What Cairn Consulting Group does

Cairn Consulting Group is a privately-held US market research consultancy organized as an LLC and headquartered in Bryant Pond, Maine, with a dispersed consultant base across the United States. Its core offering is primary market research with an emphasis on quantitative research and a specialization in qualitative research, encompassing surveys, focus groups, interviews, feasibility studies, buyer persona development, customer journey design, and advanced analytical techniques including discrete choice analysis, MaxDiff/best-worst scaling, predictive analytics, and machine learning applications. Sensor technology is deployed for real-time occupancy and foot-traffic monitoring in outdoor hospitality venues.

The firm's most strategic asset is its flagship longitudinal study, the North American Camping Report (now the Camping & Outdoor Hospitality Report), produced annually since 2015 in partnership with Kampgrounds of America (KOA) and surveying more than 3,000 people per year, supplemented by additional research partnerships with the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) and Allison + Partners. Beyond outdoor hospitality — its primary vertical — the company serves clients in hotels & casinos, retail, manufacturing, and tourism/real estate development, with publicly named enterprise customers including KOA, Orvis, Outdoorsy, RVshare, GoRving, Harvest Hosts, Lazydays RV, RVIA, Aramark, Dometic, Thetford, Caesars Entertainment, Rivers Casino, and Harrah's.

Cairn generates revenue primarily through project-based professional services engagements with custom quotes, multi-year enterprise contracts, and a small but growing layer of recurring revenue from monthly detailed report subscriptions, omnibus survey access, and a free monthly newsletter that functions as a lead-generation channel. The company is bootstrapped (no external funding), holds no disclosed patents, and is CCPA-compliant and adheres to the Insights Association Code of Standards and ESOMAR guidelines. Marketing is driven by thought leadership content (the annual NACR, a blog authored by Scott Bahr and Justin Bahr, the Data Lens video series), industry conference participation (RVIA workshops), earned media in trade publications, and a multi-platform social presence.

Name

Cairn Consulting Group

Legal name

Cairn Consulting Group LLC

Website

https://cairnconsultinggroup.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cairn Consulting Group is a US-based, privately-held B2B market research consultancy providing quantitative and qualitative research, feasibility studies, and outdoor hospitality analytics to enterprise and mid-market clients across North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Market Research Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Marketing Consulting Services (541613)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Strategy & Corporate Development Consulting (BPAHACAA)

Keywords

• Market research services
• Outdoor hospitality research
• Feasibility consulting
• Quantitative research analysis
• Consumer insights research

Headquarters

HQ city

Portland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Market Research Consulting Services: Primary market research services including quantitative analysis, qualitative analysis, feasibility studies, and consulting engagements. Revenue is generated through project-based professional services engagements with B2B clients across various industries including outdoor hospitality, retail, manufacturing, and real estate.
2. Monthly Report Subscriptions: Monthly detailed report subscription providing in-depth market reporting, data collection, measurement, and actionable insights tailored to specific industries. Delivered monthly with customized content.
3. Monthly Omnibus Survey Access: Cost-effective shared survey research service allowing clients to include custom questions in large-scale monthly surveys, providing specific and timely insights without full independent research costs.
4. Free Monthly Newsletter: Free monthly newsletter delivering market trends, consumer insights, and competitive analysis snapshots. Serves as a lead generation and client engagement tool.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels11 records

Core offering

Cairn Consulting Group is a B2B market research consultancy that delivers primary market research with emphasis on quantitative analysis and qualitative specialization. It serves enterprise and mid-market clients across outdoor hospitality, hospitality and gaming, retail, manufacturing, and real estate sectors through custom research projects, feasibility studies, monthly subscription reports, and ongoing industry studies such as the annual North American Camping Report produced for KOA.

