French market research firm comes to Pakistan

Sees huge growth potential in emerging Asian markets.

KARACHI:

In the presence of a host of corporate executives, advertising professionals and marketing heads of different national and multinational companies, a France-based global market research firm announced its formal launch in Pakistan here on Tuesday.

Currently operating in 84 countries with 16,000 employees serving 5,000 clients, Ipsos claims that it is the third largest market research company of the world. Established in Paris in 1975, the company has gradually expanded worldwide with a turnover of €1.363 billion in 2011.

Ipsos began its operations in Pakistan in September last year. Its clientele includes a number of corporate giants, including Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, USAID, Colgate-Palmolive, ICI and Glaxo SmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

Highlighting the reasons for the company’s decision to start operations in Pakistan, Ipsos co-president and global founder Didier Truchot said the country was already a big market for its existing clients in the global market. He also expressed dismay over the fact that many Pakistani companies went to Dubai-based market research firms to get insights into the current trends in the local market.

Claiming that the information provided by Ipsos will be accurate, relevant and useable, Truchot said it offered specialised services in advertising, marketing, media and technology, opinion and social research, customer and employee research, and global operations including survey management and data collection.

A look at the revenues of Ipsos reveals that while its operations in the countries of Asia-Pacific constituted just 15% in its consolidated revenues in 2011, the most recent year-on-year increase in revenues from the Asia-Pacific region was a massive 56.4%.

The corresponding increase in Ipsos’ revenues from the Americas remained just 12.6%, reflecting the fact that the company foresees a huge growth potential in the emerging Asian markets.

Among the international clientele of Ipsos are many notable corporate entities like Microsoft, Coca Cola, Google, Samsung, Mercedes-Benz and Pepsi.

Headquartered in Islamabad with client services office in Karachi and Lahore, Ipsos Pakistan has created since September about 50 permanent staff jobs in addition to over 400 ad hoc and on-call staff positions.

The company claims that its team can undertake any modular study and has multi-country research expertise with full coverage of both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Quoting the CEO of Unilever Pakistan, an Ipsos representative said that as opposed to its size now, the fast-moving consumer goods company would be more than two and a half times the size five years later.

“Actionable market research will be the key, as it helps identify the bulge in the target market,” he said, referring to the necessity of having credible market research for sustainable expansion in businesses.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 13^th, 2012.