Market Research Companies in Edinburgh: 44 Active Firms (2026)
Market research companies in Edinburgh design surveys, analytics and insight programmes for organisations across the city region.
Buying centres tend to sit with marketing, strategy, policy, customer-experience and service-design teams, rather than with a technical owner alone. Edinburgh suppliers in this segment usually sell to business, public-sector and third-sector clients: survey design, qualitative fieldwork, representative-sample reporting, dashboarding and advisory interpretation. Engagements appear project-led, often tied to service evaluation, brand tracking, audience segmentation or evidence gathering, with some retained insight support where clients lack in-house research teams. That makes the buyer profile closer to professional services procurement than software procurement, with credibility resting on method choice, sampling discipline, confidentiality and the ability to translate findings into decisions.
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Edinburgh has 44 actively trading market research companies in this cohort, making it a compact local market rather than a high-volume company base. Reported headcount totals 238 people, so the employment footprint sits mainly in specialist teams rather than large delivery centres. No firm crosses the £5M turnover marker, which fits a structure of owner-managed consultancies, research boutiques and analytics advisers serving recurring local and national clients. The absence of higher-turnover operators also means the visible market is likely to be shaped by credibility, referral networks and sector knowledge, not by large sales infrastructure.
UK providers are not generally licensed as market-research operators, but identifiable participant work brings familiar duties under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act. The Market Research Society is the main professional body, and its Code of Conduct sets standards for research practitioners, members and company partners. Its emphasis on research, insight and data analytics practice matters for this Edinburgh cohort because much of the work involves participant recruitment, representative sampling, respondent wellbeing and reported evidence. ICO guidance is also relevant where firms decide lawful bases, controller and processor roles, safeguards, or exemptions for research, archiving and statistical purposes.
Buyer-side demand appears to favour firms that can combine fieldwork judgement with analytics, rather than pure questionnaire administration. Edinburgh’s cohort tends to look more like a specialist consultancy base than a scale-up cluster, so consolidation may come through partnerships, subcontracting and framework work before outright acquisition. Privacy expectations and research ethics are unlikely to recede; participant wellbeing, sampling transparency and careful reporting should remain part of the selling motion. Scarcity of larger operators may leave room for a few firms to professionalise delivery, but the market does not suggest a rush towards volume-led models.
What’s in the file
One row per company, 50+ columns — everything below plus each company’s verified directors, from Companies House filings.
Company data
Verified directors — included
44
Active firms
2026
8
Newer firms
incorporated since 2022
0
Above £5M
turnover threshold
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Key facts
18% of the cohort was incorporated since 2022 (8 firms), so a sizeable share is in its first few filing cycles.
No sector-specific operating licence generally applies to UK market research providers, but projects using identifiable living people’s data fall under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The MRS Code of Conduct sets professional standards for members and company partners, with the 2023 Code adding emphasis to research, insight and data analytics practice, participant wellbeing and representative-sample reporting.
MRS estimates the UK research, insight and analytics industry at approaching £9 billion.
A MRS-commissioned sector review put the wider research and evidence market at £18.74 billion in annual GVA, around 0.7%–0.8% of UK GVA.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of UK-based research and evidence businesses conduct projects for clients overseas, with North America and Europe identified as primary export markets.
Top Edinburgh Market Research companies
Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsProvides research, evaluation and data analysis services for public policy and social programmes. Advises funders and manages grant programmes, and conducts impact assessments and consultations…
Serves UK public sector bodies, charitable funders and voluntary-sector organisations working in employment and skills, health and social care, criminal justice, poverty, welfare, complex needs and…
Financial Health
StrongStrong
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides social and public opinion research services using surveys, deliberative research and stakeholder engagement to gather evidence and insights. Also offers consultancy, analysis and…
Serves organisations across public, private and third sectors that need insight into public, business and stakeholder opinion, including decision-makers, communications teams and policy-focused…
Financial Health
StrongStrong · Growing, Hiring · 30% CAGR over 6y
Location
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Computed from 3 filingsProvides market research services including quantitative and qualitative studies, such as face‑to‑face interviews, focus groups, mystery shopping and online surveys. Uses methods including mobile…
Serves businesses and organisations in Scotland and across the UK that need market, customer or audience insight, including teams commissioning quantitative or qualitative research projects.
Financial Health
HealthyHealthy · Growing · 0% CAGR over 2y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsConducts social research and evaluation projects for public and third-sector organisations. Provides research design, data collection, analysis, stakeholder consultation, and reporting to assess…
Serves public-sector and policy organisations commissioning social research, evaluation and consultation, including Scottish government agencies and local civic groups.
