The Mellman Group has counted among its clients the Democratic Leaders of both the U.S. House and Senate, as well as the past President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (former Leader Dick Gephardt, Whip Steny Hoyer, Leader Tom Daschle, Whip Harry Reid, and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb). The firm has picked up a Republican seat in every cycle since 1994, including Maria Cantwell’s upset win over a 3-term incumbent in Washington in 2000 and Jennifer Granholm’s triumph in a competitive race for Governor in Michigan this past year. The firm has helped elect some fifteen other U.S. Senators, numerous governors and mayors, and has been victorious in key initiative and referenda campaigns around the country.

Many of the nation's most important public interest organizations, ranging from the American Cancer Society to the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO and the California Teachers Association to the World Wildlife Fund, the Pew Charitable Trusts to the League of Women Voters, have turned to The Mellman Group for research-based strategy. Corporate clients include Coca Cola, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Intuit (the makers of Quicken), the Washington Wizards, Fortune magazine, Janus Mutual Funds, and United Airlines. We count numerous government agencies among our clients, such as the World Bank, the U.S. Departments of State and Labor, the Department of Justice and the Health Care Financing Administration.

At The Mellman Group, we are experts in the decision-making process of consumers and voters. We maintain our competitive advantage by continually consulting with other groups of experts: a handful of leading academic researchers, and tens of thousands of individual decision-makers -- consumers and voters -- who hold the power over the fortunes of our clients. By maintaining close links with leading academic innovators, we are able to stay on top of the latest developments in survey design, data analysis, and qualitative research, including the use of Internet surveys and online focus groups.

Combining the academic and the practical has enabled us to offer our clients sophisticated qualitative and quantitative techniques that save them time and money. Split sample simulations allow us to create experimental design in our surveys so we can observe the differential impact of various themes and strategic approaches on public support. Trade-off questions force respondents to assess the relative priority of conflicting goals. Multivariate techniques reveal underlying commonalities in the data that help us analyze how attitudes and perceptions cohere. In combination with Logit analysis, these techniques allow us to lay bare the structure of the decision-making process. Strategic mapping permits us to relate public views of the significance and likelihood of outcomes that might result from various choices.

These techniques help us separate what works best from what merely works well. Whether it's a campaign for political office, selling a product, or changing people's beliefs on an issue, we know how to find the messages that lead people to choose our client's product or service, join their organization, hold their opinion, or vote as we would like.