Development market research (DMR) and its evolution

DMR has been defined as a cost-effective methodology that provides relevant information and analysis about people's needs, demands, and receptivity for developmental services/products [8]. The techniques employed include focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, sample surveys, and retail audits, among others.

Some people oppose DMR because they consider it a "brain-washing" exercise; they mistakingly identify DMR with social cause marketing (SCM). However, DMR and SCM are similar only inasmuch as both involve the adaptation of concepts and techniques that have been developed in the context of business to socially beneficial ideas and causes [9]. But whereas SCM aims to bring about behavioural changes, DMR is change-neutral enquiring into existing behaviour patterns.

A detailed comparison of the administrative and operational aspects of RRA and DMR Administrative arrangements can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1. Administrative Arrangements: Comparing RRA with DMR

*extracted from RRA publications

Non-profit academic versus commercial RRAs

RRA's main objective is for experts in the different development subjects to come face-to-face with grass roots level realities and to learn "...from and with rural people...gaining from indigenous physical, technical and social knowledge" [4]. It is thus a truly academic research exercise though with an action orientation. In contrast, DMR conducts client-based research dealing with a development problem(s) as a business proposition in a cost-effective manner. Every DMR starts with a work plan that includes budgetary and timing details that are negotiated between the commissioning organization and the DMR agency.

Table 2. Research Design: Comparing RRA with DMR

*extracted from RRA publications

Research design (See Table 2)

Problem formulation

RRA displays flexibility in its problem formulation and research objectives, whereas DMR usually has more clearly defined goals that result from a business agreement between the commissioning organization and DMR contracts.

Research focus

RRA began by focusing on the agricultural problems facing small farmers. Since its inception, its focus has been widened to include studies of health care facilities [11], nutritional problems [12], non-formal education [13], etc. But, as Aslop [14] says,

"...partly because the information is difficult to collect, and partly because much of the work has focused on technical information, techniques for assessing micro-level social and economic information remain the province of sociologists and anthropologists often demanding professional training and a lot of time. There has been some development in the relatively rapid collection of this type of material, particularly in the area of participatory research but this article appeals to field workers to continue to develop and publicize cross-disciplinary techniques for the collection of project-related social and economic information."

There are thus even among some of the RRA exponents those who plead for a greater concern with rapid and systematic data collection techniques. Yet there are others who maintain that one of "...the delights of RRA is the lack of blueprint, and the encouragement to practitioners to improvise in a spirit of play" [4].

In contrast, DMR has access to a list of well-tried techniques of which the most appropriate are chosen prior to the onset of field work with the possibility of changing the techniques if the field situation should demand it. DMR, by adapting established market research techniques, is geared to tackle a variety of development problems. It may be used to answer questions about specific projects such as:

· What are the perceived benefits and advantages of the project for the various parties who will be affected?
· How effectively is the project carried out?
· How effective are the project's communication strategies?
· What is the demand for the output the project sets out to encourage?

"In the developing countries the use of market research to define problems and formulate appropriate solutions in the food technology sector is minimal. Many research projects aimed at improving the postharvest handling of foods or at combating malnutrition are initiated in the complete absence of reliable data on the intended market" [15].

Research components (See Table 3)

RRA and DMR are made up of similar components: secondary sources provide vital background information for subsequent field studies. DMR refers to "desk research", to denote all the information that can be collected from behind a desk, which may also include primary data collection by means of phone calls. However, DMR, with its business-like approach, also compiles computerized archives of the desk data collected. This offers the benefit of economies of scale for both syndicated and omnibus research. Cost-minimization is obviously of greater importance to DMRs conducted by commercial agencies than for RRA researchers who are usually cocooned in publicly-funded research institutions.

