Mobile Research in Emerging Markets Over Two Million Interviews in Just Twelve Months – A New Era of Research in Africa Shirley Wakefield
Africa: the fastest growing mobile market on earth and the second biggest mobile market after Asia Pacific, according to GSMA, an association of mobile operators and support companies. There are over one billion people on the continent, around 65 per cent of whom had access to a mobile phone by the end of 2012. Pretty incredible, considering that just over a decade ago, in 2000, mobile penetration on the continent was at only 2 per cent. Mobile in emerging markets is going places, and not slowly. The mobile phone has long since leapfrogged the number of fixed-line phones, with nearly 90 per cent of all phones in Africa being mobile. It overtook the PC a good while back, and it’s forecast that by 2015 there will be more people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to mobile phones than with access to electricity in their homes. Quite a thought. So why is it that, with this explosive progress in the mobile space, marketing researchers in emerging markets insist on sticking to pen and paper, cold calling, and face-toface interviews, two-way mirrors and hour-long interviews? Why, when there is a plethora of vibrant, engaged mobile communities whose members are eager to share their opinions, do researchers stick to an approach that can only be described as the (very) old school? Well, the reason is quite simply a combination of industry inertia and lack of innovation. Okay, maybe there’s also a dose of very real challenge, specifically in Africa, where
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only 4 per cent of mobiles are smartphones, making mobile research particularly tricky … unless you’ve specifically built technology that’s designed to cater to non-smartphones. Which is precisely what the South African marketing research firm Pondering Panda has done. Tapping into Mxit, Africa’s biggest social network, we at Pondering Panda set out to develop a research technology designed to work across mobile devices of all kinds, to engage with users across the demographic spectrum. Why Mxit has been such a powerhouse in Africa is the simple, yet effective, technology used to optimize content for lowend handsets. This technology makes it easier and far more affordable for users to make use of services and content otherwise accessible only online – which of course, in most parts of Africa, they don’t have the luxury of accessing. The social network has over 6.5 million highly active users over any given thirty-day period. What this means for researchers is an incredible platform for consumer insights. A place of streamlined data collection, with unmatched sample sizes and lightning speed response rates. With an entirely opt-in respondent recruitment strategy, even we were blown away to realize response rates averaging at over 100 per hour and 1,500 to 3,000 completed interviews in just 24 hours. Why, you might ask, do respondents keep returning if they aren’t being alerted to recent surveys? Well, here’s
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where the real beauty lies. Because users are in a mindset of chatting, gaming, catching up with friends, taking quizzes, and engaging with their favourite brands (to name but a few activities available to them) within Mxit, users are very much in a relaxed mindset and see the micro-surveys that are made available to them as entertainment. Similarly, we’ve found that the simple act of sharing one’s opinion is one of the key reasons for respondent participation. The surveys reside in an app called Your Opinion Counts, where respondents can choose from a list of topics and answer a quick survey on a topic that might appeal to them. The average survey duration ranges between twenty seconds and two minutes, at most. Data quality comes out tops as we engage with respondents outside of a “research” environment and make use of subtle gamification cues to enhance their experience. To add to this, the honesty with which users choose to share their thoughts and opinions is unparalleled. Answering questions anonymously, in the privacy afforded by their own mobile phones, fosters an open and candid environment. The importance of anonymity becomes particularly evident when engaging with respondents on personal or controversial topics, like drinking habits, drug use, health care, and political views. In a recent study conducted for International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) across four Sub-Saharan countries, we saw the true value of this anonymity. The topic for discussion was sex, and the results were to be used to guide local strategies for IPPF, as well as educate the public and key stakeholders on the dire circumstances relating to sexual health in Africa. IPPF was interested in when young Africans were becoming sexually active, how they were learning about sex, and what impact, if any, formal sex education was having on them. As expected, response rates were excellent, and the honesty shown by respondents on a topic of such a personal nature was gratifying. As it turns out, of the four countries, it was South Africa whose youths were most likely to have sex in their early teens. In contrast, they were least likely to receive formal sex education in their teen years, and relied heavily on TV and friends for information on the subject. IPPF received widespread media acknowledgement for its work on the topic, and the resultant strategies that were put in place to remedy the key challenges facing Africa on the topic of sexual health relied heavily on the study’s findings. This particular study took two weeks, from start to finish. There are many challenges to face whilst in one’s infancy as a quantitative research company in an emerging market, including being asked all the tough questions. You’re asked
to prove, unequivocally, that results of research conducted on mobile phones are comparable to traditional techniques, that the data is stable and reliable, and that samples are truly representative of the population. Extra-large sample sizes and super-fast turnaround times mean that experimentation is at the very heart of the work that we do. No stone is left unturned when it comes to research into research. Butch Rice, head of Pondering Panda, encourages the experimentation capabilities of mobile research. He observes that, for the first time in decades, “I would have the ability to test concepts and ideas with lightning speed, using large samples. The ability to experiment, splitting the sample into different cells, is just not available to the traditional research houses, because they seldom can afford to interview samples of respondents running into the thousands. Even better, you can see your results unfold in real time. No waiting for weeks to see what outcome your study has produced.” Butch goes on to say, “As an avid student of human behaviour and motivation, this is literally a dream come true. For many years, I have advocated that the research industry move from asking many questions of few people to asking few questions of many people. Up to now, this has not been possible. But the world of digital research using mobile phones allows you to have ongoing conversations with consumers in real time, in an interactive way – a real breakthrough in an emerging market context, where this has not previously been possible. Any theories or hypotheses are tested in days, not weeks or months. I am delighted to have this environment to test research ideas, and methodologies. The possibilities are endless.” What this means for clients is a dramatic shift in the status quo when it comes to marketing research and consumer insight. Ad testing methodologies are being firmly turned on their heads, whilst customer satisfaction measurement has never been as effective. Category, brand and product tracking, as well as market share measures, are now more nuanced, more textured, and more valid. Having achieved a new record in African research, with the completion of over two million interviews in under twelve months, Pondering Panda is changing the way in which brands, governments, and the social sector are able to interact with everyday citizens in emerging markets. The future of research is bright, as the worlds of technology and research collide. Watch this space for further powerful insight into understanding the developing world. Shirley Wakefield is the Panda Keeper at Pondering Panda, a marketing research firm in South Africa. She can be reached at shirley@ponderingpanda.com vue March 2013
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