Heart+Mind Strategies Announces Launch

A Wirthlin-Inspired, Values-Based Research and Consulting Firm

WASHINGTON, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Heart+Mind Strategies, a rapidly growing, full-service, strategic research and consulting company officially announces its formation today.   Heart+Mind Strategies' partners are part of the former leadership of Wirthlin Worldwide founded by Dr. Richard B. Wirthlin – a pioneer in values-based research and Ronald Reagan's pollster.  Heart+Mind Strategies' leadership conducted research for several well-known communications campaigns: "Got Milk?" - "What Happens Here, Stays Here" - and "Plastics Make It Possible."

Dee Allsop, PhD, CEO and Heart+Mind Strategies Managing Partner, said, "Our new firm can see further because we are standing on the shoulders of one of the true giants of strategic communications and brand research -- Dr. Wirthlin -- who made many lasting contributions to the science and art of consumer insight and strategic communications.  We are proud to have him serve on our Board, and I am thrilled to be working with so many talented partners that understand the necessity of values-based research to win the hearts and minds of client constituencies."

Heart+Mind Strategies is the distillation of the best learning and experience from successful brand and communications campaigns over the last four decades.  The team at Heart+Mind Strategies represents more than 120 years of high-level strategic research, communications and brand experience -- a team of highly skilled professionals who have worked together for more than 15 years at the prestigious firm, Wirthlin Worldwide.

• Dr. Dee Allsop, CEO + Managing Partner
• Michael Dabadie, President + Managing Partner
• Beth Strackbein Forbes, Partner + Chief of Staff and Operations
• Jennifer Airey, Partner, Senior Solutions Strategist
• Dr. Jim Hoskins, Senior Consultant + Executive Advisor

Through years of experience and personal relationships, Heart+Mind Strategies represents a network of the best operational resources and capabilities in the world and specializes in brand, reputation and communications consulting for corporations, brands, associations, non-profits organizations, social issues advocates, and individuals.  Members of the senior leadership team have been the lead researchers on six Ogilvy Award-winning communications campaigns over the last thirteen years:

• American Iron and Steel Institute - The New Steel. (Inside the Beltway Campaign).
• American Iron and Steel Institute - The New Steel. Feel The Strength.
• Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority – Alibi (What Happens Here, Stays Here)
• "Spicealicious" Chili's Grill & Bar
• International Dairy Foods Association /Milk Processor Education Program – milk your diet. lose weight! (got milk?)
• American Plastics Council - Plastics Make it Possible

Other members of the Advisory Board, who join the Chairman of the Advisory Board, Dr. Richard Wirthlin, represent partnerships with some of the world's leading practitioners of strategy development, and persuasive communications:

• Martha Boudreau, President Mid-Atlantic, Fleishman-Hillard
• Ron DeFore, Founding Principal, Stratacomm
• Charles Trevail, CEO, Promise Corp.
• Joel White, Financial Advisor

"Where we excel is leveraging rational research findings to form emotionally compelling, successful communications strategies for our clients - persuade by reason, motivate through emotion," said Michael Dabadie, President and Managing Partner, "and we are fortunate to have external partners who understand our philosophy."

Legally formed in June 2008 -- in the early days of the recession -- Heart+Mind Strategies has grown steadily while market research companies large and small have been retreating in response to economic pressures.

ABOUT HEART+MIND STRATEGIES: OUR MISSION

HMS is a full service market research and consulting firm, based in Washington, DC, dedicated to helping clients understand the hearts and minds of the people that matter most to their enterprise, and then providing the strategic decision making insight and advice to transform that understanding into measurable success.  At Heart+Mind Strategies, we believe:

As human beings, our perceptions, hopes and beliefs shape the choices we make, and these have both rational and emotional components -- symbolized by our hearts and minds.

We can best understand people's hearts and minds by understanding personal values—the guideposts that drive decisions and give meaning, relevance, and purpose to life.

Strategic equity, often perceptual, is our clients' greatest asset -- the unique, positive and personally relevant "values-based" connection of the enterprise to the people that matter most.

We must live by the highest standards of quality and integrity in everything we do. We nurture a culture infused with the principles of collaboration, innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurism.

Relationships have the power to transform organizations and behavior. That's why we view our clients as partners, instead of with an "account management" mentality.

SOURCE Heart+Mind Strategies