Research International was a British-based international
marketing research company, created in 1962 as a daughter company of
Unilever and originally known as Research Bureau Limited, RBL. The company was the result of a merger of the central Unilever Market Research Department and the research unit of Unilever's in-house advertising agency, Lintas. The purpose was to offer Unilever's long-standing market research knowhow as a service to other companies, thus converting two internal cost centres to a profitable daughter company.