Lanre Fasakin is the managing director and chief executive officer of CMRG, one of the leading marketing research firms in Nigeria. Fasakin has supported the growth of many brands in Nigeria through his research findings which are in the region of 700. He has handled projects for telecoms, breweries, banks, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) firms and reproductive health institutions, among others. In this interview with ODINAKA ANUDU, the former president of the Nigerian Marketing Research Association (NiMRA) gives an insight into the marketing research industry in the country and proposes a regulation of the sub-sector to weed out the wheat from the chaff.
Tell us a bit about CMRG?
CMRG is an independent and a full service agency with strong professional competence in marketing, social and opinion research. It was incorporated in April 2000 and has established a reputation as one of the fastest growing marketing/social research agencies in Nigeria.
I have been in the industry for 30 years. It’s pretty the only thing I have done since I finished my first degree in 1986. I worked with the then leading market research agency in Nigeria—RMS– between 1987 and 1993. I worked with another agency called Market Facts between 1993 and 1999. From 1999 till date, I have been here in CMRG. This company started operation in year 2000. At the last count we have done up to 700 projects. Some of these projects also have subs. If it is a tracker, for instance, we count that to be one project. But we have done trackers of seven deeps, 14 deeps and 18 checks.
There is a conception in the industry that international companies are having an edge over indigenous players. What is responsible for this?
Let me say that the market is still ours in Nigeria. But there has to be a reason global players are coming down. It shows there is a huge potential to be tapped in Nigeria, and to their credit, they are in Nigeria and still operate with Nigerians. So we welcome their presence. Global agencies seem to have an edge because most of the decisions are taken from the centre, that’s the Western world.
If a brief was approved by a global brand in New York, by default the Nigerian version will be done by that same agency which got it in New York. No disrespect to big names, but in terms of content the market is still ours. Those making the big names thrive are still Nigerians like us and we are colleagues in the industry. They don’t have any advantage on the jobs that are sourced from Nigeria, but they have an edge on briefs that are centrally sourced.
Some research briefs handled by local players sometimes do not confer with reality. Isn’t this why indigenous firms are at a disadvantage?
The field of research is pretty much like any other field. We have good lawyers; we have not-so-good lawyers. We have excellent doctors and those who struggle. Don’t also forget that there is a difference between experience and skills. The good researcher is someone that combines both. The ethos of our profession is that a good researcher should know something about everything and everything about something. I am sure discerning clients will do their own research before taking a direction.
It owes a lot to the experience of the researcher. Sometimes what you see in a report needs someone to debrief you so that you can get the insight. It’s not down to whether a research was done by a Nigerian or foreign firm.
When a job is about Nigeria but is sourced outside the country and done by an agency that is not in Nigeria, would you consider the results credible or accurate?
Definitely not, but to the credit of foreign brands, they rely on Nigerians. As I said earlier, all the global players are here and are working with Nigerians. They are also working with the people we know. However, a situation where an European or American brand will come here and work without using local knowledge is improper. We have seen that in a report that said penetration of palm wine was 99 percent in the North. This can only happen because those who wrote the report didn’t know about Nigeria.
Gone are the days when someone comes from abroad to come and work here. These days, there is a paradigm shift.
I see questionnaires in the hands of people who could be described as ‘wrong samples’. I have seen intellectual research questionnaires in the hands of non-intellectuals. Isn’t this a spite on indigenous companies?
The research industry cannot be judged in isolation from the larger society. There is a lot of proliferation across board and all sectors. That’s why it behoves on the clients to be more discerning. Let your brief go to a research agency that has stood the test of time. Ask them who they have worked for. What is your pedigree in this industry? Let me see the profile of your executive team; let me know the quality control measures you put on the table. What measures are in place for the integrity of the data to be guaranteed? So the client should also ask the agency questions. Having said that, there is the Nigerian Marketing Research Association that is sold absolutely to the idea of data integrity. I was the president and during my tenure, one of the things we did was to have our members adhere to international best practices. Gone are the days when pen and paper are used.
To address your question, quality control starts in the mind of the interviewer. It starts with the welfare of the interviewer. If the interviewer is well taken care of; if he knows that his wage cannot be delayed; his transport fare will be provided adequately, he will work.
Let me now talk about what we do as an agency. I am not always ashamed to say that I started my career as an interviewer. Yes, I made a good grade in school—Second Class Upper Division, University of Lagos, but the fact that I was an interviewer first few months of my career helped me to appreciate the challenges interviewers go through. As an agency, we train very well. Before a project starts, there is the pre-field training we do, which takes days. What we are trying to do is to ensure that the objectives of the typical interview are well understood by the interviewer. We take them through the nuances, and every word in the questionnaire is explained. There is a question we usually ask them, ‘If you are to explain what we have done here today to someone who is not here, how would you go about it?’
