New council, new goals for SAMRA

The new council comprises: Chairman: Sifiso Falala (Plus 94 Harris Research); Chair Elect: Gordon Hooper (Bateleur Research Solutions); RUF Chair: Catherine Mushi (Telkom); Immediate Past Chair/Treasurer: Heather Kennedy (The Kennedy Centre); SAMRA Corporate Chair: Shirley Benney (Markinor); Professional Practices Chair: Schalk Van Vuuren (MSSA); Corporate Events: Michele Heyworth (Research International); Fieldworkers Forum: Vusi Makhathini (Mictert); Services SETA: John Gabriel (QualAfrica).

Sifiso Falala, SAMRA Chairman has set a number of goals for the new council and says: "Our new council is a brilliant team of marketing research professionals - each member brings with them a good deal of experience, a history of quality workmanship and an intoxicating enthusiasm for this industry and I believe we have an exciting and challenging year ahead of us."

"We are coming into this new year armed with a fully developed and researched strategy that will take the market research industry into a new era. Firstly, we aim to actively further industry transformation. Although we are already so well streamlined and integrated and we have been identified by Services SETA as one of the most advanced industries in terms of transformation, we will continue to push this. Along with the new council and the support of the SAMRA Corporate members we will be setting an example to the rest of South Africa."

"Secondly, we are aiming to achieve legal recognition as an industry that governs itself. The research industry is a consumer driven industry and we are therefore required to deal with the public - this brings with it various challenges such as privacy law issues as well as issues regarding crime and the misrepresentation of interviewers by criminals. We must be able to regulate ourselves so that we have the teeth to protect the public from unscrupulous elements as much as we can."

"Thirdly, this new council will be fighting is to reclaim the words 'market research', 'research survey' and 'survey' for use by market research professionals only. Our industry is being undermined by peer industries (like direct marketing) which use these words to sell or entice the consumer to buy something - this threatens our credibility and our ability to approach the consumer. By making the words 'market research', 'research survey' and 'survey' legally restricted words, the consumer will be able to discriminate between a professional survey and anecdotal research conducted by non-professionals."

"Another key goal for this year's SAMRA Council is the SETA Learnership, Recognition of Prior Learning and Continuous Professional Development. Provision of skills is a SAMRA priority, we want to involve the freelance workers, who stand in the majority, more intimately in the affairs of the industry and make Learnership Programmes accessible to them. By 2005, we aim to have put the majority of interviewers through the Learnership programmes which are recognised worldwide."

"The 2003/2004 SAMRA Council is determined to ensure a more healthy market research industry and we will strive to meet the needs of the consumer, clients and the country," concludes Falala.