KPMG Australia has launched a new specialist customer, brand and marketing advisory venture, led by partner in charge Paul Howes, which today has acquired the business of independent market research firm Acuity Research and Insights.

The new practice launches with a combined team of 43 specialists, including six partners. Its suite of services includes customer experience strategy, customer experience design, customer journey, sales and channel transformation, marketing and product transformation, service transformation and customer insights.

The business will work closely with the UK-based KPMG Nunwood Customer Experience Excellence Centre.

Gary Wingrove, CEO of KPMG Australia, expects customer and marketing advisory to be a key growth area for the firm in the next three years.

“The CEO agenda is increasingly focused on placing customers at the heart of business, but their depth of customer insight is often insufficient,” he said.

“That’s where Acuity comes to the fore. Acuity’s strong track record conducting some of the country’s longest-running customer engagement and corporate image research projects provides a significant point of difference for our offering.

“This new business is a contemporary extension of our traditional customer advisory services, which typically have supported large performance improvement and business transformation projects for clients.

“Paul is a proven practice builder with a natural flair for customer insights and brand building. I’m confident he’ll do an outstanding job driving this new enterprise forward.”

Howes said: “I’m excited about this new challenge. We’re already eyeing off some further acquisitions, and I’m in the process of recruiting more top talent.

“This new business exists to transform client organisations into more customer-centric ones, to build their brands and to apply more commercial rigour to their strategies.

“We specialise in achieving customer-first- outcomes to drive financial and operational results, and this will be a major point of difference, so watch this space.”

Acuity founder Amanda Hicks joins KPMG today as a partner, together with her team.

“I’m thrilled to see Acuity join with KPMG in its new customer and brand practice,” she said.

“Organisations today are finding themselves in markets that are rapidly evolving and innovating, as are their customers’ expectations. Customer, brand and marketing strategy needs to reflect this changing dynamic.”