Who we are
We provide research on your customers, visitors, or constituents— the people important to your place or place of business. Our roots are in anthropology, the study of people and human behavior. Because of that, our perspective translates your consumers into living, breathing people who make decisions based on complex sets of reasoning resulting in complex sets of behavior. We simplify all this behavior and motivation down to the insights that matter most, so that you can create the marketing strategies that will bring you from good to great.
We offer a spectrum of research solutions depending on your budget, from mining existing data and databases for insights to more in-depth studies including surveys, intercepts, focus groups and forums, online exercises, and more.
We believe in:
Understanding what is fundamentally human and how "human-ness" affects behavior.
The power of research to point direction and transform marketing strategies.
"Structured Curiosity" via the scientific method.
The power of travel and connection with others as healing agents for the social ills of our time.
The power of travel as an economic engine for communities.
Meet the GRS team
Shannon Gray
CEO/Founder
(aka Boss Lady)
Shannon’s natural curiosity about people and what drives them to do what they do led her to cultural anthropology, the study of human behavior. But rather than studying tribes in faraway lands, she focuses on our modern-day consumer culture. Her quest to understand how marketing and advertising impact buying patterns led her to bachelor and master’s degrees in Anthropology as well as an MBA.
She found her way to the tourism industry, serving as research director of a destination branding firm for four years. In 2013, she formed Gray Research Solutions to provide customized research to destination marketing organizations. Besides the usual visitor profile studies, lodging studies, and perception studies, she has conducted ethnographic research (that means anthropology) for corporate brands like Kraft, General Mills, and Verizon, and for travel destinations like Galveston Island, TX and the state of Maryland.
Shannon was awarded her Tourism Marketing Professional (TMP) certification from Southeast Tourism Society’s Marketing College in 2014. She now serves as Marketing College Provost as well as an instructor of tourism research and a member of the STS Board’s Executive Committee.
Laura Abbasi-Lemmon
MA, CHIA-TE
Lead Data Analyst
(aka Chief Insights Wrangler & Operations Ninja)
Laura is a versatile professional with a background in research methodologies and graphic design. Graduating from McDaniel College with a B.A. in Art & Communication, her studies focused on interpersonal research and graphic design. Building on her passion for social justice, she pursued an M.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies from Stony Brook University. While there, she refined her qualitative research skills to complete her thesis. In 2019, Laura joined GRS. Since then, she has been actively involved in tourism market research for destinations all around the southeast, exploring visitor behavior and industry trends. Recently, she furthered her expertise by obtaining a certification in Hotel Industry Analytics from AHLEI and STR.
Mayara Durkee
BA, SSM
Project Manager & Social Media
Manager
(aka Chief Cat Herder & Social Solutionist)
she/her
mayara@grayresearchsolutions.com
Mayara is originally from Brazil. She is passionate about traveling and learning about the world, cultures, and experiences. After earning her B.A. in International Business in 2010 she spent 5 years of her career working with people from all over the world coordinating and facilitating Import/Export transactions between Brazil and other countries before moving to the US in 2015.
Mayara maintained her own travel blog website for several years, implementing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and site traffic analytics best practices. Through this process she developed the social media skills necessary to bring traffic and engagement to her multi-platform business, generating revenue and growing her customer portfolio over the years.
In 2021 Mayara earned her Safe Agile Scrum Master Certification in hopes to pivot to an emerging field and build on her prior professional experience with international markets and tourism. With such a versatile background and a passion for the travel industry, Mayara brings GRS fresh perspectives, support, and strategic solutions to our clients and team.
Sarah Sapp
Data Analyst
(aka Insights Wrangler)
she/her
sarah@grayresearchsolutions.com
Sarah has always been fascinated by how people express themselves and process their environment, and she is thrilled that this curiosity about the human experience has led her to Gray Research
Solutions. Sarah graduated from McDaniel College with a BA in English in 2011, then began teaching. She earned a MS in Special Education from Johns Hopkins University while teaching in Baltimore City. After spending a few years at home raising her kids, Sarah met with the Shannon and GRS to see if her liberal arts degree and teaching experiences could fit in with the amazing things the team was doing.Learning about data, travel, and the anthropological elements of analysis is both exciting and new, but still fundamentally familiar to Sarah.
When she’s not contemplating the human condition, Sarah can be found reading, writing the beginnings of multiple novels, or hanging out with her awesome family.