A Time To Reflect

charukesi September 28th, 2004

It’s that day of the year again when half of Bombay comes to a stand-still…. Because the other three-fourths are going mad with devotional frenzy (not to forget, commercial greed, but more on that later).

The day of the immersion of the grotesque Ganpatis that have been adorning street corners and busy intersections for the last week or so. When roads get choc-a-bloc and offficedom for once shuts down at 1 p.m. and people rush home in a bid to beat the traffic jams.

Fervour - I can understand. Free entertainment for the jobless - more so.

But the way marketers jump on to the ganpati bandwagon (literally, considering the huge floats of the idol all over the city) never fails to astonish me. Last week, on a late night drive from the airport, we saw this serpentine line of people waiting in front of a huge pandal decorated with plastic and paper flowers (why? why?) - this at a few minutes past midnight.

My hubsand (the naiver one between us - to coin a phrase) believed that these were ‘devotees’ waiting for a darshan of the lord himself (or his image in plaster of paris, whatever).

And it turned out later that a cellphone company was giving out a free mobile (handset and connection, none less) through a ‘lucky draw’ that night at the pandal.

Oh, the coolest thing this season was ringtone downloads of ganpati-oriented songs…. ‘Ganpati Bappa moraya, sarwanna ek mobile dya.’ - Salutations, O Ganpati, please give everybody a mobile. (The original is ‘Ganpati Bappa Morya, Pudcha Varshi Laukar Ya’ - saying goodbye, G, see you next year again)

And the pandal was ’sponsored’ by ICICI Bank - advertising their ‘lowest interest rates in the market’ for housing loans. (Oh, that made me turn all mushy and devotional at once, but it was just too late in the night).

But I wonder, what do advertisers get out of such mindless sponsorships and advertising?

Why does the concept of social responsibility not occur even to corporates in this country?

No company thought of advising citizens on environmental friendly visarjan (if such a thing is possible) or sponsoring volunteers to control the terrible traffic situation throughout the city today. And displaying their ads prominetly in the process.

Have opportunity, will advertise?

• Advertising , Indiawatch
• Comments(5)

charukesi September 25th, 2004

Yes, am moving…. finally. After many false starts….
In the process of shifting this blog to my new address but will be posting there from now on…

A time to reflect will be at www.indsight.org from now on

Do keep visiting indsight and dropping your footprints behind…

• Pot-pourri
• Comments(0)

charukesi September 25th, 2004

Asian Paints has taken my breath away yet again with their advertising… Their laal laal ad with Shubha Mudgal has turned traditional colour semiotics on its head.

And just when I thought this was advertising at its evocative best, I saw the pila hai rang khushi ka‘ ad - yellow, the colour of happiness.

Who would have thought so? I was watching this with a friend (who is a teacher at a primary school) and she said - ‘this is a lovely ad - a real feel-good ad’. I gazed at her in surprise (we researcher types think feel-good is a term exclusively for our use - when we want to tell our clients - your ad is conveying nothing, but the consumer is smiling, so keep at it). And she said defensively, ‘well, it makes me feel good. I smile when I see the ad’.

Manna to an advertiser’s ears.

When was the last time a brand / ad used colours so effectively? Coke, maybe - red again. Brooke Bond Red Label had tried this with mere laal a few years ago, but I think that fell flat on its palette….

Red symbolising not gore and anger and violence but energy and life itself….. (the colour of the heart is always red, as is the colour of love :))
And yellow - the sun, the sunflower, the daffodil, a bright smile, three cheers (think of it, some of the prettiest flowers are yellow)

Remember khushiyon ka rang - ads showing diyas filled with colour at Diwali time and colours flowing out of pots during Pongal?

Making consumers think of the joy of a freshly painted house - and the festivities around which house-painting is associated…. (and not the tedium of house-painting)

Now compare that with this :

Makes me ask : so?
And the ad with people with hands smeared with paint - what a mess !

I completely agree with this:

No paint-related advertising story is complete without reference to what has to be one of the most famous lines in advertising — `Whenever you see colour, think of us. Jensen & Nicholson.’
I guess people saw colour, thought of paint and bought Asian.

• Advertising
• Comments(3)

charukesi September 25th, 2004

Of travels and travel dreams… mostly through photographs…..

Coming up this month, Malshej Ghat and Hogenakkal Falls at my roadblog on flickr

• My Roadblog
• Comments(0)

charukesi September 24th, 2004

Today, a friend and colleague was out on the field all day doing qualitative depth interviews. She met a respondent who had been attending groups everyday for the last three days.

So much for strict and disguised recruitment criteria.

Dina had written long ago about the problem of what we call ‘professional respondents’. Which is not to say that they attend groups as a profession. But that as respondents, they are far more professional than their first-time sisters in the same group.

