Kantar Group
Encyclopedia
Kantar, based in UK, was founded in 1993 as the Market Research, Insight and Consultancy Division of WPP
plc
, a London-based public company. It is a network of 13 specialist companies, with around 28,500 employees working in 100 countries across various research and consultancy disciplines. Eric Salama is the current Chief Executive Officer.
The group claims its services are used by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. It was the second largest global market research company in 2009, with annual revenue of about $4 billion. It is consistently a Honomichl Top 50
company in the U.S.
; based in New York, New York, was founded in Warwick, England in 1973 and acquired by WPP Group in 1989. Millward Brown is a global research agency specializing in advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Millward Brown works across a range of industries and categories, and has a number of specialist practices: BPRI Group
(a global practice specializing in B2B research), Dynamic Logic (a global leader in measuring the impact of digital marketing effectiveness), Firefly Millward Brown (Millward Brown's global qualitative network), Millward Brown Optimor (Millward Brown's strategy consultancy practice that helps companies maximize the financial returns on their brand and marketing investments), and the Neuroscience Practice.
(formerly “Indian Market Research Bureau”) is a multi-country market research
, survey
and business consultancy
firm established in 1970 that offers a range of syndicated data and customized research services. With over 1200 employees, IMRB is one of the largest providers of market research in India in an industry estimated to be worth a minimum of $ 187 million. As the oldest extant market research company in India, IMRB has been responsible for establishing the first and only household panel
, the first television audience measurement
system and the first radio panel in the country and has played a key role in the development of market research in India.IMRB International's specialised areas are consumer markets, industrial marketing, business to business marketing
, social marketing
and rural marketing.
, Europe
, Asia-Pacific
, the Middle East
and Africa
.
, Europe
, and Asia
. LSR provides global online market research
services, specializing in using the Internet
as a data collection platform to provide research through building and maintaining panels subject to quality and representative sampling standards. Specialty panels range across industry sectors such as financial
services, health care
, business-to-business
, automotive, family and more. LSR also provides custom panels to address specific client needs. In 2007, Lightspeed Research conducted over 20 million online surveys for clients.
Its network of proprietary panels and accredited panel partners LSR can provide access to more than 5.5 million panel members across 34 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Consumer panels are available in the USA, Canada
, United Kingdom
, the Netherlands, France
, Germany
, Italy
, Spain
, Sweden
, Austria
, Belgium
, Ireland
, Japan
, China
, Korea
and Australia
– providing access to adults, teenagers, kids and other specialty audiences.
, ideas generation and development); evaluating ideas (marketing mix
optimization, concept evaluation); optimizing communications (decoding and planning, copy testing); and communications performance optimization (planning, tracking, and spending optimization).
DR Added Value conducts consumer
and business-to-business
research across a number of product and industry categories. Major services offered are copy-testing, brand and advertising tracking, consumer and market segmentation, product design and customer satisfaction. IconAddedValue provides market research and consulting services, including brand communications, product research, brand tracking and customer satisfaction studies, with offices in four countries. In addition, the firm offers support for advertising agency
selection; coaching in brand management, communications development and agency management; and tailored seminars and workshops for defining brand identity. Its research activities are built around a brand value management structure with four brand components; analytics, strategy, implementation and monitoring.
(TNS), after its failed merge talks with GfK
, was acquired by WPP and included it in the Kantar Group portfolio.
In February 2009, Kantar merged TNS and Research International. With Kantar's subsequent purchase of Global Market Insite, TNS/Lightspeed Research/GMI is now the world’s largest custom research agency.
WPP
WPP may refer to:* Windows software trace preprocessor* WPP plc, a London-based advertising holding company* Wandsworth Parks Police, a police service in London, England* Witness Protection Program, in USA...
plc
Public limited company
A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....
, a London-based public company. It is a network of 13 specialist companies, with around 28,500 employees working in 100 countries across various research and consultancy disciplines. Eric Salama is the current Chief Executive Officer.
