write on the money:WITH NATSAI MUSARURWA
People usually underestimate the value of a good market research report, especially on their business’s bottom line. A market research report is a key strategic tool that allows you to make sure your strategy aligns with the market instead of trying to impose a strategy on the market.
In developed countries market data is vast, easily accessible and usually comes conveniently packaged in a report that covers everything but in countries like Zimbabwe, getting the information you need isn’t quite as straight forward. The best method of getting market data is of course primary research, but if you have limited resources this may not be an option; so how do you navigate your research in a market where good data is hard to come by? When I started my writing consultancy, Amras Communications, I struggled to get relevant market data for analysis, and it still is a struggle. Along the way, however, I’ve figured out a few tricks about where to look and how to make do with the sometimes limited information available.
When it comes to doing research in Zimbabwe the information you need is out there but it’s all over the place and will hardly ever come in the form you would expect or want it to. You can usually find what you need in news articles and publications by UN or other international agencies, but you will probably have to comb through over 100 pages just to find a few key pieces of data. So if you’re planning on tackling this task I hope you are an avid reader.
Another great source of information is government agencies and ministries. What I have discovered is that if the information you need is usually published by a specific public institution, but you can’t find the latest publication online, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Many times public agencies just take time to put up the latest reports or statistics but they do have them. In such cases, you just have to pick up the phone, give them a ring and ask for the data to be emailed to you. They are usually more than happy to assist, however, you probably won’t receive that email after the first phone call, so be prepared to call at least three times before they actually send it to you.
While articles and publications are reliable and relatively easy to access, in my opinion they can never beat the treasure of information that you can get from people who actually work within the industry that you are analysing. As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. Though business owners may not be able to give you broad macro level data, they are the best placed to give you insights about the realities of the market that most articles and reports don’t capture. Some people can be guarded about their information though, but if you ask around enough, you are bound to find someone who is willing to help.
In addition to the challenges entailed in finding information to begin with, the other issue you will run into is that the information you come across will sometimes be outdated. With the market place changing faster than ever this can be a huge problem, you don’t want to base key strategic decisions on obsolete data. Saddled with such a challenge, you have to get a little creative. In many cases the data you’re analysing will be correlated to some other factor(s), so use recent data on the other factor(s) to predict how the outdated data may have changed over time. For example, if you can only find information on consumer spending from 2015 you can make an educated guess of how that has changed based on how GDP has changed since that year. Your projections will never be 100% accurate but as long as you are realistic about them and there is a real and valid relationship between the variables, your estimates should be fine to use as a guide for your decisions.
Don’t underestimate the power of market analysis, it is the key to your business’s long-term success. A lot of companies just make decisions and formulate marketing strategies based on past experience or based on a “if it’s not broken why fix it” mentality, but with how quickly markets are changing, those approaches will yield mediocre results at best, if not outright business failure.
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At Amras Communications we not only provide market research and analysis reports but we also make sure our clients stay in the loop by providing them with monthly market updates, ensuring their knowledge bank, proposals and business plans remain relevant.
l If you’re interested in giving your strategic process a boost or just need some guidance on putting together your own market research report, don’t hesitate to drop us a line on +263787722016 or at [email protected]. We are committed to you success.
