an
American marketing research company established in the mid-1920s by
Daniel Starch (1883-1979), a pioneer in
marketing research and popular author on the
subject. The
company conducted
research studies on commercials,
consumer and
business publications and newspapers, etc., and published the
findings in what was called a "Starch
Report." The
report gave
results on
advertising effectiveness and readership; for
example, on an advertisement in a publication, it reported the percentage of readers who viewed the
ad, the percentage of readers that
read half or more of the
ad, the percentage of readers that associated the
ad with the advertiser, etc. In the
late twentieth century, after several mergers, the
company became Roper Starch
Worldwide, Inc., and continued in the
marketing research field.