Consumer survey companies can help you develop valuable evidence to support or refute a claim in your Washington, DC marketing or commercial litigation case. To stand up to judicial scrutiny, however, surveys should be designed by independent, experienced experts, such as Keegan & Donato Consulting.
Keegan & Donato Consulting has extensive experience in the design, execution, and critique of consumer research studies that have been admitted into evidence in state and federal courts, at arbitration, the NAB, and the TTAB. Principals Mark Keegan and Anthony Donato also have extensive testimony experience.
We are a specialty research consultancy and are members of ESOMAR, the leading global association for market, social and opinion research, the International Trademark Association (INTA), and the American Marketing Association (AMA). Mr. Keegan is an AMA-designated Professional Certified Marketer.
Specialties
Keegan & Donato Consulting specializes in a wide range of trademark and trade dress surveys and analyses, including:
- Likelihood of Confusion–Surveys are commonly used to ascertain whether or not consumers are confused by a party’s use of a contested mark. We measure likelihood of confusion with both standard survey designs and innovative custom surveys.
- Strength of Mark–Trademark law protects distinctive marks, and the levels of legal protection are directly linked to the strength of the mark. Consumer surveys can be used to measure the level of consumer recognition of a mark or brand.
- Acquired Distinctiveness– Consumer research studies can help determine whether consumers associate a mark with a certain product and whether the mark is distinctive enough not to cause confusion about the origin of goods or services associated with it.
- Secondary Meaning–We can help to strengthen your case strategy by targeting relevant consumers in your client’s market and evaluating how they perceive your client’s brand.
- Lanham Act Claims– A well-designed consumer research study can provide empirical evidence on the issue of whether an alleged trademark infringement is having a real-world effect on consumers.
Methodology
Selecting the appropriate type of survey for a case requires training and experience. Surveys must be precisely written in order to be valid. The proper universe of respondents must be identified and a representative sample drawn from that universe. And surveys must replicate marketplace conditions, or be designed to approximate the conditions under which a typical consumer might be confronted with a product or service in a real-world scenario.
Because each case is unique, Keegan & Donato Consulting approaches survey design on a case-by-case basis. We collaborate with clients to understand the fundamental issues driving the case, and work to maximize the value of the evidence to the overall case strategy.
We obtain our survey sample from leading marketing research companies that maintain multi-million member online consumer panels. We employ objective, non-leading questions directed to an appropriate universe of consumers and have strict procedures in place to minimize biases in data collection.
Whether you are in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere in the U.S., consumer survey companies like Keegan & Donato Consulting can help you develop a powerful strategy with a reliable, methodologically sound consumer research study. Call us today at (914) 967-9421.