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Elephants Can't Jump
Ensuring brand initiatives work in practice as well as in theory. To have marketplace impact, we believe every research assignment should consist of three elements consumer exploration or validation, within a competitive context, generating commercial outputs.
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Firefish Ltd
29 full time staff, operating in all corners of the globe, on all manner of projects. No methodology is squashed to fit. We approach each brief with fresh eyes and minds, to make sure you get the most out of your research, helping your brand move forward.
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Grass Roots
Grass Roots is one of Europe's largest performance improvement companies. Established in 1980, Grass Roots UK is the founding company of a group with offices and partners operating in 15 countries around the world.
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DIGITAL-MR
In addition to Social Media Research (Web Listening) DigitalMRs solutions also include community panels, access panels, Web usability and a distinct focus on qualitativeresearch online.
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An Introduction to Malaysia
Malaysia is a federation that consists of thirteen states and three federal territories in Southeast Asia, separated into two regions - Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo - by the South China Sea. The country shares borders with Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. See full country profile.Latest Research News from Malaysia
1 current Malaysian job:
GOVERNMENT: Constitutional Monarchy
AREA: 329,750 sq km
POPULATION: 26,160,256 (July 2010 est.)
MAJOR LANGUAGE: Malay (Bahasa Malaysia)
Some business and general info
The Market Research Industry
Trade and Industry in Malaysia
A little More Knowledge?
Go to next country
Malaysia is a federation that consists of thirteen states and three federal territories in Southeast Asia, separated into two regions - Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo - by the South China Sea. The country shares borders with Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines.
Malaysia as a unified state did not exist until 1963. Previously, a set of colonies were established by the United Kingdom from the late 18th century, and the western half of modern Malaysia was composed of several separate kingdoms. British Malaya was dissolved in 1946 and after experiments with two other structures the country gained independence on 31 August 1957. Rapid growth during the 1980s and 1990s, averaging 8% from 1991 to 1997, has transformed Malaysia into a newly industrialised country. International trade plays a large role in its economy. Malaysia has a biodiverse range of flora and fauna, and is also considered one of the 18 biologically megadiverse countries.
GDP: $381.1 billion (2009 est.), ($14,800 per capita)
Religions Muslim 60.4%, Buddhist 19.2%, Christian 9.1%, Hindu 6.3%, Confucianism, Taoism, other traditional Chinese religions 2.6%, other or unknown 1.5%, none 0.8% (2000 census)
Currency: Ringgit (MYR) (1 MYR = 0.2 EUR)
Telephone Code: +60
MR Association(s):
Malaysia's MR industry had a turnover of $USD 73m ($USD 2.66 per capita) in 2008, meaning it is ranked 40th in the world by countries ranked by market size.
Ad spend in the same year was $1,589m ($USD 58.21 per capita): MR as a percentage of ad spend therefore stands at 4.6%.
Source: ESOMAR
Singapore (14.94%), US (12.4%), China (10.19%), Japan (9.13%), Thailand (4.93%), Hong Kong (4.75%) are the main export partners (2009), and the main exports are electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, wood and wood products, palm oil, rubber, textiles, chemicals (total export est. at US$157.6 bn in 2009). Imports are Electronics, machinery, petroleum products, plastics, vehicles, iron and steel products, chemicals (2009: US$119.3 bn), the main import partners being Singapore (20.16%), China (12.31%), Japan (11.02%), US (9.41%), Thailand (6.15%) and South Korea (4.21%).
Key industries in Malaysia include rubber and oil palm processing and manufacturing, light manufacturing, electronics, tin mining and smelting, logging, timber processing (in Peninsular Malaysia) and logging, petroleum production; Sarawak - agriculture processing, petroleum production and refining, logging (in Sarawak).
Chamber of Commerce: www.micci.com
Email me:
laurence@mrweb.com
With the west reeling under depression, Malaysia was affected too. Though Malaysia did not fall into a depression, the economy underwent a slowdown of sorts in 2009. However, come 2010, the economy has become vibrant again and is getting stronger day by day.
Sorry to start off with some statistics. I couldn't help it as being a researcher for 17+ years. Malaysia is a bit peculiar for the region, being neither developing like Indonesia and Thailand, nor developed like Hong Kong or Japan. Possibly it is in the last quartile of being called a completely developed nation by the end of the next decade if Vision 2020 is achieved. I call it a peculiar country also in terms of its people. The main three different races, Malays, Chinese and Indians are very different in terms of culture, cuisine and religion. And yet, they seem to blend into the Malaysian culture beautifully at Mamak stalls, shopping malls, offices, weddings, sports and other daily activities. As an Indian who was born in Kerala, brought up in Gujarat and residing in Mumbai, I have been exposed to a lot of cross culture and cross religion experiences. But I still find it amusing when I see a Malay in a traditional Baju Kurung with a Chinese friend who is in micro shorts and a tank top. But then, I don't see any clash at all. Everyone is accepted in Malaysia as they are.
I switched to Acorn Malaysia from India back in March 2007 because I saw even more exciting times doing research in Malaysia. Initially, I found a few things about MR in Malaysia a bit different from that in India. Malaysia introduced me into researching 3G (India is still auctioning 3G licenses), Milk Formula (A virtually non-existent category in India!), Islamic Banking, 3 in 1 Coffees (Indians would possibly think people who drink these are lazy!), eating and drinking yoghurt (you make 'Lassi' at home in India, we don't brand them there do we!) and retail chain research (India is still battling between mom and pop retail v/s organized chain retail). With two thirds of the population under 35, every marketer is trying to sell to them. The 35+ Malaysian is rich hence segments like 'mass affluent' become hot targets for private banking products and expensive cars. Segments like 'migrant workers' (there is no such segment in India for marketers!) also become hot segments for mobile phone service companies for their IDD services and for banks for their remittance services.
Acorn Malaysia also gave me excellent opportunities to coordinate and analyse information across the ASEAN countries. The research applications remain the same and yet the findings are at times unique and exciting across the cultures. As a researcher in Malaysia, truly you get a good flavor of Asian research true to the country's tourism punch line, 'Malaysia, Truly Asia'.
For many years, the very well known tag line for Malaysia targeting incoming tourists has been: 'Malaysia, truly Asia'. This captures the essence of Malaysia very well and would be just as appropriate to position Malaysia as a key strategic market for the overall market research industry. The local MR scene has shown consistent growth over the past 10-15 years, with Malaysia - as a market still maturing over time. The demand for strong market insights from strong research companies has naturally increased, as Malaysian companies and M'laysia itself fight the battle for greater presence in their sectors.
However, there is another string to Malaysia's bow which might not have been fully recognised until now, and that is in Malaysia's ability to be an outsource or - more often - insource hub for global companies. Malaysia is a relatively cost effective country for setting up global centre of excellences to service and /or support other functions in a global organisation.
Generally, Malaysians speak very good English, are diligent, hard working and committed, they are smart, and are supported by very strong IT infrastructure and network. The fact that the entire country is so beautiful, the people so friendly, Kuala Lumpur so vibrant and the food so delicious gives an added bonus for any would-be visitor to the place. Yes, the food. You need to know about Malaysia's food, as this is the universal obsession here. So much variety, so many flavours and so much to talk about...! Next time you come, call me.