What smart insights does

smart insights GmbH is a privately held, owner-managed (inhabergeführt) full-service market and brand research institute headquartered in Bremen, Germany. It delivers fact-based decision security to German enterprise, mid-market, public-sector and association clients through four research pillars — Markenstudien (Brand Studies), Kundenbefragungen (Customer Surveys), Mitarbeiterbefragungen (Employee Surveys), and Mitgliederbefragungen (Member Surveys) — supplemented by an end-to-end methodology stack spanning study conception, qualitative and quantitative fieldwork, data preparation, data analysis, strategy, consulting, and workshops. The company operates a proprietary online survey platform with privacy-by-design architecture (separation of contact data from questionnaire answers, minimum 5-participant subgroup rule) hosted on ISO 27001-certified servers in Germany with 256-bit SSL encryption, and delivers online seminars and workshops via the EU-hosted ClickMeeting platform.

The business is built on a direct B2B sales-led motion: bespoke engagements are scoped and priced per written offer with 50/50 milestone payment terms, while two productized packages — the fixed-price Homeoffice Quick-Check (€2,975, up to 500 employees) and the combined survey-plus-workshop Deep-Dive New Work offering, both launched in September 2024 — provide a more transactional entry point and are sold through the website and HubSpot-driven inbound funnel. Smart insights is a member of BVM (Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher) and adheres to the ICC/ESOMAR International Code; the brand is a registered German/EU trademark. No revenue, headcount, or funding figures are publicly disclosed, and the firm has no parent company, subsidiaries, or M&A history in the source material.

Name

smart insights

Legal name

smart insights GmbH

Website

https://smart-insights.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

smart insights GmbH is a Bremen-based, owner-managed German market research institute delivering brand, customer, employee and member research, plus packaged employee/New Work survey products, to enterprise and public-sector clients in Germany.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bremen

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Project-based market research and consulting fees: Per-project professional services engagements billed according to written offer/contract; typical payment terms are 50% on order placement and 50% on delivery of results. Pricing is quote-based and individually negotiated per scope of work; additional compensation may be charged for delays, scope changes, or third-party services. Revenue is project-driven (one-time engagements) rather than recurring subscriptions, though repeat engagements and ongoing client relationships are typical.
2. Standardized short-survey products (e.g., Homeoffice Quick-Check): Fixed-price packaged research products with publicly disclosed starting prices (e.g., Homeoffice Quick-Check at €2,975), enabling more transactional entry-point sales versus fully bespoke engagements.
3. Workshops, seminars, and knowledge transfer (Wissen & Workshops): Fee-based delivery of consulting, training, seminars, and decision-oriented workshops, including executive workshops for cross-functional teams on developing collaboration target pictures and deriving action items.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

smart insights GmbH is a full-service German market and brand research institute that delivers fact-based decision security through four research pillars — Brand Studies, Customer Surveys, Employee Surveys, and Member Surveys — covering the entire value chain from study conception and qualitative/quantitative fieldwork through data analysis, strategy, and consulting. The firm also offers packaged fixed-price products such as the Homeoffice Quick-Check employee short-survey (€2,975) and the Deep-Dive New Work combined survey-plus-workshop engagement, plus knowledge transfer via Wissen & Workshops.

