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| Business |
| Retail audit firm holds workshop |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 09 June 2003
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08:47:48
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Research Info Master (Reima), a local retail market audit firm on Thursday held a workshop in Blantyre to sensitise producers of the importance of measuring product impact on the market.
The workshop, conducted in conjunction with Reima’s Zimbabwean equal Probe Market Research, drew participants from a number of local manufacturing companies.
Alec Bhero from Probe Market Research said retail audit, which is a survey measuring consumer sales and retail level, is crucial to producers because it gives them an insight of how their products are performing on the market.
He said apart from having an opportunity to monitor the product on the market, producers have a chance to estimate demand, analyse sale and even use the information to develop marketing plans based on market volumes.
“This helps to set distribution targets and measure impact of private brands,” said Bhero, whose organisation is a member of Gallup International, renowned global retail audit group.
He said in the country the research could cover 600 retail outlets and a number of products for different producers.
But one participant questioned whether this kind research will work here, where retail markets are scattered and not organised. He also wondered how reliable data collectors could be.
“The field researchers do rotate and there is no chance of conniving to cook up data,” said Bhero.
Unofficial figures say there are about 23, 000 formal and informal retail outlets scattered across the country.
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