Penn Schoen Berland

What Penn Schoen Berland does

Penn Schoen Berland, operating commercially as PSB Insights, is a privately held strategic research and consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1977 and legally organized as PSB Insights LLC, the firm delivers custom market research, polling, and strategic consulting engagements to enterprise clients — primarily C-suite executives (CEOs, CMOs), product leaders, corporate researchers, marketers, communications professionals, and public affairs teams — navigating complex decisions around brand strategy, communications, product development, and audience understanding.

The firm's core offering is Breakthrough Brand Intelligence (BBI), a trademarked proprietary methodology combining strategic research with what the company characterizes as disruptive analytical approaches to brand intelligence and decision-making support. BBI is delivered alongside four primary service verticals: Communications, Product & Innovation, Brand Strategy & Reputation, and Audience Insights. PSB Labs functions as an internal innovation unit developing new research methodologies and knowledge frameworks. The portfolio is structured as a single integrated consulting engagement rather than discrete modular products.

PSB operates a B2B professional services revenue model with custom quote-based pricing and a consultative enterprise field sales motion targeting senior decision-makers. Distribution is direct to enterprise buyers through "Let's talk" and "Get Started" engagement CTAs. The firm is privately held under PSB Insights LLC with no disclosed parent company, institutional investors, funding rounds, or public listing. Revenue, headcount, customer logos, and specific office locations were not disclosed in available source material.

Name

Penn Schoen Berland

Legal name

PSB Insights LLC

Website

https://psbresearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1977

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Penn Schoen Berland (PSB Insights) is a Washington, D.C.-based strategic research consultancy founded in 1977 that delivers custom market research, polling, and proprietary Breakthrough Brand Intelligence™ services to enterprise clients including CEOs, CMOs, and product leaders.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Strategic Research and Consulting Services: B2B consulting firm providing custom strategic research solutions for enterprise clients facing complex decisions around brand, communications, product, and audience insights.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Penn Schoen Berland (doing business as PSB Insights) is a global strategic research consultancy that delivers custom market research, polling, and strategic consulting engagements to enterprise clients. Its core proprietary offering is Breakthrough Brand Intelligence™ (BBI), a research methodology used to support decisions across communications, product and innovation, brand strategy and reputation, and audience insights.

Product overview

Penn Schoen Berland (PSB Insights) operates as a strategic research and consulting firm offering a unified brand intelligence platform. The core proprietary offering is Breakthrough Brand Intelligence (BBI), supported by four primary service areas: Communications, Product & Innovation, Brand Strategy & Reputation, and Audience Insights. These solutions are delivered through direct consulting engagements, with PSB Labs serving as the innovation unit for methodology development. The portfolio is architecture: single integrated platform with multiple service verticals rather than separate modular products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Breakthrough Brand Intelligence: Proprietary brand intelligence methodology and offering introduced by PSB Insights.

Products and services

• Breakthrough Brand Intelligence (BBI) Proprietary research methodology combining strategic research with disruptive approaches to help enterprise clients make data-driven decisions across brand, communications, product, and audience challenges.
• Communications Solutions Insight-driven communication strategies designed to break through market clutter and support strategic messaging decisions for CEOs, CMOs, and public affairs professionals.
• Product & Innovation Solutions Data-driven insights to guide product development decisions, feature prioritization, and pricing strategies, enabling product leads and managers to make informed go/no-go decisions.
• Brand, Strategy & Reputation Solutions Custom solutions to build stronger, more resilient brands through strategic positioning and reputation management for corporate strategists and brand leaders.
• Audience Insights Solutions Deep audience research capabilities to identify customer needs, predict preferences, and inform marketing dollar allocation decisions for researchers and marketers.
• PSB Labs Research and innovation arm focused on developing new methodologies and knowledge frameworks to drive breakthrough insights for clients.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• NielsenIQ: Global consumer intelligence firm combining syndicated data with custom research for brand and product leaders. Competes with PSB's brand, audience, and product insights offerings at significantly larger data scale.
• Edelman: Global communications and research firm with an in-house research arm serving the same enterprise brand and C-suite buyers as PSB. Competes on overlapping offerings (brand strategy, reputation, audience insights) but at much greater scale and breadth.
• Gallup: Long-established polling, analytics, and advisory firm serving enterprise and public-sector leaders. Comparable on methodology-driven strategic advice sold to senior executives, with a much larger research infrastructure.
• Ipsos: Global market research and polling firm with deep enterprise and public-affairs capabilities. Overlaps with PSB on brand, communications, and product research; differentiated by larger panel infrastructure and global footprint.
• Kantar: Global market research incumbent with proprietary panels and brand-tracking products. Competes with PSB on audience insights, brand strategy, and communications research but at substantially larger scale and with syndicated data assets.

Direct peers

• Morning Consult: Global research and polling firm combining proprietary survey panels with strategic insights for enterprise brand, communications, and product teams. Overlaps directly with PSB's audience-insights, brand, and product decision-support use cases.
• The Harris Poll: Long-standing U.S. polling and market research firm serving enterprise, brand, and public-affairs buyers. Closely comparable to PSB on customer base (C-suite brand and communications leaders) and on the polling/strategic-research delivery model.
• GQR Research: Polling, market research, and strategic advisory firm serving corporate, campaign, and public-affairs clients. Comparable to PSB in methodology-driven research sold into C-suite and communications buyers.
• Hart Research Associates: Polling and strategic research firm serving corporate, advocacy, and public-affairs clients with custom quantitative and qualitative work. Directly comparable in positioning, methodology-led delivery, and buyer profile.

Emerging players

• Zappi: Tech-enabled consumer insights platform serving enterprise brand and product teams with automated research workflows. Represents the AI/software-enabled challenger model that pressures traditional methodology-only consultancies like PSB.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/psbinsights

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 Penn Schoen Berland