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Opinion: How Mobile Is Revolutionizing Market Research In Africa

Opinion: How Mobile Is Revolutionizing Market Research In Africa

From Bizcommunity. Editorial by Editorial by Millward Brown/John-William Awbrey

As the growth in mobile communications brings about a revolution in market research, it is the vast continent of Africa that is leading the way.

Though some may be reticent to adopt mobile solutions, the advantages are too big for African researchers to ignore.

Market research in Africa has traditionally been expensive and time-consuming. The continent is vast with significant differences within each country that have been difficult to capture using traditional market research techniques.

Moving to mobile research requires a significant change of mindset. Market researchers in Africa are faced with two options: remain the same and lose relevance or embrace change and benefit from the new world order.

The rapid growth in mobile penetration means that (text/SMS survey) respondents are always available. It’s not necessary to travel long distances, and it’s easy to re-contact. Research can now get
everywhere brands are. Distance is no longer a barrier – even on this massive continent.

Because respondents are widely dispersed and not easily accessible, when they have been reached, researchers have tended to bombard them with questions. Mobile users won’t stand for this, as their interest wanes quickly. It is now, more than ever, essential to focus on the business issue and identify only the key information needed to make a strategic
decision.

Conducting (surveys) via the mobile platform is significantly decreasing time barriers and delivering critical information about the African consumer.

Getting detailed demographic information to ensure the appropriate demographic splits in Africa is incredibly difficult and quickly outdated. The randomness of mobile, however, means that you are always getting a representative split. We see responses to our surveys matching population density data very closely across a wide spread of countries. Geo-coding responses eliminate questions about the respondents’ locations, since our responses come from where the people are. This change in thinking means that we can go back to what the survey is all about – providing strategic business information that will answer our
central questions.

The numerous processes that go into creating, printing, transporting, capturing, and coding paper-based questionnaires means that the majority of time is spent on the operational elements of research. Mobile bypasses this. Clients can now get a real-time glimpse into Africa, further helping to illuminate the views of its people.

Many worry mobile data is unreliable, but the truth is the complete opposite. Self-reported data has more variability in the responses, and the data is very descriptive, which makes modelling and running descriptive statistics far more informative.

For emerging, less research-savvy markets, mobile is providing data that better reflects the market reality. This has already been seen in markets like India, Saudi Arabia, and Malaysia where mobile data has proven more accurate than door-to-door. This has huge implications for Africa and other developing markets. Mobile will allow us to skip a step and move straight to a self-reported mobile platform.

We need to embrace the new way of working. Budgets will continue to be put under pressure
and insights teams will need to continually justify their spend. Changing mindsets may be
a lot harder than changing handsets, yet the future is clear. Mobile is here, and it is
not going anywhere any time soon.

Just because we are comfortable with the trade-offs of the current way of working doesn’t mean we should miss this opportunity. Embracing the
nuances of this new technology will allow us to get more from research budgets and get closer to consumers. Mobile is bringing quality, speed, and cost efficiency closer, so that there is less to trade off and more value to be found.

When it comes to mobile, Africa may change from being one of the last frontiers to leading from the front.

New York-based Millward Brown claims to be the world’s second largest market research organization after Nielsen Company. Read more at Bizcommunity.