Indian Market Research Bureau

IMRB International (formerly “Indian Market Research Bureau”) is a multi-country market

research, survey and business consultancy firm that offers a range of syndicated data and

customized research services. Headquartered in Mumbai, India with operations in over 15

countries IMRB is a part of the Kantar Group, WPP’s research, insights and consultancy

network. Established in 1970, IMRB was modeled on the lines of the British Market Research

Bureau. IMRB is now a leading provider of market research and insights across South Asia,

the Middle East and North Africa with specialist divisions in quantitative, qualitative, media,

retail, industrial, customer satisfaction, business to business and social and rural research.

IMRB’s syndicated research offerings include the MarketPulse, the National Food Survey, Web

Audience Measurement (WAM), ITops, and I-Cube reports.

With over 1200 employees, IMRB is one of the largest providers of market research in India in

an industry estimated to be worth a minimum of $ 187 million. As the oldest extant market

research company in India, IMRB has been responsible for establishing the first and

only household panel, the first television audience measurement system and the first radio panel

in the country and has played a key role in the development of market research in India. It has

been rated the ‘Best Market Research Company’ by MRSI an industry body for several years.

IMRB International's specialised areas are consumer markets, industrial marketing, business

to business marketing, social marketing and rural marketing.

History

IMRB was established in 1970 to provide market research services to the clients of  Hindustan

Thompson Associates. Early clients included FMCG companies such as Unilever, ITC, Pond’s,

andHorlicks. The initial decade saw rapid expansion into new areas of business, with the

first qualitative study being conducted by the end of the decade, and IMRB

pioneering psephology in India through an ongoing series of opinion poll surveys for India

Today, that successfully predicted Congress’ victory in the 1980 general election.

Subsequent decades saw the development of new verticals, with the creation of specialized units

and the offering of several syndicated research products. IMRB also played an important role in

the standardization of market research practice in India, and was responsible for the creation in

1983 of the Socio-Economic Classification system, a method now used across India to

definetarget audiences. In 1987, as a founder member of the MRSI, it helped evolve industry

wide codes of conduct, and standards for survey data collection that are still in use today.

With the global acquisition of J. Walter Thompson by Sir Martin Sorrell in 1987, IMRB became

a constituent of WPP and continued its pace of growth, growing over 25% per annum through

the 1990s under the leadership of Ramesh Thadani. The 1990s saw the creation of specialized

units focusing on development research, employee satisfaction, loyalty programs, technology

and media and the acquisition of several new multinational clients. IMRB’s insights also played

a role in the development of several new products for major Indian brands such as Marico, Bingo

Chips,Godrej and Dabur and by this time supported 40 out of top 50 brands in India.

In 2002, as part of a process of rebranding, it changed its name from the Indian Market Research

Bureau to IMRB International, adopted a new logo, and began a process of rapidly expanding its

international services. This was accompanied by a shift from its offices at Esplanade Mansion to

its current premises in Dadar, Mumbai. As part of geographical expansion, IMRB helped set

up LMRB in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1981 and AMRB in 1999 with headquarters in Dubai and

offices throughout Middle East and North Africa.

Company StructureIMRB is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Its parent company is Hindustan Thompson

Associates, which in turn is owned by Martin Sorrell’s WPP Group plc. Within WPP, IMRB is

aligned with the Kantar Group, an umbrella network of global market research companies that

together account for over $2 billion in revenues and form the world’s second biggest market

research conglomerate.December 2011 a leading market research firm IMRB declared

Ahmedabad as the best mega-city to live in (compared to India's other mega-cities)

A diagrammatic chart representing IMRB's ownership structure

In India, IMRB International operates out of its five full service offices

in Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore and is supported by 15 other

regional centers for collection of survey information. Overseas, IMRB functions through its

associates -AMRB-MENA in the Middle East and North Africa, with offices

in Algiers, Dubai, Jeddah, Casablanca and Cairo; LMRB, with offices in Colombo and Sirius,

headquartered in Dhaka.

IMRB is currently headed by Thomas Puliyel, a market researcher with over thirty years of

experience. As the oldest market research company in India, it has served as the training ground

of many industry leaders including Dorab Sopariwala, Ranjit Chib and Meena Kaushik, who

went on to found their own companies.

Business Divisions and Services

Name of

Division

Year of

EstablishmentAreas of Expertise Scope of Work

Quantitative

Research Wing1970

Quantitative custom and

syndicated research, National

Foods Survey

Responsible for a wide range of data

analytics

Comprises the bulk of IMRB's custom

research

Probe

Qualitative

Research

1979Ethnographic, qualitative

custom research

Integrates insights

from anthropology, psychology and

thesocial sciences

Media and

Panel Group1992

MarketPulse, TGI, custom

media research

Tracks over 70,000 households

purchase behavior

Conducts custom specialized media

research

Business and

Industrial

Research

Division

1994ICube,

ITops, WAM, B2B consulting

Runs WAM, India's Web Audience

Measurement service

Brings out industry/ sector specific

reports

Brand Science 1996

New tools that help

understandbrands, and

communication in an Indian

context

Provides brand and communications

consulting and advisory services

Customer

Satisfaction

Management

and

Measurement

1994

Customer and Employee

satisfaction surveys, Loyalty

Programs

Focuses on stakeholder researcher-

employees, vendors, shoppers

Tracks employee satisfaction and

stakeholder loyalty levels

MindTech

Systems

2001 Market research software, data

fusion, CASS (computer aided

survey systems)

Provides customized software and

platforms for data collection and

analysis

Provides software support for

television audience measurement,

Name of

Division

Year of

EstablishmentAreas of Expertise Scope of Work

and retail purchase data collection

Social and

Rural Research

Institute

1991

Developmental Research,

Public Health Research, All

India Health Survey

Primarily services aid agencies,

NGOs, and the government

Responsible for the

largest UNICEF Survey on polio, data

collection for National Family Health

Survey

Abacus Market

Analytics2001

Data processing,

advancedanalytics, market

research software

Handles operations in data

processing, charting, statistical

analysis, database management and

updation, software development and

testing

IMS Health

IMS Health is a global company that provides information, services and technology for the

healthcare industry. IMS Health was founded in 1954 by Bill Frohlich and David Dubow. In

2010, IMS Health was taken private by TPG Capital, CPP Investment Board and Leonard Green

& Partners. Ari Bousbib is IMS Health’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Bousbib, a

long-time senior executive at United Technologies Corporation, joined IMS in September

2010. IMS Health is headquartered in Parsipanny, NJ.

Products and Services

IMS’s products and services are used by companies to develop commercialization plans and

portfolio strategies, to select relevant patient and physician populations for specific therapies,

and to measure the effectiveness of pharmaceutical marketing and sales resources.

IMS also uses their own data to produce syndicated reports such as market forecasts. These

predict how a market in a specific country or specific therapy area will change over time. This

works through the production of baseline projections of sales and the application of different

future events to this baseline to produce a forecast.

History and acquisitions

The original name of the company was Intercontinental Marketing Services, hence the IMS

moniker. IMS Health's corporate headquarters is located in Parsippany, New Jersey. The

company's chairman and chief executive officer is Ari Bousbib.

In 2002, IMS acquired Cambridge Pharma Consultancy, a privately held international firm

that provides strategic advice to senior pharmaceutical management.

In 2003, the company acquired Marketing Initiatives, a specialist in healthcare facility profile

data, and Data Niche Associates, a provider of rebate validation services for Medicaid and

managed care.

In 2004, United Research China Shanghai was acquired, providing coverage of China’s

consumer health market.

In 2005, IMS acquired PharMetrics, a U.S. provider of patient-centric integrated claims data.

In 2006, the company acquired the Life Sciences practice of Strategic Decisions Group, a

portfolio strategy consultant to the life sciences industry.

In 2007, IMS acquired IHS and MedInitiatives, providers of healthcare data management

analytics and technology services. That same year, ValueMedics Research was acquired,

extending IMS’s health economics and outcomes research capabilities.

In 2007, IMS was ranked in The Business Week 50. This list represents "best in class"

companies from the ten economic sectors that make up the S&P 500.

In 2008, IMS is named to the World’s Most Admired Companies list by Fortune (magazine).

The company received the recognition again in 2010.

In 2008, IMS acquired RMBC, a provider of national pharmaceutical market intelligence and

analytics in Russia.

In 2008, IMS acquired the Skura professional services group, based out of Mississauga,ON

Canada and specialized in data integration, consulting and services in Business Intelligence

platforms to Pharmaceutical and Healthcare clients in North America and Europe.

In 2012, IMS was included on IDC Health Insights’ list of top life science technology vendors

for IT services (Perspective: IDC Health Insights' Top Preferred Life Science Technology

Vendors for 2012, Eric Newmark, Program Director Business Systems Strategies, Perspective

#HI233255).

The ranking is based on the global market intelligence firm’s survey of 115 industry leaders on

their planned IT spend:

A 2012 IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics report found that there were important

variations across the U.S. and by patient age in the use of healthcare services in 2011. Young

people, age 19-25, increased their use of prescription drugs as many for the first time were able

to remain on their parents’ health insurance, while seniors age 65 and over reduced their volume

of prescriptions. In addition, the availability of new generic drugs in a number of chronic

therapies contributed to a minimal increase in drug expenditures overall in 2011. Total healthcare

system spending on medicines reached $320 billion in 2011, up 0.5 percent on a real per capita

basis.

Drug shortages in the U.S. are limited primarily to generic injectables and a few key disease

areas, according to a 2011 IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics study. Affected products

represent a small part of the overall medicines market but include a number of critical drugs used

to treat cancer, infection, cardiovascular disease, central nervous system conditions and pain.

Although almost 100 companies were supplying the 168 products in short supply, half of those

drugs were made by only one or two suppliers. The analysis made use of IMS Health’s database

of U.S. prescription sales, and shortages lists compiled by the U.S. FDA and American Society

of Health-System Pharmacists.

TOPIC-MARKET RESEARCH COMPANY ASSIGNMENT- 1

SUBMITTED TO-

Mr.MUNISH TIWARI SUBMITTED BY-

SHANTANU CHAUDHARY

M.B.A. 3rd year