The Zimbabwe All Media and Products Survey (ZAMPS) produce data on media, marketing (including advertising) and public relations (PR) sectors. The data is meant for purposes of providing players in the aforementioned sectors with insights on what people listen to, read, watch and what they buy. The surveys are done quarterly and the findings are made available to the public. Ultimately the surveys produce data sets which better inform product and service providers on how to effectively conduct their marketing initiatives. It’s said that ZAMPS is probably the biggest research study done locally which sample sizes big enough to constitute 6 000 nationwide one-on-one interviews.

A Brief Look At ZAMPS

ZAMPS falls under the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation (ZARF). ZARF  conducts one-on-one interviews in both rural and urban areas. The 3 main focuses of the interviews will be to establish readership, listenership and shopping trends. The people interviewed will be aged anything from 15 years upwards. Other metrics considered are gender, location and living standards measurements. The surveys are conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The 3 major languages used are Shona, Ndebele and English. The findings collected from these surveys provide important insights for any business operating locally.

Players in public relations, marketing, advertising and media are the ones who commission ZAMPS. The surveys not only provide data that help businesses understand the market; they also provide data on fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Reports or research findings are published on the ZARF website or are made available on compact discs that can be purchased. Earlier on I mentioned the players that commission the ZAMPS. These players agreed that the funding of the surveys is put together through a 1.5% levy on all forms of advertising done locally.

Some Of The Highlights From This Year’s First Half

ZBCTV Viewership

Most of the times I have heard people complaining about poor programming and biased reporting on ZBCTV. I haven’t watched ZBCTV in years. Looking at this year’s first half it’s clearly showing that viewership on ZBCTV is going down. In the second half of 2018 national viewership stood at 24% and went down to 18% in this year’s first half. Urban viewership has fallen from 35% in last year’s second half to 29% in this year’s first half. Rural viewership has plummeted from 15% during the 2018 second half to 7% in this year’s first half. When looking at provinces it’s interesting that viewership has actually gone up a bit for Bulawayo and Harare. Second half 2018 viewership was 42% (got up to 43% this year’s first half) for Bulawayo. For Harare, it was 34% in the second half of 2018 and got up to 36% during the first half of this year. All the other provinces have been experiencing declines in viewership.

DSTV Viewership

Nationally, urban and rural viewership stood at 26%, 39% and 15% respectively during the second half of 2018. In this year’s first half they all went down to 19%, 28% and 11% respectively. Matabeleland North and Mashonaland Central have experienced slight increases in viewership i.e. from 24% to 25% and 16% to 17% respectively. All the other provinces have decreased with only the exception of Matabeleland South that has remained the same.

Market Penetration For Basic Products

The usage of certain basic products has gone down with the exception of rice and mealie meal that have marginally gone up. Looking at the first half of this year I’ll list in order of most used to least used. Cooking oil (82%), Sugar (78%), Rice (76%), Airtime or Data (75%), Salt (74%), Tea and Flour (both 63%), Mealie meal (58%), Bread (56%) and Fresh Milk (38%).

Market Penetration For Luxury Products

Luxury products usage has gone down over time since last year’s second half to this year’s first half. Clear beer has dropped from 16% to 10% and cigarettes have dropped from 12% to 9%. Spirits have marginally gone down from 8% to 7% whilst opaque beer has dropped from 11% to 7%. Alcoholic fruit beverages or cider have dropped from 11% to 4% with wines marginally down from 5% to 4%.

Market Penetration For Personal Care Products

The same trend of decline in product usage has also characterised the personal care products arena. Petroleum jelly has gone down from 78% to 63%, hand and body lotion (62% to 54%), dental products (49% to 40%), toilet paper (49% to 39%), toilet soaps (47% to 41%), deodorants (28% to 20%) and hair care products down to 22% from 28%.

Mobile Network Providers Used

This metric was looking at the number of people using particular mobile network providers. The mobile network providers in Zimbabwe are Econet, NetOne and Telecel. Econet usage as a mobile network provider was 90% in the second half of 2018 and remained the same for this year’s first half. NetOne was at 22% in last year’s second half and went up to 24% in this year’s first half. Telecel stood at 10% last second half and went up to 11% in the first half this year.

These are just some of the highlights from the ZAMPS. It’s important as a business to get a hold of such data to help inform your marketing and overall business strategy. If you closely look at the stats you can actually infer some invaluable insights that can aid you in making wise business decisions.