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Advertising, Marketing & Promotions

Turn consumer perception into evidence in trademark and false advertising disputes, with reliable research, expert testimony, and visual storytelling built to educate the judge, jury, or regulator about complex issues.

Give the fact-finder a clear view of what consumers actually think.

Advertising and trademark disputes usually hinge on a single question: how do real consumers understand the mark, the message, or the claim? When that answer is left to argument alone, both sides take on risk. IMS grounds that question in reliable consumer research, translating layered marketing strategy and regulatory nuance into evidence that decision-makers can follow.

From likelihood of confusion and secondary meaning to false advertising and dilution, our survey experts design and defend studies that meet the standards expected by courts, the TTAB, the FTC, and the National Advertising Division. We support counsel in high-stakes trademark, trade dress, deceptive advertising, and consumer protection matters, whether building a claim or challenging one.

Top law firms and corporations rely on IMS to secure survey evidence that withstands scrutiny and present it with clarity. Learn more below.

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From Early Research Through Trial: Integrated Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Services

The strongest advertising and trademark cases are built early. IMS supports the full arc of a dispute, from pre-suit, non-evidentiary research that stress-tests your theory before a testifying expert is engaged, through the survey design, expert testimony, and litigation consulting that carries your evidence to verdict.

Our Expert Advisory & Analysis services bring together survey scientists with advanced degrees in marketing, consumer psychology, and sensory science, backed by more than 30 years of providing research, consulting, and testimony for law firms, major corporations, and government agencies.

Our litigation consultants and visual advocacy specialists then turn that research into a coherent narrative. Judges and jurors rely more on context than on jargon, so we help develop themes, prepare witnesses, and develop demonstratives that make technical marketing concepts easy to grasp.

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IMS Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Expertise in Action

IMS’s litigation consulting and expert witness teams bring decades of experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries, including some of the most significant trademark, trade dress, and false advertising matters before federal and state courts, the TTAB, and NAD.

From early analysis and strategy development through trial testimony and closing arguments, we work alongside law firms and corporate teams to deliver defensible, understandable consumer perception evidence and visual aids that clarify the case position.

Featured Case Study: Substantiating Consumer Preference Claims in a Competitive Cosmetics Market

A national cosmetics brand needed defensible proof that consumers preferred its new "ultimate daily moisturizing lotion" over a leading competitor before making the claim in its advertising. IMS consumer science experts designed and managed a blinded home-use test that mirrored real-world conditions, allowing consumers to compare both products through regular daily use. The result: fully substantiated superiority claims.

Read the Case Study

Advertising, Marketing & Promotions Capabilities

  • Likelihood of Confusion & Dilution Surveys

    Using the Eveready or Squirt formats, our experts measure likelihood of confusion arising from allegedly similar marks or trade dress, as well as likelihood of dilution when an accused mark may blur or tarnish a brand's distinctiveness. The result is empirical evidence that replaces speculation on a core liability question.

  • Secondary Meaning & Genericness Surveys

    Secondary meaning surveys show whether consumers associate a mark or trade dress with a single source, providing evidence to support or challenge claims of acquired distinctiveness. Teflon-format genericness surveys test whether a term reads as a brand or a category, giving both sides reliable data on how consumers view the term. 

  • False & Deceptive Advertising Surveys

    We measure which messages consumers take from a disputed claim and whether those takeaways are material to their purchase decisions. Court-ready reports back data-driven arguments in false advertising and consumer protection cases and align with FTC and NAD expectations.

  • Survey Rebuttals

    When opposing counsel relies on a survey, our experts help to identify design flaws, biased questions, sampling problems, and analytical errors that may warrant exclusion or reduced weight. Survey rebuttals give you the leverage to challenge evidence before a final decision is reached.

  • Damages Surveys

    Quantify the value consumers place on specific features or claims to help apportion damages based on actual behavior. We also provide rebuttals to opposing damages models in patent, copyright, and advertising matters.

  • Litigation Survey Consulting

    Targeted, non-evidentiary surveys gauge consumer perceptions and test case theories early, so your team can shape strategy before committing to a testifying expert.

It is hard to believe that we could ever find another resume more on point than the expert IMS brought us.

Partner, Am Law 100 Firm

Our discussions with the jury after the verdict revealed that IMS’s work had a major impact on how the jury viewed the case and it helped them to see the dispute from our client’s perspective.

Partner, Am Law 50 Firm

FAQs

As early as possible. Giving a survey expert more time ahead of the relevant deadline lets them explore survey options, recruit difficult-to-locate respondents, and manage any surprises that arise.

Yes. Our research is designed to meet the same rigorous standards regardless of which side engages us, so it holds up whether you are asserting a claim or challenging one.

Our experts design studies for federal and state courts, the TTAB, the FTC, and the NAD, and build them to withstand Daubert scrutiny.

Our experts provide rebuttals that identify methodological flaws serious enough to support exclusion or reduced weight, and prepare your team for cross-examination.

Yes. IMS pairs survey scientists with litigation consultants and visual advocacy teams, so the same evidence is designed, defended, and presented as one coherent story.

Advisory work does not exist in a vacuum; research and analysis are foundational to building claims, developing strategies, and presenting a case. Findings from advisory and analysis engagements, like claim substantiation studies or economic and finance analysis from our Economics & Finance and Statistics, Sampling & Econometrics teams, give litigation consultants the evidentiary backbone to shape a compelling narrative.

From there, our litigation consulting team helps refine the narrative: strategy and theme development turn advisory findings into a data-driven story, jury research and mock trials test how that story lands with a representative audience before trial, and voir dire and jury selection strategy carries those insights into the courtroom.

Finally, trial graphics and presentation technology translate the substantiated claims and case themes into visuals that a jury or tribunal can use to make decisions. Research substantiates the claim, strategy shapes the story, and graphics deliver it persuasively at trial.

Blue textured angles.

We bring a unique perspective based on decades of practical experience in 70,000+ cases spanning all industries.

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