Research agency acquires SA address

Although based in Johannesburg, Consumer Insight's focus is the rest of Africa. Essentially, the agency is now even better placed to service its Africa-wide business for international and South Africa based clients.

"Africa is a very complex and little-known-about continent," says Ndirangu wa Maina, the company's MD. "And to uncover useful nuggets of information that make a positive differences in business," he adds, "there is a need to partner with a professional 'digger' of consumer information such as Consumer Insight."

With 53 countries, Africa is second in size only to Asia, has a population of 8 million people and is expected to hit the 1 billion mark by 2023. By 2050, 20 percent of the world's population will be African.

Believed to be the cradle of mankind, Africa is also a veritable sleeping giant, with the world's largest reserves of strategic natural resources. The continent is home to 82 percent of the world's Chromium, 54 percent of Cobalt, 39 percent of industrial diamonds, 29 percent of Uranium and 8.2 percent of Oil.

Africa is also the world's most centrally located continent on the globe but despite this enormous potential however, Africa's economic under-development also presents truly big challenges to business and marketers.

"As every marketer knows," explains Ndirangu, "the success of any brand mostly depends on a thorough understanding of the consumer."

And Consumer Insight's passion for understanding consumers, he says, has no equal in Africa: "We have extensively traversed this great continent on client specific research projects, investigating all sorts of information, making a difference in decision-making. We understand how various aspects of lifestyle across the continent significantly impact on business and marketing."

These aspects of lifestyle include Education, The family, Women, The youth, Westernisation, Religion, The concept of role models, Languages, and Sports among others.

The better marketers understand these influences, the higher their chances of success in the continent. And to help them along, Consumer Insight have gone on and developed - on top of the ad hoc client-specific research projects - pre-packaged branded proprietary studies. These include:
1. Holla: A quantitative youth study conducted among 13 to 25 year olds, in both urban and rural areas.
2. Adcheck: An advertising pre-testing tool that establishes how well an advert communicates the intended message.
3. Adtrack: A quantitative research study that measures in-market awareness of TV and radio commercials.
4. Ensight: A revolutionary Internet based data collecting software.
5. Alfresco: An outdoor advertising effectiveness research study.
6. Mediaweb: A quantitative study intended to update both advertisers and media owners on listenership and viewership trends.
7. Dama: An exclusive study of women to determine who they really are, their consumer needs, their hopes, fears and aspirations.
8. Plug In: A monthly quantitative omnibus research study that allows marketers to cost-effectively get answers from large sample sizes of consumers.

"We not only collect and accurately interpret data," says wa Maina, "but also make it more meaningful and user friendly."