Masters in metamorphosis

What I do for a living was difficult for me to explain about 8 years ago even when I first started work. Over time one would have imagined clarity would have descended upon me and I would not have to fumble or think twice if asked that question. It has only gotten more complex (I wouldn't like to say worse) - thankfully this time...not just for me but for many others who I speak to :)

So here are the interesting bits

For a long time now, there isn't one single organization I have worked for. What started off as freelancing ended up as 'open' work arrangements where I would give only a part of my time to an organization sometimes working with 2 or even 3 of them at the same time ranging from market research to brand communication to retail design. Some days ago, I was called for an interview for a full time position in an advertising agency. Full time was the hitch though the recruitment consultant persuaded me...go ahead and meet them at least. What do you stand to lose anyway? To be honest I felt a little foolish going for a meeting knowing very well I would not be throwing away my existing work contracts. I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working in diverse areas. I called a friend (a veteran ad professional) to ask her whether i could suggest to this agency the possibility of working as consultant...would it sound too outlandish ? Her response took me by surprise. Are you kidding me she said, who in this day and age commits all their time to one organization! Now I know that might not be a universal truth but it is becoming more and more prevalent. She then went on to cite the instance of another advertising professional she knew who worked at two competing ad agencies at the same time and they both hired him knowing very well he worked with a competitor. On his part he had to tread the confidentiality line cautiously. But that is not an impossibility.

A conversation with another colleague whose career graph has moved from teaching to copy writing to information design on social media and writing for children, was about how as professionals it is imperative today that we invent and reinvent ourselves, else start feeling obsolete. Gone are the days when people specialized in one core skill and stayed with it for their lifetime.

A few others I know mention that whenever they need to switch jobs it is close to impossible to seek help from a recruitment consultant since those consultants who are used to understanding the water-tight world of neatly chalked out job definitions very often do not understand what kind of a job role to fit them into and therefore end up randomly matching key words and sending them leads which do not make any sense

Some one else (an enterprising digital marketing consultant) saw this as an opportunity to offer resource management as a supplementary skill to his clients. He has been with the industry long enough to understand the kind of people that would best fit the requirements of this industry. Digital marketing being a relatively new area, there is little chance for anyone to find people with a specific degree or academic lineage that would be a straight fit. Brand planning is another such specialization I am told. It is a decade old practice in many agencies in India. In the initial days client servicing guys who understood the agency business well graduated to brand planning.With the field maturing and competition intensifying there is a need to hire 'specialists'. Ironically the specialist could come from (not advertising but) a related industry -brand communication or research / consumer insight agencies.

So what is all this leading to...

• Going forward we may see open organizations - lose collaborations between working professionals who come together for a project.


• Open job definitions - I have already seen this happening in some organizations which are lean and each employee plays more than one role. So the brand planner also doubles up as a copy-right expert and the office boy also offers basic IT support. And all this is possible made due to the sheer appetite to learn


• Maybe more 'generalizations' rather than 'specializations' in academic programs. Today's newspaper carried an advert of a private university in Gujrat offering a program in liberal studies - a choice based learning approach where one could chose to study music and economics as electives perhaps. How one applies these unique skills to earn a livelihood would be a challenge but an interesting one at that !


• And on a more fundamental level - it would allow us to define our own benchmarks, boundaries of competition and metrics of success. After all how many people do you know who combine knowledge about consumer insights and the subconscious mind with maybe retail design? :)

Indian Ingenuity, jugaad and customer support

Indian Ingenuity or 'jugaad' as it is locally known is now a globally accepted term and philosophy. It features in the HBR and the management gurus and media love discussing at lenght whether the jugaad mindset is helping India & indians grow economically or does this mindset reinforce the constraints that first led to the birth of this way of working and therefore keep us living in compromised situations. Just google 'jugaad' and 'indian ingenuity' to follow the intellectual discourse on the subject

It is difficult to define since it encompasses the creation of alternatives, substitutes, improvisations and make-dos that is spurred by a native inventiveness which is characteristic of a culture steeped in scarcity and survival. It has inspired the creation of hybrid vehicles used as transport in Indian villages to the corner stores on the street making the pc / mobile technology more accessible to masses at a fraction of a cost to the local electrical making a contraption that functions as a home appliance and what have you!

Here is one more such jugaad solution that I encountered.

I had to get my Braun hand blender fixed. Turns out that Braun does not have an authorized serviced network in India. A local vendor promised to fix it for me and actually did, although getting spare parts for Braun products is not that simple.

