The project of reviving and documenting the ‘History of Market Research in Brazil’ was born in conversations regarding the current situation of this activity.
Today the market research industry is confronted with several major challenges: definition of its identity, to the extent that
other segments also develop also develop research, and research seeks to appropriate attributes from other businesses (consulting, internet and technology companies, etc.); definition of its role and relevance to business; how to respond to the current speed of today’s business world; how to respond to the need to constantly profit in a globalized world; how to best follow the complexity of consumers and their relationship with products and brands; etc.
Right now, the lack of historical references makes it difficult to construct Brazilian thought about the market research industry. At the same time that Brazilian professionals are respected and admired internationally, market research in Brazil lacks its own identity that separates it from the rest of the world.
This project seeks to contribute to overcoming this gap. We believe that history is an important tool for societies, social groups, organization and even for individuals to reflect on the past and present, to understand the roads and conditions that have been developed and the way that these facts limit or expand options in the future.
Several cuts can be made in the historical review of an industry such as market research: the relation with societal development, the responses given by industry to economic changes, of companies and of the consumer, technical and methodological development, the development of research use by clients, etc.
We chose to review history from the view of the development of its institutions, prioritizing a look at the way this industry organized itself during this time. One of the initial challenges of a historical work consists of periodizing, in other words, chronologically arranging the sequence of events. In this project we plan to overcome this first challenge, making room for new insights to occur.
Neste momento, a falta destas referências históricas dificulta a construção de um pensamento brasileiro sobre a indústria de pesquisa de mercado. Ao mesmo tempo em que o profissional brasileiro é respeitado e admirado internacionalmente, a pesquisa de mercado no Brasil carece de uma identidade própria que a discrimine no mundo.
Este projeto busca contribuir para a superação desta lacuna. Acreditamos que a história é uma importante ferramenta para que sociedades, grupos sociais, organizações e mesmo os indivíduos reflitam sobre o seu passado e presente, entendam os caminhos e condicionantes desenvolvidos até o momento e a forma como estes fatos limitam ou constroem as opções para o futuro.
Diversos recortes podem ser feitos no resgate histórico de uma indústria como a de pesquisa de mercado: a relação com o desenvolvimento da sociedade, as respostas dadas pela indústria às mudanças econômicas, das empresas e do consumidor, o desenvolvimento técnico e metodológico, o desenvolvimento do uso da pesquisa por seus clientes, etc.
Optamos por resgatar a história a partir do desenvolvimento das suas instituições, priorizando um olhar sobre a forma como essa indústria se organizou ao longo do tempo. Um dos desafios iniciais de um trabalho histórico consiste em periodizar, ou seja, organizar de forma cronológica a sucessão de fatos. Neste projeto pretende-se superar este primeiro desafio, abrindo espaço para que novos aprofundamentos ocorram.
History is an import tool for societies, social groups, organizations and even for individuals to reflect on the past and present, to understand the roads and conditions that have been developed and the way these facts limit or expand options in the in the future.
In fact, according to Borges (2007) ‘The function of history, from its inception, was to provide society with an explanation of itself…. This can allow us…a better understanding of our concrete actions in society…’. Still, according to the same author, ‘…history, helping to explain reality, may help to transform it at the same time.’
WWithout an understanding of history, we do not have an important ‘where we can from’ reference to assess the ‘where are we going’ alternative .
TToday the market research industry is confronted with several major challenges: definition of its identity, to the extent that other segments also develop research, and research seeks to appropriate attributes from other businesses (consulting, internet and technology companies, etc.); definition of its role and relevance to business; how to respond to the current speed of today’s business world; how to respond to the need to constantly profit in a globalized world; how to best follow the complexity of consumers and their relationship with products and brands; etc.
Right now, the lack of historical references makes it difficult to construct Brazilian thought about the market research industry. This paper seeks to contribute to reduce this gap.
Several cuts can be made in the historical review of an industry such as market research: the relation with societal development, the responses given by industry to economic changes, of companies and of the consumer, technical and methodological development, the development of research use by clients, etc.
In this work, we chose to review history from the view of the development of its institutions, prioritizing a look at the way this industry organized itself during this time. Borges said that ‘A primary task always shows up in history: periodize, that is, chronologically arranging the sequence of events from different periods.’
Generally, the history of Research in Brazil was divided into three major periods:
• Prehistory: involves the phase that beings with the arrival of research in Brazil, coming in the luggage of the large American advertising agencies who arrived in the late 20’s and goes until the founding of the first research company created in the country: Ibope, in 1942;
• National stage: covers the development of research in Brazil from the creation of Ibope until the end of the twentieth century, divided into three sub-periods:
Creation and development of the first companies: during the 40’s and 50’s, when the market was composed of basically four companies;
Expansion: during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s: period of multiplication of the methodologies, products, clients, companies and professionals;
TTransition: changing of paradigms and of leadership during the 90’s made room for companies that transformed themselves, from the late 90’s into operations of large multinational research companies in Brazil.
• Globalization stage: entry into Brazil by the large multinational research corporations and market consolidation around these large groups;
It’s clear that any classification is always an incomplete framework of historical reality. After all, Nielsen has operated in Brazil since the beginning of the 70’s and in 1986, Research International (RI) was already a major global research group. How then, can we talk about a domestic stage until the end of the 80’s and the global stage only starting at the beginning of the 21st century?
However, this works aims to understand the major movements of the research market and not the particular histories of companies. In this sense, despite the presence of these and some other international market research companies in Brazil, the main characteristic of the market was not this, and in fact, it gained a global dynamic only with the arrival of large number of global players and during the first decade of the 21st century.
