White Plains has gone international with the addition of England-based B2B International, a business-to-business market research agency with a global presence.
B2B International USA Inc. was officially launched a few months ago, following the opening of a China office in Beijing last year.
“A large part of what we do is international, so it helps us greatly if we have presence in more than just our home country,” said Matthew Harrison, who heads up the New York office as director of international operations. “The U.S. is very important in terms of our target audience and potential customers, but also in terms of the people we interview in order to carry out our market research.”
The company offers market research and consultancy to businesses with diverse needs, whether it”™s measuring customer satisfaction, entering a new market, introducing a new product or diversifying in some way.
Most of B2B”™s clients are North American or European, with research evenly split between those regions and Asia.
Many clients are interested in geographical expansion, particularly in developing countries such as China and Russia, where B2B has an affiliate in Moscow.
With 65 employees around the world, B2B is able to gather and analyze information in difficult geographies such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the former Soviet Union.
A multilingual field force makes it possible for B2B to interview people in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Mozambique.
“There are very few agencies that can research countries like that,” said Julia Cupman, business development manager. “Very few agencies can research such complex markets.”
Cupman said B2B also differentiates itself by offering the consultancy element, which many market research companies don”™t provide.
“They just do the research and in a way just regurgitate the data,” Cupman said. “We take it a step further and help clients take actions following the findings.”
Harrison said B2B”™s competition is more with consultancies than with market research companies.
“What we do is we actually speak to people in that market,” Harrison said. “We combine that with secondary research, then make recommendations, or maybe we advise them on how to build their brand and make sure their reputation carries on being strong in the market. I suppose we”™re basically gathering evidence, and on the basis of that evidence giving our clients advice.”
In the New York office, there are 5 employees who speak French, German, Spanish and English.
Cupman said B2B has clients in a broad range of industries including chemical, financial, media, education, engineering and construction, automotive and petrochemical.
Some of its clients include International Paper, ITT and Shell Oil.
Harrison said American clients seem to be more interested in international research than European clients.
“The European clients often seem to be more interested in their own territory and tend to do single-country studies whereas the American clients seem very interested in geographical expansion, particularly in Asia and in Eastern Europe,” Harrison said.
The parent company was founded 12 years ago by Paul Hague, a market researcher and consultant who previously set up a company that is now part of Harris Interactive, one of the biggest market research companies in the world, and went out on his own.
“I don”™t know that any industry is recession-proof, but I think market research is something people buy in the bad times as well as the good times,” Harrison said.
Harrison said clients are asking for different types of research and consultancy ”“ such as looking at foreign markets ”“ rather than cutting them from their budgets.
And, he pointed out, market research is “a lot cheaper than advertising, which often does get cut” from a company”™s budget in tough economic times.
Cupman said the company gathers information from phone and face-to-face interviews, e-mails, Internet research and focus groups, including online focus groups.
“It”™s a way of gathering a community online and letting people participate in a discussion from various locations,” Cupman said.
That has helped the company conduct research more than 100 countries.
“It”™s given us an international understanding, as we”™ve researched so many geographies: Asia, India, China, Japan, you name it, we”™ve researched it,” Cupman said.
Harrison said B2B offers a “gift” to participants in online focus groups, such as money in the U.S. and Europe and alcohol or cigarettes in Asia.
In terms of being in White Plains, it”™s the perfect location.
“Wherever we are in the world, being in the middle of a city isn”™t really that important,” Harrison said. “It”™s more important to be near the highways and accessible to an airport.”
The Web site is www.b2binternational.com.
