Market Research

Britannica defines market research as the study of the requirements of various markets, the acceptability of products, and methods of developing or exploiting new markets. Market research investigates and analyzes a target market. Researchers use market research to collect consumer data within a marketplace. It deals with the collection, analysis, and use of market data and market statistics.

Market research allows a company to discover the target market and get opinions and other feedback from consumers about their interest in a product or service.

Researchers use market research to gauge the marketplace’s wants, needs, attitudes, purchase behaviors, and other characteristics. It helps them understand and compare their products and services with their competitors’, industry standards, and thoughts about newly launched products and services. It is also used to explore fresh markets and understand consumers’ needs in the marketplace – both existing and new.

Consumer Research

Consumer research is actually a part of market research. It answers the ‘why’ – identifying the motivation and purchase behavior of targeted customers. Consumer research helps companies and brands understand customer psychology, create detailed purchasing behavior profiles, and provide systematic information about customer needs.

Another way to look at it is that consumer insights extend and enumerate the information gathered during market research to make relevant, specific, and actionable conclusions and predict audience reactions to a company’s brand, product, or service.

Using consumer research information, brands can make changes in their products and services, making them more customer-centric, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.

How They Compare

Market Research is an all-purpose term referring to the practice of collecting and analyzing data to answer discrete business questions, while consumer research is the practice of studying consumer behaviour to derive broader business insights for effective business decision-making.

Tony Oduor, GeoPoll’s Research Manager, summarizes it as thus: market research studies the entire market or a broad segment of the market while consumer research narrows down to a specific brand or product. For example, for a beverage company, market research will show the size of the soft beverage market and the gaps that need to be filled, and consumer insights will point out the most preferred beverage flavor.

Used together, market research and consumer research help brands understand where their business currently stands in the market, as well as what actions they can take to improve their position among consumers.

Conduct Market and Consumer Research with GeoPoll

GeoPoll conducts research for global fast-moving consumer goods brands, media houses, consulting firms, financial institutions, and technology companies. Our team includes researchers experienced in creating innovative solutions for tracking essential metrics such as brand health, testing new concepts, measuring advertisement effectiveness, and more. See our market research solutions and contact our team if you have questions regarding our capabilities.

The post Market Research vs Consumer Research appeared first on GeoPoll.

As a follow up to GeoPoll’s earlier reports on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, we conducted the GeoPoll Year-End survey evaluating the year that has been and the outlook for the coming year.

The Economic Impact of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa

When asked about the coronavirus pandemic’s biggest challenges, finances stood out as the overwhelming challenge (55%), with ‘staying home’ trailing at 23% as the second biggest challenge. This finding could be tied directly to findings surrounding income changes since June, as 79% stated that their income had decreased since June. This percentage is even higher than the 76% who reported income decreases in our previous study. In addition, 65% state that they are more concerned with paying their expenses now than in June 2020, when 71% were already more concerned with paying expenses than pre-COVID.

These findings demonstrate that even though restrictions have been loosened in all six countries studied, the pandemic’s economic impacts continue to be felt and, for many, have worsened over time. While all countries reported high levels of income decrease, Kenya had the highest percentage of respondents who said their income had decreased a lot compared to June 2020, at 64%.

Even though restrictions have been loosened in all six countries studied, the economic impacts of the pandemic continue to be felt and for many have worsened over time – GeoPoll

Changes to Consumer Habits Due to COVID-19

Given the decreases in income observed, it is not surprising that we also observe changes in spending patterns, with consumers focusing more on essential items than non-essentials. In addition, one of the effects of the pandemic has been a scarcity of products due to disruptions in supply chains, which has resulted in rising prices of various commodities. These factors could be some of the reasons most respondents (60%) in the GeoPoll study reported spending more this year compared to last year on essential items such as food, while just 23% are spending less.

The report also shows a large shift away from non-essentials, with 59% saying they are spending less on clothes and beauty products than last year.

In contrast with several other countries where online shopping has increased during the pandemic, it has dropped in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly 60% report that they are shopping online less frequently than last year, which could be related to the overall decrease in purchasing of non-essential items. Compared to the previous year, 45% report they are using mobile money less frequently on mobile money usage, while 21% say they are using mobile money at about the same rates and 35% are using it more regularly.

