Business Insider: How LRW Group Applied Market Research Strategies Toward Los Angeles’ COVID-19 Antibody Testing Effort

Business Insider featured LRW Group’s partnership with USC and Los Angeles County to conduct antibody tests that would help public health officials understand the true scope of the pandemic across LA.

An excerpt from the piece:

In mid-April, Los Angeles tried to understand the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic by asking hundreds of residents to get drive-through blood tests.

The results found that estimated infection rates were “28 to 55 times higher” than the number of officially reported cases, but that the virus was also probably much less fatal than previously thought.

These tests were the product of an unusual collaboration between the LA County Department of Public Health, the University of Southern California, and 50-year-old consulting firm LRW Group.

LRW Group is best known for consumer sentiment research that clients like Google, Facebook, Disney, and Starbucks never publicize.

For example, when an auto company wants to let people test drive a new model and weigh in, or a household goods company needs to see how consumers respond to the smell of a new fabric softener, they often hire LRW Group’s consumer research division SoapBoxSample, according to president Jeff Reynolds.

Reynolds said LRW Group drew from a database that included years of consumer research involving “15-20% of adults in LA County” to conduct the COVID-19 study.

Read more in Business Insider (paywall; may require subscription)