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Data collection is a delicate process. You need the right data points (and enough of them) to know what your target audience or market wants
But with over 300 TB of data generated every day, it's difficult to sift through raw streams of information in-house—while remaining mindful of privacy at the same time.
This is why outsourcing work to a data provider is beneficial and often cost-effective—and the eight data collection companies on this list are a great place to start your search.
Acxiom is a data collection and audience identification company.
The firm’s Real Identity™ service collects key consumer data points, including:
This high-quality data comes from several sources, including:
Acxiom says that their data collection measures are a “privacy-first” alternative to other methods of consumer behavior tracking (such as cookies).
If you need information about consumers in California, Europe, or another region with strict data privacy laws, then Acxiom might be a good place to start.
All Acxiom pricing is customized based on your needs, so you’ll have to contact the company for a consultation and price quote.
Experian is a consumer credit bureau that offers a data matching and enrichment service.
The company’s role as a credit reporting agency gives them considerable insight into consumer lending, purchasing, employment, and location data.
With the help of the firm’s Data Quality service, companies can leverage Experian data to:
You can get different data through EDQ, including information about your audience's:
And, if you don’t need to enhance specific individuals’ profiles with EDQ data, you can still get demographic information based on ZIP Codes by using EDQ Mosaic®.
Mosaic profiles split households in the USA into 71 different groups based on habits and purchasing preferences. This service is useful when you’re interested in targeting a new region or consumer segment.
All EDQ data access is priced based on your company’s specific needs. You’ll need to get in touch with Experian to discuss pricing and data options.
Comscore is a cross-platform media measurement company.
The company collects data about the people interacting with and viewing media via:
Comscore gathers this data from several sources, including:
Plus, Comscore tracks website visits as well—meaning that you can use one service to gather data and understand how your audiences respond on different mediums.
Comscore doesn’t have set pricing plans. You’ll need to talk to the company about what you want to achieve and request a price quote.
BlueOcean is a market research company that collects data on both consumers and corporate competitors.
The company collects data from over 1,200 different sources, including:
BlueOcean then uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to evaluate data and produce insights about different audience groups and brands. You can use the platform to evaluate:
If you’re specifically interested in data collection for competitive intelligence purposes, then BlueOcean is a solid choice.
The company doesn’t publish their pricing options publicly, so you’ll need to request a customized quote from a BlueOcean strategist.
Nielsen is a media programming and advertising data collection company.
The company has over 70 years of experience with research services, survey programming, and data processing. Like Comscore, Nielsen collects cross-platform data about how households:
This data is all connected and shared with Nielsen customers through the company’s Nielsen ONE platform. When subscribed to the service, you can see information like:
Nielsen collects much of its data analytics from devices, focus groups, and survey respondents. The company relies on third-party auditors for data validation purposes, and its level of accuracy has made Nielsen a trusted source for media ratings since 1950.
Nielsen makes a number of its data sets—including how Americans watched TV each month, and how popular large sporting events are globally—available for free.
If you’re interested in becoming a Nielsen client, though, you’ll need to get in touch with the company to discuss options and pricing.
Exploding Topics is a trend spotting platform.
While we don’t directly collect data from consumers or their hardware—like Comscore or Experian—we do collect data gathered from online discussions.
Using a mix of efficient AI and expert human data analysis, we evaluate conversations happening all across the internet. We look at blogs, social media content, forum posts, news releases, and more to understand what consumers are discussing—and at what frequency.
We then use this data to track:
We’re even able to forecast how a topic’s popularity may change in the near future.
Like BlueOcean, our data sets can be useful for keeping track of how your competitors are growing in popularity. You can also glean great insights about:
We also publish meta trends reports, which show you how different trends intersect—important for understanding the broader impact of one trend across a larger market.
You can begin browsing Exploding Topics data for free; no login is required. If you’re interested in unlocking our full data sets and additional features, you’ll need an Exploding Topics Pro plan.
Plan options start at $39 per month, billed annually. Plus, you can start with a 14-day trial for just $1—perfect for making sure that our data is what you need.
Equifax is another consumer credit bureau that offers data solutions for businesses.
Like Experian, Equifax’s status as a credit reporting agency gives them access to large troves of data on over 245 million individuals. This includes information related to:
While Experian’s data service mostly focuses on helping businesses make sure they have up-to-date information in their files, Equifax data can help with:
Equifax makes their data sets available through an API, so you can integrate the metrics into your business operations in a variety of ways.
Equifax offers customizable data solutions, so you’ll need to get in touch with the company to request a price quote based on your needs.
Nielsen IQ is a consumer and retail data collection firm. It's a separate business from the Nielsen company that collects media data—though the two used to be one entity.
NIQ relies on a group of panelists to collect data. Using a barcode scanner or their phone, each participant scans every single item that they purchase. They may also have to upload receipts related to each purchase.
The company then uses this data to develop business intelligence insights related to:
Retailers can then use this information to:
NIQ also offers data collection services to support alcohol sales, bars, restaurants, financial services, wellness industries, and more.
Like many data collection firms, NIQ doesn’t publish its pricing publicly. Each price quote depends on the customer’s needs and goals, so you’ll need to request more information directly from the company.
Getting access to data that applies to your business is an essential step toward making informed business decisions—if you know how to use the data, that is.
For more information on how to best leverage a data collection company's insights as part of your business and marketing planning, check out our regularly updated guides to key big data trends and conducting trend research.
Sourced from Exploding Topics
