A Time To Reflect

charukesi March 31st, 2004

Beware! Big Brother is not just watching…. He is getting ready to actually open your brain and look inside it to see the processes inside. And all in the name of research…. shudder, shudder….

Have been reading a lot about neuromarketing, the neurological study of a person’s mental state and reactions while being exposed to marketing messages. I keep writing (and ranting) about how marketing agencies are constantly in the search for ways and means of getting under the skin of their consumers…. And how research agencies keep coming up with fancy techniques that are increasingly intrusive and objectionable….

India as a market is still not so saturated and consumers here not so yet so cynical that marketers are thinking about such high-tech options…. We can make do with focus groups and surveys for a while…. But in the saturated Western markets, where reaching the consumer is a big big challenge for the marketer, it looks like anything goes….

Neuromarketing is the one of the latest such techniques…. Agreed, the good old focus group is passe….. Abuse and misuse has made it the F word of market research…. And most other techniques are still very subjective and limited in their effectiveness….. So, when all else fails, turn to science to unravel the big black box that is the consumer’s mind ?

And I am not even talking yet about the ethical issues behind peeping into a person’s mind, all for the sake of marketing….

Imagine a scenario when marketing agencies will no longer use the services of market research agencies but scientists for their research. And soon, we will have ‘professional respondents’ here too who have learnt to control and manipulate their brain waves to suit the research needs ?? The mind boggles at such thought….

Or worse, we will have market research agencies claiming to be experts in neuroscience, offering such services at ‘competitive rates’ to marketing agencies. In a scathing analysis, Jennnifer at brandmantra says, When people misuse low-tech options, it’s quite probable that they’ll misuse newer high-tech options. I’m not averse to new technology; I am averse to making it available to users who don’t often understand the basic principles…. Exactly what I mean….

The latest I read was at beyond-branding about neuromarketing being used on children….. ENOUGH !

• Qualitative Research Trends , Branding and Marketing
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charukesi March 29th, 2004

I received a call yesterday on my mobile phone from a Delhi number…. A familiar gruff voice said, namaskar, mein Atal Bihari Vajpayee bol raha hoon… I didn’t listen to it further but I am sooooo angry…. How dare the PM or anybody I do not know call me on my cell phone?

I think this is worse than SPAM….. With SPAM mail, I have the option of not even looking at the mail and deleting it straight…. With such phone calls, I am forced to pick up the phone in the middle of whatever I am doing…. India does not yet have a ‘telephone marketing’ culture, and I dread the thought of it….

Talk of intrusive advertising….. To think about it, all advertising is intrusive, because it is rarely welcome….. or sought by the customer…. unless he/she is in the ‘buying mode’ and is actively looking for information…. However, we have come to accept advertising almost as a way of life, and in most cases, do not bother too much…. As with television and print advertising which we know is a ‘necessary evil’….. At worst, television advertising is irritating, but rarely intrusive….. And print is even less so….

This very interesting research (link through adverblog) reports such findings and discusses another recent medium in detail, the internet. While consumers loath telemarketing and SPAM, they accept Web advertising nearly as much as they accept TV commercials and most welcome print advertisements.

I am sure by web advertising, the author refers to pop ups and banners, and NOT SPAM mails….. Thinking about it, pop ups are much like TV ads… Irritating and distracting….. But letting the choice of whether or not to view the ad rest with the viewer*…. And like I said, I believe that consmers are not averse to advertising that is subtle, unintrusive and interesting…..

Then, why do advertisers insist on forcing messages down the throats of consumers? How does it serve their purpose at all? I would think that on the contrary, customers would be completely put off by the advertisement and the advertiser….. Ask me how I feel about the BJP right now, for instance!

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* As it happens, another qualitative study discussed by adverblog suggests that 50% of pop-up ads were closed even before loading was complete.

• Advertising
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charukesi March 26th, 2004

Chanced upon this article ‘Survival of the fittest’ in David’s blog (link thru brandmantra)….. his insightful analysis on why so many weblogs get abandoned after the initial euphoria…. Of all his principles, one particularly striking ‘when the words don’t come, work on something else’…. sound advice…. I often read blogspots that seem oh, so contrived…. based on a have blog, will write kind of principle….

David also follows this up with another interesting article on blog like you mean it… for those of us who do not have the freedom to out our names and identities on our blogs…. Thanks, David for these thought-provoking posts

While on this, I did not know that there were books written on weblogs…. check out The Weblog Handbook…

• The World of Indsight
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charukesi March 26th, 2004

Have put up a few pics on my fotolog as part of a series called ‘Windshield Views’. These are all pics of and on the road, shot from the car….

I love being on the road…. driving long distances…. it is so much fun just taking off in the car, not knowing your route or destination…. and ending up at places which you have never thought about…. and not to forget the fact that in these drives, the journey is really more important than the destination….

Have a look sometime…. I hope to keep adding to this series….

