History of Decision Analyst

Decision Analyst obtained its corporate charter from the State of Texas in late summer of 1978. The firm was founded by Jerry W. Thomas and officially opened for business in September 1978 with one full-time employee.

Data Preparation and Data Tabulation Departments were added in April 1981. Software development began in September 1982. The Data Collection Department began in November 1982.

The American Consumer Opinion® mail panel was launched in early 1986 and converted to an online panel in early 1997. In 1999 three additional online panels were added: the Technology Advisory Board®, the Physicians Advisory Council®, and the Contractor Advisory Board®. The Executive Advisory Board® was added in 2000, Imaginators® in 2002 and the Medical Advisory Board® in 2003.

In 2013, Decision Analyst launched its subsidiary Nuance to provide multilingual verbatim coding services and digital media coding to market research firms and corporate entities. In late 2015, Symmetric Sampling was launched to provide scientifically balanced samples to marketing research firms and other corporate entities using American Consumer Opinion®, the Technology Advisory Board®, the Physicians Advisory Council®, and the Contractor Advisory Board®, the Executive Advisory Board®, and the Medical Advisory Board®.

Today the firm has more than 150 employees and serves an array of Fortune 500 and other companies in the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The company is vertically integrated, from data collection through computer tabulation and analytical functions.

Meaning of the Logo

The original “faces” logo was designed in 1978 by Virginia Esteve (under the direction of Walter Ender, a leading graphic designer in Dallas).

The faces look to the future and the promise of positive endeavors. The faces are optimistic.
The faces are diverse and reflect a belief that diversity stimulates creativity and positive energy. The faces convey the belief that all ethnic and racial groups are equally important to the future of Decision Analyst.
The faces are neither male nor female. They could be either, or both. They are unisexual, representing equality between the sexes and the importance of gender equality within the organization.
The faces are plural. The company is plural. Decision Analyst is a team and thrives on a spirit of teamwork and mutual assistance.
The four faces are parallel, looking in the same direction, to communicate the importance of harmony and cooperation, yet each face is unique and different.
The faces range from the obvious to the subtle, to suggest differing levels of human motivation and behavior—from conscious to unconscious, from the explicit to the implicit.
The faces represent a blending of qualitative research (the two solid, whole faces) and quantitative research (the pattern of IBM card blocks in one of the faces). Both types of research are essential to the solution of marketing problems.
The faces are looking and listening, not talking. Researchers are observers, analysts. The job of the researcher is to look and to listen, to seek understanding and insight.

In 2016, the Decision Analyst logo was redesigned and updated. The goal was to keep the feeling and history of the faces while making both the faces and the text more modern.

Marketing Research Services

Decision Analyst is a leading international marketing research and analytical consulting firm. If you would like more information on our marketing research and analytical consulting services, please contact Jerry W. Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, by emailing him at jthomas@decisionanalyst.com, or by calling 1-800-ANALYSIS (262-5974) or 1-817-640-6166.