Has market research come of age in Oman? OER speaks to Khalifa Al Mukheini, Managing Director, SIMPA Marketing Research & Consultancy, to find out the key trends, opportunities and challenges for the industry.
Established in 1996, SIMPA Marketing Research was the first market research company in the Sultanate. How has the company’s growth been over the years in terms of business, team strength and geographies (countries) where it undertakes market research?
SIMPA was certainly a pioneer in the market when hardly anyone spoke or thought about doing market research for their business; but surprisingly we were well received and within six months we had some good local clients. It was all about awareness. Our focus has always been in Oman but we do have presence in the UAE and have conducted studies across the GCC and other markets.
With customer centricity becoming crucial for companies, has the need for market research become more important in recent years?
The need certainly increases as companies hire more marketing- savvy executives and Omani business graduates, who join the workforce and want to implement their marketing plans. However, Oman and the GCC markets are still sales-driven rather than marketing driven due to the majority of the business being run by agencies or franchisees not the principal, and the default strategic thinking seems to be in favour of short term sales targets. We do see changes happening on that front, when brand owners start opening regional offices in the GCC which helps the dynamic of the market. The indigenous brands are rising and becoming more regional and as such quite a few are now taking a much more mature approach to their marketing strategies.
Do you think Oman has matured in its understanding of market research or it still behind regional peers like UAE and Saudi Arabia?
There has been a positive shift and the influence has come through from the bigger markets; but, at the same time, some local organisations especially from banking, telecom and oil sectors have understood the need and made their own decision to make their marketing function much more professional as competition rises. In other segments, the thinking is largely short-term and marketing is rather tactical than being strategic or long term; hence market research is not given the priority that it deserves.
Traditional research-savvy segments like FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) and automotive are still a domain of regional offices based in UAE or Saudi Arabia. Recently, we have noticed that many of the regional offices prefer Oman as a test research market for new product launches and concept tests as a representative of the overall GCC market.
There is a perception that since companies are not ready to pay for quality, marketing research company’s in Oman fake data, use small and unrepresentative samples and cut corners leading to less than accurate results. One, do you agree with the criticism? Second, how does SIMPA ensure that its research is scientific and trustworthy?
As an agency that has been around for 18 years, credibility of research method and quality are top priority for us. We adhere to global standards followed by organisations such as ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Market Research) and take these issues very seriously. We have various techniques the authenticity of which can be checked by us and our clients, including the 30 per cent back check rule, which is a random audit of about a third of the questionnaire whereby respondents are contacted again by another staff member who was not involved in the original research to verify their identity and responses.
The market is still in its growth stage and there is ample opportunity for market research in the country but since most of the companies are not marketing-savvy they don’t have budgets for market research or treat marketing research as a cost; hence the trend to initially start off with a dip stick survey using unrepresentative samples. We discourage this practice and have gradually advised clients about the importance of proper sampling process in order to take better decisions.
We have been working with many clients for years and client loyalty is one of SIMPA’s biggest strengths apart from having the most experienced team in the country. Over the years, we have never encountered any ethical issue over data or field quality. Though fieldwork accuracy, reliability and validity are challenges faced by all agencies, having effective quality control measures help avoid such issues.
Is market research in Oman still the preserve of a handful of large companies, or are mid-tier companies also commissioning it?
The big segments such as banking, auto, telecom and oil dominate the research scene in the country but increasingly there is interest from much smaller businesses with smaller budgets; this market needs to be catered for as these companies grow their future potential is quite high for spending on more market research. They need to be supported with right cost-effective research tools.
Research is seen currently more of a drive from executives within the organisations who know how to use the information for effective marketing strategies and not necessarily large organisations who have the budgets to conduct research.
A lot more small and medium sized companies are spending a substantial proportion of their marketing budgets on research, largely on tactical aspects. Larger organisations stick to the regular research areas like customer satisfaction and brand image/reputation studies.