Market research thro’ face-to-face interviews getting obsolete
View(s):By Quintus Perera
Traditional methods of undertaking market research through face-to-face interviews would soon be out of vogue as the world moves towards mobile communication methods, noted a top market research expert.
Ravi Bamunusinghe, President,Market Research Society of Sri Lanka and founder of the Research Consultancy Bureau(RCB) said that the present method of paper and pencil, face to face interviews on a long drawn questionnaire is time consuming and is not be the best way as practised now in Sri Lanka. As the Internet use in Sri Lanka grows, the future would be using mobile communication for Market Research in Sri Lanka. Even at present out of a population of 20 million around 19 million use mobile telephones or have sim cards, he told a panel discussion on the ‘Future for MR’ at the monthly meeting the Sunday Times Business Club (STBT) at the Cinnamon Lakeside hotel. Three panellists dealt with the topics of promotion of MR, recommendation of MR and using MR.
Panellists at the meeting
He defined MR as identifying the needs of the consumer and anticipating the future behaviour to satisfy the consumer with a viable market proposition.
Today, they needed to look beyond the identification to understand the economic and social aspects that contribute and complement the decision making process. Mr. Bamunusinghe elaborated on his pioneering efforts in forming the association and said that this effort is to bring in consistent quality standards, discipline and ethics to a professional organisation model on the lines of the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing and to be a national decision making body on MR.
Though MR in Sri Lanka is not that huge like the advertising industry, it is a one billion rupee industry which is substantial. In Sri Lanka, companies spend around Rs 50 per person per annum on MR – a good start, though still very far from the international pattern of Rs 600 per person per annum.
MR, he said, can be used as a tool to secure market share in the highly competitive global market. The factors of scarce resources as in the case of electricity, market saturation, changing lifestyles, fast changing technology and commodities getting obsolete and redundancies necessitates the use of MR, Mr. Bamunusinghe stressed.
Lasantha Abeywickrama, Managing Director, Diventars Training and Symbiosis Business Partners, taking the position of the middleman – the consultant -, said their job as consultants is to impress on company on the need for good MR.
He said that most of the high officials involved in the decision making in the board room are too busy involved in other work such as attending meetings etc; and would not find time to resolve consumer issues and make decisions on their own understandings.He said that company management is left with very little time to be in touch with the consumer and the market. Mr. Abeywickrama said, “That is where we tend to take decisions in board rooms for board room people.” He called it the innovation gap. He said that lifestyles they lived in (decades ago) are now different from most of the present day consumers.
The third panellist, Derrick Anthony, Marketing Manager, Personal Care, Hemas Consumer Brands who represented the practitioner’s perspective, said that MR brings in desired results.
Reflecting on this own experience, he said that while he was employed in a milk production company that sold yoghurt… by just changing the taste to attract on children led the product to become the market leader in a short space of time.
He enumerated the successes of several brands even at Hemas where he works now to market research. The club is sponsored by Etisalat, hosted by the Cinnamon Lakeside and co-sponsored by Hameedia
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