Featuring Enoch Weguri Kabange
Who is better to talk about Market Research than the author of a 30-minute read article about Market Research. This week, I talk to Enoch Kabange of Tonaton and Word Inspired on how to conduct the right digital market research for your business.
[0:15] Hi, my name is Enoch, and welcome to another episode of Colours of Social Media podcast. As you already know, this is a digital marketing podcast, and all conversations revolves around digital marketing.
[0:28] In today's episode, I'll host one of the leading names in digital marketing. I first met him when I went to the Google Arts Training Program held in Accra in 2018, and since then, we've been in close contact.
[0:41] Bouncing ideas of each other around digital marketing. I know him to be the face of EnochKabange.com, writing ideas about digital marketing, and it is on these activities that I'm having a conversation with him today.
[0:55] Today's episode will feature Enoch Kabange, and in the 10 minutes or so, Enoch will tell you and me all that you need to know to run a successful market research for your business.
[1:07] Sometimes, friends like Enoch are packed with gems on digital marketing, and in this episode, Enoch goes in deeper on how to conduct the perfect market research for your business.
[1:19] Now, I hope you enjoyed the conversation, just as I enjoyed talking to him. Thank you for tuning in again. Here is Enoch. Before I even start my conversation with you, I just want to thank you so, so much for deciding to join me this time around.
[1:44] Sure, sure. It's my pleasure. Thank you. I don't know, when was the first and last time we first met? It was in 2019, right? During Google AdWords events, right?
[1:59] Yes, the training. Excellent. It was at Spintex. Yeah, at Spintex, and after that, we haven't met, but then we will still be in touch. Sure, sure, sure.
[2:08] Excellent. So, what have you been up to? I think for the past year that we've met, what have you been up to? Well, basically, for a person of my nature, marketing is something that I realized was my passion in the middle of school.
[2:24] So, I didn't really get to study anything in marketing, like in a four months at Google. Since then, it was one of the reasons why I actually came there for the training, because I felt I need to compensate for my loss, because here was I doing a different course, and I came to realize, okay, marketing is something to pursue.
[2:44] So, since then, I've physically been sharpening my skills, doing more into marketing. But recently, I got the role to do marketing at Sonaton.
[2:55] So, I'm currently with Sonaton doing marketing, and it's been great working over there so far. And this is just a brief story of the entire thing.
[3:06] Excellent. About what you did in school, I'm just here wondering if you are just like me, because I did biology in school, but here I'm in the marketing industry.
[3:19] Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, I did biology. And I'm wondering, what course did you read in school? You know, just to inspire others that marketing is something that they can delve into, even if they are doing any of the sciences.
[3:36] I did economics, and at Lago, you get to combine some courses, but I did it combined with linguistics, and I feel they're helping me in data marketing as of now, and marketing generally, because economics has to do a lot of analyzing, dealing with data, and processing information.
[4:00] Linguistics has to do with language, so when it comes to stuff like copywriting, and fine-tuning information, like communications. So even though I did different things in school, I think I sort of aided my work in marketing as of now.
[4:18] So it wasn't something I'm really grateful for. Probably if I'd gone straight to do marketing, I wouldn't have got these different dimensions that I have currently.
[4:28] Excellent. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's still all good for me. Yeah, because I can see the linguistic part of you really shine in your write-ups. Yeah, they are really deep, and I can see that you are good with copywriting, too.
[4:43] Excellent. Coming to Ternaton, what do you do at Ternaton? What's your specific role over there? Are you in charge of Ternaton's marketing research?
[4:56] Or maybe you just go and hang around with them. My work at Ternaton is really interesting, and it's something that I think most Ghanaian businesses need to consider.
[5:16] It's really critical about content marketing, and specifically, it has to do with blogging. So my main responsibility at Ternaton has to do with blogging.
[5:24] So if you go to blog.ternaton.com, you'd see some of the content I'll be writing over there. You get to see a lot of information concerning our products and services.
[5:37] And basically, general advice on several things. Yeah, we do a lot of things over there, too. Part of it has to do with market research, because when it comes to content marketing, the research is quite different.
