Market research in Africa is the second most populous continent in the world with a growing diverse market structure, abundant natural and human resources. However, Africa still battles with uniform economic growth and development in terms of its market structure. While some countries in Africa have impressive GDP, others are way below par when compared to the developed countries in other continents. Thus, to carry out a business plan in Africa, there is a need for thorough market research to determine the appropriate model to adopt.
Before delving into the major ways to embark on market research in Africa, there is a need to succinctly explain what Market Research encompasses and its importance in coming up with a Business plan in Africa.
Market research is an act of gathering and analyzing information about consumers’ needs and wants. It is the efforts put in place to know or determine what the consumers desire to have in the market.
Market research can be quantitative and/or qualitative; it is quantitative when the targeted audience is asked questions in an organized way, like polls, questionnaires, one-on-one etc. It becomes Qualitative when research is conducted by way of observation or unorganized questioning. While quantitative gives the ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘who’ to a research, a qualitative gives the ‘how’ and ‘why’.
A business plan can be likened to an outcome of a Market research; a business plan comes after successful market research. An investor who wishes to invest in Africa, after successful market research will go back to the drawing board armed with information gathered from the market research, it is at this juncture that he analyzes and evaluate information in order to come up with a Business plan. Thus, market research in Africa assists investors in understanding consumers’ behaviour, expectations and opportunities needed to come up with a business plan.
Having established the concept of market research and business plan in Africa, focus shall be shifted to the different ways of making market research in Africa. For ease of understanding, it will be classified into two; Primary and Secondary Research.
Primary Research is the manner of conducting direct or personal market research in Africa through an organized and well-established manner to enable an accurate result. This usually involves;
- Going into the market to sample the opinion or view of the consumers on the existing product in the market. The targeted audience is the current, past and prospective customers. This mode, though old, time-consuming, energy-draining and cost gulping is one of the most effective ways of doing market research in Africa. It allows the investor/ researcher to gather firsthand data. It can be regarded as the most trusted mode of market research.
- Surveys through social media: This is another primary way of doing market research in Africa. It is easy to execute, cost-effective and time-effective. This can easily be done in the corner of one’s room. The major requirements for this method are a smart device, good internet connection and a social media handle. However, as easy as this appears, it will become a nullity where the targeted audience is not IT literate, that is, the targeted audience must be active on various social media platforms. From experience, Facebook and Instagram are the most widely used social media in Africa, thus, it will be a good means should a researcher wishes to adopt this model.
- Questionnaires (online poll): This is executed by creating a Google form or something similar and making it available to the targeted audience to fill. It can be made available online or sent via email; the latter is only possible where the researcher has the email address of the audience. This also requires an IT literate audience.
- Focus Group: This is one of the oldest ways of making market research in Africa and it is qualitative market research. Here, a group of people with diverse demographic variables are made to give their opinions on the existing market and what needs to be infused into the market to satisfy the need and want of the consumers.
Secondary Research: Secondary Research, on the other hand, deals with indirect research, that is, dealing with the reports or information written by others about the market. It may be obtained on the websites, blogs or social media handles of some existing organization in the market.
From the above, we can deduce that the role of market research in aiding the successful penetration of a business into a new market cannot be overemphasized. Market research can be easily called the foundation of businesses. More importantly, there is no single best way to execute market research. To make the most from market research, market researchers have been required to combine methodologies.
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