The man imports a few pieces of Braun's original appliances. He then dismantles them completely. And sells it piece by piece. If I need a plastic joinery for my blender he would happily replace it with a new one and charge me a small premium for that part. Though I know I am being over-charged I pay it gladly. Why? I would have had to otherwise junk my machine entirely. He benefits since the sum of his parts make up more than the whole. Reverse synergy in action here :) It is a win-win situation for both of us.

I can bet my last buck that if i requested / expected such help from a branded service shop - it would be years before they would relent and offer anything close to this. Though I wonder why?

Do brands become less agile...less responsive as they grow?

As for the debate - yes the jugaad solution did prevent me from junking my old appliance and getting a new one. And an economist might argue that my truncated spending cycle does not do much good to the economic growth that gets spurred by consumer spending. Blah!


jugaad, Indian ingenuity, Braun, Culture and Branding,

Bathroom Blogfest 2010 : And finally airlines with Gender specific loos

Nearly fives years back I had asked a rhetorical question here on my blog.

Why don’t they have gender specific restrooms on board? If its not enough that there is such a paucity of space in the restrooms – the thought about & experience of using the unisex restrooms makes me want to never get on an aircraft again. I am sure the information on the number of male / female passengers is captured while people are boarding and it’s possible to allocate 1 or more of the restrooms exclusively for women depending on the traffic

I was delighted to find that someone...somewhere is listening. Even it is just a few...airlines have started this trend.

A reuter's press release confirmed that - Women flying Japan's All Nippon Airways will have a toilet all to themselves from next month, with the airline designating one restroom on most international routes as female-only. South Korea's Korean Air has been offering similar facilities.

Even a small change like that can make such a big difference to a person's experience with & how one feels about a brand.

Way to go ANA !


ladiesroom, All Nippon Airways,

Bathroom Blogfest 2010: On bathrooms stuck in the 60's and unrealistic advertising

For the past five years a group of bloggers - experts in marketing, customer experience and service, public relations, library sciences, museums, home & interior design, life, retail, flooring and healthcare - have been blogging about what could improve the overall bathroom experience for end users. What started as a group of 10 – 12 bloggers has this year expanded to 40. This blog fest has proved to be a real effective medium for accessing a diverse set of views on a subject in a short span of time. The content is rich with people posting pictures and their experiences around great looking washrooms and what is desirable. It happens every year in the last week of Oct. I am late in posting this – though have been contributing for the last 4 years and did not have the heart to break the chain J

“This year’s theme “Stuck in the 60s?” is inspired by Mad Men, the show that has captured the imaginations of many for its portrayal of life in the 60s when social and cultural taboos meant that many critical aspects of life – like bathrooms – were ignored, glossed over and treated dreadfully,” said Christine B. Whittemore, who manages the Bathroom Blogfest. “The result is that end users suffered. By calling attention to modern day instances that are “Stuck in the 60s?”, we can reinforce the value associated with being more responsive to the end user experience.

But what happens if for the end user – life is really still stuck in the 60s? For a lot of people living in India and South-east Asia, the reality is that their washrooms still have stone / cemented surfaces (as opposed to tiles). The sanitary wear is not always in ceramic…it could stone or some toughened fiber like material on which hard water creates white stains / patches. For a lot of these houses bathrooms are not about squeaky clean shiny surfaces or fresh fragrances. Stains and odors are a reality they live with and bathrooms are forgotten areas of the house – forgotten by everyone else except the woman of the house whose job it is to maintain the minimum standards of hygiene.

This is a fairly large segment of the market that currently is out of the loop of branded bathroom cleaners. They use harsh local products like chemicals to get rid of tough stains and the acrid smelling bleach to kill every other odor in their toilets. For a marketer this is a fairly attractive untapped marketing opportunity.

Where does the problem lie?

Current communication through advertising and to a certain extent even current product formulations do not acknowledge and address this reality. Adverts generally show aesthetically done up, fragrant smelling, spa-like, large bathrooms on which a mere spray and wipe ritual by the lady of the house and the magic of the product would restore it to its former pristine state. Consumers don’t buy this story and buy their product. For starters their bathrooms do not look like the one in the adverts. No matter how of the magic formula is poured – a dark cemented surface is not likely to transform into something else. For the few who even try such product – do not find much evidence of the product working. The ads talk about ‘shine’ as evidence or ‘germ kill’. Both these markers for product performance are difficult to believe. ‘Shine’ is an intrinsic property of certain surfaces and absent in others. Products cannot greatly alter this condition. ‘Germs’ are not visible. In the absence of a visible code for germs - consumers understand ‘germs’ in terms of ‘bad odor’. If a bleach like product neutralizes all odors – germs have been effectively killed. What is the need for a specialized branded cleaner then?

