Toluna, the leading consumer insights provider and parent company of Harris Interactive, KuRunData, and now GutCheck, announced the acquisition of Further’s industry-leading qualitative research technology platform, and the subsequent integration into Toluna Start. By integrating the qualitative capabilities of Further’s platform into Toluna Start, the industry’s first and only end-to-end consumer intelligence platform, Toluna will provide customers with the most advanced end-to-end, quantitative-to-qualitative insights platform on the market.
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Blending leading technology with integrated best-in-class research methodologies, global respondent access, and world-class multimarket research capabilities, Toluna Start already delivers powerful, high-value insights in real-time. With the acquisition of Further’s technology and launch of Toluna Start Qual, Toluna customers now have access to best-in-class qualitative tools and research services that engage consumers in conversation and activities via a highly intuitive user interface, leading to rich insight extracted using some of the most powerful qualitative analysis tools available.
Frédéric-Charles Petit, CEO and Founder of Toluna said, “By providing our customers with this unparalleled combination of agile qualitative and quantitative solutions, as well as integrated access to our panel of over 40 million global respondents and our team of experts across the globe, Toluna makes it easier than ever for brands to engage with consumers on a deeper level—anytime, anywhere. After the recent acquisition of GutCheck, the launch of Toluna Start Qual is another critical step in executing our strategy to be the best platform: a platform curated for research by combining the best of technology with the best of global panel and best of research expertise at scale.”
Phil Ahad, Chief Digital Officer for Toluna said, “Recently, we surveyed nearly 500 insight and marketing leaders across the globe to understand how rapidly shifting market conditions and consumer needs are pushing them to re-evaluate their insight operations. The majority expressed a need for a 360° view of consumer insights across both quantitative and qualitative research. With the integration of Further’s unrivaled qualitative research platform, brands can turn to Toluna Start as the true end-to-end solution for all of their agile research needs.”
Toluna Start Qual is now available and provides clients with a range of research activities, including diaries, discussions, focus groups, polls, and surveys. These capabilities enable clients to design and create tasks, activities, and questions, then program them on the platform using a powerful, easy-to-use researcher toolkit. Researchers are then able to quickly probe responses and dive deeper into motivations to arrive at the insight required; while powerful text analytics are available to explore data, harness integrated tagging tools, and compare data for seamless, stress-free insights. Clients will benefit from Toluna’s team of experts across the globe, as well as around-the-clock support, as needed.
This news follows a slew of recent announcements from Toluna, including the late-September announcement of the launch of automated Multimarket Research technology on the Toluna Start platform, as well as the October acquisition of US-based Market Research company, GutCheck.