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MB Acquires MaPS
Millward Brown has just announced the acquisition of Massachusetts-based strategic marketing research and consulting firm, Marketing and Planning Systems, better known as MaPS.
MaPS combines advanced marketing science with high-level consulting more typically associated with marketing, management and strategic consultancies. It is hoped that the combination of MaPS' advanced analytical approaches with Millward Brown's deep brand marketing databases - based on 30+ years of experience - will offer clients a broad range of solutions to address today's increasingly complex marketing challenges.
Millward Brown North America and MaPS will continue to service their own existing clients and will also work together whenever clients have the potential to benefit from the combined expertise of both companies. In addition, Millward Brown will work with MaPS to expand its advanced marketing science approaches to clients throughout the world.
Dr. John White founded MaPS in 1994, along with partners Dr. Bill Dillon, Dirk Wells, Jennifer Dimmick, Dale Rye and Sophie Yuan. Today, MaPS employs a staff of 67 professionals. The company has won strong loyalty from clients and has also been recognised by research directors as one of the best in North America, according to Inside Research. Annual revenues for 2003 were US $27 million.
Commenting on the acquisition, Eileen Campbell, CEO of Millward Brown North America said: 'We are thrilled to be joining forces with the talented team at MaPS. They enjoy some of the strongest relationships and most innovative solutions I've encountered in the research business, and Millward Brown will undoubtedly benefit from our association with MaPS. We're increasingly being asked by clients to address their thorniest business questions, and we're looking forward to the brilliant thinking from MaPS contributing to the answers we provide'.
John White, president and CEO of MaPS added 'The new organisation's combined capabilities provide a tremendous platform for delivering solutions to meet increasingly demanding client requirements. Clients are no longer satisfied with narrowly focused research initiatives to satisfy specific information needs - instead, they are demanding higher level marketing insights, drawn from a synthesis of diverse data sources. No one in the industry is better positioned to meet these challenges'.
John White will remain CEO of MaPS, which will now be known as 'MaPS - A Millward Brown Company' and will report to Eileen Campbell, CEO, Millward Brown North America. All other MaPS management and consulting staff will be retained and will continue to serve their existing clients.
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