A land of promise

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The African continent – home to 1.1 billion people – holds great promise for brands and businesses, but the diversity across its consumers and markets is staggering, making a pan-African marketing strategy a complex affair. 

Half of all household spending in Sub-Saharan Africa goes to consumer-packaged goods, according to figures from Nielsen, so there are clear opportunities for those that can understand and navigate the marketplace. But gaining that understanding can represent a challenge in itself. Qualitative and quantitative market research are both carried out regularly across the continent but, as Louisa Kiwana, founder of specialist African marketing and research agency MRX Africa, explains, there are a number of important things to bear in mind.

“Africa’s consumer-facing industries represent the continent’s largest business opportunity,” says Kiwana, “but many companies don’t know how to translate this opportunity into action, and the lack of market research done and shared across the continent doesn’t help.”

Kiwana stresses the importance of not treating Africa as an homogeneous group of markets and consumers – a stumbling block for many marketers in the past. But while cultural considerations such as this are of clear importance, there are also a number of practical aspects to carrying out market research in Africa that must be taken into account. 

Infrastructure 

Expect problems when travelling to and around the region: plane delays; road disruptions; bad roads; traffic congestion; fuel scarcity; and so on.

Internet 

Don’t expect good internet access outside of key cities and, even then, don’t rely on it. Limit your dependence on emails and chat applications that require data. Stick to calls and text messages with fieldwork teams.

Power supply 

Plan around inconsistent power supply and blackouts, and ask/check for back-up power supply when conducting focus groups and in-depth interviews – or arrange to have your own.

Security 

Make sure you get as many second, third and fourth opinions as possible about any new region you are working in; have someone on the ground who can assure you that the site you’re working on is safe, particularly around political/election periods.

Skilled agents 

The majority of researchers are client-side, so it can be difficult to find a long-serving agency-side researcher, purely as agency-side is less of a secure occupation. Go by recommendations and source your experts carefully.

Ethics 

Don’t assume field agents think about best practice the way you do – be clear about your expectations on both ethics and compliance. Go over the MRS Code of Conduct as often as you need, to avoid jeopardising the integrity of your project/client research.  

“As this untapped market captures global attention, it also offers marketers a chance to leapfrog the legacy of mass marketing that we’ve all been a part of, and reinvent our practices in developing markets from the ground up,” says Kiwana. “We believe that the first steps to market research don’t have to
be expensive and time-consuming – just well thought out, appropriate and approached with a fresh perspective.”

As long as it is carried out with this in mind, Kiwana believes that the African market and its consumers can provide “the perfect laboratory for innovation in market research”.