COLUMBIA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--500friends, a Merkle Company announced that Forrester Research, Inc., an independent research firm, ranked 500friends as a Leader in The Forrester Wave : Customer Loyalty Solutions for Midsize Organizations, Q1 2016. Forrester's highest ranking for a Wave evaluation is a "Leader." The Forrester report assessed the state of the loyalty solutions market and how seven vendors stack up against each other across 40 criteria. The evaluation focused on current offering,