Ipsos India and IMRB: What Each Is, What It Sells, and When a Panel Platform Fits Better

Ipsos was founded in France in 1975. Its about page says it works "across 220 cities and 90 markets" with "20,000 Employees" and "6m+ Authenticated, Proprietary Panelists" (Ipsos India, read 2 November 2026). Group revenue in 2025 was €2,524.7 million, up 3.4% (Ipsos, 24 February 2026). These are the company's own figures; we have not audited them.

In India, Ipsos names research offices in Mumbai, Gurugram and Bengaluru. That was in a 2018 note on taking over four GfK divisions: Customer Experience, Experience Innovation, Health and Public Affairs (Ipsos India, 29 October 2018). In April 2022 it opened an offshore Data Services Centre in Mumbai. The centre handles survey programming, project management and data processing, for North America first (Ipsos India, 21 April 2022).

What Ipsos India sells is custom research: quantitative and qualitative studies, brand and advertising work, customer experience, healthcare and public affairs. Its India site groups the offer as "Where to Play", "How To Win" and "What to Know" (Ipsos India, read 2 November 2026). It also runs an omnibus, IndiaBus, covered below.

Ipsos India does not publish a price list, an Indian headcount or Indian revenue on the pages we read.

IMRB was set up in Mumbai to serve the clients of Hindustan Thompson Associates, the Indian arm of J. Walter Thompson. It was modelled on the British Market Research Bureau. Wikipedia gives an official start date of 15 March 1971 and says the firm was renamed IMRB International in 2002. Through Hindustan Thompson Associates it became part of WPP after WPP bought J. Walter Thompson in 1987 (Wikipedia, read 2 November 2026).

In September 2016 Kantar, WPP's research arm, put its name in front of its 12 operating brands. IMRB became Kantar IMRB (BestMediaInfo, 12 September 2016). On 18 March 2019 Kantar said it would drop all sub-brands, naming Kantar IMRB, Kantar TNS and Kantar Millward Brown among them (Research Live, 18 March 2019). The change took effect on 2 April 2019 (Kantar, 18 March 2019). In December 2019 WPP completed the sale of 60% of Kantar to Bain Capital Private Equity (Research Live, 6 December 2019).

So "IMRB" today means Kantar India. Kantar's India page says it has been in India "for over 50 years" and lists a Mumbai office (Kantar India, read 2 November 2026). An old IMRB report or contact now leads to Kantar. Our Kantar alternative guide covers the group's 2025 and 2026 changes.

Custom studies are the main business of both firms. Each name is also attached to syndicated products that a one-off survey cannot copy. All figures below are the companies' own; we have not audited them.

Ipsos IndiaBus. Ipsos India launched this omnibus in September 2022. Each wave has 1,800 face-to-face and 400 online respondents across 16 cities, covering household types A, B and C (Daily Research News, 9 September 2022). Ipsos' schedule page says it runs twice a month with 2,200 completes a wave (Ipsos India, 29 August 2022). You buy questions on a shared vehicle with fixed fieldwork dates. The per-question price is not on the pages we read.

Ipsos Total Access. Launched in June 2025, this is a data-collection layer across Ipsos India's studies, with five modes: mobile, online, hybrid, multi-mode and offline. Ipsos India's CEO is quoted saying clients get access to "3.5 million panel members (biggest Indian panel base)" (Ipsos India, 6 June 2025). Ipsos also publishes answers to ESOMAR's 37 questions for buyers of online samples (Ipsos, read 2 November 2026).

Kantar India's syndicated studies. Several have IMRB roots. Wikipedia lists I-Cube and ITops among IMRB's own reports (Wikipedia, read 2 November 2026), and Kantar India sells ICUBE and ITOPS today (Kantar India, read 2 November 2026).

If your media or category team plans from TGI or ICUBE, keep that access. A custom survey cannot give you small segments with a base of tens of thousands behind them.