RRA's and DMR's qualitative studies have very similar if not identical ingredients, except for the fact that DMR is using the concept of key cultural indicators [7] to enable field workers to appraise local cultural elements rapidly and effectively. Also, DMR chooses its respondents on the basis of carefully selected sampling techniques, such as stratified locational units, which, in an agricultural context, may involve geographic categorization according to predominant cropping patterns that can be established by means of aerial photographs. Each of the DMR components is carefully pilot-tested and validated. RRA is much more subjective than DMR and relies heavily on the expertise and commitment of field researchers.

Quantitative surveys are almost completely ruled out as part of RRA; if they are conducted at all the answers are supposed to be memorized by the researcher who, at a later stage, completes the questionnaires. RRA's initial strong opposition to exclusive reliance on quantitative data is still reflected in the continued rejection of statistics. In DMR there is emphasis on the complementarily between the different research components and hypotheses that emerge from desk research, and qualitative studies are tested by means of quantitative studies and vice versa.

Table 3. Research Components: Comparing RRA with DMR

*extracted from RRA publications

Field studies (See Table 4)

RRA's field staff is made up of multi-disciplinary teams of academic researchers and/or other experts. As Chambers [4] suggests, "All too often senior officials and academics who pronounce and prescribe on rural development lack recent direct knowledge, and base their analysis and action on ignorance or on personal experience which is decades out of date. RRA can bring them face-to-face with rural people. It can keep them up to date and can correct error. It can provide learning which is intellectually exciting, practically relevant, and often fun...The word "rapid" can also be used to justify rushing. . . the "R" of RRA should stand for "relaxed", allowing plenty of time."

For instance, the expert technologists participating in the Sondeo teams' field studies may genuinely want to discover the problems facing farmers, but it is questionable whether they possess the necessary communication skills to do this successfully.

Second, language poses another problem; outside experts who conduct RRAs often do not speak the vernacular or the particular dialect of the population with whom they interact. They are involved in RRA because of their expertise in one or other of the development-related disciplines and/ or official position rather than for their communication skills. RRA researchers are obviously aware of the difficulties and disadvantages of conducting unstructured in-depth interviews or brain-storming group discussions in this way and therefore stress that," ... interpreters should be chosen carefully to ensure that they understand the questions...The interpreter should not be physically between the speaker and the person being interviewed, but rather beside or slightly behind so that his or her function is clearly indicated" [13]. Third, if RRA is no more attempting to be rapid, but rather to be a relaxed exercise, does it still qualify as a RA method?

DMR has different skill requirements for the different research components: desk researchers are recruited for their ability to collect and collate relevant available data - most of them have studied history; qualitative researchers usually need some social science training as well as expertise in interviewing and communication; quantitative researchers, whose task it is to collect answers to structured survey questionnaires, in general only need to be able to establish rapport easily with respondents and to record reliably the information gathered. In cases where the survey involves quota sampling, which puts great responsibility on the field investigator, some knowledge of sampling techniques will be necessary. All qualitative and quantitative DM researchers are expected to communicate directly and freely with their respondents; they never work with the aid of interpreters.

The strength of DMR investigators lies in their interdisciplinary communication skills, and their weakness is their lack of expert knowledge of the numerous disciplines concerned with development problems; the reverse holds true for RRA investigators.

Table 4. Field Studies: Comparing RRA with DMR

*extracted from RRA publications

DMR is almost exclusively conducted by indigenous DMR firms - for instance, UNICEF contracted with the Indian-based MARG to provide information on the perception of family planning among some of the poorest South Indian women; SRG companies in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand have done DMR on such subjects as rural development projects, vasectomy among Moslem males, urban family planning development programmes, and ORT. These DMRs range from concept testing to evaluation.

DMR firms based in Third World countries rely entirely on indigenous investigators, who receive special training for each of the DMRs in which they get involved. Obviously, the pre-project training period inversely relates to the experience of individual investigators.

The total indigenization of development research not only ensures that all investigators tune into the local cultural wavelength and that a new profession is created to help absorb, for example, the many unemployed graduates in India, but it also should increase the self-sufficiency of developing countries.