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Globally, lockdowns limiting people’s movements, coupled with a genuine fear of contracting COVID-19, have delivered a brutal blow to the hospitality industry. In Sub-Saharan Africa the lockdown rules in some countries have spanned from bans on the sale of alcohol in addition to strict curfews, intensifying the financial predicament for restaurants in particular. 

Borderless Access has done extensive research into the meal-buying habits of people living in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically South Africa and Nigeria. Here we examine data on people’s buying habits, whether short-term or permanent, with regard to visiting restaurants, ordering takeaways, opting for drive-through choices, ordering meal kits to be cooked at home, buying ready-made meals from grocery stores, or choosing to only cook at home.

 

As Covid-19 has turned the world on its head, few industries have been as shaken up as that of restaurants and hospitality. Worldwide, restaurants and eating establishments have taken a beating as lockdown has resulted in closures, changes and restrictions to what used to be a burgeoning industry.

Borderless Access conducted research to understand eating out and ordering-in habits and how these have been shaped – both temporarily and permanently – by the ongoing global pandemic. Unsurprisingly, ordering in has been by far the most utilized activity in recent times… ordering food for delivery, ordering take-aways from a restaurant and ordering/ collecting food from a fast-food chain have been the top activities globally in the past 3 months, and both of these have been particularly well-utilized in both the UAE and Saudi.

With the changing lockdown rules, 56% of people globally have eaten at a restaurant in the past 3 months, with this number being higher in the UAE and Saudi, at 68% and 60% respectively. Ready-meals are much less common than ordering in, while fresh produce deliveries and home-meal-preparation kits are by far the least common ways of preparing food.

How bot-enabled research can help businesses & brands develop a deeper understanding of personal/household hygiene habits in order to meet the needs of African consumers, and increase their business impact.

Many years ago, in the days of one-way communication, brands dictated their terms to consumers, and consumers had no option but to accept them if they wanted to purchase the brand in question.

With the rise of smartphones, social media and the internet of absolutely everything, the communication channels began to sway, shifting the locus of communication control. Two-way communication between brand and consumer was born, with brands starting to listen to their consumers and hear what they had to say. Taking this a step further, brands are now starting to take on human characteristics, from look-and-feel to tone and personalisation to establish deeper connections with their consumers.

[Bengaluru, India, 16 August 2021] Borderless Access, the digital market research product and solutions company, announced a new appointment with Vittesh Kalambi as Vice President - Panel Solutions.

Vittesh Kalambi joins Borderless Access with over 18 years of experience in Research & Analytics and will now lead the Panel Solutions business across geographies with a strong focus on maintaining double-digit growth and momentum. He will also help enhance existing solutions and introduce new tech-enabled research products and capabilities.

In his previous roles, he has contributed greatly towards the development and execution of complex cross-functional projects in Global Category Management, Business Transformation and Team Management. At Genpact India, he co-led the MR Services for the Analytics CoE. He also led the Marketing Analytics practice at Absolutdata and was the Head of Analytics at GSK Consumer Healthcare, India.

“The appointment of Vittesh is an extension of our pursuit to constantly grow our capacity and capability in key industry verticals, expand our regional reach as well as further empower our research and analytics capabilities”, said Ruchika Gupta, CEO, Borderless Access. “We are thrilled to have him join Borderless Access. His business acumen and wealth of experience will be an asset to the company while expediting our journey towards our vision.’’

About Borderless Access:

Borderless Access is an award-winning digital market research product and solutions company. It provides access to experiences and life moments of engaged consumers and niche audiences to a global clientele of MR firms, Ad Agencies, Consultancy firms, and End Enterprises in need of rich, intelligent, and actionable quant-qual insights through technology and consumer-analytics-driven new-age research solutions, BA Health, BA Insightz, HealthSight, SmartSight, Panel Solutions, and our proprietary 7 million+ hyper-niche digital panels across 39 growing and developed economies of the world.

 

 

There are very few industries that have been adversely impacted by the pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns as severely as the restaurant sector. According to the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), 7 million direct employees of the restaurant industry have been hit by the pandemic and the industry body had approached the government of India for a bailout package to help sustain them through the worst phase of the pandemic. The situation is similar in other parts of the world, as people’s habits regarding eating out has changed since the pandemic.

How has the pandemic affected the various marketing mediums, and marketers’ thinking? Has there been a paradigm shift towards digital mediums versus traditional channels of marketing? Which media channels are trusted the most by consumers?

eSports are becoming increasingly popular around the world, both in terms of participation and viewing. Borderless Access conducted research across 15 countries to uncover more about this choice of entertainment. Today, we look specifically at fans who watch others play video games and eSports in the UAE and KSA.

Throughout the world, e-sports are taking off as an alternative to traditional video games, heightened by the steep increase in digitisation that the world is currently witnessing. eSports began in the late 2000s as amateur engagements and have risen to popularity in the last decade; transitioning into professional, organised multiplayer tournaments with huge followings.

Purchasing a vehicle is a crucial decision that a consumer makes. Commonly such a decision-making process starts with the financial aspects of the purchase in consideration. Then where does the consideration of automobile safety features come in the process? How much importance does a consumer give to safety ratings before purchasing a vehicle? This is especially important in developing markets where automobile safety standards are only now improving and several safety features are generally not offered as a standard option, making consumer knowledge and decision-making all the more critical.