[5:53] You need to know how to do your keyword research. You need to know what the audience are looking for, because if you write any content at all, then you won't get any audience at all, because the audience are looking for something specific.
[6:09] And if you don't give them that, you won't get them to come to your site. It's not research in particular, but we need to do some research to do your work well.
[6:21] I mean, you're right, because before you sit in front of the PC to write something for your audience, you need to know what they actually want before you decide to put anything down.
[6:37] Yeah, true, true. Let's come back to the article, the main reason for this interview. So why that article? Why that market research article? Why did you decide to write that article?
[6:53] So as I said, I did something different in school. That was my first degree. So I'm currently pursuing my master's, which is in marketing. I'm doing an MA in marketing strategy at the Western Ghana Business School.
[7:06] I mean, there was this course, we did the first semester of the program, where it had to do with market research. So going through it, I mean, I was really amazed at what research could do for us, because I've been self-taught altogether.
[7:21] So some of these things, I didn't have a lot of knowledge about them. So once I got exposed to it, much of it was sort of traditional, doing surveys, walking to offices, having your sample size and system to do those things.
[7:38] So I decided to write this article through a little light of the theory and also give a sort of digital perspective to it, because as a professional, I'm trying to focus more on the digital than marketing in general.
[7:55] Yeah, okay. But is there a difference between the traditional market research and that of the digital? Apart from just the word digital, I don't know.
[8:06] Yes, yes, there's a lot of difference. When it comes to the methods, they are the same. You can do a survey by visiting your sample or the population, those you want to survey.
[8:18] You can go to them physically, talk to them, maybe have a questionnaire you've prepared, and you can go to them physically and present it. But mostly, that's really expensive.
[8:29] Try to start up, I mean, you can't afford to pay researchers to go around doing this kind of thing for you. And it involves a lot of money that you have to come back, get an analyst, go through everything, make sense out of the data, because it's not just about collecting the data. It's about making sense out of the data.
[8:49] So definitely. Yeah, you can do this and reach the survey. You can also do a survey using something like Google Forms. And you can probably get the same responses from the same target audience that you're looking for.
[9:04] So there wouldn't be much difference. Yeah, sometimes we have to do physical interactions, like if you are testing a product, it's a physical product, you are testing it.
[9:14] You need to get some people into a room. You need to get them to use the product, or if it's something you can eat for them to eat, then afterwards, they can go through your survey.
[9:23] That one, you have to do it physically. You cannot see if you eat your product through them. Yeah, yeah. That's definitely not possible. But in most cases, you can do something that you can actually reduce your cost and still give you similar results.
[9:40] So there's a real difference. And I think it's important for our environment, because it's difficult running a business, starting a business.
[9:49] It's the same environment. So you just have to do this and care these extra costs just too much. But as I had to rewrite this without the node, okay, you can do this.
[9:58] Something as simple as the tweets. I've been seeing this a lot. Companies could just tweet, okay, have you taken this product of ours from like a restaurant?
[10:09] You can't say specifically, have you taken this meal of ours? How did you like it? And you see the comments, you see the comments. Then from the comments, you know, okay, maybe the salt was too much.
[10:21] The pepper was too much. Or we can do this. We can add this to improve the recipe. All these market research, right? Exactly. Exactly. Because we are basically trying to understand the needs of the target audience.
[10:34] And that's market research. Understanding the needs of the customer. Trying to attract. Because if you don't understand what they need, you would be providing something different.
[10:45] If you provide something different, they definitely want to pay you for it because they don't need it. I believe businesses should read your article if they have started researching about their market.
[10:57] I think the first place they should go is to read your article. And just as I said, it is really deep. And you actually give all that they need to start their market research, including the definition of a market research.
[11:12] So that's some stuff for that. But do you think businesses in Ghana are not doing this well? Or I don't know, on a scale of one to five, how are you going to rate businesses in Ghana when it comes to digital?
[11:31] I think we should put the digital in here now. When it comes to digital market research. Sure. I would have to put this in perspective of my own opinion.
[11:42] Because I haven't come up for it. I haven't worked with a lot of organizations to give a very representative. But basically, I think we can do more.
