It is no accident that every strategic marketing plan ends with an “evaluation” section. We know that it is crucial to look-back at the effectiveness of a campaign to evaluate if the strategic choices that were made truly accomplished the plan’s goals.

Throughout the lifespan of marketing there have been various ways to gather information on the effectiveness of a campaign, but with the advent of the Internet and other technologies everything has changed. Today, businesses have the ability to gather overwhelming volumes of information on their consumers and their behavior. This increase in available information has been revolutionary, yet it has come with challenges. It is increasingly important for marketers to be aware of the opportunities and challenges associated with data in order to thoughtfully navigate decision making, and to understand when more specific market research data is needed.

The importance of data and analytics

Data collection and analysis is essential for avoiding future business development mistakes. Comprehensive market research allows businesses to have information on consumer perception year-over-year, month-over-month, or even week-over-week—which provides valuable insight into a company’s consumer base. This helps to guide effective strategic marketing choices because patterns can help predict future consumer behavior.

Tracking brand health with data and analytics

Brand health is a term used to describe the overall perception and stability of a brand as it lives in the mind of consumers. One way to better understand the importance of brand health and brand health tracking is to look at its parallels with medical health.

A typical rule of thumb is to go to a physician when you are sick or at least once a year for a check-up. At a doctor’s appointment, physicians use their base of knowledge to look for what signs may indicate an unhealthy body, however, when a stethoscope is simply not enough to diagnose a problem, more tests need to be run. The same is true for brands. It is typical for brand health to be evaluated once a year at the end of a marketing plan, but when a dip in revenue or brand perception arrives it is important for brands to look deeper into data in order to attack the problem.

Essentially, if a brand is like a body, then marketers are like physicians—and data collection is like blood tests. Physicians use blood panels to gain insight into which portions of the body are functioning well and which portions are not functioning well. Marketers use data in the same way. After data is analyzed by professionals, various metrics come together to determine overall brand health. Marketers, like physicians, dive deep into numbers to gain insight. Physicians look at nutrients and hormone levels, while marketers look into revenue and customer loyalty. Just like low levels of iron in a blood screen can indicate problems in a body, low levels of brand awareness can indicate problems for a brand. In medicine, this is called diagnosis; in marketing, it is called analytics.

Brands that do not regularly collect data are like people without access to healthcare. Without ongoing data collection, if a crisis arrives there will be limited access to information that can help fix the problem. For this reason, it is imperative that businesses conduct brand health tracking research on a regular basis so they can act immediately when a problem arises—or before a problem arises.

One of the keys to maintaining a profitable and well received brand is to actively combat a dip in metrics before that dip becomes a significant issue in overall performance. It is a best practice to intermittently analyze brand health data to watch out for potential problems. As soon as there is a concern regarding the perception of a brand, action should be taken. Brands may run surveys, conduct focus groups, or sift through large quantities of past data to understand why their performance is lagging. However, if too much time passes by without action it is typically difficult for brands to accurately assess what went wrong.

GeoPoll works with leading brands to provide them with fast, high-quality brand health data at regular intervals. Using our unique mobile survey methodology, GeoPoll can reach extremely targeted audiences and survey them weekly, monthly, or quarterly to demonstrate the health of your brand over time. Don’t wait to track brand health until it’s too late; contact GeoPoll to set up regular, custom brand tracking metrics today.

The post The Value of Data for Brand Health Tracking appeared first on GeoPoll.

According to our survey in February on mobile usage and media consumption, there is an increasing dependency on technology and a mobile first approach by youth consumers in Africa. This trend is being driven by African millennials with Africa having the highest youth population in the world. African millennials are increasingly using social media sites as tools for communication and as their first source for news and information.

Although extensive research on media and consumer trends in Africa shows a growing transition of consumers and audiences away from traditional media towards online media, television remains a highly significant contributor to consumer spending.

In a white paper presented at last year’s PAMRO conference for Media & Media Researchers in Africa, Waithera Kabiru the Digital Marketing Manager, Coca Cola Southern and East Africa posed the following questions to marketers; why is media investment not in line with the activity that is going on online? If African consumers are spending much more time online versus print or even TV, why is there still an under-investment in online channels?

