Fortitude Research and Marketing

What Fortitude Research and Marketing does

Revenue is generated through three primary streams: recurring SaaS subscriptions (CXP per location plus CQL add-on), professional services engagements delivered through retainer and project-based relationships, and licensing/royalty arrangements. Distribution is sales-led, combining a direct field sales team (with personnel located in Westlake Village, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta, and Boston) and inside-sales inbound handling, augmented by strategic channel partnerships — notably with Directors Investment Group (parent of Funeral Directors Life and Passare) for deathcare distribution and with The Foresight Companies for consultancy-led research delivery. The customer base is concentrated in deathcare (funeral homes, cemeteries, cremation providers) as the primary vertical, with secondary practices in transportation/logistics, food and beverage, entertainment/media, and government/advocacy. Named clients include NorthStar Memorial Group, Electra Meccanica, The Commander Initiative, Gnarly Premium Jerky, MyBabbo, Progressive Farmer, and Ports of Indiana; the company reports having served "thousands of businesses" since inception and executing a first international expansion into the UK in April 2025.

Name

Fortitude Research and Marketing

Legal name

Fortitude Research and Marketing, Inc.

Website

https://fortitudeinsights.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Fortitude Research and Marketing is a Los Angeles-based data-driven marketing agency that operates the Fortitude CXP SaaS platform for customer experience measurement, primarily serving funeral homes, cemeteries, and cremation providers with additional work in transportation, food and beverage, entertainment, and government verticals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research & Strategic Marketing Services

NAICS

Advertising Agencies (541810), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Marketing Consulting Services (541613), Other Services Related to Advertising (541890)

SIC

Services-Advertising (7310), Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Competitive & Market Intelligence (Competitive Tracking, TAM/SAM/SOM) (MPAAALAL)

Keywords

• Market research services
• Customer experience platform
• Marketing strategy consulting
• Consumer insights research
• Lead generation solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

Westlake Village

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, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Research and Consulting Services: Full-service marketing and research agency providing consulting engagements including market research, brand development, strategic planning, and operational improvement programs. Delivered through project-based engagements and retainer relationships with enterprise clients.
2. SaaS Platform Subscriptions (Fortitude CXP): Technology platform subscription with low monthly cost per location after initial setup. Includes survey deployment, dashboard access, industry benchmarking, and lead generation features. Pricing varies by number of locations.
3. CQL Lead Generation Add-on: Cremation qualified leads service integrated with CXP platform, generating high-quality leads from post-service family outreach.
4. Licensing Programs: Turnkey licensing recognition programs including award trophy design, graphical representations, licensing and advertising guidelines for B2B clients like Progressive Farmer Reader Insights.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Fortitude Research and Marketing is a full-service market research and strategic marketing agency that delivers consumer insights, customer experience measurement, and lead generation solutions to enterprise clients. Its core deliverables include the Fortitude CXP cloud-based customer experience platform, the CQL cremation lead generation tool, the RXP review analytics platform for entertainment, the proprietary 4D research methodology, and the annual Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study. The company primarily serves funeral homes, cemeteries, transportation and logistics firms, food and beverage brands, and entertainment and media companies.

Product overview

Fortitude Research and Marketing offers a suite of customer experience and insights products built around its core Fortitude CXP platform. The portfolio includes Fortitude CQL (Cremation Qualified Leads), a specialized module for generating memorialization leads from cremation families, and Fortitude RXP (Review Expertise Program), an entertainment industry solution for managing critic and audience reviews. The company operates as a full-service marketing and research agency providing data-driven marketing and consulting solutions across multiple industries including funeral/cemetery, transportation, food & beverage, and entertainment.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Fortitude CXP: Customer experience measurement platform that measures consumer behaviors and delivers insights about the customer experience to drive operational improvement and lead generation.
• Fortitude CQL
• Fortitude RXP

