Who’s Behind the Scenes?

Pepper Miller

Pepper Miller founded The Hunter-Miller Group (HMG), a consumer research, trend analysis and marketing strategy company, in 1985 and, since then, has been helping Fortune 500 companies understand how to effectively and positively market their products and messages to the African-American market.  Some corporate clients include: American Airlines, American Greetings, Allstate, General Motors, General Mills, GSK, Ford Motor Company, Hallmark Cards, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Procter and Gamble and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Pepper and co-author Herb Kemp launched the landmark African-American cultural marketing book, What’s Black About It? Insights to Increase Your Share of a Changing African-American Market, in October 2005.

Pepper served as a research consultant for the largest study about African Americans to date; the Black America Today segmentation study – commissioned by Radio One and conducted by Yankelovich.  The study was launched June 2008.

Additionally, Pepper served as co-research partner and consultant for the first ever segmentation study on African-American women commissioned by Essence Magazine:  The 2005 WOW II (Window on Our Women) Study. …and in July 2007 Pepper received the Target Market News MAAX Award for 2007 Research Executive of the Year Pepper also established the Ruth C. Hunter Market Research Scholarship Fund to increase awareness among Black Americans and encourage Black-American students to consider market research as a career option.

Pepper has been an invited guest speaker at many corporations including Procter and Gamble, General Mills, Colgate, Coors, Home Depot, Macy’s and pharmaceutical companies that include Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, and Pfizer.

Bud McCullen

Since teaming with The Hunter-Miller Group in 1995, Bud has provided strategic analysis as well as marketing and advertising insights in the form of recommendations for many Hunter-Miller clients. Additionally, Bud is well versed and experienced in numerous research techniques and is an accomplished moderator and interviewer.

Bud is an 18-year veteran of Chicago’s top advertising agencies, including Leo Burnett (10 years), J. Walter Thompson (3 years) and Ogilvy and Mather (5 years). He has directed and managed the advertising, marketing and research functions for a variety of top marketers, specifically including Quaker, Discover Card, United Airlines and Phillip Morris.

Bud has a BS from Cornell University and an MBA in Marketing from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Charlotte Bandele

Charlotte is an energetic, passionate and confident moderator. She connects well with respondents by building rapport and creating intimacy that helps them open up and speak candidly. She is RIVA trained and has been professionally moderating since 2001.

In her 20-year professional career, she has also held roles in product development, marketing strategy and marketing research for several financial services firms including Allstate, CNA and Zurich Insurance. Additionally, she has also been a guest lecturer at Columbia College and is a member of QRCA (Qualitative Research Consultants Association). Recently, she completed training for Online Focus Group Moderating. Charlotte holds a BA from Howard University and an MBA in Marketing from The University of Illinois at Chicago.

Charlotte began her relationship with The Hunter-Miller Group in 2002 and has successfully conducted HMG qualitative research projects for: