IMRB International

History

IMRB was established in 1970 to provide market research services to the clients of Hindustan Thompson Associates. Early clients included fast-moving consumer goods companies such as Unilever, ITC, Pond’s, and Horlicks. 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 define target 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 the Middle East and North Africa.

In 1996, along with the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) IMRB initiated the periodic ITOPS survey which monitors the IT hardware market among households and businesses. Since 1998, in collaboration with the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), an industry body IMRB also started providing a series of annual syndicated research reports named I-Cube which surveys the online and mobile landscape in India. More recently, in 2010 IMRB launched the Web Audience Measurement (WAM) system, India’s first standardized internet audience measurement system based on a panel.

Company structure

IMRB 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.

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; and 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

Given the specialized nature of its work, IMRB is organized into several independent business divisions that focus on specific areas of market research. It currently has eight business units in addition to its oldest division, the quantitative research division.

In addition to its eight specialized units, IMRB also has Abacus field offices that are responsible for the recruitment, administration and quality control of survey responses.

While a significant amount of its work involves customized research such as usage studies, branding studies, public opinion research, concept testing, product testing, need assessment studies, packaging and label research, and market segmentation studies IMRB also offers a variety of syndicated research products and reports that are widely used as industry bench-marks of consumer behaviour, such as: