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Voice your opinion and become a guru

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Wanna voice your opinion on anything that grabs your attention or interests you? If yes, just sign in and become one of the panelists at opiniongurus.com, which will be launched shortly.

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Markelytics, a leading offshore market research service provider, has gone a step further in developing an online community – opinion gurus.

Here, every panelist will be profiled and he becomes an opinion guru when he gives his opinion on any topic that’s posted on the site. The opinions thus posted on the site will be collated and published in the form of a report, says Jasal Shah, CEO Markelytics.

Markelytics, which offers services in online data collection, data processing, tabulation, analysis and reporting, already has a rich tem of panelists numbering 1,60,000. “We are aiming at taking this number to 5 lakh. Anybody can become a panelist on opiniongurus.com,” says Shah.

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How does this work? While every panelist gets a free response to his opinion, it works on a paid model for the client to seek our report on the opinions given by thousands of panelists. On opiniongurus.com, one can also blog on the subject. For example, says Shah, when a new car is launched, people write their views and opinions and also blog on the same. We collect details from these blogs, do content analysis and give it to the customer. 

Further, Markelytics is today focusing on tapping the Indian market for online market research. So far, the company had been focusing on the US and Europe markets.

“We have been focusing on the Indian market for the last six months. We are planning to take up domestic research aggressively in 2008,” says Shah. Markelytics has been servicing clients in 15 different countries. “We want to offer the expertise we have gained internationally to the Indian clients.  We know India is a big market for us,” he adds.

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When Markelytics entered the market in 2003, online research had already started in the U.S. Now online has covered almost 50 percent of the research space. In our experience, we have observed that the general public is open to accepting online medium faster than our clients, says Shah, adding, “we believe that we get quality responses online.”

“It is the prerogative of any individual to take up the online survey or not. Here, you know the incentive you are going to get before hand when you spend online. However, we are able to cut the flabs when compared to the traditional survey method,” he explains. 

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On the Indian market: Markelytics will initially focus on major cities in urban India. “In the long run, we will enter the rural areas where there is one PC in a small village with a net connection,” says Shah. 

To start with, Markelytics will offer its services to IT, BFSI, media, healthcare and consumer. Markelytics helps create profiles online and take up surveys in the respective local languages.  It has already started work on back-up support by setting up a panel and sending out mailers.

The delivery center at Bangalore will have data programming, a survey team, research and programming team.

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Here lies the catch! Markelytics will be the first mover in the online research space in India. “The way we understand the clients/market, we will be the main beneficiaries to move closer,” says Shah. “No body wants a black box model. Many companies want to work with an independent agency. The demographics have changed now.”

What is the value add Markelytics’ research brings to a client?  Shah explains, “The kind of research/sample we give our clients is meaningful. While some research is continuous some depends on the media campaign the respective companies/organizations have planned and many prefer from one period to another.”

“Our focus is more on trends than on numbers. Our research is more consultative in nature,” he says.

From Bangalore, Markelytics will expand to Delhi and Mumbai by March to service the clients. 

Founded in 2003, Markelytics can manage all aspects related to the marketing research process right from the stage of conception and sampling to the final report delivery and implementation. Markelytics uses the best of technology to manage all its processes and helps client get access some of the most cutting edge research tools used in the industry.