[11:53] And out of, did you say out of five or 10? On a scale of one to five. One to five. Yeah, around two. Yes, I see a number of organizations doing social media research and sending out surveys for people to fill.
[12:13] But generally, looking at especially startups, yes, most of these things come from sometimes even multinational organizations which are present in Ghana.
[12:23] If you want to go more into indigenous organizations, see that it's not a lot. And sometimes, I don't know if they are complementing their efforts with physical, traditional methods of research.
[12:40] But the errands, we need to do more because we need to understand what the Ghanaian wants in order to give it to them. But with the mention of the phrase market research, some businesses will think that it is such a serious thing to do because we are out here.
[13:04] We are trying to make money. After all, the people are coming in anyway. So why should we decide to set maybe, I don't know, a week or a month aside to do a market research on our product or services?
[13:24] So how can it be easy for them? I don't know if there are tools for them to use in the digital marketing research. Okay, that is pretty much the example I want to say.
[13:37] Nokia was ringing, even as of now, Nokia has like, I think it's a television or something. It's like the phone that has the largest number of sold units of all time.
[13:52] Even as of now, but Nokia is now struggling with the phone industry. Why? Because probably, they didn't see or see some of the things that were going to change in their industry.
[14:07] And I don't know if they did any research or how if they did a research and they got the results, how they reacted to the results. But I'm sure if they had done some research, they would have seen the likes of Apple and what they were doing.
[14:21] They could have easily adapted. So yeah, it's really important. You may get into a right way. I'm just trying to do what you've always known.
[14:33] And in the article, I said that doing market research helps you to identify opportunities. Because as businesses, we have opportunities. Exactly.
[14:43] Businesses, every business has business development offices. So you need to keep looking for ways to improve your business because once you are not doing that, eventually you're likely to sort of fade out because other businesses are like seriously innovating, looking for new products and services to introduce and stuff.
[15:03] And another thing is that it's not just about improving what you currently do. Two market research can identify that. We can introduce new service, can introduce these new products which will go ahead to help us to achieve our mission.
[15:20] And all of these things are also going to bring you revenue anyway. Definitely, yeah. And yeah, so if it's just something like a short survey, that's going to help you to do that.
[15:32] I mean, why not put the investments? So even though it takes time and it may take money, it's also important because you need to keep doing it.
[15:40] You need to keep finding things that will help you to deliver. You need to keep innovating. Yeah, yeah. So how can it be easy for them? For instance, I'm trying to start a business or maybe sell something.
[15:56] But then I have this notion that market research is tedious. So how can it be easy for me so that I don't get overwhelmed by all the activities involved in market research?
[16:13] Okay, first of all, I think depending on what you want to do, you need to have a clear objective. There's something called exploratory research.
[16:23] So basically, you don't have a theory or such a research. You just want to find out who is good for finding opportunities. Yes, you can just do a general survey.
[16:34] How do you find our survey? What do you think we can do to improve? I mean, try to inquire, see what you can do differently because you can't always know everything.
[16:44] And if you're saving someone, you might ask, well, just ask them, okay, what can I do to help you better? So do these things. You can have more ideas and you don't have to go too far.
[16:53] Once you have the objective, you can easily find some cool ways and means to do it. I already mentioned something like a tweet. You can do a tweet and boost it.
[17:03] Once you boost it, you'll get the responses within a short time. Depending on your following. Just a simple tweet, right? A few hours. Yes, you can even get it in a few hours.
[17:14] Personally, I use a lot of, what is the name? Google Forms. Yeah, Google Forms are also good. There are others like SurveyMonkey. You can easily set up a good survey form and share it out.
[17:29] And before you realize you have some good responses. And sometimes you don't even need to go the extra mile to create something. By simply looking at your social media analytics, you can get good data to see.
[17:42] If you look at your content, you see, okay, this post had 20 likes, this one had 10. This one had this. You can look at them, map them. Okay, between those that have the low and those that have the high engagements, what are the commonalities?
[17:58] You can look at, okay, this one, you have real human pictures in these pictures. This one, they are just graphics. These ones are videos. And you see, okay, my audience likes videos.
[18:09] Why not? Yes, more videos, my content. Then, yeah, improving. Before you realize your followers are growing and you are getting more customers.
