PMRHistory
Peters Marketing Research (PMR) was founded in 1958 by Mary Jane Peters, whose son Joe Peters is our companyΓÇÖs president today. PMR started as a ΓÇ£field houseΓÇ¥ that strictly focused on interviews. In the late 1960s, we transitioned from primarily conducting door-to-door interviews to also handling in-store/mall intercept data collection.
The 1970s proved a more sophisticated decade, so PMR changed with the times by introducing coding and tabulation services. During this era, Joe officially took over as owner and president, and we opened the doors to our New Jersey focus group facility (currently PMcR). The St. Louis focus group center was created in the 1980s, and the business directed its attention to more taste, package and in-home tests.
In the 1990s, PMR made great strides with both database and computer systems. By the new millennium, the company became an expert in online interviewing and data gathering via state-of-the-art technological advances. The addition of a third focus group suite, along with privately created software, pushed PMR into the industryΓÇÖs spotlight.
At Peters Marketing Research, we take pride in having made history for more than six decades. JoeΓÇÖs daughters, the third generation of PetersΓÇÖ family members, currently contribute to the companyΓÇÖs success and ongoing quest for excellence (Jennifer serves as Vice President of Operations and Katie as Vice President of Qualitative Research).
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1950
After Mary Jane Peters realizes she truly enjoys conducting door-to-door home interviews, she joins forces with another woman and forms Details Marketing Research in North St. Louis, Mo.
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1960
Mary Jane decides to start her own company and creates Peters Marketing Research (PMR). Her office: the back porch of her Crestwood, Mo. home! Four years later son Joe graduates from college and joins Mom’s company still located on the back porch.
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1965
Mary Jane and Joe outgrow their space and move to their first real office at Watson Industrial Park where PMR is located for the next 22 years. That same year their company custom designs and builds the Mobile Testing Unit (MTU) exclusively for PMR. Its purpose: to enable wider demographic inclusion and enhance market research testing.
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1967
Mary Jane and daughter, Tina Peters Price, go to Los Angeles and open a quantitative research office. After the business is up and running, Mary Jane goes to Boston to open yet another office.
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1970
After three years in Vietnam, Joe becomes company president and, in 1973, opens PMR’s first focus group facility in New Jersey. Joe’s sister, Toni Peters McClard begins managing the facility in 1981 becoming the primary owner in 2007, renaming the company PMcR.
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1976
Anne Fleming, who is hired as PMR’s first internal programmer, handles software development and internalizing data processing functions. Today she is the VP of Quantitative Research.
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1983
PMRΓÇÖs St. Louis focus group center opens and, in 1990, expands to offer a variety of client amenities and more spacious suites.
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1986
PMR hires two more programmers to develop an integrated data processing system that provides total project management. (This unique software was unavailable to market researchers at that time.) While this operating platform has changed throughout the years, the original concept remains…and continues to be updated and enhanced.
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1987
PMR moves to its 11,000-square-foot office centrally located in Creve Coeur, Mo.
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1997
The first of JoeΓÇÖs four daughters begins working at PMR. In the years to come, all four daughters (Amanda, Jennifer, Katie and Meghan) will contribute to the family tradition of growth and excellence.
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1999
The Missouri and New Jersey focus group facilities join forces with FocusVision Worldwide to offer nationwide live video transmission for on-site focus groups.
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2008
The PMRSurveys.com site is created to facilitate all internet interviewing.
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2010
The St. Louis focus group office becomes the only Missouri facility that offers high definition video streaming.
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2011
PMR’s St. Louis-based focus group center is awarded a “Top Rated” by the Impulse Survey of Focus Facilities guide for the 17th consecutive year (a feat achieved by only seven facilities out of nearly 800 in the world).
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2013
With enhancements to our St. Louis-based medical interviewing software, we begin recruiting physicians and medical professionals from across the country for telephone and web-based interviews.
