Just how cheap is Africa?
I was having a discussion with an expat a few days ago, who was visiting South Africa from Europe. He was marveling at how cheap our prices were for a typical basket of products. Indeed, standouts like Angola aside; it does feel like Africa is relatively cheap compared to USA and Europe. However, after some […]
Do we need an African Continental Free Trade Agreement?
If you check just about any shelf in supermarkets across Africa, you’re likely to find quite an abundance of imported products: Chinese clothes and small items, canned fish and vegetable oils from Portugal, milk products from Holland, rice from the Americas, chocolates from Switzerland, and a host of other products which could actually be sourced […]
Black Friday Insight
Retail had high hopes for Black Friday, November 23. However, in traditional stores, results weren’t as good as expected: A 10% drop in spending and a 2% drop in sales volumes compared to 2017. [Vend] It wasn’t as if consumers didn’t get the message, they did. Discounts, too, were on or above par with 2017. […]
Case Study: A research approach to achieving Targeted Market Share.
Back in 2015, our client, a major beer manufacturer in Mozambique, set itself a target of reaching over 90% share of the beer market there. The time span was “in the short term” – so that meant pretty much within the next few months. Our client was certain that the goal was realistic, even though […]
Responding to Market Dynamics – A Frontline case study
In Tanzania, liquor sachets – 50ml and 100ml packs, had contributed a significant share to the overall liquor category, and were a key driver of spirit sales. It was pretty simple: The sachets were low priced, and had very decent alcohol levels – good bang for the buck from the consumer point of view. The […]
Getting it done
One of Frontline’s strengths is its historical culture of getting top management directly involved in the physical field environment of the accounts or projects that they manage. This is not just a case of spending time in hotels, or schmoozing with clients, either. It’s about getting into the field and directly experiencing the situation, the […]
From LSM to SEM
Research information stands or falls on its ability to acceptably reflect reality using only a very small part of that reality in order to do so. It would be well-nigh impossible to measure, say, the opinion of every single individual in a country the size of South Africa. So we rely on a sample of […]
Township Hair Salons are paying their way.
By Kevin Abraham In my wanderings around a couple of local townships, I see a proliferation of shipping containers on the streets, and many of these house salons and barber shops. Container or otherwise, these salons are an integral part of the informal economy, and serve as community meeting points, where people gather to chat […]
Why Quant Data Counts
BY Kevin Abraham 10.05.18 For those of you who might not know, Soweto is a large “township”, with a population of around 1.6 million people. It’s part of the Johannesburg Metro, but has its own, unique characteristics. Frontline recently completed a full retail census of all FMCG handling outlets in Soweto. We’ve counted, mapped and […]
Bad Briefs
BY Kevin Abraham 23.04.18 In my last article, I tried to make the point that a bad brief is just asking for project troubles. In that mode, here are a few types that might resonate with you: The Hairsplitter: A brief so minutely described, and restrictive, that it’s really a wonder that the client actually […]