Given all the real concerns about professional respondents, it is yet time to accept that they are a reality (Dina has a good analysis on this) and cannot be just wished away. There are product categories and research centres which have been over-researched and have crossed saturation point. (I sometimes feel I cannot ever walk on the streets in Madurai, a large city in South India, without feeling that I know each and every woman who passes me by - I must have seen her in one group or the other!)

In which case, can we just accept them and work around the problem? Using them to our advantage as researchers?

Before the indignant jump… read Lies, Damned Lies and Focus Groups by Daniel Gross. Here, Gross analyses the reasons focus groups are losing their value as a quick and valid research tool. Primary among them being the fact that there is just no time in such a setting for participants (who are ideally strangers to each other) to get comfortable with the group and the moderator. Getting paid to get together with a bunch of strangers, and being led in a discussion by another stranger, is unnatural

In which case, can a participant who has ‘been there done that’ help put the rest at ease? Considering the fact that in India, they are not even there for the money (paying participants in cash is a no-no in India - they usually get a small gift in return), but just for the feeling of importance it gives them - to be heard. My feeling is that an experienced moderator should be able to guide the discussion and keep the ‘maestro’ from hijacking / intimidating the group.

• Qualitative Research Trends
• Comments(0)

charukesi September 23rd, 2004

My new blog up and running…

Watch this space from now on

• Pot-pourri , The World of Indsight
• Comments(5)

charukesi September 23rd, 2004

I had wondered a few days ago on my blog:

Why are there so many bloggers from Madras ?
And what do they write about?

And quoting one of the responses, from Chandru

There are a whole bunch of Madras bloggers. True. I think the reasons for it is in History. Blogging finally brings words and writing back to popularity. It allows for a journalistic, writer kind of a person space to display his full potential.

Madras, always a highly literate city, and associated strongly with the birth of Indian journalism, (and still is the home of one of India’s better newspapers) revels in the written word.

As a society, madrasis and tamils are more verbal and wordy in nature, and less visual. Therefore, blogs.I once came across a quotation that said something like “the more evolved, higher a society is, the less visual it gets”. very true of madras. A long, colourful history, one of the oldest civilisations and cultures. Definitely blunts the visual, and increases the verbal.

As a PMO (Person of Madras Origin - oh, sounds so so much better than Madrasi), I agree totally.

Here’s more on Chennai bloggers. From an interview in The Hindu.

• The World of Indsight
• Comments(0)

Charukesi September 23rd, 2004

this is a test entry in your new wordpress system. while we are always happy to answer your questions, your first stop should be the WP documentation. There’s also a WP wiki and a WP support forum. These resources may be able to provide more immediate and specific assistance.

Welcome Home!

-Brian
Vesana.com Support Team

• Pot-pourri
• Comments(0)

charukesi September 18th, 2004

WARNING : REDUNDANT POST

It’s time for all the gyanis to come to the aid of the needy….

Want to part ways from blogger. Somewhere out there in all that space is some little corner that could belong to me soon Except I have no idea where to begin (actually, I know where to begin. it’s after that I get stuck and drop the idea - several times a day).

I suspect my blogging friends are now ready to run away when they see me on IM. I have been bugging the life out of many of them the last few days. (Thanks Chandru, Ashwini, Harini and grrr, Sameer, Debu). So thought a collective plea for help would be easier (on me and you - imagine what it must be like getting pinged by me each time you are on IM - and get asked a stupid question).

Please leave your suggestions here. In simple idiot-proof English.
Don’t make me say duh? at every line please. It hurts self image irrepairably.

So, all you good Samaritans out there, let the ideas flow fast and furious!

CORRECTION : Thanks Sameer, you are the best too!!

• The World of Indsight
• Comments(0)

charukesi September 17th, 2004

Thinking more on netnography…. adapting ethnographic research techniques to the study of cultures and communities constructed through the Internet

A community like ryze is reaching saturation point India-wise….

- Why are Indians such avid ryzers?
- What kind of people do we network with? And why?

And some questions Edward of livinginindia (or elsewhere on the planet) always has…

- Why are there so many bloggers from Madras ?
- And what do they write about?

- And from this, can we say what Madras is like - about the kind of people who live there or are
from there - bloggers over the world with Madras ‘roots’
- Why not so many from Bangalore? (after all, Bangalore is geek city)
- What about Delhi bloggers?

- What about shopping behaviour on the net - how do different ethnic communities behave?
- And what implications does this have for the marketer? Advertiser? Both offline and online

- Ethnography on internal communication (intranet usage and behaviour) within an organisation
for more efective knowledge management and better work practices

Using ethnography to study online behaviour patterns of communities and using this to construct theories about offline culture. A step closer to understanding those we interact with only online… Visit cybersoc for some interesting studies….

I find the possibilities endless…..

And fascinating… (My mind googles at the possibilities. Did I say googles? I meant boggles)

• Qualitative Research Trends , - Alternative methods
• Comments(0)