[18:20] And I mean, you have a good business. Sometimes you don't have to go outside of the box. Yeah. I mean, you have all within. Yeah, really. I love that in your last bit of sentence you ended with.
[18:34] You get more customers because, you know, ultimately business is about getting more customers. Yeah, it's not the number of likes, the number of engagements is customers.
[18:47] Oh, yeah. Yes. There was this time, we had this conversation around social media engagement. I was saying that when it comes to social media, I think you have to be careful about what you are boosting.
[19:02] Because when you are boosting something, you are paying for it. So you need to sometimes, what people post, you just look at it and this thing, they won't waste their money on this.
[19:13] And in the end, it's not going to bring them revenue. So sometimes you have to consider what you are doing and how it's going to bring revenue back to you because in the end, that's like the end goal.
[19:29] But, you know, sometimes I don't blame them because, you know, with every post, there's an objective. So probably maybe it's just to increase impression.
[19:40] Take it. That one. That's a good objective. But about the tweets, about just tweeting to as a market research activity, don't you think the business has to build its audience first, right?
[20:00] Yeah, because it will be very, very difficult for just anybody to respond to your tweets if you have like zero people. So I think the business has to build the audience, like get the actual customers on these social media platforms.
[20:23] Then you can initiate that simple tweet as a market research activity. But yeah, of course, that's based on if you have a lot of fluent, you know, you may have to be a lot of background work to get people to come in by taking the pool.
[20:39] If you don't have a lot of fluids, you can do it the other ways, like Google form, but if you have a physical business and you have like customers walk into your place, you can have a suggestion box.
[20:53] Yeah, yeah. Just like what the banks have been doing. Yes, yes. Because sometimes it's just the best way to get them to give you free information, like free advice on what you can do to help them.
[21:08] For a restaurant, you can have a short survey that maybe after eating or something, you just give it to them. Since this is something that you are giving to them, then you don't need to make it very long.
[21:19] But just a few questions. Okay, to answer the satisfaction levels before they leave, just attach it to the menu or something. I mean, you can get a lot of information from that.
[21:31] So it doesn't have to be digital to all the time. If you have a physical business, some of these most of my ideas can really go a long ways. Excellent, excellent.
[21:41] Thank you so, so, so much. You know what, let's go for a short break and when we come back, we'll talk about what you will talk about working in this market research on the business side of things.
[21:52] So when we come back, that's what we'll be talking. Welcome to the first check-in for this season. Now for those who may not know, check-ins are quick updates from me to you out there.
[22:09] And they are usually less than a minute announcement for you. And they can come to you at any time as the season progresses. In today's check-in, I want to reach out to my colleague the guitar marketers to join me.
[22:21] You see, I want to start another segment of Colours of Social Media podcast. And this segment will be made up of conversations between me and my fellow the guitar marketers.
[22:32] We'll talk about the experiences, campaigns, and the idea behind the post that make online. So if you're a guitar marketer, I want to be part of the conversation.
[22:43] Just send me an email. My email address is enochappierjr at gmail.com. Again, at gmail.com. Welcome back, you know. Thank you again for joining me.
[23:08] When we were living for the break, we were talking about how it can be easy for business to start your market research. And you gave a couple of nice ideas, which I think is a good one.
[23:20] But right now, I want to know, are there types of digital market research here? Okay, when it comes to research, research in general has about four types.
[23:31] They are not specific to digital marketing. You can use them for both digital and offline research. Basically, these are quantitative and qualitative.
[23:44] You also have primary and secondary. Basically, for primary and secondary, it has to do with where you get the information from. They are doing a primary research.
[23:55] It means that you are sort of going directly to customers and asking them, okay, that's direct primary. And when you talk about the secondary, it has to do with using the products sources, which are not directly from the customer, but it can also help you.
[24:11] Something like an industry report by an independent organization. Definitely, you can learn a lot about your industry in such a report, which will help you to improve your business.
[24:22] So, that will be a secondary effect. Those who have qualitative, when it comes to qualitative, sometimes it cannot really quantify some things.
[24:32] It's not a yes or no thing. They say, how did you find the bill? You can say yes or no. And someone may say, okay, I like this. Someone may say they didn't like it.