Financial Health
StrongStrong · Growing, Hiring · 5% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsProvides policy and social research consultancy, delivering programme evaluation, data analysis and insight, and grant programme design and management. Advises public bodies, charities and funders on…
Serves public-sector bodies, local authorities, grant funders and charities across the UK, particularly teams working in employment and skills, health and social care, criminal justice, poverty,…
Financial Health
WeakWeak · -70% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Provides data, analytics platforms, market research and consulting on global energy and natural resources sectors, including oil and gas, power and renewables, LNG, metals and mining, and supply…
Serves B2B decision-makers in global natural resources, including energy, power and renewables, oil and gas, LNG, metals and mining, chemicals, commodity trading, supply chain, and investment teams.
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Provides data, analytics platforms, market research and consulting on energy and natural resources sectors, including oil and gas, power, renewables, metals and mining. Offers industry reports,…
Serves B2B customers in global energy and natural resources, including oil and gas, power and renewables, LNG, metals and mining, chemicals, commodity trading and supply chain teams.
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides data analytics and consulting services to support marketing strategy. Services include audience segmentation, customer profiling, data management, compliance guidance, and predictive…
Targets marketing and data teams in organisations seeking to improve customer understanding and marketing effectiveness, including charities, health bodies, food-sector organisations and public…
Financial Health
StableStable · Hiring · 4% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides market data analysis, shopper insight research and consumer feedback services for food and drink manufacturers. Supports product development and new product launches with category analysis…
Serves food and drink manufacturers and brands, particularly category, marketing and innovation teams seeking to win or protect shelf space with UK retailers for existing products and new product…
Financial Health
WeakWeak · Hiring · 14% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Provides data analytics platforms, research reports and consulting on global energy and natural resources markets, including oil and gas, power, renewables, metals and mining, and chemicals,…
Serves B2B customers in global natural resources, including oil and gas, power and renewables, LNG, metals and mining, chemicals, commodity trading and supply chain teams making strategic,…
Location
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Provides data, research, analytics platforms and consulting on global natural resources and energy sectors. Covers oil and gas, power and renewables, metals and mining, chemicals and energy…
Sells primarily to B2B and institutional customers in global natural resources and energy markets, including oil and gas, power and renewables, metals and mining, chemicals and commodity trading…
Location
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Computed from 3 filingsProvides data-driven consulting and analysis for the sports and events industry, including event evaluation, market intelligence, and strategic planning. Advises event owners, rights holders,…
Sells to B2B clients in the sports and events sectors, especially event owners, rights holders, host destinations and agencies. Also serves stakeholders around major events, including funding…
Financial Health
StableStable · Hiring · 22% CAGR over 2y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides market research, consulting, and coaching services to the automotive and mobility sectors, including automakers, dealer networks, suppliers, and industry associations. Delivers consumer…
Serves B2B customers across the automotive and mobility sector, including automakers, dealer groups, individual dealerships, suppliers and industry associations, as well as automotive event…
Financial Health
HealthyHealthy · Hiring · 11% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides measurement and analytics tools for influencer marketing campaigns. Offers a SaaS platform and managed services that run brand lift studies, collect survey responses from exposed and control…
Sells to brands and marketing agencies running influencer marketing campaigns across multiple social platforms, especially teams responsible for campaign measurement, optimisation and budget…
Financial Health
StrongStrong · Growing, Hiring · 40% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 2 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed · 0% CAGR over 1y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed · -68% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 2 filingsProvides market intelligence, data platforms, and research-led consulting for the energy sector, covering upstream oil and gas, offshore services, and emerging energy technologies. Offers…
Serves B2B customers across the global energy sector, including oil and gas E&P companies, offshore and onshore energy service providers, supply-chain and infrastructure firms, and organisations…
Financial Health
WeakWeak · -11% CAGR over 1y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
WeakWeak
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
StableStable · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsProvides strategic consulting and design-led innovation services, including innovation pipeline development, category and product strategy, experience design research, website discovery, and online…
Serves SMEs, food and drinks brands, financial services providers and public sector organisations, including healthcare bodies and multinational consumer goods companies.
Financial Health
StableStable · -4% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsPublishes market research, data analysis and commercial intelligence on the animal health industry. Produces subscription research products and multi‑client studies covering companies, markets,…
Serves animal health companies, financial services firms and other stakeholders focused on the global animal health sector.