Product overview

Cairn Consulting Group is a market research company offering a comprehensive suite of services centered on primary research with emphasis on quantitative analysis and specialization in qualitative research. The core offering includes Market Research services complemented by specialized verticals: Monthly Market Research (subscription newsletters, detailed reports, omnibus surveys), Feasibility Studies, Outdoor Hospitality Research, Product Development, and Live Interviews. Key analytical services include Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, Research Study Design, Questionnaire Development, Buyer Persona Development, Customer Journey Design, Discrete Choice Modeling, and Best-Worst Scaling/MaxDiff Analysis. The company also produces the annual North American Camping Report (NACR) in partnership with KOA and the Data Lens video series. The portfolio is delivered as consulting services rather than a software platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Camping reached 50% of all leisure trips in 2021, with 93.8 million active camper households in the US
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments6 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship / core and minor.

• RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Association)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Strategic partnership with the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association for conducting and presenting research studies. CCG has conducted studies including the Go RVing RV Owner Demographic Profile and 2020 RV Buyer Survey for RVIA. Scott Bahr has spoken at RVIA workshops (Elkhart event) and panel discussions, providing actionable insights from CCG's research. The partnership includes follow-up studies, holiday travel research, and ongoing industry engagement.
• Allison + PartnerscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018PR and communications agency partner that collaborated with KOA and Cairn Consulting Group on the North American Camping Report. Together, the three organizations received the 2018 Sabre Award for Best Use of Measurement & Post Campaign Analysis for their work on the 2017 North American Camping Report.
• Kampgrounds of America (KOA)flagship / coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2015Long-standing strategic partnership producing the annual North American Camping Report (now the Outdoor Hospitality Report). Cairn Consulting Group has been conducting this research for KOA for over a decade, making it one of the largest outdoor research surveys of the general population. The report surveys over 3,000 people annually and guides KOA's PR and marketing efforts while being shared with the broader outdoor industry. The partnership also includes monthly research reports and special COVID-19 updates.
• IPSOSminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerReferenced in the context of the RVIA panel discussion where CCG and IPSOS both presented recent studies. IPSOS is a global market research firm that conducted parallel studies referenced alongside CCG's research at industry events.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Ipsos: Global market research firm that presented parallel RV/outdoor industry research alongside Cairn Consulting Group at RVIA panel discussions. Directly comparable as a primary research consultancy serving enterprise clients in outdoor and consumer verticals.
• Destination Analysts: Tourism and travel market research firm producing ongoing traveler sentiment and behavior studies. Directly comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in longitudinal survey programs that serve DMOs, hospitality operators, and outdoor/travel brands.
• Numerator: Consumer behavior and purchase insights firm combining panel data with survey research. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in delivering B2B consumer intelligence with advanced analytics methodologies to enterprise marketing and product teams.
• STR (CoStar): Hospitality benchmarking and performance data firm providing market intelligence to hotels, casinos, and outdoor lodging. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in supplying occupancy, pricing, and competitive benchmarking data to enterprise hospitality operators, including RV parks and campgrounds.
• The Hartman Group: Consumer market research firm specializing in lifestyle, leisure, and consumer culture insights. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in applying qualitative and quantitative primary research to niche consumer verticals with long-form client relationships.
• SSRS: Independent market and survey research firm serving media, nonprofit, and commercial clients with custom quantitative and qualitative research. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in primary research methodology, custom survey design, and enterprise client service delivery.

Broad incumbents

• NielsenIQ: Global consumer intelligence firm providing market research, retail measurement, and consumer behavior analytics. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in B2B research and insights services, though with substantially larger scale, proprietary panel assets, and international reach.
• Mintel: Global market research and consumer intelligence publisher covering travel, leisure, and outdoor categories. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in delivering syndicated and custom consumer research to enterprise clients, though at significantly larger scale and broader category coverage.
• Kantar: Global market research and insights consultancy with consumer, brand, and media research capabilities. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in primary research methodology and enterprise client delivery, though Kantar serves a much broader portfolio of industries and geographies.
• GfK: Global market research firm providing consumer and industry intelligence across multiple sectors including travel and consumer goods. Comparable to Cairn Consulting Group in custom research design and quantitative methodology, with broader geographic and category coverage.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/CCGResearch
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCuzhnsQq_G5NQpTFDstdWqw
• Facebookfacebook.com/ccgresearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cairn-consulting-group
• Instagraminstagram.com/cairnconsultinggroup

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Cairn Consulting Group