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Serge Mumbu manages Target SARL, one of the most famous Research Agency in DR Congo. This Agency does exist since 4 years now yet its activities’ spectrum is going beyond Congo borders and is spreading all over the sub region countries such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Congo-Brazzaville. Member of ESOMAR, the worldly organization of market research professionals established in Amsterdam, and recently member of the Giant WIN/Gallup, Serge Mumbu is setting at specific goal of promoting the practice of reliable and objective market research in DR Congo. Besides the quality work that is realized by his Agency on a daily basis.

Interview.     

According to the Congolese public opinion, very few people are trusting opinion poll results and researches of market are also considered sometimes as unreliable. What is the cause of this skepticism?  

This skepticism is mainly due to the publishing of survey results that are eccentric and/or contradictory especially regarding media and politics. Surveys related to popularity of Government members, certain CEOs… it happened many times that surveys published at the same period presented results that were diametrically opposed or media and celebrities that always hold the highest positions in surveys conducted by some Agencies.  

What exactly Target, the Agency that you are managing, is doing to make sure that results of its surveys be a true reflection of consumers’ opinions?

One the one hand we scrupulously attend to comply with international standards of ESOMAR that is a worldly organization of professionals dealing with market researches based at Amsterdam in Netherlands, and on the other hand, we work with a sense of full transparency as regards the conducting process concerning our researches. Easy access is available to our researches’ documents for people who wish to have them: The used questionnaire, surveyors selected for research as well as research data base and any participant to a research that might break or tempt to break instructions or directives (neutral attitude towards respondents, objectivity during both data collection and analysis, respecting respondents’ confidentiality, etc…) shall be automatically punished. He/she shall either be suspended or expelled from the team. And finally, there is the quality control, called “back check” in market researches’ jargon, which consists in contacting at least 10% of respondents to make sure that information collected by surveyors are really true.     

Target does exist since only 4 years. What background experience do you take advantage of to conduct quality researches? 

The mechanism called Target does exist since 4 years, yet Target staff as well as consultants have got broader experience regarding market researches. Concerning myself, I have been operating in this field since more than 15 years now with lots of researches and conferences in my résumé in DR Congo as well as abroad (Rwanda, Burundi, Congo Brazzaville, South Africa, Turkey etc…). With the evolution of new technologies, there are also trainings which are organized for staff to allow us to realize new form of market researches including telephones and internet.   

Already member of ESOMAR, European organization of market researches, you have just joined Win/Gallup, one of the biggest market researches’ organizations in the world. What are these organizations bringing to you?

These organizations are bringing to us their experience. We have the opportunity to stay in contact with professionals of other more renowned and experienced agencies, discuss with them researches’ difficulties and/or constraints in post-conflicts countries such as DR Congo, and especially receiving useful advises relating to performance and/or competitiveness. There are also a wealthy documentation makes available to all members (publications, interventions in conferences, etc…) and finally, the possibility to broaden the Agency address book in a globalization context. We are directly contacted for researches and we receive proposal from all over the world.

We are almost done with the first year quarterly, what are Target projects for the remaining of 2015?

We are wishing to broaden Target standards researches (statistics on media, preferred personalities, key figures on mobile telephony, advertisement impact, etc…) towards other cities such as Pointe Noire at Congo Brazzaville and Kigali at Rwanda. For that purpose we hope that we will be collecting the required minimum subscriptions by the end of the 1^st semester in order to launch field surveys in July. There is also our project of consumers’ panel for permanent online researches on various subjects (consumption, internet, mobile telephony, etc…) besides conferences with students and professionals with a view to promoting the practice of reliable and objective market researches in RD Congo.