Financial Health
WeakWeak · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
WeakWeak · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Computed from 3 filingsProvides data consulting and software development services, including auditing data systems, designing dashboards and visualisation tools, integrating APIs and linked data, and building digital…
Serves B2B organisations across sectors, especially strategy, operations and digital transformation teams managing complex data environments and seeking data-driven planning, reporting and workflow…
Financial Health
DistressedDistressed · -39% CAGR over 2y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
HealthyHealthy · Hiring · 19% CAGR over 4y
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Computed from 3 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed
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Computed from 4 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed · -78% CAGR over 3y
Location
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Computed from 4 filingsProvides market and social research services using quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys, telephone and face-to-face interviews, focus groups, ethnographic studies and mystery…
Serves organisations needing market and social research, including public sector bodies, tourism agencies and business support organisations, conducting projects across Scotland and the wider UK.
Financial Health
DistressedDistressed · -18% CAGR over 3y
Location
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Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
StableStable · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
WeakWeak · -68% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 2 filingsFinancial Health
DistressedDistressed
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
WeakWeak
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
StableStable · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 3 filingsFinancial Health
StableStable · Hiring · 73% CAGR over 2y
Location
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Financial sub-scores
Computed from 5 filingsFinancial Health
WeakWeak · 0% CAGR over 4y
Location
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How Edinburgh Market Research companies work and how to sell to them
What they do
Revenue usually comes from commissioned research projects, retained insight support and advisory interpretation rather than product licences. Edinburgh market research firms typically sell survey design, qualitative interviews, focus groups, panel management, desk research, analytics and reporting as scoped engagements, with pricing tied to method, sample size, fieldwork complexity and senior consultant time. Some package repeat tracking studies or customer-experience monitoring into retainers, but much of the work remains brief-led. Margins depend on utilisation, subcontracted fieldwork costs and the ability to turn raw findings into credible recommendations for clients that lack specialist research capacity in-house.
Who they sell to
Buyers tend to be marketing directors, heads of insight, customer-experience leads, policy teams, service-design managers and procurement officers. Most customers are business, public-sector or third-sector organisations needing evidence for brand, audience, service or policy decisions. Smaller private-sector projects may be won through referrals and direct proposals, while public-sector and regulated-client work is more likely to involve frameworks, written tenders and formal supplier checks. Sales cycles are usually shorter when the firm already knows the client’s audience or methodology, and longer where representative sampling, ethics, accessibility or stakeholder sign-off need to be agreed before fieldwork starts.
What they buy
Most market research firms tend to spend on tools and services that reduce delivery friction without weakening research quality. Common needs include survey platforms, transcription, participant recruitment, incentive management, analytics, dashboarding, project management, CRM, finance, proposal workflow, information security and secure file sharing. Specialist consultancies may also buy respondent-access services, data visualisation support, website and content marketing, PR, bid writing, legal advice, accountancy and freelance researcher capacity. Anything touching participant information needs a credible privacy and governance story, because even small firms handle identifiable data, consent records and client-confidential material as part of ordinary project delivery.
Why and how to sell to them
Market research buyers tend to review suppliers when project volume rises, a new framework place is won, a senior insight hire joins, or clients ask for tighter evidence on privacy, sampling or reporting. Common pain points include low consultant utilisation, manual fieldwork administration, slow proposal production, inconsistent charting, respondent recruitment delays and the burden of proving method quality to procurement teams. Outbound works better when it is framed around billable-time protection, fewer delivery errors, clearer audit trails or faster conversion from brief to findings. Generic scale-up language is less persuasive than evidence that a vendor understands research ethics, confidentiality and project-led revenue.
How this list is built
Data sources
This list is built from UK Companies House filings, XBRL accounts data, and semantic analysis of each company's public website. Revenue and headcount figures come from the most recent filed accounts; where the company has not filed, values are estimated using a model trained on filed history and peer benchmarks and are labelled as estimates.
Classification
Rather than relying solely on SIC codes, Firmbase classifies each company semantically: the company's website is crawled, an AI model reads what the company actually sells, and the company is placed into the relevant industry and subsectors. SIC codes are used as one signal but not the only one. This means a company that registered under a generic SIC code but pivoted into (for example) fintech is correctly identified as fintech, not as its original SIC category.
Freshness
The underlying company data is refreshed from Companies House continuously; filings appear in the list within days of submission. The curated list ordering is regenerated when the underlying data moves meaningfully (company count changes by more than 5%, a new company enters the top-ranked segment, or the filed-revenue numbers for the top firms change). You can see the last-updated timestamp near the top of the page.
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