Gathering robust, near-real-time data from Africa has been slow and expensive in a continent notoriously lacking access to quality data.
U.S.-based GeoPoll, a market researcher that gathers data via mobile text messages in emerging markets, has a new product that it says will make it easier and cheaper for anyone to create and send mobile surveys in Africa.
The company says its new self-service product, called GeoPoll On Demand, delivers data in a day with surveys starting at $3 US per respondent. Anyone can use it to conduct their own text message surveys in Africa — from commercial brands to universities to NGOs, the company said.
GeoPoll has a database of over 200 million users in Africa and Asia, but not everyone wants to reach that many people. No problem, said Steve Gutterman, president of GeoPoll and its parent, Mobile Accord, in an AFKInsider interview.
GeoPoll On Demand has no sample minimum, Gutterman said.
GeoPoll counts among its customers some very large, deep-pocketed Fortune 500 companies, nonprofits, and governments. Its data gathering has provided insight on everything from food security to brand preferences, according to an earlier AFKInsider report.
Customers have included the U.N. World Food Program, USAID, World Bank, African Development Bank, soft drink and consumer electronics firms, and other market research firms. For example GeoPoll lists among its clients and partners Coca-Cola, SAB, Facebook, Unilever, Google and Johns Hopkins University, among others, according to the GeoPoll website.
How can a U.S. company that’s thinking of making and selling bicycles in Ghana use this service to help them make their decision?
GeoPoll On Demand is designed with smaller companies and individual researchers in mind, Gutterman told AFKInsider. For example, a 400-person survey, which gives customers a margin of error of around 5 percent, costs around $1,200.
For $1,200, a customer gets data that can be filtered by gender, age, and location, Gutterman said.
“For a company looking to sell bicycles in Ghana, GeoPoll data could provide them valuable information on who their target audience is, how many potential customers they have in each region of the country, and what cost people would be willing to pay for a new bicycle,” Gutterman said. “With GeoPoll On Demand, anyone can gather data that is nationally representative at an extremely low cost compared to face-to-face research.”
Face-to-face research is still used often in Africa due to the lack of Internet and landline connections, and can cost up to $20 per respondent, Gutterman said. “Even if a company sent one researcher to Kenya to conduct surveys, the travel expenses alone would exceed the costs of conducting a 10-question survey through GeoPoll On Demand.”
GeoPoll has competition. There are services that conduct web-based surveys at a comparable or lower cost to GeoPoll in some urban areas in countries such as South Africa and Nigeria, he said, “but no other solution provides the comprehensive, nationally representative surveys that we do across the continent.”
The platform is live in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, and will be launching in other countries later in 2016 including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
GeoPoll On Demand can be used for a variety of surveying projects in Africa including brand perception surveys, needs assessments, public opinion research, and monitoring and evaluation, the company said.
Features include sample targeting by age, gender, and location. Question types include multiple choice, select-all-that-apply, and open ended. The system supports complex survey designs including survey routing/skip logic.
Survey respondents are incentivized to complete the survey, actually getting paid about $0.50 US per survey they complete, according to Gutterman.
“GeoPoll’s connectivity to mobile network operators allows us to immediately deposit this incentive via airtime credit once respondents complete a survey,” Gutterman told AFKInsider.
Since 2011 GeoPoll has been conducting mobile surveys in emerging markets. In 2015 it sent over 90 million surveys in Africa and Asia.
Gutterman spoke to AFKInsider via email about GeoPoll on Demand, and what the new product can do for companies that need data from Africa.
AFKInsider: Data is notoriously lacking in Africa. How disruptive is this new service?
Steve Gutterman: The growth of mobile phone penetration throughout Africa has paved the way for new market research solutions to thrive. GeoPoll On Demand is a self-service portal which allows anyone to select a sample from GeoPoll’s large database of respondents, design their survey, and get data back in just one-to-two days. This automated process opens up GeoPoll’s mobile survey platform and respondent database to anyone, from university students and NGOs to small businesses operating in Africa. In the past, gathering this type of robust, near real-time data from Africa has been slow and prohibitively expensive for these types of researchers, and we are excited to see how they utilize our platform.
AFKInsider: Will GeoPoll have the rights to use its On Demand customers’ survey result information?
Steve Gutterman: No. GeoPoll reviews survey questions before they are sent to ensure they meet our guidelines, but we don’t share customer survey results.
AFKInsider: What’s the typical response rate on GeoPoll surveys?
Steve Gutterman: We see response rates of 20 percent or higher for regular GeoPoll respondents. Customers are only charged on the number of completed surveys they want, and are not charged for those who do not opt-in to a survey or answer all questions.
AFKInsider: Is GeoPoll On Demand available in the U.S.? What other countries outside Africa?
Steve Gutterman: At the moment GeoPoll On Demand is available in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. We plan to expand to additional countries in Africa and some in Asia within the next year. GeoPoll Enterprise, which gives customers a dedicated GeoPoll representative to help them design their survey, is already available in 20-plus countries in Africa and Asia. Our focus remains on emerging markets because that’s where there is the most demand for fast, reliable data collected through the mobile phone.
AFKInsider: Do you have an example of someone who’s used your On Demand service?
Steve Gutterman: The Technology Partnership is an organization that helps students gain digital literacy by installing computers in schools in Meru County, Kenya. Until now, they have had very little feedback on what impact their program was having, but with GeoPoll On Demand they were able to reach students in Meru to ask questions about computer and Internet usage and assess their overall digital literacy, providing them valuable information on the success of their program.
