By Derek Leddie, The Leading Edge

Home of the koala, the kangaroo, the Great Barrier Reef, Rolf Harris and the didgeridoo, Australia is a unique country in many ways.

Believe it or not, although Australia has a land mass on a par with the US and is 50% larger than Europe, it only has a population of 18,972,350, which is not much more than that of London and South East England. Most of Australia's population is concentrated in coastal regions around Melbourne and Sydney in the South East (the most densely populated 1% containing 84% of the population), and in the East around the Brisbane area - but with such great beaches it's really no surprise.

What may be more surprising to anyone, outside of, or who has not visited Australia before is its highly multicultural population. While the main language spoken in Australia is English, the 2001 census shows that there are nearly 4 million Australian people who speak a language other than English at home, the top three being Chinese, Italian and Greek.

Differences between Australia and its northern hemisphere counterparts are apparent both commercially and non-commercially and the research industry is no exception.

The first unusual thing about the Australian market research industry is that it imports very little research and the majority of projects are commissioned in Australia. Why? There are a number of reasons: Often organisations classify Australia as the lead country so a lot of new product development has to be conducted in Australia. Secondly there are a lot of large international, multinational and national companies that need and demand local expertise that can only come from a domestic offer. Thirdly its geographical isolation makes it a difficult country to blend with others as part of a global/ international project. And finally while Australia is often grouped with SE Asia it has very little in common with these countries and a one-size-fits-all approach will not work so specific Australian research will be required.

Some may draw an unwise conclusion that because Australia sits on the southern side of the equator and that it handles the lion's share of its research needs domestically that it is anyway isolated from, and even lagging behind, what the rest of the world is doing. In fact, on the contrary, in some ways Australia is ahead in terms of new methodologies, processes and other intellectual property. The industry is highly competitive and therefore demands that Australian research companies are very much in touch with, or leading, in the latest thinking.

However, despite all this excellence the industry still struggles with a lack of home grown talent. Universities and industry societies are doing little to address this issue and market research companies that need to provide their clients with industry leading standards will continue to import talent from overseas, most especially from Europe and the UK. On the other hand this is a two way street as Australia continues to attract UK and European talent with its way of life and developed Market Research offer.

Many international research companies have also been attracted to Australian shores. Whilst the past five years has seen an increase in new arrivals many have struggled to get a foothold. One of the reasons for this is that the Market Research offer in Australia is different to what these companies are set up for. In Europe and the States many companies take either a generalist or a specialist approach. As with any industry, supply (where this is no scarcity) is dictated by demand. The demands of the Australian market mean that research consultancies need to provide a hybrid: to be a generalist will not provide the level of skills that are needed but to be an expert in just one field such as kids, or retail brand management, or pricing, is not enough. The market requires many specialisms in the skill set and offer. This may be because the market size is not substantial enough to support a multitude of specialist offers, or it may be that it's a unique Australia business culture - but those who have tried to break the mold have mostly failed.

So, whilst the threat of new entrants to the market is relatively low, when we ask where the opportunity is for the Australian Market research industry we know we need to look outside of the domestic market for growth. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Market Research was worth about US$447m in 2002. Putting this into context by comparing this to the ESOMAR published figures from 2002, worldwide MR turnover totalled US$16,601m with the majority split between Europe US$6,820m and the USA US$ 6,307m. It would seem that for Australia research companies export is a very obvious opportunity - many have investigated this opportunity and will continue to do so.

However there are other opportunities which are a bit closer to home - in the Asia Pacific region.

From the outside world looking in, or at least from on top looking at down under it often appears easier to operate in terms of an Asia-pacific region (a more substantial US$2,156m industry). Whilst it is easy to draw a circle around Asia Pacific the reality is that Australia is still an eight to nine hours flight away from Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai or Kuala Lumpur. Added to that the cultural and language differences the idea of Australia running the Head Office for the Asia Pacific region is really not as viable as people think and logistics mean it never will be.

Yet, there could still be a huge opportunity in Asia which is for Australia to be a training ground, where people are skilled up to work in Asian countries. This is where the Australian Market Research industry could grow its turnover without having to look at geographical expansion / setting up offices across Asia. Alternatively there is still plenty of scope in continuing to export its intellectual property through innovative approaches.

Unique it maybe and in some ways even quirky but put on an international playing field Australia is not detached from, or some sort of backwater in, the global Market Research industry. In many ways Australia is a pioneer of bright ideas and new ways of working. And on top of that the wine's not bad either.