Full Guide on the leading Market Research Companies in Kenya [2024 Updated]
Before we look at the Top Research Companies in Kenya, you must understand what is entailed when doing Market Research in Kenya.
What is Marketing Research?
Marketing research is an undertaking that involves the gathering of data, its analysis, and interpretation through a set of techniques to allow a business to either discover its target market or to understand it better. A business can do marketing research on its own, or, it can employ the expertise of a third-party company that specializes in marketing research. 
Why do Marketing research?
Businesses employ marketing research to get information that will allow them to create better products/services, improve customer/ user experience, and optimize marketing communication to better achieve the communication goals whether it is attracting quality leads or getting better conversions. Ultimately, marketing research helps businesses to understand how to best position their products and services favorably towards their target market, and here are 5 crucial reasons you should be doing marketing research:
- In-depth customer understanding –
Do you know who will buy your product or service and where you can find them? Do you know their expectations? Do you know the price points they will be comfortable with and how often they will be willing to purchase from you? Do you have a clear picture of your ideal customer persona? Do you know how many of your ideal customers exist in the market you plan to distribute your products in? Marketing research will help you answer all these questions and you will be well on your way to creating effective sales and marketing campaigns.
- Competitor analysis –
Do you know who your competitors are? Do you know the price points for their products and services? Do you know their market positioning? Do you know their approach to the market? Marketing research will help you answer all these questions and allow you to either find gaps in your competitor’s strategies that you can capitalize on or learn from their working strategies and perfect them to work even better for you. - Market feasibility study –
You do not want to launch a product or service then discover that the market is not ready for it or will not take it up for one reason or another. Market research helps you test your idea or product before you launch it into the market.
If market research is done correctly, your product or service will instantly connect with your target audience because you would have perfected both the offering and go to market strategy. - Business growth –
Customer demands change and products go through a product life cycle that spans from introduction to decline. These things are inevitable and continuous market research allows you to either improve existing products/services to keep up with customer demands or introduce new products/services to replace the ones at the decline stage.
This will keep your business growing and you will scale into new markets and new industries irrespective of where you initially began.
How do you do marketing research?
The Marketing research process has six steps as outlined in the table below:
| Step | Outcomes |
| 1.Defining the problem or opportunity | The outcome here is clarifying what you are trying to learn from the research. Maybe you want to know how many potential buyers exist in a certain locality because there seems to be an opportunity there but the problem is you do not have statistical data that will allow you to confidently decide to enter that market. Maybe you need to understand what age groups, gender, occupations are the top promoters of your offering to target them better and you do not have this information. The problem/opportunity could be anything and you need to clearly define it. |
| 2. Developing the Research Plan | The outcome here is to determine both the sources of data and methods of data collection that will be relevant to your research objectives which were clarified in step one. Will secondary data suffice or will you need primary data and what will be your sampling plan and methods of contacting and engaging respondents? This needs to be clear as day before moving on to step 3. |
| 3.Collecting data | The outcome here is having data and information that is relevant to your research objectives. It can be either qualitative or quantitative or both. This is the most crucial step of the process and requires the most investment in terms of time and money. |
| 4. Analysing the Data | The outcome here is organized data that can be analysed through human interrogation or advanced data analysis tools. This is dependent on the extent and complexity of the data collected. |
| 5.Presenting the findings | The outcome here is reporting the results of the research in summarized formats that can facilitate decision making from key decision-makers possibly in research and development, marketing and management. |
| 6. Making informed decisions | The outcome is putting the analysis into action. Did you find that women aged 32-40 years from the coastal region appear to be the leading force among your customers? Then expand into that region and tailor-make products or marketing messages to them! The possibilities could be endless, however, after research, the findings need to be able to influence decisions and recommendations need to be actionable. |
Top 5 best market research companies in Kenya
There are several market research companies in Kenya. Here is a top 5 list of research companies in Kenya:
1.Growthpad Digital Consulting
Growthpad digital Consulting is an integrated digital consulting company in Nairobi, Kenya that offers digital research and planning services. It is one of the top research companies in Kenya. If you are looking for a company that can do comprehensive market research that will ensure your digital growth, then look no further.
With digital at the core, Growthpad digital consulting can help you transform your business and gain a competitive edge in the current digital age. In the current global arena, digital research planning is inevitable for any organization and business worth its salt. Feel free to contact Growthpad on 0721314242 or email [email protected]
2. Infotrak Research & Consulting
Infotrak Research and consulting are one of the full-service market research companies in Kenya. It was established in 2004 to serve the Pan African Market. In Kenya, they are located at 103 Manyani East Road, Off James Gichuru Road – Nairobi. In Nigeria, they are located at 15 Allen Avenue, Ikeja – Lagos.
3. Sagaci research
Sagaci Research is a Pan-African market research and intelligence firm, founded in 2012 by ex-BCG consultants. They provide multinational companies, consulting firms and investors with market research and market intelligence solutions, pivoting their local presence and expertise, in enabling their clients to make better strategic decisions. As one of the research companies in Nairobi – Kenya, they are located at Jadala Place, 4th Floor Ngong Lane, off Ngong Road Kiliman.
4. Ipsos Kenya
Ipsos is one of the leading research firms in Kenya that provides accurate and reliable research that enables their clients to act faster, smarter, and bolder in their decision-making. They are located at Acorn House, 97 James Gichuru Road, Lavington –Nairobi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5gMDNOeaDs
Nielsen research takes the approach of marrying proprietary Nielsen data with other data sources to help their clients around the world understand what’s happening now, what’s happening next, and how to best act on this knowledge. Nielsen is a global measurement and data analytics company and they are among the best research companies in Kenya. They are located at 14 Riverside Drive, Belgravia Building 1st floor – Nairobi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6niyfYiNDcs
There are many research firms in Nairobi as well as many research consultancy firms in Kenya overall and each can serve different needs for different clients. There is no excuse for a business to neglect to conduct market research. Whatever your business needs are, you will always find market research companies or research consultants in Kenya that will be a fit for you.