We will need the interviewer to understand every word. That is followed by the mock interview. Somebody acts as an interviewer and another person acts as a respondent and we simulate what is likely to happen. After this stage, we do the pilot phase. The questionnaire is now usable and workable but you just go out there and do the respondent selection as it would appear on the project. After that, you can now say you are ready. Now what we do to ensure quality control is this, during the pilot phase, you will be able to know the minimum duration the interview will last. That is now scripted. We have the electronic version of the project these days. So we script the minimum duration expected of the project. If the interview is to last one hour thirty minutes but somebody goes out there and brings back an interview that lasted for one hour twenty minutes, it is automatically voided. That makes an interviewer do the right thing. There is also what we call the Group Interview Technique. Here, the interviewers go together, led by the supervisor. They go as a team. In our own case, we provide the company bus, we go as a team and the supervisor is there to check what’s going on (we call it spot-check). We see what is going on and the questions that are not properly administered. If there is a need to go back, we go back. After that, we synchronise the survey and it lands in a bucket. We have a situation room and there are people that will look at it and ensure it went well. It takes an agency that is experienced and worth its salt to do that. Just like we have people passionate about procedures, we also have mushrooming and not-so-rooted agencies. The client should be discerning enough to know where he will get his services.
So what can research do to a brand?
Before the brand was born, research had been there. The research is what tells the brand the position it will take in the marketplace. Research is there to check the extent to which you are able to meet needs. That is the essence. Research helps the brand to optimise its potential in the marketplace. It gives the brand strategic focus and show whether it aligns with the needs of consumers or not. It tells whether your communication is resonating well or not; whether the pack size that currently exists is adequate for current needs. Research can help a brand improve its bottom-line. It tells the brand whether or not your competition is having that edge. Research, in summary, is the lamppost through which a brand can make progress.. That’s why you have pricing research, communication research, packaging research. Every element that makes up a brand needs research to be in tune with the current marketing needs.
It has variously been touted that the results from research gather dust and are not deployed to proper use? Why is this so?
My experience has been that the clients accept your findings if it confirms their stereotypes. Where research tends to say something different from their own thinking, they will knock it and criticise the process. But in eight out of ten cases, the client that commissioned the research already had an objective. In case of market research or social research, they use it. When you find research not being used is when you do a research for the public sector, where the government does not have the political will to execute. There is more to it, but usually, firms use market research. But they are more enthusiastic when it confirms what they always wanted to know.
Do you have presence in other countries?
We go to countries like Kenya, Cameroon and Ghana very often. We have had to do projects with a leading management consultancy firm. We covered 11 markets in Africa. We work in all these markets.
How does marketing research contribute to the economy?
It can help brands grow. If brands grow, your gross domestic product grows. It can help existing brands appreciate their potential, thereby creating employment. Marketing research enables a brand to move from a zero awareness level to 10 to 20 percent awareness level and more.
When the fortunes of brands grow, you see people having more production lines. By extension, it will have a multiplier effect on employment and the GDP. At every point, we are always fine-tuning how formulations can change. It is instrumental in improving the local raw material content of a product. In the place of imported oil, it enables a firm to use palm oil to make soap, for instance. It enables you to make a product test to show that this one manufactured with a local raw material is acceptable. It enables you to have a technical test that ensures that the local variant is not so significant with imported one. If you are able to achieve that, the product moves from being a foreign raw material-based product to a local raw material-based product. And you know the multiplier effect on the economy.
Can you provide services to foreign investors interested in the Nigerian market?
Yes, that is our middle name. That’s our market research entry strategy. We are actually doing two now.
From your market research experience, which sectors would you say are most lucrative in the Nigerian economy now?
There is no sector that is not lucrative. Let me blow your mind. When a leading GSM company wanted to come to Nigeria, a leading consultant did a survey in South Africa. They said, ‘Don’t come to Nigeria. The phone is for the rich’. That organisation did not come to Nigeria. Another organisation did a research for the key players that are making waves now. That same telco sector someone said was meant for the rich is what is contributing hugely to our GDP now. The point I am making is that there is no sector that is not lucrative; It depends on your marketing strategy.
What is the biggest challenge facing marketing research in Nigeria?
The biggest challenge is the incidence of very juicy briefs going into the hands of non-research agencies. Because of the names management consultant have, the companies coming into Nigeria are comfortable giving research briefs to them and not research agencies.
Research kills businesses, just like it saves them. Are there things you have put in place in your association to ensure some level of sanity in the industry?
Training is one of them. Before Tan average interviewer goes out to conduct interviews, he must have a basic training in the area of data collection. It’s key. At some point we collaborated with GfK in Germany, which came to do interviewer accreditation training in Nigeria. We are also very passionate about quality control measures, both in-office and in-field. Survey cannot rise above the field work on which it is based. The fieldwork is not done by PhD holders or research executives. How do you ensure that the interviewer, who is maybe an OND holder, does your job with integrity? You make sure that his welfare is a concern to you. In our own case, we provide buses to take them in and out. We give them lunch allowanceS. The guy knows that he will not be left in the rain. The interviewer feels appreciated. Thirdly, technology has really helped. It is the onus upon a client to give the brief to an agency that is tech-savvy.
