Asian Firms Link to Form New Regional Force

Indian marketing research firm IMRS Advisory has partnered with market research agency BMI Research of Southeast Asia to launch a new firm called AZ Research Partners, which will offer a wide range of research related services across the region.

The new operation will provide marketing consultancy, business category analysis with benchmarking of best practices, and workshops on new research techniques and their applications for brand managers and other company executives.

In preparation for the launch, the firm has already developed several tools, including 'Kids Kanvas', which helps to identify trends in the children's goods market; 'Shelf Monitor', to track shelf space share of FMCG brands and aging of stocks; 'Brand LEQ', to assess the loyalty and emotional quotient of a brand; and 'Crictrac', which tracks audience reaction and feedback to sponsors during cricket series.

AZ Research Partners is also developing an online panel in India, which the firm will launch with 10,000 respondents, with ambitions to grow to a panel size of 100,000 across South East Asia.

Additionally, the firm is preparing to launch a research methodology using social networking, which it claims is a first for India.

AZ Research Partners will specifically roll out these services across India, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Singapore and Hong Kong.

'BMI has traditionally had a strong presence across SE Asia while IMRS has been the fastest growing market research agency in India over the last 10 years,' stated Sujay Misra, who is MD of the new firm. 'With the launch of AZ Research we strengthen our commitment towards the Southeast Asian market by offering a wider range of services.'

Board member Abhijit Mazumdar added that while the new firm is only offering services across SE Asia in the launch phase, its vision is to convert the company into a global brand with operations across the world.

The new firm now has 35 offices in the region, and apart from providing all forms of qualitative and quantitative research, it will specialise in social/ psychological and communication research.

Web site: www.azresearch.in .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.