Products and services

• Fortitude CXP (Customer Experience Platform) Cloud-based customer experience measurement platform that collects consumer feedback on business operations, delivers actionable insights for operational improvement, and generates qualified leads for pre-need revenue opportunities through daily surveys and dashboards at national, regional, and location levels.
• Fortitude CQL (Cremation Qualified Leads) One-minute online interaction tool designed to reconnect funeral homes with cremation families who did not complete a placement of cremated remains, facilitating memorialization opportunities and lead generation. Integrates with CRM and appointment-setting tools.
• Fortitude RXP (Review Expertise Program) Entertainment industry solution that uses predictive analytics to profile film critics and identify which reviewers and reviews will influence audience opinion, helping studios and distributors maximize the positive marketing impact of reviews and ratings.
• Research and Consulting Services

Quantifiable outcome

• 10X return on investment for CXP clients with more than 10X return for every dollar spent
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Directors Investment Group (DIG)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 October 2024Fortitude entered into a partnership with Directors Investment Group (parent company of Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company, Passare, and other subsidiaries) combining DIG's world-class service to the deathcare profession with Fortitude's Customer Experience Program (CXP). The partnership provides DIG's clients access to Fortitude's customer experience insights platform for operational improvement, reputation management, and pre-need revenue generation.
• Matt Atchity (Media Division)coreOthers · 17 January 2023Former Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes, GM of Moviefone, and Head of Programming at TYT Network joined to lead Fortitude's newly established media and entertainment division, bringing decades of entertainment industry experience.
• The Foresight CompaniescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFortitude partnered with The Foresight Companies to offer the latest in online research and reporting, adding to Foresight's industry-leading consultancy through their Customer Experience Program – Fortitude CXP. The partnership delivers superior insights for uncovering world-class customer delivery.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Bain & Company: Bain & Company is a top-tier global management consulting firm with deep customer strategy and marketing practice — comparable to Fortitude's higher-end consulting engagements, though Bain operates at much larger scale and across Fortune 500 clients broadly.
• Simon-Kucher & Partners: Simon-Kucher is a global consulting firm specializing in marketing, pricing, and product strategy — directly comparable to Fortitude's marketing consulting engagements and pricing/market research capabilities. Operates at much larger scale across industries including consumer goods and entertainment.
• Qualtrics: Qualtrics is the leading enterprise customer experience and experience management platform — directly comparable to Fortitude CXP's technology architecture but operating at vastly larger scale across all industries. Qualtrics represents the scaled incumbent threat that could enter the deathcare niche.
• Medallia: Medallia is an enterprise customer experience management platform providing survey, text analytics, and CX dashboards for large multi-location businesses — comparable to Fortitude CXP's measurement and benchmarking functionality but serving enterprise customers across many verticals rather than specializing in deathcare.
• Ipsos: Ipsos is one of the largest global market research and consumer insights firms, offering brand tracking, customer satisfaction research, and consumer panels across all major industries. Directly comparable to Fortitude's research and consulting capabilities, but at enterprise scale.
• Cision: Cision is a media intelligence and communications insights platform providing PR measurement, media monitoring, and review/audience analytics — comparable to Fortitude RXP's review analytics for entertainment and to its broader earned media measurement capabilities.
• J.D. Power: J.D. Power is a global leader in customer satisfaction research, consumer insights, and automotive benchmarking — Fortitude's founder George Owens spent 25+ years there and built the company on a J.D. Power-style insights methodology. J.D. Power is the broad incumbent whose playbook Fortitude is replicating in the deathcare niche.

Direct peers

• Marketcast: Marketcast provides entertainment industry market research, audience measurement, and review analytics for studios and content creators — directly comparable to Fortitude's RXP (Review Expertise Program) for the entertainment vertical. Lindsey O'Neal previously worked at Marketcast, and the firm operates in the same category of film/TV insights.
• SMG (Service Management Group): SMG is a customer experience management and analytics platform helping multi-location businesses measure CX and drive operational improvement — directly comparable to Fortitude CXP's per-location subscription model and CX measurement methodology. SMG operates in adjacent verticals (restaurants, retail) with similar technology stack.
• The Foresight Companies: The Foresight Companies is a deathcare-focused consulting and research firm that partners with Fortitude to deliver CXP — directly comparable as a deathcare specialist consultancy. Both serve funeral homes and cemeteries with operational and customer-experience consulting, and Foresight is Fortitude's closest pure-play peer in the deathcare vertical.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@FortitudeResearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/fortitude-research-and-marketing

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 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 Fortitude Research and Marketing