The group claims its services are used by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. It was the second largest global market research company in 2009, with annual revenue of about $4 billion. It is consistently a Honomichl Top 50
Honomichl Top 50
The Honomichl Top 50 is an annual compilation of the top 50 revenue-generating marketing research firms operating in the United States. The Honomichl Top 50 is published by the American Marketing Association magazine, Marketing News...
company in the U.S.
Top 9 of the Market Research Sector 2009
| Rank | Company | Sales in 2009 (million USD) | Growth in % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nielsen Company | 5,000.0 | 2.6 |
| 2 | Kantar Group | 2,000 | 2.5 |
| 3 | IMS Health Inc. | 1,958.6 | 8.9 |
| 4 | GfK AG | 1,397.3 | 5.4 |
| 5 | Ipsos Ipsos Ipsos S.A. is a global market research company headquartered in Paris, France. The Company was founded in 1975 and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since 1 July 1999... |
1,077.0 | 6.5 |
| 6 | Synovate Synovate Synovate was a market research firm owned by the Aegis Group. It was formed from the acquisition of a number of smaller market research firms. It has a number of different divisions, such as Synovate Healthcare, Synovate Customer Experience, Synovate Censydiam and Motoresearch. They claimed... |
739.6 | 9.5 |
| 7 | IRI IRI IRI may refer to:* International Reference Ionosphere a common scientific project of URSI and COSPAR* International Roughness Index, a dimensionless quantity used for measuring road roughness, proposed as a world standard by the World Bank... |
665.0 | 6.6 |
| 8 | Westat Westat Westat is an employee-owned corporation providing research services to agencies of the U.S. Government, as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local governments.... |
425.8 | 0.8 |
| 9 | Arbitron Arbitron Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s... |
400.0 | 5.9 |
Millward Brown
Millward BrownMillward Brown
Millward Brown is a global company focused on brands, media and communications. It is part of Kantar Group, the insights arm of WPP plc, and the world’s second largest market research organization after Nielsen Company.-Leadership:...
; based in New York, New York, was founded in Warwick, England in 1973 and acquired by WPP Group in 1989. Millward Brown is a global research agency specializing in advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Millward Brown works across a range of industries and categories, and has a number of specialist practices: BPRI Group
(a global practice specializing in B2B research), Dynamic Logic (a global leader in measuring the impact of digital marketing effectiveness), Firefly Millward Brown (Millward Brown's global qualitative network), Millward Brown Optimor (Millward Brown's strategy consultancy practice that helps companies maximize the financial returns on their brand and marketing investments), and the Neuroscience Practice.
IMRB International
IMRB InternationalIMRB International
IMRB International is a multi-country market research, survey and business consultancy firm that offers a range of syndicated data and customized research services...
(formerly “Indian Market Research Bureau”) is a multi-country market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
, survey
Survey
-Quantitative research:* Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population* Paid survey, a method that companies use to collect consumer opinions about a product by paying consumers for participating in the survey...
and business consultancy
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
firm established in 1970 that offers a range of syndicated data and customized research services. With over 1200 employees, IMRB is one of the largest providers of market research in India in an industry estimated to be worth a minimum of $ 187 million. As the oldest extant market research company in India, IMRB has been responsible for establishing the first and only household panel
MarketPulse
MarketPulse is a continuous monthly tracking survey of household purchases in urban and rural India. Established in 1974, it is India's only household panel study that collects information about household purchases...
, the first television audience measurement
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
system and the first radio panel in the country and has played a key role in the development of market research in India.IMRB International's specialised areas are consumer markets, industrial marketing, business to business marketing
Business marketing
Business Marketing is the practice of individuals, or organizations, including commercial businesses, governments and institutions, facilitating the sale of their products or services to other companies or organizations that in turn resell them, use them as components in products or services they...
, social marketing
Social marketing
Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing, along with other concepts and techniques, to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as...
and rural marketing.
