The Voice of the American ConsumerTM for over 50 years, Experian Simmons was the brainchild of legendary market researcher Willard R. Simmons, a pioneer in the use of audience measurement studies to better understand consumer attitudes and behavior and more effectively target marketing and advertising campaigns. The proud tradition of innovation, high performance and technology leadership he established remains strong today and represents the foundation of a growing portfolio of powerful research tools and resources Simmons offers its strategic partners.
| 1954 | | W.R. Simmons & Associates, Inc. began surveying Americans to determine how TV advertising affected their product and brand shopping choices. |
| 1960 | | With the launch of its first flagship product, The Study of Media and Markets, now called National Consumer Study, the Associates' reputation as a comprehensive polling firm grew and virtually every major marketing firm and advertising agency began using Simmons data. |
| 1974 | | Simmons Market Research Bureau (SMRB) was created to continue surveying the magazine industry. |
| 1978 | | SMRB acquired Target Group Index, increasing its survey data from 72 to 147 magazine titles.
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| 1986 | | SMRB was acquired by London-based WPP Group before it was sold to Symmetrical Resources in 1998. Over the next decade, SMRB refined its surveying methodology, expanded its services as well as its product line. |
| 1998 | | Symmetrical Resources repositioned Simmons as the leader in measuring the American consumer with a media-neutral consumer centric service. Symmetrical identified that marketers needed a service that could help guide them in a multicultural, multiracial, multimedia and multi-lifestyle world. |
| 2004 | | Simmons was acquired by Experian Marketing Solutions with the vision of creating a consumer centric market research company with one foot anchored in the methods of traditional research and another leading to the Future of Information. |
| 2008 | | Simmons was rebranded to Experian Simmons to fully capture its capabilities of providing the industry-leading data on the American consumer. |
