Answered's mobile platform makes it possible for researchers to reach a large panel of over 10 000 registered respondents simultaneously, to traverse living standard boundaries instantaneously - and to do so quickly and extremely cost effectively.
"There is a very real need for an efficient and fast tool that reaches this particular emerging market," says Beatrice Le Coultre, Business Development Manager at Answered Insights. "Marketers that are making decisions on tight deadlines do not necessarily have weeks at their disposal to run research projects, and as a result, they have often relied on gut feel and guesswork to make decisions. With Answered Mobile, marketers have almost instant access to the opinions of thousands of consumers that make up a key emerging market in South Africa."
The Answered Mobile phone survey platform uses USSD technology to run surveys. The process is simple - registered and profiled respondents meeting client requirements in terms of demographics and lifestyle are sent a message containing a unique code to a short survey. Respondents can then access the survey through their cell phones where they respond to questions by simply selecting their response on their keypads. A successful survey submission earns each respondent R10 worth of instant airtime.
Local clients are using Answered Mobile to gain insights to all kinds of pressing brand questions within emerging market target markets, such as: measuring the success of a brand awareness campaign, testing new concepts, determining purchase intent and likeability; as well as discovering new insights on shopper behaviour attitudes and brand perceptions.
"Digital research tools are offering marketers enhanced consumer insight with significant budgetary and time savings," says Le Coultre. "It's not going to replace in-depth consumer research, but it's an excellent complementary quantitative tool which often yields a very balanced point of view."