• My Roadblog
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charukesi March 25th, 2004

I have not been updating my blog of late. Been busy with a free-lance project that is eating into my time. I am enjoying this project, not because the kind of work I am doing is new or different. But because the place I am working out of is. I am conducting some interviews over the telephone with people living in Canada and so have been working out of a call centre (to make the phone calls). Obviously this involves working at odd hours during the night but there are so many other people also working (in the call centre) that it doesn’t feel so bad.

I have never been inside a call centre before. Though I lived next to one in Bangalore (the Accenture building which also housed their call centre / BPO business). I used to watch the activity though the night and wonder about what kind of people would work through such weird times of the day and night…. and on a regular basis. Here I was, losing sleep over the fact that I had to wake up really early or work really late (life can get so ironical at times)…. And to think there were people doing it every day and night….

What I saw inside was a bunch of really young people….. wearing casual clothes (who can see you on the phone?!)….. bright and chirpy through the night…. And I again wondered why they were doing this…. Sure, the pay is good (considering their age and level of education / experience)….. But this is a no-growth road….. So, why ?

And I chatted with the supervisor there wanting to understand these people better….. What motivates them?? Once a researcher, always a researcher, I suppose…. Among the many things he said, one statement stuck to my mind….. Am still trying to figure it out…. he said oh, these people work here for the glamour….. I was dumb-struck…. What glamour?!!! I cannot imagine anything less glamorous than working through the night listening to complaints from people you don’t even know or ever want to know…. But, if this guy is to be believed, young people find such a job ‘glamorous’…. And his colleagues agreee with him…. Though they are not able to explain this ‘glamour’ better….

I am still thinking - what could it be? The fact they are working different hours from other people? Or that they speak with foreigners over the telephone everyday? Or is it the sheer excitement of earning good money straight out of college ? I have heard often enough people talk about advertising as a glamorous profession….. Though having seen it at very close quarters, I know better….. But advertising I can still understand…. From the outside, it might seem all parties and models…. But a call centre job ?

• Indiawatch
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charukesi March 15th, 2004

A friend of mine recently started her blog with a post on a topic that has been on my mind for a while. On her tryst with the telly. She wonders through the post at the way educated, intelligent women soak up whatever trash is churned out in the form of popular entertainment. Very thought-provoking…..

As for me, personally, my K quotient* is pretty low as is my tolerance for all things soapy on television. However, ratings for such soaps show without doubt the popularity of serials which run on for years and years….. Without really going anywhere in terms of storylines…..

What makes people watch such soaps where people live in palatial, outlandishly garish houses, in joint families extending to over fifty people at times….. where everybody is forever plotting and planning for the downfall of the next member of the household…. Where the women especially are GOOD or BAD…. And man, are they GOOD when they are good….. Unsufferably and cloyingly so…. And when they are BAD, you can make out from just the size of her bindi and the weirdness of her eye make-up…..

Where the proceedings are so far far removed from real life and real people…..

Or are they? Is fact truly stranger than fiction? is that the reason for the popularity of such soaps?
Or as Ana says, is it about us seeking drama and excitement…. since drama in our lives consists of what to make for dinner and what to wear to work the next day…..
Or is it as my aunt says, it’s such good fun to see other people’s problems…. I know I am not the only one….
Escapism ? Those few minutes of thoughtless nirvana ?
Or just sheer relief….. Thank God it’s hapening to these strangers and not to me….. (I can quite understand this sentiment, especially in the context of these extended joint families!!)

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*For the uninitiated, the queen of Indian soaps is Ms. Ekta Kapoor with her fixation for soaps starting with the letter K.

• Media Matters , - Television
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charukesi March 12th, 2004

Dina writes about the ongoing debate on qualitative vs quantitative studies (her link through James Robertson). Having read both sides of the argument, she says I suspect both are a little extreme - and call for a case-by-case decision.

I was naturally intrigued; after all this is a question that all researchers keep asking and answering all the time. My own personal experience has taught me to steer clear of such debate because to me the discussion is pointless. To put is most blandly, both methods have a lot going for them, and a lot not too. And selection of research methodology is entirely case-dependent, as Dina says.

My first eye-opener was at the LSE where I was sent to sessions on quantitative methods kicking and screaming. I was so convinced of my own niche as a qualitative researcher that it took me a long time to realize how incomplete my knowledge, and therefore expertise was. We want you to be a fully trained social researcher, said my Prof there. And he went on, how can you say now whether the kind of work you will get will be qualitative or quantitative in nature….. True words, indeed……

If there is one thing that all these years of research experience has taught me, it is ‘methods’ is as ‘methods’ does. And it is fairly naive to believe that any one method is essentially superior to the other, generally speaking. But, I also know there is no end to this debate….. it goes on….

• Qualitative Research Trends
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charukesi March 11th, 2004

Earlier this week, I was at a conference where the focus was on ICTS for development in India. Among many interesting speakers was Prof. Kriti Ramamrutham from IIT Bombay. The Professor is working in the Media Lab Asia Project which has been described as the world’s largest academic research program dedicated to bringing the benefits of new technologies to everyone, with a special focus on meeting the grand challenges in learning, health, and economic development.