It must be noted that, as with other findings in this summary, some of the considerations vary from country to country. For example, while online shopping decreased overall, more respondents in Kenya and South Africa reported shopping online more frequently, and over half (51%) of those in Kenya said that they are using mobile money more than the previous year, while 42% in Mozambique reported increasing their mobile money usage.

To see the statistics breakdown for each country and demographic, refer to this interactive report.

2020 Holiday Spending

Consumer spending is also experiencing changes; as the holiday season approaches, McKinsey’s study in South Africa found ongoing reductions in discretionary spending and that 88% of households expect to spend the same or less on the holidays as they did last year.

The 2020 holiday season is expected to be impacted by COVID-19, both socially and economically. Countries like Kenya have restrictions on night movement, meeting numbers, and hospitality business operations in place and studies have found that those in South Africa and other countries are planning to spend less on the holidays this year than in the past. GeoPoll’s research found similar results, with 40% overall stating that they will spend much less than last year, and 28% stating they will spend a bit less. Just under a quarter of respondents report they will spend more on the holidays this year, indicating that retailers should expect a decrease in holiday spending in 2020.

Economic Predictions for Next Year

As 2020 comes to a close, GeoPoll also examined the outlooks for next year. GeoPoll asked about the length of financial impacts of COVID-19, finding that almost half (45%) think economic effects will last at least six months, and 27% believe that the economic impacts will last over a year.

Despite this, there are signs of encouragement regarding respondents’ perceptions of their finances. A big majority (65%) believe that their finances will get better in the next year, compared to just 17% who think they will worsen, and 51% believe their country’s economy will get better in the next year. In comparison, 26% believe it will get worse.

Conduct Further Research with GeoPoll

These findings on consumer behavior are part of GeoPoll’s report on the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on various life spheres. Download the full report here or dive more in-depth into the full dataset with the interactive dashboard here.

GeoPoll conducts surveys globally through multiple mobile-based methods, remotely reaching any population. GeoPoll can conduct research to enable brands, international development organizations, and governments better understand realities on the ground, even in the face of the challenges the world is undergoing. To request more information on our capabilities or get a quote for an upcoming project, please contact us.

The post The impact of COVID-19 on income and consumer habits in Africa appeared first on GeoPoll.

Due to the strong interest and participation in Black Friday sale events seen in South Africa in years past, GeoPoll conducted a study on topics surrounding Black Friday to gather data on consumers’ perceptions, engagement, and purchases through the sales events. In this report, we will present the data collected in this study, which was run immediately following Black Friday 2019, and compare the findings to related GeoPoll studies from years past.

Black Friday Study Methodology

Black Friday was on November 29^th, 2019, and GeoPoll’s study on Black Friday ran through Mobile Web from November 30^th to December 1^st, 2019. A screener question was used to ensure all study participants were aware of Black Friday. There were 400 South African respondents that passed through the screener question and completed the survey. These respondents had a nationally representative location distribution, had a 50/50 gender split, and were all 15 years old or older.

In this post, we will compare results from the 2019 GeoPoll study with other GeoPoll studies on the same topic from 2017 and 2018.  Accurate year over year comparisons can be made between all three studies due to identical question wording used across studies and similar samples of respondents for each. For additional information on the methodologies and demographic information from these studies, contact us here.

Black Friday in South Africa

Black Friday Popularity in South Africa

Data from this year’s study on Black Friday shopping revealed that there has been a 16% increase in reported shopping from 2017 to 2019: 76% of respondents in 2019 indicated shopping on Black Friday this year, while 64% in 2018 and 60% in 2017 indicated the same. This shows that despite South Africa’s stagnant economy, consumers are still willing to spend money; on the other hand, the economic flatline could be further encouraging a hunt for deals before the holiday season.

Regardless of the reason for the increase, it is undeniable that there are more South African shoppers engaging in Black Friday sales events year over year. In 2018 and 2019, respondents were asked if they had shopped on Black Friday in years past. In 2018, 72% of respondents indicated shopping in years past, while 84% indicated the same in 2019—which is a 12% increase.

Black November in South Africa

Beyond the increase in shoppers participating, the Black Friday sales events themselves are growing as well. Black November is a term that has emerged to describe the phenomenon of retailers starting their Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales earlier each year. According to PwC, “retailers are extending their Black Friday offerings to a week or more leading up to the day and the days thereafter, including the ensuring weekend leading up to Cyber Monday.”

