Marc Engel, Engel Research Partners Founder & Principal
For nearly 20 years, Marc has partnered with creative agencies, fellow research companies, and marketers to help them develop more distinctive brands, remarkable products and experiences, compelling communications, attractive packaging, engaged customers, and a more human face. A former partner with B/R/S Group and e-commerce analyst with Harris Interactive, he founded his own consultancy in 2010. Marc has conducted over 1,500 focus groups, interviews and other research sessions. He is adept at making people of all ages, backgrounds and situations comfortable sharing their feelings and opinions. He has presented at conferences around the world on breaking the rules of wine marketing, the virtue of applied improvisational thinking (with Pascal), and what researchers can learn from writers, actors and directors in Hollywood and Broadway. He has also done corporate training on interviewing and generating insights and has guest-lectured at Cornell University. Marc uses applied improvisation in his research and an approach to co-creation he developed in 2010 called, “Out of Focus Groups®,” which grew out of his experience in standup comedy and two improv and sketch comedy troupes with Kristen Wiig. Marc has a B.S. from Cornell University and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, and he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford his junior year.