In the course of his speech, he mentioned that this was the fourth conference he was attending in the last one month on this subject of ICTs. The fourth in one month. Which may not be very surprising considering that ICTs seem to be the flavour of the season in the development arena. There are indeed hundreds of projects related to ICTs in India; in the course of research for my presentation at this conference, I read about some fascinating initiatives in the areas of education and governance and so on. Which are touching and making a difference in the lives of thousands of people.

But think about their overall impact on the devlepoment process; it is close to negligible. True, individual projects make a difference to people, but only in that community, that village or that district…. and no further…. Rajesh Jain keeps writing about this all the time…. about the need to get out of the ‘demo’ mode and think about scalability. For, unless the projects are implemented on a large scale, the impact on development will stay this way, in small pockets and in certain regions. To me, this means that the divide gets larger….. or deeper…… development divide, digital divide whatever……. Some regions, some communities get the benefits of such demo projects….. and repeatedly….. The problem is just too large in India (as far as development needs are concerned) and it will take millions of such test-pilot projects to even make a dent…..

• Technology , - ICTs4 development
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charukesi March 3rd, 2004

After adults and teenagers, it is now the turn of children…. To be researched as ‘consumers’. O&M India’s knowledge management unit, Ogilvy Discovery recently conducted a national-level study on Indian children in the 4-to-12-years age group. The aim of the study was to understand the pressures and motivations of Indian children, and glean implications for brands and communication.

As such, children are very difficult to research, given that they cannot be studied in an artificial research environment, the way adults can. Conventional research tools such as focus groups and interviews would provide limited information and certainly no meaningful insights.

This study used an interesting mix of methodologies to gain glimpses into the lives of children. Observations, interviews with parents, teachers and child psychologists, conversations with children, focus groups with kids, media ethnology (there is that much abused term again) of children’s magazines, comics and television commercials, and scrapbook exercises.

Given that children are increasingly becoming influencers and even decision-makers within the household, such a study is bound to throw up interesting findings for advertisers and marketers. Some dominant themes that emerged from the study were : Rushed-Regimented Childhood, Death of Delayed Gratification, Poor and Selective Socialization, Weaker Sibling Bonding, Outdoors – Out of the front door, Retracing Culture with Grandparents, Fathers Tending to be Mothers and The Character Rage. For a better understanding of these, read the report.

What I find interesting is that such studies are more and more moving away from traditional research methods and attempting the uncharted.

At the same time, very often, findings from such studies, despite their fancy themes and names (Character Rage, for instance) tend to be at some level intuitive and obvious. With all these research techniques and skills, is this the best O&M can offer : children are being regimented by their parents, they do not go out to play as much as children used to, fathers are participating in the nurturing role…. and so on….

This trend of ‘techniques for the sake of techniques’ is disturbing; methodology has become a cutting-edge selling point for agencies involved in research. You do focus groups; I do one better, I do focus workshops….. that kind of thing…. Media ethnology???

One more thing, I would be interested in also understanding the source of such behaviour / themes in the lives of children. Viz. motivators and influences. Again, chicken and eggishly, what is the cause and what is the effect here ? Who came first : the advertiser or the audience ? Is media (cinema and advertising included) about cultivation or about representation? In other words, do ads portray such attitudes, symbols and rituals because the Indian kid is like that…. Or is he that way because he is influenced by the advertising he is exposed to ?

• Qualitative Research Trends , - Armchair Analysis
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charukesi March 2nd, 2004

Received this on email today. This presentation has a lot of cool clip-art pics and colours…. I wish I could reproduce them here but here is the content anyway…. Read on…..

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One upon a time there was a French rowing team.
France and Japan agreed to an annual rowing race. Each team containing eight men.
Both teams worked really hard to get into the best shape. The day the race started, both teams were in similar condition.
The Japanese won by one mile….

The mood in the French team was close to freeze point. The team decided to win the race the next year. So they established a team of analysts to observe the situation and recommend an appropriate solution.

After detailed analysis the team found out that Japanese had 7 rowers and only one captain.
Of course, the French team had seven captains but only one rower…..

Facing such a critical scenario, the management showed unexpected wisdom; they hired a consulting company to restructure the French team….

After several months the consultants came up with the conclusion that there were too many captains and too few rowers in the French team. A solution was proposed based on this analysis: the structure of the French team had to be changed!

As of today there will be only 4 captains in the team led by 2 managers, one top-manager and one rower, they said. Besides that, they made a suggestion to improve the rower’s working environment and to give him higher competencies….

The next year, the Japanese won by two miles…..

The French team immediately displaced the rower from the team based on his unsatisfactory performance.

But the bonus was paid to the management for the strong motivation the team showed during the preparation phase.

The consulting company prepared a new analysis, which showed that the strategy was good, the motivation was ok but the used tool had to be improved.

Currently, the French team is designing a new boat.
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A friend working in one of India’s largest software companies sent me this….. Any takes on that?!! And she is probably reading this too….

• Don't be funny!
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