This year our study asked respondents about their Black November shopping. Respondents who participated in 2019’s Black Friday were asked if they shopped any Black Friday sales that ran before November 29^th; 78% of respondents indicated that they had, which shows that Black November sales were highly popular for both retailers and shoppers in 2019.

Items Purchased on Black Friday

In 2018 and 2019, respondents were asked identical select all that apply questions: “Which of the following items did you purchase during Black Friday this year? 1) household appliances 2) beauty accessories 3) clothing and footwear 4) electronics and accessories 5) food items 6) baby items 7) other.” From 2018 to 2019, all of the categories except for clothing and footwear had an increase in reported purchases. Most notably, beauty accessories saw a 15% increase, electronics and accessories increased by 13%, and food items increased by 16%. Keeping in mind that clothing and footwear only saw a 2% decrease and that this was a select all that apply style question, the data comparison from 2018 to 2019 shows that people are buying a more diverse selection of items during Black Friday sales overall.

Shopping Location

This year’s study asked respondents about the location of their Black Friday shopping to determine if shoppers were shopping more in-store, online, or a combination of the two. Results showed that the vast majority of Black Friday shoppers, 67%, shopped in stores only. A much smaller group of shoppers, 23%, indicated shopping both in-store and online, and only 11% of shoppers indicated shopping online only. Data also showed that 4% more men than women reported shopping exclusively in-store, 6% more women than men reported shopping both in-store and online, and the same number of men and women reported shopping exclusively online. The affinity for in-store shopping is likely due to poor user experience in online shopping in South Africa, which we explore further in the following sub-section.

Online shopping issues in South Africa

Respondents that had indicated shopping online in any capacity were asked a follow-up question about their user experience, “While online

shopping on Black Friday this year, did you experience any issues with webpages that negatively impacted your shopping experience?” 37% of the online shoppers reported that they did encounter issues while online shopping the Black Friday sales. The respondents with technical issues were concentrated in Northern Cape (50% of respondents in this location had issues), Gauteng (45%), and Limpopo (44%). Although the majority of online shopper respondents did not have technical issues, 37% is a significant portion of consumers to be negatively impacted by the online shopping platforms. In order for online shopping to gain more significant popularity in Black Friday sales events, the rate of users experiencing issues needs to decrease in the years to come.

Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday is an online shopping sale event used by retailers as a continuation of the Black Friday sale events. To determine Cyber Monday’s popularity in relation to Black Friday, all respondents were asked if they were aware of the shopping holiday. We found that 63% of respondents were aware of Cyber Monday, compared to 100% of respondents that were aware of Black Friday.

Out of the 63% of respondents aware of Cyber Monday, 65% had shopped Cyber Monday sales in years past. The highest rates were in KwaZulu Natal (76% of respondents in this location had shopped Cyber Monday in the past) and Mpumalanga (72%). Additionally, 6% more males than females indicated shopping Cyber Monday sales in years past.

This year, more males than females also plan to shop Cyber Monday sales. 81% of Cyber Monday aware males plan to shop on the holiday compared to 71% of aware females, which comes out to 10% more males than indicated planning to shop on Cyber Monday than females and a 76% average for all respondents.

Assuming those who indicated planning to shop on Cyber Monday followed through, participation in the sales events would see an 11% increase in 2019 over participation in years past and a 4% increase in male participation in 2019 over years past.

Takeaways

South Africans are interested and engaged with holiday shopping sales in November and December—whether the sales are promoted as early Black Friday sales, Black Friday sales, or Cyber Monday sales. Despite the growth in sales around Black Friday, regularly timed Black Friday sales are still the most popular time to shop. Additionally, the participation in Black Friday shopping is increasing rapidly year over year and even a flat economy in South Africa did not hinder the growth in shopping rates. In years to come, GeoPoll anticipates the growth momentum to carry over to even higher engagement rates in 2020.

In preparation for a busy 2020 holiday shopping season, GeoPoll can help your organization conduct a study of your own. Our team of research experts is a valuable resource for any consumer behavior evaluation study. To learn more about how GeoPoll can help your organization achieve your research goals, contact us today.

The post Data Report: Black Friday Shopping in South Africa 2019 appeared first on GeoPoll.