In June 2017, GeoPoll sought to better understand how youth consumers are interacting with the advertising they encounter from the multiple sources of media consumed daily. We interviewed 3,710 youth aged between 15-35 years old in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa with the aim of determining the specific media platforms they consumed the ads from and how online advertising is fairing against above the line advertising media namely TV, radio and print,  in terms of reach and effectiveness.The insights from this survey, though not representative of the total population in these countries, provides valuable insight into the consumption of advertising by youth and the rise of digital advertising’s reach.

Media Consumption and Frequency
According to the survey, the top three most consumed forms of media on a daily basis are the internet (46%), TV (25%) and radio (24%) with the internet having the highest daily usage rating of 7.09 points.  

Today’s youth has become more outspoken about their buying experiences and interactions with brands before, during and after purchasing goods and services. The age of the second screen phenomenon in which these young consumers are more likely to be on their smartphone as they watch TV, encounter outdoor media or even as they listen to the radio. This is due to the increased growth in smartphone in usage as compared to other media forms. Digital ads are the most encountered advertising media consumed mostly through smartphones.

According to the poll, those who encountered advertisements reacted by either buying the product, going online to seek more information or going on social media to share their thoughts and opinion on the ads.

Unlike the pre-internet era, youth no longer have to wait until the next time they are out shopping to get more information about a new product or service. The information seeking phase of the consumer buying process is shorter thanks to the internet. This new channel has enabled consumers to easily search for, inquire about or discuss the product or service from whichever device is closest to them when encountering an advertisement.

Information search is crucial to consumers who encounter ads from various sources. 22% of respondents indicated that they went online to read up on the product/service they saw in an ad. Social media is increasingly becoming a popular platform for consumers to discuss and engage with brands.  In fact, 8% of respondents also indicated that they had used their social channels to speak about an ad with 15% reaching out and engaging the brands in the ads directly on their online channels.

Youth, Brands and Digital Advertising

As the internet continues to enjoy increased usage among the surveyed age group, there is a need for businesses to seek deeper insights on their marketing strategy around this demographic. Actions such as online information gathering on brands and social media interactions about and to brands continue to see a surge in growth as consumers who encounter brand advertisements seek to be better informed.

Stay up to date with the last from GeoPoll to our newsletter today.

*This GeoPoll rapid survey was conducted in June among 3,710 youth in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Tanzania using the GeoPoll Mobile application. 

The post The Rise of Digital Advertisement Consumption Among Youth in Sub-Saharan Africa appeared first on GeoPoll.

Highlights – Most Admired Brands in Africa:

• Samsung rises to #1 Most Admired Brand in Africa.
• MTN drops from top spot to #9 overall, but retains top rank as Most Admired African Brand.
• Non-African brands are the Top 3 brands in all markets, except in Nigeria (with Glo at #3), Kenya (with Safaricom/Mpesa #2 and Tusker #3) and Tanzania (with Azam #2).
• African brands’ share among most admired brands drops from 23% to 16%.
• Europe leads the table with 42 of the Top 100 most admired brands. USA leads all countries with 25/100.  South Africa leads Africa with 6/100.
• Lacoste (+52) made the most gains. Levi’s (-68) lost the most ground.

Highlights – Most Valuable brands in Africa:

• Google valued at $109bn, is #1 Most Valuable Brand in Africa 100.
• MTN valued at $2,975m is the Most Valuable African brand.
• African brands represent 0.75% share of the value of the Top 100.

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – 3 March 2017:  Brand Africa today released the annual Brand Africa 100:  Africa’s Best Brands – an annual survey and valuation of the Top 100 brands in Africa. In a representative survey across 19 countries covering every political and economic region, overall, it doesn’t bode well for African brands which have lost ground to their non-African rivals.

Despite its recent crisis with its Galaxy Note 7 model, which notably was never launched in Africa, Samsung takes the #1 spot as the Most Admired Brand in Africa, displacing perennial leader MTN.However, MTN has retained its ranking as the Most Admired African Brand despite challenges particularly in Nigeria, which have knocked some shine off Africa’s leading brand.

