User:MResearchB/barlowresearch

Barlow Research Associates, Inc. (BRAI) was founded in 1980 to provide research to the financial services industry. BRAI is a top research company servicing many of the large banks in the United States. BRAI uses quarterly surveys to measure the business banking experience of small business ($100K-$10MM) and middle market companies ($10MM-$500MM). BRAI also specializes in custom research and tracks the features and innovation of business internet banking websites and their users.

History of the Company
John Barlow founded Barlow Research Associates, Inc. in 1980 to specialize in providing commercial bank marketing managers with market share information. During the eighties, Barlow Research branched out and created the Customer Relationship Audit (CRA), a tool to measure banking relationships.

Recently, Barlow Research has introduced a national syndicated research program. The small business, middle market and business internet banking subscription gives organizations a larger reach with their market research than would be possible on their own.

Monarch Awards
The Monarch Awards were created to reward commercial banks and their vendors for creating useful innovations for their client base. The Monarch Awards have four categories: Overall Most Innovative, Most Innovative Feature, Most Innovative Product and Most Innovative Service. In 2009, Digital Insight, a member of Intuit, won the "Overall Most Innovative" Monarch Award for their product Small Business Finance Works. Wells Fargo won both the "Most Innovative Product" award for their product Foreign Exchange Online and the "Most Innovative Feature" for their product My Spending Report with Budget Watch. . Bank of America won the 2009 "Most Innovative Service" award for their Small Business Online Community.

Small Business Syndicated Program
Barlow Research's Small Business Banking Program leverages market knowledge and competitive intelligence gathered through research of companies with annual sales of $100,000 to $10 Million. On a quarterly basis, small business owners share their banking experience, product preferences, and attitudes toward small business banks. Members of the Small Business Banking Program are also provided with First Friday Web Conferences, newsletters and participation in Barlow Research's Annual Client Conference.

Middle Market Syndicated Program
Barlow Research's Middle Market Banking Program leverages the knowledge gained from research of companies with annual sales of $10 million to $500 million. On a quarterly basis, middle market financial decision makers share their banking service experiences, product preferences and attitude toward their primary financial institution. Members of the Middle Market Banking Program are also provided with Web Conferences, newsletters and participation in Barlow Research's Annual Client Conference.

Business Internet Banking Syndicated Program
Barlow Research's Business Internet Banking Syndicated Program leverages research focused on Business Internet Banking. Members of the Business Internet Banking Syndicated Program are also provided with Web Conferences, newsletters and participation in Barlow Research's Annual Client Conference.

Business Internet Banking Test Drive
The Business Internet Banking Test Drive features a comparison of the small business online banking platforms of major financial institutions. This product allows bank clients to log in and view a brief video on a component in a specific bank's platform and compare the offering using the road map.

Custom Research
Customer Relationship Audit is the premier research tool in the custom research department. It is designed to measure service quality and report results at the Relationship Manager level.

Street Smarts is an interactive training tool, which presents Relationship Managers and/or support staff with real-life situations, to improve their problem solving skills and achieve higher customer satisfaction

Themis Pro allows clients of Barlow Research to update and "clean" their mailing lists, track their respondents, read comments, view survey results, and complete action plans.

Tele-focus groups bring together a group of people using technologies such as the Internet and telephone conferencing.

Economic Pulse
To gain insight into how economic confidence affects business decisions, Barlow Research created the quarterly Economic Pulse Survey. The Barlow Research Economic Pulse Survey is an invitation-only online economic survey, fielded for two weeks during the first month of each quarter.

Barlow Research's Economic Index is based on syndicated results trending back to 2000. The index is based on financial decision makers' outlook about their company's financial condition and their industry's economic condition during the next 12 months. A score of 100 on the economic index represents an average GDP growth quarter since 2000 (2.3%-2.5%) and has been based to syndicated research results found in the 3rd quarter of 2002.

Past Clients
Most of the major financial institutions in the United States have used Barlow Research Associates, Inc. for their research needs. Among them:


 * American Bankers Association
 * Bank of America
 * BB&T
 * Chase
 * Citi
 * BBVA Compass
 * FHLB
 * Hancock Bank
 * HSBC
 * M&I
 * Mastercard
 * Merrill Lynch
 * Metavante
 * Minnwest Bank
 * National City
 * PayCycle
 * Regions
 * Sovereign Bank
 * SunTrust
 * TD Bank
 * US Bank
 * Wachovia
 * Wells Fargo
 * Zurich

Client Conference
Each year, Barlow Research holds a client conference for two days in early March. This conference is held to discuss current trends and future expectations in research that is focused on the financial services industry.

Past Conferences:
 * 2009- "Leading Through Change" - Charlotte, NC
 * 2008- "Innovation in Business Banking" - Atlanta, GA
 * 2007- "Just In Time Business Banking" - Chicago, IL
 * 2006- "The Next Wave: One to One B2B" - Orlando, FL
 * 2005- "Managing the High Value Customer" - Atlanta, GA
 * 2004- "Creating Customer Value" - Atlanta, GA