Product overview

smart insights® is a full-service, owner-managed German market and brand research institute (member of BVM, the German professional association of market and social researchers) that delivers fact-based decision security to its clients through four research-solution pillars — Markenstudien (Brand Studies), Kundenbefragungen (Customer Surveys), Mitarbeiterbefragungen (Employee Surveys) and Mitgliederbefragungen (Member Surveys) — supplemented by a portfolio of services (Studienkonzeption, qualitative and quantitative Befragungen, Datenanalyse, Datenaufbereitung, Strategie, Beratung and Wissen & Workshops). On top of these pillars, the institute offers packaged, fixed-scope products such as the Homeoffice Quick-Check (a standardized employee survey on homeoffice, office attendance and mobile working) and the Deep-Dive New Work (a combination of comprehensive New Work employee survey and cross-departmental strategy workshops). Online seminars and workshops are delivered via the ClickMeeting platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Markenstudien (Brand Studies) Targeted brand research for German enterprises, covering customer experience optimization, brand-customer relationship, share of wallet, differentiation from competitors, and increasing company value.
• Kundenbefragungen (Customer Surveys) Customer-survey research solutions for German enterprises to optimize business models, achieve competitive advantage, retain existing customers, and acquire new customers.
• Mitarbeiterbefragungen (Employee Surveys) Employee-survey solutions designed to increase motivation and engagement, boost productivity, attract qualified employees, reduce fluctuation, and lower recruiting costs for German employers.
• Mitgliederbefragungen (Member Surveys) Member-survey solutions for associations and membership organizations to retain existing members, acquire new members, create fitting offerings, and increase attractiveness of the membership organization.
• Homeoffice Quick-Check Fixed-price (€2,975) standardized short employee survey on homeoffice, office attendance and mobile working; includes expert-developed questionnaire (~10 closed questions + 1 open), online deployment for up to 500 employees, data cleaning and analysis, and a PowerPoint summary report (PDF), with optional multilingual questionnaire and online dashboard reporting; GDPR-compliant.
• Deep-Dive New Work Comprehensive New Work employee survey with individualized questionnaire, paired with cross-departmental solution-oriented workshop(s) to develop a vision for collaboration (incl. goals, guidelines and success factors) and derive measures and responsibilities for implementation; delivered with a comprehensive post-workshop report. Price on request.
• Beratung (Consulting) Strategic consulting on market research questions and the translation of research findings into actionable business decisions for German enterprises and public-sector clients.
• Wissen & Workshops (Knowledge & Workshops) Knowledge transfer via talks, seminars, and decision-oriented workshops (including the methodology and techniques such as World-Café, evaluation matrix, and persona analysis used in the Deep-Dive New Work offering) for German enterprise and public-sector clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• Homeoffice Quick-Check priced at a fixed €2,975 for up to 500 employees, providing a packaged, rapid-insights product.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers24 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BVM (Berufsverband Deutscher Markt- und Sozialforscher e.V.)coreOtherssmart insights GmbH is a member of BVM, the German professional association for market and social researchers. Membership signals adherence to the ICC/ESOMAR International Code and the association's professional and ethical standards. The BVM badge is displayed prominently in the website footer and referenced in the AGB preamble and on service pages.
• Handelskammer Bremen (Bremen Chamber of Commerce)minorOtherssmart insights is a registered Ausbildungsbetrieb (vocational training company) of the Handelskammer Bremen. The chamber's badge is displayed in the website footer.
• Google Ireland Limited (Google Analytics, reCAPTCHA V3, Maps API, Web Fonts)coreTechnology or Integrationsmart insights integrates multiple Google services on smart-insights.de: Google Analytics (with IP anonymization via _anonymizeIp()), Google reCAPTCHA V3 for spam/abuse protection, Google Maps API for office location display, and Google Web Fonts for typography. Data may be transferred to Google LLC servers in the USA, safeguarded by the EU-US Privacy Shield / Data Privacy Framework.
• ClickmeetingcoreTechnology or IntegrationClickmeeting is the platform used to plan and deliver online seminars and workshops ('Workshop-Portal clickmeeting'). The platform is operated in the EU, follows the GDPR, and uses certified servers. Participant data is stored for 12 months after the event.
• HubSpotcoreTechnology or IntegrationHubSpot is used for embedded content, forms, and HubSpot Meetings scheduling on smart-insights.de for lead capture and customer-relationship workflows.
• Kanzlei Dr. Schenk (Dr. Stephan Schenk, Rechtsanwalt)coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerDr. Stephan Schenk of Kanzlei Dr. Schenk (Bremen) is appointed as the external Data Protection Officer for smart insights GmbH. Contact: [email protected], phone +49 421 566387-80. Required by law as a market research institute.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Statista: Hamburg-based global data and market-research platform with both syndicated research and bespoke engagements. Comparable to smart insights as a German-headquartered research provider serving enterprise strategy and marketing decisions, though at vastly larger scale and with a much broader data portfolio.
• YouGov Germany: Hamburg-headquartered German arm of global YouGov panel-research network. Comparable in providing brand tracking, customer and employee survey research to German enterprises, but at much larger scale and with a panel-based syndicated model.
• GfK (now NIQ Consumer Insights): Nuremberg-headquartered global market research incumbent (now part of NielsenIQ). Provides consumer, brand and customer research at massive scale to enterprises globally — overlapping with smart insights' brand and customer survey pillars.
• Ipsos Germany: German operations of global Ipsos research group offering brand, customer, employee and public-sector research. Overlaps with all four pillars of smart insights' portfolio at the enterprise and public-sector level.

Direct peers

• Splendid Research: Hamburg-based German full-service market research institute with comparable brand, customer and product research offerings. Direct competitor in the German mid-market enterprise research segment.
• infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft: Bonn-based German market and social research institute serving public-sector, enterprise and association clients with both quantitative and qualitative research. Comparable as a Germany-based full-service research firm with strong public-sector credentials.
• Psyma Research & Consulting: Munich-based full-service German market research institute offering brand, customer, employee and member surveys plus qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Direct competitor in the German mid-market and enterprise segment with a comparable full-service delivery model.
• Forsa: Established German full-service market and social research institute offering opinion, brand and consumer research to enterprise and public-sector clients. Direct competitor in the German full-service research segment.
• Skopos Markt- und Kommunikationsforschung: German full-service market research institute with comparable service breadth across consumer, brand and employee research. Direct competitor in the German enterprise and mid-market research space.

Emerging players

• Civey: Berlin-based digital market research firm with its own online panel for rapid consumer and B2B surveys. Comparable as a Germany-based research provider targeting enterprise decision-making, though more digitally/panel-driven than smart insights' bespoke full-service model.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smart-insights-gmbh

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 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 smart insights