As recently reported in the annual Brand Finance 500, Google, which is valued at $109bn globally, has displaced Apple as the Most Valuable Brand in Africa.  MTN, valued at $2,975m, retains its position as the Most Valuable African Brand, with a 13% rise y/y following a 36% decline in the 2014/5 rankings.

Non-African brands have entrenched their positions in Africa, growing their share of the Top 100 Admired brands from 77% in 2014/5 to 84% in 2016/7.  In a country by country review, non-African brands rank the Top 3 brands in every market, except for Nigeria (with Glo at #3), Kenya (with Safaricom/Mpesa #2 and Tusker #3) and Tanzania (with Azam #2).  Samsung is the #1 brand in 8 countries, Nike in 4 countries, Coke in 3 countries, Adidas in 3 countries and Airtel in one country.  Non-African brands represent 99.25% share of the value of the Top 100 Valuable brands in Africa.

Among the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa, Europe leads all regions with 42/100, followed by North America (25/100), Asia (17/100) and Africa (16/100).  The United States leads the top countries of origin with 25/100, followed by the UK (8/100), Japan (6/100), Germany (6/100), South Africa (6/100), France (5/100) and China (5/100), Italy (4/100), Nigeria (3/100), Ireland (3/100), Netherlands (3/100) and Spain (3/100).

The Top 100 Admired brands are distributed among 11 categories across apparel (19%), consumers (13%), electronics (13%), telecommunications (12%), auto manufacturers (11%), alcoholic beverages (10%), food (6%), non-alcoholic beverages (5%), media (4%), sports & fitness (4&),retail (2%) and cosmetics (1%).

Between the 2014/5 and 2016/7 survey periods, a majority of the leading brands have retained their presence in the Top 100, with 31 new brands, notably South Africa’s Shoprite and Pick n Pay, Moroccos’s Marwa, Ethiopia’s Anbessa Shoes and Nigeria’s Lady Care, entering the Top 100 in 2016/7 compared to 34 between 2014/5.  A resurgent Lacoste (+52) made the most gains on the table and Levi’s (-68) lost the most ground.

Because of the categories, transformational impact in Africa, Brand Africa also conducted a separate parallel survey to determine the Most Admired Brands in Media and the Most Admired Brands in Financial Services.  In the financial services category, Nigeria’s GTB Bank leads the overall rankings in Africa and Barclays retains its position as the number 1 non-African financial services brand.  In the media category, BBC and DSTV retain their positions as the top non-African and African media brands respectively.

“These rankings are an important metric of the progress Africa is making in creating competitive world-class brands that respond to African conditions, needs and ambitions,” says Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and Chairman of Brand Africa and Chairman of Brand Finance Africa.  “It is a great concern that the share of African brands is so low and even declining. African entrepreneurs ought to know their consumers better than anyone.  It is a wake- up call for African governments to create enabling environments to support these entrepreneurs to build Made in Africa brands which in turn will enable the governments to fund and drive their own development agenda.”

Brand Africa 100 was developed by pan-African branding and reputation advisory firm, Brand Leadership Group supported by Kantar TNS the globally respected consumer knowledge and information company, GeoPoll, the leading mobile survey platform with a database of over 300m users in emerging markets and Brand Finance, the world’s leading independent valuation consultancy.

Brand Africa 100 is a two-phase process that starts with a comprehensive consumer research across 19 countries in Africa to establish a consumer generated list of admired brands.  These 100 most admired brands are then valued and re-ranked according to value by Brand Finance.

GeoPoll used their sophisticated mobile SMS technology to identify the most admired brands in Africa among a representative sample of African consumers in 19 African countries.  These countries collectively represent an estimated 74% of Africa’s population.

“Because of its high penetration across Africa, the mobile phone is a valuable tool in its ability to collect data from diverse geographical areas. GeoPoll’s method of collecting data through mobile surveys demonstrates the power and reach of mobile technology in its delivery of real-time, actionable data” says Steve Gutterman, CEO – GeoPoll.

Kantar TNS then collated this vast dataset and analysed the data to create a weighted consumer admiration score that reduced over 11,000 brand mentions to the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa.  With such diverse populations between countries and regions, the weighted index ensured the results are representative of the population within each country and Africa overall to reflect a unique ranking of the Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa.

