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0 By Amanda Ellen Nicola Jojo
WE are living in an age of volatility as such reliable and accurate information is relevant when it comes to running a business. It ensures organisations to ride the waves and be ahead of the curve and this can be achieved through thorough market research.
The Entrepreneurial magazine caught up with a professional association for the market research industry, Market Research Association of Zimbabwe. The association connects, supports and develop market research thus ensuring that there is quality and consistency in research practice. It has an eight member board made up of diverse professionals such as marketers, lawyers, researchers, and Information and communication technology personnel.
Below are the extracts of the interview with the President of MRAZ, Patson Gasura
What inspired the formation of Market Research Association of Zimbabwe?
The Market Research Association of Zimbabwe (MRAZ) aims to ensure and maintain quality, professional research practice in Zimbabwe among members and the broader research industry. There is a need to get due recognition as an industry and MRAZ also becomes a platform for clients to seek redress in case of unprofessional conduct.
We also want to promote formal information sharing and foster networking for researchers and their audience. This will be achieved through regular workshops and annual conferences where research papers will be presented. We will also strive for harmonisation of research methodologies and costing structures on similar profile projects to ease decision-making by clients. Significant work from industry practitioners will also be promoted via MRAZ digital assets.
Kindly share with us the scope of services offered at MRAZ. In line with the NDS 1 how are these services going to impact business growth and other entrepreneurial activities as well as other macroeconomic fundamentals and policies of Zimbabwe as a whole?
Conducting trainings and workshops to upskill researchers and clients alike in data and information analytics
Ensuring that there is fairness in costing by research members, harmonisation in the approach to conducting research in terms of tools and methodologies
These services will allow businesses to make better informed decisions which they can rely on, be it in product development, consumer and other market related research work.
It allows for clients to have choice on agencies to work with knowing that they will deliver the same level of work as they are guided by the same work ethics
And by providing a source of redress, MRAZ allows clients to have peace of mind that their investment into market research is protected.
At a macro level there are numerous benefits to having an association that brings professionals together and MRAZ is no exception. The country is in need of reliable market information to enable investors both local and foreign to make informed decisions and having MRAZ helps with that through the publications, workshops that we spoke of earlier.
It will also ensure that potential foreign investors can confidently acquire research services on the country from Zimbabwe and they are assured of quality service given our affiliations to local and international bodies.
Promoting professionalism and networking is at the core of MRAZ. Kindly breakdown why this is important within the profession of marketing?
As research is a critical growth component in business, having a networking platform allows for cross pollination of ideas, expansion of research dimensions, sharing of technologies all which help with data analytics and decision making. Marketers are the source of information and insights used in decision making and it is critical that the function delivers credible information for decision making and this is where research and MRAZ come in. MRAZ provides and enables this networking of professionals who may otherwise not meet.
Who is eligible to be part of the institution?
Private, public and NGO sectors are all welcome to become members.
How has been the reception of the institution so far?
The reception so far has been very positive and encouraging. We anticipate that as we fully become active we will only grow further.
The boundary between the physical and a virtual world is not clearly visible because of the digitalisation age. To what extent will the digitalisation impact the facilitation of your services?
Digitalisation will be key as this is where most data now resides. All of our services will be strongly driven by digital assets, just like any other entity globally.
What are the 2023 resolutions for the association?
2023 is a year of consolidation really, where we need to consolidate the works of the last 2 decades and get the organisation fully established both physically and electronically to deliver the value it was created for. We also want to get our membership numbers up and deliver the first 2 of our workshops and networking platforms.
