A ABEPHISTORY OF MARKET
RESEARCH IN BRAZIL
GLOBAL STAGE
GLOBALIZATION STAGE (STARTING IN 2000)
The first decade of the 21st century was of consolidation of the large market research
groups in Brazil, a process that was well advanced by the end of this decade. Little
by little companies that showed greater growth during the 90’s were being acquired
by these global groups that came to dictate how the market operates.
As mentioned, the American company Nielsen and the English company Research International
already had activities in Brazil before the turn of the century. Nielsen acquired
CBPA (Brazilian Research and Analysis Company), to be its ad-hoc research arm.
Ibope, which has a very unique history, is an exception of the Brazilian company
that was not acquired and instead expanded its activities abroad, differentiating
itself as a Brazilian market research multinational.
At the end of the century, the French company Ipsos acquired Novacion and later
Marplan and experienced great growth throughout the decade. Without question, it
can be said that Ipsos was the most prominent company of this decade, reaching a
level of revenues close to that of Nielsen and Ibope, the two market leaders, and
passing RI, which was until then the great symbol of ad hoc research.
Also at the end of the century, the English company Millward Brown starts a project
to turn itself independent from Ibope, to which it was associated, a process still
underway in the 2010’s.
After the turn of the century, the Spanish company Inner starts operations autonomously
in Brazil, without acquiring any local company. Among other companies, Inner was
acquired globally and becomes part of the Synovate group.
The German company GfK acquires Indicator and , lastly among the global giants,
the English company TNS acquires Interscience, purchases the part of Ibope in the
partnership it had with LatinPanel, and finally, is acquired by the also English
media group WPP, which decides to combine its two research arms: RI and TNS.
This group of companies - Ibope, Nielsen, Ipsos, GfK, TNS RI, Millward Brown and
Synovate - accounts for close to 75% of the Brazilian market research market. Other
global groups continue to come to Brazil, setting up operations or acquiring local
companies, but the dynamic operation of the local market, in tune with the global
market, is already established.
Some prominent names of this period were Rodrigo Toni, Paulo Carramenha, Valkiria
Garre, Sônia Bueno, Manuel Lopes, Beatriz Arbex, among others.