Kantar Health
Kantar Heath, a global consultancy and marketing insights organization serving the pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostics and devices industries, was formed in 2009 from Consumer Health Sciences, MattsonJack, TNS Healthcare and Ziment. The company has more than 40 offices throughout the AmericasAmericas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Kantar Media
Kantar Media offers a range of media insights and audience measurement services through the analysis of print, radio, TV, internet, cinema, mobile, social media, and outdoor worldwide. Kantar Media was formed from WPP Group’s acquisition of TNS Media and KMR Media in 2008. Kantar Media became Kantar Group’s rebranded insight, media evaluation and audience measurement company.Kantar Video
Founded in 2010, Kantar Video is headquartered in New York, and is an online video syndication, tracking, and measurement service utilizing proprietary technology to serve agencies, media companies, advertisers, and content creators. The platform, according to the press release put out by WPP, will be called Videolytics (TM). According to the same press release, the launch of Kantar Video was concurrent with the launch of another Kantar product "Echo Video" which will measure the effects of viral videos on consumer attitude and online behavior.Lightspeed Research
Lightspeed Research (LSR) was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Warren, New Jersey. The company operates in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. LSR provides global online market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
services, specializing in using the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
as a data collection platform to provide research through building and maintaining panels subject to quality and representative sampling standards. Specialty panels range across industry sectors such as financial
FINANCIAL
FINANCIAL is the weekly English-language newspaper with offices in Tbilisi, Georgia and Kiev, Ukraine. Published by Intelligence Group LLC, FINANCIAL is focused on opinion leaders and top business decision-makers; It's about world’s largest companies, investing, careers, and small business. It is...
services, health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
, business-to-business
Business-to-business
Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
, automotive, family and more. LSR also provides custom panels to address specific client needs. In 2007, Lightspeed Research conducted over 20 million online surveys for clients.
Its network of proprietary panels and accredited panel partners LSR can provide access to more than 5.5 million panel members across 34 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Consumer panels are available in the USA, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the Netherlands, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
– providing access to adults, teenagers, kids and other specialty audiences.
Added Value
In October 2004, three Kantar Group companies – Added Value, Icon Brand Navigation and Diagnostic Research – combined under the Added Value (AV) name. Added Value focuses on brand marketing, consumer insight, innovation and communications optimization. Core services are setting future direction (cultural and trend analysis); identifying market opportunities (market segmentation and mindset mapping, brand portfolio management); strengthening brand equity (brand evaluation, diagnosis and strategy creation); innovation (ethnographyEthnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, ideas generation and development); evaluating ideas (marketing mix
Marketing mix
The term "marketing mix" was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American Marketing Association presidential address. However, this was actually a reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James Culliton, who in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a "mixer of ingredients",...
optimization, concept evaluation); optimizing communications (decoding and planning, copy testing); and communications performance optimization (planning, tracking, and spending optimization).
DR Added Value conducts consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
and business-to-business
Business-to-business
Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...
research across a number of product and industry categories. Major services offered are copy-testing, brand and advertising tracking, consumer and market segmentation, product design and customer satisfaction. IconAddedValue provides market research and consulting services, including brand communications, product research, brand tracking and customer satisfaction studies, with offices in four countries. In addition, the firm offers support for advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
selection; coaching in brand management, communications development and agency management; and tailored seminars and workshops for defining brand identity. Its research activities are built around a brand value management structure with four brand components; analytics, strategy, implementation and monitoring.
TNS acquisition
In 2008, Taylor Nelson SofresTaylor Nelson Sofres
Taylor Nelson Sofres is a leading market research and market information group. Formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the firm was acquired by WPP Group in October 2008 for 1.6 billion pounds.-History:...
(TNS), after its failed merge talks with GfK
GfK
The GfK Group, established in 1934 as Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung is Germany's largest market research institute, and the fourth largest market research organisation in the world, after Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, and IMS Health...
, was acquired by WPP and included it in the Kantar Group portfolio.
In February 2009, Kantar merged TNS and Research International. With Kantar's subsequent purchase of Global Market Insite, TNS/Lightspeed Research/GMI is now the world’s largest custom research agency.