Hipólito “Polo” Murillo is the CEO and founding father of Axios Intelligence, a market analysis company primarily based in El Salvador. Polo has been efficiently operating Axios for the previous 20 years, main the corporate in pioneering CATI methodology in El Salvador. Dave Lovo of Echo Market Analysis sat down with Polo to speak about Axios and market analysis in El Salvador broadly.
Inform us about Axios Intelligence. What does Axios do finest?
Polo: “Our firm has all types of purchasers, it has industrial and industrial purchasers, we work so much with actual property improvement, and we work so much with corporations and worldwide establishments, such because the American Embassy, the State Division, the World Financial institution, and so forth… I might say that presumably, though we do industrial research, marketing campaign analysis, and shopper product research, maybe the 2 areas the place we’re strongest are actual property improvement and public opinion research.”
The place does Axios match into the bigger market analysis economic system in El Salvador?
Polo: “In El Salvador, the analysis enterprise is split into totally different tiers. And you’ve got the highest tier of corporations, those that make investments probably the most in analysis, industrial corporations or multinational corporations. For instance, phone corporations, shopper corporations, shopper merchandise, and related corporations.
Most of those corporations rent native workplaces which can be half of a bigger community. So, these are sometimes corporations which can be primarily based within the area, however they belong to worldwide networks, or they’ve their very own community that covers all of Central America and in some circumstances just a little little bit of the Caribbean and so forth.
So, we don’t compete with them as a result of we don’t have the community, we’ve got correspondents, however we don’t personal it. One other tier inside industrial analysis is native or regional corporations, regionally we’re speaking about El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, which do rent corporations like us which have a footprint extra oriented to native or fast regional presence.
So we work in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador with out a lot downside. A few of these corporations that haven’t any relationship with massive networks rent us. We compete on the high with a few of these networks that additionally serve them, however we additionally compete on the backside with different smaller corporations.
After which we’ve got the final tier, which is probably the most aggressive and the most affordable, made up of smaller corporations, utterly nationwide. And you’ve got plenty of freelancers, lots of people who simply do focus teams, individuals who labored earlier than in different analysis corporations, however they do research ad-hoc for them. After which, there are a number of niches that come out of this industrial scheme.
For instance, an enormous area of interest is governmental or NGO analysis or overseas establishments. So, we take part with overseas establishments, however not with the native authorities. So, we, for instance, have a few tasks with USAID, we’ve got tasks with the embassy, we’ve got tasks with…
Now we have achieved tasks, however we don’t have any proper now, with the World Financial institution and so forth. And there’s one other area of interest, for instance, which was massive at one time and now it’s massive, however for a distinct variety of causes. We’re now not working in that, which is the political area of interest. So, public opinion, and politics, are different niches.
However we haven’t labored in that space for a few years. After which there are different niches particular to sure industries which have very particular wants. So, for instance, in the actual property improvement business, all the businesses are native, they’re comparatively massive tasks, and their wants are extremely particular. So, I consider that we’re presumably the most important provider of research for native actual property improvement, we work with all the big builders, and they’re advert hoc research as much as particular research of various kinds of actual property improvement intelligence.”
What are the principle challenges with conducting market analysis in El Salvador?
Polo: “In El Salvador, previously, probably the most significant issue we had was the safety danger of doing face-to-face surveys. Let’s say a shopper requested for a nationally consultant survey, there have been massive areas of the nation the place the pollsters couldn’t enter for safety causes.
Right this moment, that’s a lot improved, however there’s nonetheless a little bit of an issue as a result of even at typical, middle-class ranges, many individuals reside in residential neighborhoods with restricted entry, or gated communities, so for face-to-face that makes it tough, proper? As a result of earlier than, the one downside we had in that realm was with the very excessive socioeconomic lessons. Now it’s trickled down, and it’s a way more generalized factor to have, to reside in communities which can be utterly gated.
Within the case of CATI, greater socioeconomic lessons are underrepresented. So, we don’t have a lot response from folks of a comparatively excessive socioeconomic class or earnings degree. This causes us issues, for instance, with purchasers who’re growing actual property buildings or residences value 200 thousand {dollars} or extra as a result of their prospects are the identical individuals who don’t reply surveys.
These surveys can’t be obtained by way of on-line panels both, as a result of databases are fairly restricted in El Salvador. Databases in El Salvador are primarily comprised of the center socioeconomic strata, so there’s not a lot information on the decrease socioeconomic strata, not to mention the higher socioeconomic strata.
One other significant issue is the dearth of professionalism within the insights business within the nation. First, there’s probably not a market analysis profession path right here. The individuals who come to market analysis on this nation, a lot of them don’t actually have a primary statistical background. I imply, I’ve had discussions with colleagues the place they simply didn’t perceive the distinction between a consultant pattern and a comfort pattern, which is primary.
The shopper doesn’t know both, so the shopper goes and hires the most affordable or the one who speaks the perfect as a result of they haven’t any method of differentiating between somebody who is aware of their stuff and somebody who doesn’t. Shoppers can undergo suggestions from different purchasers, however there’s nothing structural. In order that’s an issue.
The opposite factor is that it’s very tough to do B2B research in El Salvador. That’s, when the shopper is an organization that makes a product to be bought to different corporations, and they should communicate on to the individuals who purchase their product, until the shopper provides us the contacts and helps us contact these folks, it’s virtually unattainable.
El Salvador wants significantly better information at a macro degree. As for the information that we’ve got, I labored in the US earlier than, so I do know what publicly accessible information in the US on various kinds of issues appears like. For instance, if I wished to understand how a lot industrial house is out there and empty in San Francisco proper now, with two clicks I may discover it. In El Salvador that will be unattainable.
“…we should attempt to transfer from being information suppliers to being information analysts and promoting the evaluation, or the worth added, somewhat than promoting the methodology.”
In El Salvador, there is no such thing as a details about the worth of corporations; all corporations are non-public; there is no such thing as a details about a lot of macroeconomic components, and there’s no dependable, aggregated details about virtually something.”
We’ve talked so much about challenges immediately. What may be the appropriate solution to transfer ahead from this level within the business?
Polo: “I believe probably the most essential points that we have been speaking about at ESOMAR Mexico is that we should attempt to transfer from being information suppliers to being information analysts and promoting the evaluation, or the worth added, somewhat than promoting the methodology. So proper now, we’ve got within the pipeline a few merchandise extra oriented in the direction of producing information somewhat than in the direction of promoting any particular methodology.
To ensure that all corporations to outlive, we’re going to need to go just a little bit that method; that’s, we’re going to need to search for our niches, and we’re going to need to attempt to promote merchandise that provide extra – that offer you a constant, recurring return. We have to orient in the direction of merchandise that aren’t solely worthwhile but in addition sustainable.”
