Thanks to the information age, the world is drowning in a sea of data – but the team at WhyFive Insights is offering a lifeboat solution to anyone involved in the brand-building business.

If American media is to be believed, 90 percent of all the data in the world today was created in the past two years. And even though a technology-lag softens the impact in South Africa, we haven’t escaped the data-flood that that often arrives in a tidal wave of scary charts and tables that land up being dumped in a dark place and left to die.

How sad. Imagine if those facts and figures were unpacked, re-packaged and presented in a way that made a practical difference to the way marketers understand the relationship between their brands and the marketplace – and how to put a smile on a customers face. Say hello to WhyFive.

“Two and a half thousand years ago, a Greek bloke called Heraclitus said ‘there is nothing permanent except change’ – but you’d be forgiven for thinking that the global market research fraternity never got the message!” says Alan Todd of WhyFive. Together with long-time ally Gordon Hooper, he’s spent years developing unique skills in the field of number analysis and interpretation, but key to the success of the new WhyFive venture is their partnership with media and marketing specialists Stuart Lowe and Brandon de Kock.

“We all met doing research work in the magazine publishing world,” explains Todd, “so we’ve been building methods and models together for the past five or six years. In the process, we’ve all come to realize the immense power of telling engaging stories rather than reading bar charts as a means of making research accessible. So we’re intent on saving the market research world – one less PowerPoint slide at a time!”

“Try to get people to diarise a ‘presentation of market research findings’ and you’ll be amazed how quickly they develop medical conditions or need to fly to Bloemfontein,” adds WhyFive creative director Brandon de Kock. “We’re changing that by showing our clients that it can actually be, dare I say, exciting. So, for example, we know trend-data is important, but we’re equally excited by ‘trendy data’! As a small, agile team, we’re in the business of asking relevant questions in a consumer market that’s in a state of perpetual motion. Then it’s about using storytelling to turn the answers into insights – and insights into executable strategy.

“Creative presentation aside, the company philosophy is firmly grounded on contemporary methods – with obvious benefits. “There are so many pros to embracing technology”, explains managing director Lowe, “starting with the notion that there’s huge value in getting answers to today’s marketing problems today – not next month or more typically in six month’s time.”

Speed of response is only one of many reasons why WhyFive has embraced online methods according to Lowe. “It allows for surprisingly deep and meaningful engagement with respondents, primarily through partner databases. In other words, we do not rely on building and grooming a panel of ‘respondent lab-rats’ – we just don’t believe that is the way to go.”

Going the online route is also far more cost-effective than traditional ‘face-to-face’ methods and, perhaps most importantly for markers, it is highly effective in targeting tricky-to-reach segments. “Traditional research manages to reach the lower end of the market very well,” explains Lowe, “but for a variety of reasons, a clipboard has always been a fairly blunt instrument if you’re trying to survey anyone who lives behind a security fence!”

WhyFive’s flagship BrandMapp study, that it describes ‘the most powerful brand-planning tool currently available in South Africa’, vividly illustrates this point. The natural evolution of a research survey that began life as ‘TopEnd’, BrandMapp has effectively been in existence for the past five years.

The results are underpinned by a massive sample of more than 20 000 South Africans in the ‘economically active sector’ – ie those individuals living in households with monthly income in excess of R10 000 who are able to look past basic survival and start building their wealth. That’s nine million South Africans who are responsible for a staggering 86% of consumer spend – more than R2 trillion.

Todd is quick to point out that philosophy and technology are equally import in building WhyFive’s unique offering. “Today’s marketplace isn’t a bed of roses – it’s a World War One trench: messy, noisy, confusing and bloody dangerous. Survival depends on having an extremely clear picture of your consumer and that’s where research is still invaluable.

But if you’re not open to new business models – joint ventures with clients, collaborations with research partners, putting syndicated surveys together etc – then you risk being left behind. We are all committed to turning research practices on their heads: employ fresh thinking, share ideas rather than jealously guarding them, embrace collaboration – and don’t be afraid to explore and experiment with new, potentially richer metrics like ‘human feelings’!”

There are numerous ways in which companies and brands of all shapes and sizes can benefit from the services and products of WhyFive, from inclusion as brand filters or in the form of imbedded questions in BrandMapp through to purchase of bespoke brand profile reports and brand studies.

To find out more about the opportunities on offer, please contact WhyFive head of sales Megan de Kock on 072 060 5241 (emailmegan@whyfive.co.za) or email info@whyfive.co.za.

For any media enquiries, please contact Jackie Busch at Liquidlingo on 082 376 4446 or Email jackie@liquidlingo.co.za