and social media cultures to identify topics and linguistic codes within stakeholder groups such as patients, healthcare professionals, and media.
• Social Media Benchmarking & Competitive Analysis Competitive analysis in the social web comparing a client's digital activities against competitors using custom KPI sets, with actionable recommendations for social media and digital marketing optimization.
• Kernwert Partnership Platform Flexible, adaptive research platform co-created with partner Kernwert, enabling rapid and precise delivery of tailored actionable insights for retail clients through a long-term FMCG community.

Quantifiable outcome

• Top 5 placements 9 out of 9 times to rank 1 in concept testing
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability11 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Insight Artist CollectivecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2026Collective of research professionals who celebrate their profession, create meaning rather than just deliver data, and inspire rather than just report. Launched officially at succeet26 conference with Q as founding member.
• KernwertcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership for creating a highly flexible, adaptive, and efficient research platform for retail client. Together developed long-term FMCG research community combining methodological expertise with platform capabilities.
• audius GmbHminorOthersData protection officer provider. Contact: [email protected], Mendelfstrasse 13, D-89089 Ulm. Provides GDPR compliance support.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Human8 (formerly InSites Consulting): Belgian-origin global market research agency specializing in consumer insights, communities and digital/social research with strong emphasis on innovative methodology. Closest peer to Q in boutique positioning, community platforms and methodology-first culture.
• SKOPOS: Cologne-based German market research agency of comparable boutique size, offering qualitative and quantitative research, community panels, and digital research services. Directly comparable in size, German footprint and methodology mix.
• quantilope: Hamburg-based AI-augmented consumer insights platform combining automated qualitative and quantitative research methods. Directly comparable in German footprint, AI-enhancement positioning and methodology innovation focus.
• Toluna: Global online research and consumer insights platform with community panels, survey technology and AI-driven research capabilities. Comparable in online community offerings and AI-augmented research methodology.

Broad incumbents

• IPSOS: Global market research leader with significant DACH operations and broad portfolio covering consumer insights, social intelligence, healthcare, and brand strategy. Larger incumbent competing for the same enterprise clients across overlapping methodologies.
• Kantar: Global research, data and insights giant with strong DACH presence and AI-enhanced research offerings including social listening via Link. Established incumbent competing for similar enterprise consumer insights engagements.
• GfK (Consumer Panels / NIQ): German-origin global consumer intelligence firm with deep roots in Nuremberg, now part of NielsenIQ. Broad incumbent serving many of the same FMCG and consumer electronics clients Q engages.

Emerging players

• Linkfluence / NetRivals: European social listening and consumer intelligence platform with AI-driven trend detection, serving enterprise marketing teams. Directly comparable in social listening methodology and European footprint.

Others

• Talkwalker: Social listening and consumer intelligence platform with AI-powered analytics. Functions partly as enabling technology that Q's team uses and partly as an adjacent competitor in social listening deliverables.
• Brandwatch (Cision): Enterprise social listening and consumer research platform used by brand and agency teams. Adjacent peer whose tooling competes with Q's social listening and netnography deliverables for budget within shared clients.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Q.Agentur
• Instagraminstagram.com/teamqde
• Xx.com/q_insightagency
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/q-agentur-f-r-forschung

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 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 Q | Agentur für Forschung