Neither Ipsos nor Kantar publishes custom-research prices on the pages we read. Large agencies quote per project. The quote covers design, fieldwork, data processing, analysis and a report. Sample size, method, cities and languages drive most of the cost.

Products are priced differently. An omnibus such as IndiaBus is a "shared-cost survey vehicle": you pay per question and share the sample with other clients (Ipsos India, 22 August 2022). Trackers are contracted per wave, usually a year at a time. Syndicated studies are sold as subscriptions or single reports.

Ask for the quote itemised by stage, with translation, incentives, moderation and travel as separate lines. Then find out what changes the price: a missed quota, an extra city, a second language. Payment milestones belong at commissioning, end of fieldwork and the report, not in a single advance.

Ask about standards too. Kantar's Profiles division lists Market Research Society of India membership in its ESOMAR 37 answers (Kantar Profiles, read 2 November 2026). ESOMAR's 37 questions are a free document you can send to any sample supplier (ESOMAR, read 2 November 2026). Our market research cost guide shows how to compare an agency quote with per-response pricing.

A full-service agency gives you a team: researchers who design, field, analyse and present. A self-serve panel platform gives you tools and respondents, and your team does the thinking. Pick by job, not by brand.

A simple rule: if the hard part is reaching the people, choose by sample. If the hard part is deciding what to ask, choose by team. For a ranked list of agencies, see our top market research companies in India.

Send these before the kick-off meeting and ask for written answers.

1. Who will work on my study day to day, and how many other projects do they run at the same time?
2. Which parts are subcontracted, including fieldwork, coding and translation?
3. How is the sample recruited and verified in each mode, and can I see your ESOMAR 37 answers?
4. Which cities, town classes and languages are included, and what does adding one cost?
5. How are quotas set, and what happens if a quota cannot be filled?
6. Which quality checks remove interviews, and will I see how many were removed?
7. What is inside the fixed price, and what is billed as an extra?
8. What are the payment milestones?
9. Who owns the questionnaire, the raw data and any norms? Can I take the questionnaire to another supplier later?
10. Will I receive respondent-level data, and in which format?
11. If this is a tracker, what is the notice period, and what happens to the back data if I leave?
12. Can you rerun one past study whose result I already know, so I can compare?

Question 12 matters most. A rerun of a study you understand tells you more than any credentials deck.

What we would do. We would send the same list to every agency on the shortlist, and to our own team, and lay the written answers side by side. Then we would pick one past study whose result we already know and ask for the rerun before signing anything for a year. An agency that will not rerun a study you understand has told you how it will treat your doubts later.

Your buyers are offline or rural. Our panel is app-based, so it reaches smartphone users only. Ipsos Total Access includes an offline mode, and Kantar runs face-to-face fieldwork (panel methodology).

You need norms. Our results rank concepts or ads within your test, not against a database of past studies.

You buy a syndicated base. TGI, ICUBE and TV ratings come from their owners. We sell no syndicated data.

You need qualitative research. Groups, depth interviews and ethnography need moderators and recruitment. Ask an agency with a senior qualitative team.

Your study covers several countries. We recruit in Indian cities and nowhere else. Ipsos describes a presence in 90 markets.

If your job is a quantitative consumer survey among smartphone users in Indian cities, such as a concept screen or a tracker wave, this is the pilot and main study at list price, with respondents included.

Pro is sold in bundles of 400 to 1,000 responses and costs 20% less per response than Plus. Enterprise plans come with a dedicated research team and are priced on request.

The SuperJ network has 2 crore Indian respondents. The survey-eligible panel is a subset, and availability depends on your targeting. Members complete Aadhaar-based KYC once, and each study receives a zero-knowledge proof of verification. Surveys run in as many Indian languages as the study needs. Quality checks flag speeders, straight-lining and inconsistent answers. Read /panel-methodology and pricing.

The limit: the app reaches smartphone users only, so offline households need face-to-face fieldwork.