This blog contains a summary of the recently published Insights Paper which draws on Tigo Tanzania’s experience in using qualitative research to gain a deep understanding of the resource-poor women’s segment. It offers operators practical guidance on how to analyse existing customer data, and how to complement this with alternative forms of research. It also describes how operators can use consumer insights to create “personas” which can help to ensure that the mWomen offerings clearly meet the wants and needs of their target market. We encourage you to have a look at both the Insights Paper and the report which outlines Tigo’s research findings.
Why do consumer insights research?
The first step when designing an effective mobile offering for low-income women is to gain an understanding of this segment. As documented in the GSMA mWomen Marketing Handbook, it is necessary to generate consumer insights that can inform the offering’s design and its associated communications and distribution strategy so that all are appropriately tailored to the target audience. In particular, the research should be used to ascertain:
- Consumption and recharge patterns specific to women
- How to best reach and communicate to women
- The type of information that women value
Start with existing data
Operators should start by exploring their existing data to see what can be gleaned by applying a gender lens to quantitative data from previous brand trackers, segmentation studies and customer satisfaction surveys. Such analyses may allow operators to compare women to the overall market, providing insight on women’s brand awareness and key purchasing criteria, for example. Data mining, through call log analysis for example, can determine whether there are gender differences in consumption patterns, such as call duration, time of day that calls are made, frequency of calls and who the calls are made to.
Customer Registration Information (CRI) obtained during SIM sales can be used to provide more detail on customer demographics such as gender, location, etc. However, the reliability of this data varies by country, depending on factors such as government requirements for identification when purchasing a SIM and the rigour of the data collection on the ground. This issue can be compounded in the case of women since SIMs may be registered under the name of husbands, brothers or other male relatives, particularly in conservative settings where cultural norms may limit women’s mobility and external interactions.
Complement with qualitative research methods
In general, quantitative data can be useful in determining broad patterns and in generating hypotheses, but is unlikely to provide much insight into why female customers behave as they do. Complementing quantitative data with qualitative research in the field can help fill this gap and provide a deeper understanding of the drivers of behaviour and attitudes. Face-to-face techniques such as in-depth interviews or focus group discussions, can be particularly powerful when researching women, as they provide the opportunity to build a rapport, address more personal topics and read body language.
Develop personas and segment the women’s market
Once the consumer insights research phase is complete, the target group should be further divided – women are not a homogeneous group. Personas derived from qualitative research can be a valuable tool in understanding the different characteristics of women at the base of the pyramid. Personas are fictional yet realistic characters created to represent different user types. A user persona is a representation of the goals and behaviours of a hypothesised group, in most cases, derived from data collected from interviews with users. They are captured in 1–2 page descriptions that include behaviour patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character such as name, age, location or family status.
Personas are useful as they bring the target market to life and can help those working on an offering to consider the goals, desires, and challenges faced by potential users. They can also help inform an understanding of how the offering would fit into the daily lives of potential users. Personas also are a good way to make sure that no core characteristic of the offering is overlooked, such as pricing, marketing, communication, distribution, customer education, etc.
When sufficient quantitative data is available, the operator might try and establish a sub-segmentation of the female population. Then, personas may be used together with market segmentation, where the qualitative personas are constructed to be representative of specific sub-segments.
We hope this has inspired you to think about new ways to gain valuable consumer insights and we look forward to hearing about the lessons you have learned and the resulting mWomen offerings you have developed. Please write to us at mWomen@gsma.com if you would like to get in touch with a member of the team.