[24:43] And the reason for saying they like it or didn't like it. I learned something different. So, usually for something which is qualitative, you might want to be there and deliver the questionnaire or the survey to them because you may have some follow-up questions because it's not just a yes or no thing.
[25:01] Unless maybe you want to provide some space. So, if you want to do something like this digitally, you would have to provide space. Okay. If they're two years or no, you have to give them the opportunity to give the reason why.
[25:14] The reason. Yes, because I may say I didn't like the food because the salt was little. Someone would say they didn't like the food because the salt was so little.
[25:27] You get a dynamic here. Yeah, I get it. You don't provide them the opportunity to explain. They would think that, okay, some of them don't like it, some of them don't like it.
[25:35] So, I have to change something. What do you think when you're there? Because it's the same thing. Yeah. Same thing, some like it, some don't like it.
[25:43] So, you need to give them that room. So, basically these are, those are how qualitative is something you can actually quantify. And sometimes that one, you can easily deliver it online because it's mostly yes or no kind of questions that's yes.
[25:58] But for businesses that do it, things like food that's like have to do with perception, service, those kind of businesses. I think it's more, it's better if you provide explanations when you are doing any kind of research.
[26:14] Cause services is basically experience. And from the experience, it's a feeling. You have to explain it for you to get the actual sense of what they are saying.
[26:26] So, basically these are the four types of market research that you can do. And it applies to both digital and offline works anyway. Oh, okay.
[26:35] So, it's not like we specifically have some type of market research that works for only the guitar. And some that works only for traditional.
[26:46] They all work by excellent. Yes, even when it comes to the methods, something like a survey. The survey could be delivered physically and it will also be delivered online.
[26:57] I mean, you can do a pool. Yeah, you can do a pool online. So, when it comes to the types and the methods, there's not a lot of distinction between digital and offline.
[27:11] Yeah, and even Instagram, you can even run a pool on Instagram. So, it's just more like right on your fingertips. You can do it anytime, anyway.
[27:23] Sure, sure. So, when should you do market research as a business? Is it when you are planning to start a business or when you think that sales is not going well?
[27:34] Well, I think there are a number of situations that can trigger the need for a survey or a research. But it's good that you occasionally have research, whether you are a business talent or not, because going back to one of the importance of doing research is to identify opportunities.
[27:56] The customer or the client, we know is going to tell you that, okay, you can do this to help us better, which even make you more money. But when you go to them and you ask them a few questions and you say, okay, I can introduce this new product, or I can add this variation, because a lot of people tend to like this variation.
[28:16] And this is more opportunity for you. So, if you are doing okay, you're okay with your private margins, there's no need for a new sort of market to say, then you would have been sitting on like potential growth.
[28:30] And every business should be looking at, not just doing okay, but also growing. So, I'm not too aware of how exactly you should do this, but vertically you can do it maybe once in a year or once in a few months.
[28:50] Just thinking of maybe quarterly. Yes, or you can even just have an ongoing system. The suggestion box is an ongoing system. Yeah, and reviews.
[29:02] Yes, reviews for instance, product reviews. It's constantly ongoing. Anybody who comes to the review is an opportunity for you to do something better.
[29:12] Excellent, excellent. Yeah, I think so. I think we all should inculcate reviews in our activities. Wherever you get a chance to get feedback from your customers, you should get it whether on social media or through a vendor event.
[29:34] So, in conclusion, what can you say about market research? Just you giving the platform. What do you want to say about market research? What are we doing right?
[29:47] There's this great quote I sort of stole. Let me, let me, is it doing business without advertising? It's like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.
[30:01] I told you I've read the article through and through. Buys to attend us in Britain. Exactly, so then that article is based on the second part.
[30:11] You know what you are doing, but nobody else does. Because sometimes you can get so engrossed in your work. If you are the top, you don't even see the need to go ask your customer.
[30:24] Please, what can we do? Even though we know we are operating in a world class, what can we do to go even higher? Because in our current world is foundation, everybody is sure that everybody is higher.
[30:38] All companies are looking for opportunities to do things. So if you get to a certain level and you feel you are okay, you don't feel big to be an actual customer.
