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Africa and Middle East: The Last Research Frontier
- 1. Middle East Africa The Last Research Frontier
- 2. “The fastest billion” AME Regional Outlook 1,4 billion of people about 3000 languages 75 countries
- 3. Middle East East Africa West Africa South Africa North Africa
- 5. Rules and Regulations The less developed country, the more expensive qualitative research would be
- 6. Rules and Regulations Remote project management does not work. You have to come to control everything on the ground
- 7. Rules and Regulations Travel arrangements take a lot of time and effort.
- 8. Rules and Regulations Payment terms may become a big problem
- 9. Doing a qual project in AME Country selection
- 10. Doing a qual project in AME Target Audience
- 11. Doing a qual project in AME Fieldwork Challenges
- 12. Methodology: what works, what doesn't work Focus Group Discussions
- 13. Methodology: what works, what doesn't work Online Qual
- 14. The Future of the Qual Research in AME
Hinweis der Redaktion
- AME (Africa and Middle East) region is often described as the “last frontier” by desperate marketers. Although it is not the biggest market in terms of volumes, it is without doubt a World beater in terms of growth. The region remains to a large extent untapped by research but the constant expansion of multinational businesses delivers a big opportunity for market researchers. Doing research in Africa and the Middle East can bring a lot of surprises to those who are not familiar with the region. Some basic things that you are used to taking for granted may not work here because of the cultural or infrastructural restrictions. At the same time, the same cultural, religious or infrastructural challenges can give you a unique opportunity to successfully employ methods that you cannot imagine using in the developed world. Some people believe that Africa and Middle East have simply “primitive” or “basic” market research culture. This is only half-true. Being quite underdeveloped this research culture quickly evolves into something original that can potentially enrich global market research culture.
- The best word to characterize the region is diversity. Culturally, politically, demographically, it is probably the most diverse part of the world. Almost 1.5 billion people live in 75 countries, speak 3000 languages and belong to different religious denominations. Economically this region used to be more homogenous but it is not any more. Just 20 year ago all these countries have been referred as the “third world” which implied a number of different things but first of all their economic backwardness. Many people around the world still believe that Africa (and to a lesser extent, Middle East) is the land of poverty, endless military conflicts and political instability. Such a gloomy image of the region does not reflect the reality. I am sure all of you know that some of the Middle East countries have become the richest nations in the world. Qatar for example, remained the world leader in terms of the per capita GDP until very recently. Dubai has become the world business hub. Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain are neither poor nor underdeveloped any more. Africa is still lagging behind but even there the economic boom of the last decade is rapidly changing the region. Starting from 2000 the GDP of most of the Sub-Saharan countries was growing at 7-8 per cent per year (in some countries, for example, Ethiopia, more than 10%). Those countries that have been called as “failed nations” in the eighties and nineties are not building roads and railroads, business centers and modern housing. The African middle class is growing very fast. Not a surprise that many multinationals look at AME as the “New Big One” expecting the success story of China and the Asian Dragons to repeat.
- The AME region consists of 4 main sub-regions that are quite different from each other. The Gulf region: High economic growth, international investments, HQs of major international corporations, highways, skyscrapers, and artificial islands. At the same time, economy still highly depends on the oil industry. High reliance on the expatriate talent due to the scarcity of the local labor resources (in some countries the share of the expatriates reaches 80-85 % of the country population). Security threats coming from Iraq and Syria. North Africa is much bigger in terms of population and much weaker in terms of economic development. Before the Arab spring in 2011 the region enjoyed a stable economic growth of 7-8 per cent. Then, there was a recession. Now it is slowly recovering. International business invests in this region with caution. Sub-Saharan Africa – as I already mentioned this is now the fastest growing region in the world. Multinational corporations hurry up to expand their presence. The competition is getting tighter and tighter. Salaries are going up, cost of living is going up but so do the profits of the investors. South Africa – the most economically developed country on the African continent. A part of BRICS. Stable but relatively low economic growth.
- Now let us look at the same region, but discuss the market research infrastructure. I am going to be very subjective here so please, excuse me for that. Would be very happy to hear alternative points of view. Blue dots represent those countries that have relatively developed market research centers with the companies who can do a full cycle research projects. Dubai and South Africa are the strongest ones while others are decent. Yellow dots represent those countries where the market research companies still offer a full cycle projects but the quality of their work can vary a lot. You can find some brilliant and very experienced researchers there but they are very few. The rest of the countries have no dots but it does not mean that the market research is not possible there. You can always find partners that can organize fieldwork for you practically everywhere including some “black holes” such as Somali, CAR, Iraq, Yemen and other “exotic” places.
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