“’Success for brands is about establishing an emotional connection, creating intimacy and being more present in consumers everyday lives.  This survey is a timely assessment of the various brands that play a vital role in Africa,” says Karin Du Chenne Kantar TNS Chief Client Officer Africa Middle East

In conclusion Brand Finance used the royalty relief methodology which is compliant with International Valuation Standards Authority as a basis for determining the fair market value of brands to establish the Top 100 Most Valuable Brands.

“African brands have an important role in helping to build the African continent,” concluded Oliver Schmitz, Managing Director – Brand Finance Africa. “As Africa builds competitive and valuable brands it helps to tell a positive story of the continent.”

The Brand Africa 100 results will be published in African Business on sale globally from 3 March 2017 and online to subscribers on http://www.africanbusinessmagazine.com/ and www.brandafrica.org.

….ENDS….

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BRAND AFRICA

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Brand Africa is a non-profit intergenerational movement to inspire a great Africa through creating a positive image of Africa, celebrating its diversity and driving its competitiveness.

Brand Africa mobilises African and diaspora decision makers, thought leaders, influencers and future leaders to engage with, shape and drive an African agenda catalytic for creating an enabling environment for driving Africa’s growth, reputation, competitiveness and unity.

Brand Africa is an independent Non-Profit Organisation registered in the Republic of South Africa (NPC 2013/146300/08) and a signatory to the Independent Code of Governance for Non-Profit Organisations in Africa (www.governance.org.za).

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BA 100 PARTNERS

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Brand Leadership

Brand Leadership is a pan-African brand development, activation and measurement firm and a strategic partner for global and African decision-makers and brand builders interested in and/or invested in Africa.  Established in 2002, Brand Leadership has over the years delivered brand-led solutions that respond to African conditions, needs and ambitions for over 100 African and non-African brands in Africa across diverse industries and markets in the private and public sectors.  www.brandleadership.com

Kantar TNS

Kantar TNS advises clients on specific growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and stakeholder management, based on long –established expertise and market –leading solutions. With a presence in over 80 countries, Kantar TNS has more conversations with the world’s consumers than anyone else and understands individual human behaviour and attitudes across cultural, economic and political regions of the world. Kantar TNS is part of the Kantar group, one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy groups, with 28,500 employees across 100 countries encompassing the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. www.kantar.com

GeoPoll

GeoPoll is the world’s largest mobile survey platform, with a network of over 300 million users in Africa, Asia and Middle East. By asking people questions on their mobile phones without the need for data plans or internet access, GeoPoll is able to help customers understand trends, preferences, and conditions in countries where data has traditionally been difficult and expensive to obtain.

Through their relationships with Mobile Network Operators, GeoPoll connects researchers directly to their audiences, making it faster and more cost effective than any other method of data collection. GeoPoll’s multi-modal platform administers remote surveys through SMS, voice, or mobile web, and delivers results in near real-time, giving anyone the ability to make data-driven decisions.

GeoPoll works with Fortune 500 companies, non-profit organisations, and governments to provide insights on everything from food security to brand preference. Their services include both custom research and subscription data products which deliver daily data on media measurement, fast-moving-consumer-goods tracking, and more.

GeoPoll is a division of Mobile Accord Inc., a mobile platform company powering communication for social good. Mobile Accord’s products and services empower major non-profit, organizations, universities and government entities to benefit from the power of mobile technology.

www.geopoll.com

Brand Finance

Brand Finance is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. Brand Finance advises strongly branded organisations on how to maximise their value through the effective management of their brands and intangible assets.  Brand Finance has conducted thousands of brand valuations for clients of all sizes and across most sectors. Brand Finance’s clients include international brand owners, tax authorities, lawyers, government bodies and investment banks. Brand Finance publishes Global 500 – the world’s most valuable brands and Global Nation Brands 100 – the most valuable nation brands leagues as well as regional tables in all regions annually. www.brandfinance.com

African Business

African Business is the best-selling pan-African business magazine with an award-winning team widely respected for its editorial excellence. It provides the all-important tools enabling decision makers to maintain a critical edge in a continent that is changing the world. African Business special reports profile a wide range of sectors and industries including transport, energy, mining, construction, aviation and agriculture. www.africanbusinessmagazine.com

The post Brand Africa partners with GeoPoll & Kantar TNS to find Africa’s Best Brands appeared first on GeoPoll.