[30:48] What you can do is you are offering to them. Product or services. You may not be around like in the near future. Because everybody is like, yeah.
[30:59] So this is what I have to say. And it's not expensive too. I've tried to focus on like simple, simple things. So that it doesn't look like, oh, it's too much to do that thing.
[31:12] So we can't do it. I focus on simple things to let everyone know that you can do this thing. It's not too difficult. And it's not going to take a lot of money.
[31:21] You just need to have a goal. Decide the method you are going to use. Decide the period. Once you run through the period, you take the data, analyze it.
[31:31] And when it comes to analyzing, if you are not good at analysis, but I want to get someone to do this data so that they can draw some sort of good conclusions so that they can go back to your business and do something different.
[31:42] This is what I think is the driving force of the whole supply route. Exactly. You know what? I think if a business decides to do a market research, they should first go and read the article.
[31:57] Since everything in there, it is well written. You can actually understand, even if you don't have any idea about marketing. So I think once they decide to do a market research for their business or a service that they provide, they should go to your website and read the article about market research.
[32:21] And they can always leave comments for me to respond. If they feel I haven't typed something on the article, they can leave a simple comment and actually give up them.
[32:30] Excellent. Excellent. So, you know, about this job that we are in, this is more like a trivial question that I ask everybody. I just want to know, what do you love about this job?
[32:43] Wow. Yeah. See, one thing that I frankly need marketing is that, sadly, the thing is, it's too much, too good. If you don't have the pricing, you will just give up.
[32:56] Yeah. Because things are changing. You may think you know how to use Facebook now. I live over in the next six months time. There will be updates coming too fast.
[33:05] You will just give up. And you are dealing with human beings. You are trying to please human beings here because as an employee, we are trying to manage our relationship with the mass market.
[33:14] So if you are unable to keep going with the people that are trying to deal with, you are going to sort of feed off. In the whole psychology of trying to understand people, what they want, and how you can better serve them.
[33:30] That's one of the things that drives me. And when it comes to my choice of going to the digital markets, I think it suits our environment. Yeah.
[33:39] A lot of businesses don't have access to $10,000 to be able to go for wine. Yeah. They don't. But at least they can get hundred cities to run.
[33:50] They'll give them like some sales, like really sales in like a week or two. There's some of the reasons why taking the decision to be a marketer, but also to be a digital marketer.
[34:02] I think social media marketing came at the right, the perfect time. Yeah. Because a lot of people are benefiting. People have both businesses from like social media, not paid social media, but like organic social media.
[34:20] Yes. And people are building businesses. So it's making people's dreams come true, actually. That's the exciting part of it. Interesting. Thanks, man.
[34:33] So Enoch, if I want to get in touch with you, I know where I can find you. I have your number. We are in the same digital marketing group, so I can always reach out.
[34:44] Even if you block me, I can broadcast your name in the group that I want to talk to Enoch. But I'm wondering about the other people who are listening to this episode.
[34:56] Where can they find you? Well, I'm on the very popular social media networks with Instagram, Facebook. Recently, I'm more active on LinkedIn, because I'm trying to grow one of my pages over there for where they're inspired to.
[35:12] I'm more there. But basically, if you shoot me a DM on any of the platforms, I'm available. If you had an email kind of person, they shoot me an email at Enoch at enochkabangay.com.
[35:27] I think in the description, you can add that request and everyone will get it. That's it. Excellent. Thanks. Thank you very, very much. My pleasure.
[35:39] My pleasure. I hope we do this more often. Definitely. Definitely. We will do this again. I'll bookmark your website. So the moment I read an article over there, I will come over you.
[35:51] Let's discuss this. I read this. I don't understand this. But for now, thank you so, so, so much for joining me. Sure. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who listened.
[36:09] Thank you for joining me in this episode and a special thanks to Enoch for accepting my invitation. For all the links and important tests Enoch talked about, look through the channels.
[36:21] If you loved what you've had, subscribe to this podcast so that you don't miss out when an episode and when you are done, like, done subscribing, share with your network.
[36:31] My name is Enoch. This has been the Colours of Social Media Podcast. See you sometime next week.