Improving research data

To add to the researcher's problems, the population is divided between high density urban pockets and rural communities spread across nine provinces where the bulk of the population live. This spread results in regional differences in consumption behaviour.

As a result of the above research in this country is expensive, compared to the USA and Europe. The tendency therefore is for marketers to focus on the urban pockets where the more affluent shoppers reside.

South African researchers, have yet to develop a research model that will enable marketers to obtain deeper insight into the trends that influence behaviour among a broader mix of consumers in a market that is changing rapidly.

It was therefore of great interest to read President of ESOMAR Gunnilla Broadbent's views on where research is moving to internationally. Taking note of these trends could improve the quality the local product.

"Research today is more about listening, informing and engaging, and no longer about telling, extracting and recycling," she says, adding that it's also more about co-operation and the collective, not about the individual."

"We're not going to be asking as many questions as we used to. We're not going to recycle our respondents, summarising the old research and the research centric rules we had when we decided when we were going to contact respondents ,and we decided what questions we were going to ask and how many.

"Whether we like it or not, the world is changing. We must allow respondents to decide how and when they want to be contacted. They spend their time and will answer on their terms."

Broadbent continues: "The flip side of the coin, however, is that if people are engaged in communities and are allowed to 'co-create', they get very excited. Respondents like to be involved in communities and find it's much more meaningful as it gives them much more in return than merely being asked a battery of questions, than being given very little opportunity to express themselves.

As the internet is growing globally and more and more people are moving online, South Africa will have no option but to follow the worldwide trend of using mobile devices for research surveys.

"But it will be on the respondent's terms, not the researcher's, as it used to be. Likewise, on the respondents' side we've moved from individual respondents to panels to online communities. It is no longer the age of questioning, but of listening."

With this new way of research quality criteria also need to be considered, ranging from the length of the questionnaire, stimulus and duplication, to good taste.

Creating a South African research model won't be easy, but it needs to be done as we adapt to our rapidly changing society.