With all the buzz surrounding mobile connectivity in Africa, GeoPoll decided to run a survey in collaboration with World Wide Worx to see how those in 5 African nations are really using their devices. We surveyed 700 people each in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda to find out what devices are most popular, and what services people are using on their mobile phones. The results provide an interesting glimpse into how mobile phones are used in Africa, and how it differs from usage in the US and other Western countries. 

Mobile Phone Use
Results show, unsurprisingly, that calls are the most popular activity on mobile phones in all 5 countries, followed by SMS/text messaging. 71% across all countries say they make calls on their phones, and 46% say they use SMS/text messages. The drop off between calls and SMS could be explained by the high cost; most people in Africa are on pay-as-you-go plans, and text messages are expensive. 40% of the 3,500 total respondents report browsing the internet, and 26% say they download and run apps on their phones. However, these two measures vary by country.

Ghana has relatively high internet usage, with 51% saying they access the internet on their phone, and 31% reporting they download apps. In Kenya, only 34% use the internet on their phone, and in Uganda that number drops to 29%. Accessing Facebook is another popular use of mobiles, with 48% in all 5 countries saying they view the social media service on their phones. 42% say they listen to the radio on their phones, and 37% take photos. Only 13% use Twitter, demonstrating the dominance of Facebook in Africa.

Mobile Phone Brands
We also asked mobile phone users what phone brand they use the most, with Nokia and Samsung coming out on top, at 34% and 17% respectively. More high-end brands such as Apple and Blackberry have small adoption in Africa, with only 2% reporting they use an Apple phone, and 6% using Blackberry models. However, 17% of phone users say they think a Blackberry will be their next phone brand, and 11% anticipate buying an Apple phone in the future, demonstrating that smartphones are becoming increasingly popular across all 5 countries. 

This data provides a quick look into how mobile phones are being used across Africa. As the number of people with access to the internet and data plans increases, it will be interesting to see how mobile habits change. GeoPoll collects data on everything from media measurement to food security; if you’re interested in running your own mobile survey with GeoPoll click below to contact us! 

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Advertisers are quickly turning to Africa to promote their brands, and Africa’s total share of ad spend is expected to grow significantly over the next decade. But very little is known about these markets: in the past, market research firms have not focused on emerging nations, which means that many companies and large brands are targeting audiences they know very little about. Information on preferred brands, buying habits, and target demographics has been largely based on guesswork, as until now there has been no reliable way to reach consumers.

The mobile phone is changing all of that, and at GeoPoll we have been running surveys to determine the most popular brands of soft drinks, water, coffee, and more.  As shown below, we asked about purchasing habits in Kenya for several drink categories, first asking users if they had bought a type of drink the day before, and then asking what brand they bought. 

 The results give us a real-time look into the popularity of brands across Kenya: perhaps unsurprisingly Fanta, Coca-Cola, and Sprite are the most popular soft drinks, and there is a noticeable gap between those three and other brands, including Pepsi. Over 15% of respondents, and on many days over 20%, reported buying Fanta, Coca-Cola, or Sprite the day before, but less than 5% reported buying Pepsi the past day.  

Dasani has a clear lead on the bottled water market in Kenya, and even when less consumers reported purchasing Dasani water the previous day, it is still ahead of all other brands. Coffee is another product where a clear market leader emerges, in this case Nescafe.  Ketepa tea, which is a local Kenyan tea brand, is the most popular tea drink.

These datasets demonstrate the power of the mobile phone in delivering reliable data on shopping habits, and other GeoPoll survey methodologies can also track brand perception over time.  This enables brands to effectively target audiences before they run ad campaigns, determine how many people have seen past advertisements, and track what type of consumer is actually buying their product, which will help them break into these increasingly important markets. 

The post The Importance of Brand Names in Emerging Markets appeared first on GeoPoll.