Dr. James Merrill, President Emeritus and Founder        

Over three decades of experience in private business and academics give Dr. Merrill a unique understanding of the need for rigorous research methods that lead to actionable results. He now focuses primarily on market segmentation and customer profiling; customer satisfaction; customer and employee attitudes and opinions; advertising concept and effectiveness testing; new product design; and consumer lifestyles.

Prior to founding Applied Marketing Research, Dr. Merrill was principal and head of operations for a Kansas City-based marketing research firm. He also served as research manager for one of America’s top 100 advertising agencies.

His academic experience includes several years with the Indiana University School of Business and an appointment as visiting professor of marketing at the Bloch School of Business at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Merrill is an executive member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) and has written articles for publications of American Marketing Association and Association for Consumer Research. He received the 1991 Nova Award for Excellence in Marketing Research from the AMA’s Kansas City chapter. Dr. Merrill received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in journalism and his doctorate in business administration from the University of Kansas.