For a long time we have been given to believe – that advertising cannot be realistic. Things will only sell if advertising is aspirational. Aspirational yes…but how much is the question?

Food for thought: What is the brand’s outlay on advertising vis-à-vis product development? No amount of glib talk can compensate for a poor / irrelevant product.

You will find other bloggers contributing to the blogfest this year in the list below

Blogger	Blog Name	Blog URL
Susan Abbott	Customer Experience Crossroads	http://www.customercrossroads.com/customercrossroads/
Paul Anater	Kitchen and Residential Design	http://www.KitchenAndResidentialDesign.com
Shannon Bilby	Big Bob's Outlet	http://blog.bigbobsoutlet.com/
Shannon Bilby	Carpets N More Blog	http://blog.carpetsnmore.com/
Shannon Bilby	Dolphin Carpet Blog	http://blog.dolphincarpet.com/
Shannon Bilby	From The Floors Up	http://fromthefloorsup.com/
Shannon Bilby	My Big Bob's Blog	http://blog.mybigbobs.com/
Toby Bloomberg	Diva Marketing	http://bloombergmarketing.blogs.com/bloomberg_marketing/
Laurence Borel	Blog Till You Drop	http://www.laurenceborel.com/
Bill Buyok	Avente Tile Talk Blog	http://tiletalk.blogspot.com/
Jeanne Byington	The Importance of Earnest Service	http://blog.jmbyington.com/
Becky Carroll	Customers Rock!	http://customersrock.net/
Marianna Chapman	Results Revolution	http://www.resultsrevolution.com
Katie Clark	Practial Katie	http://practicalkatie.blogspot.com/
Nora DePalma	American Standard's Professor Toilet	http://www.professortoilet.com/
Nora DePalma	O'Reilly DePalma: The Blog	http://www.oreilly-depalma.com/blog/
Leigh Durst	LivePath Experience Architect Weblog	http://livepath.blogspot.com/
Valerie Fritz	The AwarepointBlog	http://www.awarepointblog.com/
Iris Garrott	Checking In and Checking Out	http://circulating.wordpress.com/
Tish Grier	The Constant Observer	http://spap-oop.blogspot.com
Renee LeCroy	Your Fifth Wall	http://yourfifthwall.com/
Joseph Michelli	Dr. Joseph Michelli's Blog	www.josephmichelli.com/blog
Veronika Miller	Modenus Blog	http://www.modenus.com/blog
Arpi Nalbandian	TILE Magazine Editor Blog	http://www.tilemagonline.com/Articles/Blog_Nalbandian
Maria Palma	People 2 People Service	http://www.people2peopleservice.com/
Reshma Bachwani Paritosh	The Qualitative Research Blog	http://www.onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/
David Polinchock	Polinchock's Ponderings	http://blog.polinchock.com/
Victoria Redshaw & Shelley Pond	Scarlet Opus Trends Blog	http://trendsblog.co.uk/
David Reich	My 2 Cents	http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Sandy Renshaw	Around Des Moines	http://www.arounddesmoines.com/
Sandy Renshaw	Purple Wren	http://www.purplewren.com/
Bethany Richmond	Carpet and Rug Institute Blog	http://www.carpet-and-rug-institute-blog.com/
Bruce Sanders	RIMtailing Blog	http://rimtailing.blogspot.com/
Steve Tokar	Please Be Seated	http://stevetokar.wordpress.com/
Carolyn Townes	Becoming a Woman of Purpose	http://spiritwomen.blogspot.com/
Stephanie Weaver	Experienceology	http://experienceology.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Flooring The Consumer	http://flooringtheconsumer.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	Simple Marketing Blog	http://www.simplemarketingblog.com/
Christine & Ted Whittemore	Smoke Rise & Kinnelon Blog	http://smokerise-nj.blogspot.com/
Christine B. Whittemore	The Carpetology Blog	http://carpetology.blogspot.com/
Linda Wright	LindaLoo Build Business With Better Bathrooms	http://lindaloo.com/

ladiesroom,

New 'News'

A while ago I was doing a piece of research for the BBC when I started paying closer attention to how much news format / content has changed in India in the last few years.

I've been witness to the change everyday - from the predictable Doordarshan 9 o'clock news - to the first glimpses of how slick / interesting private new channel feed could get through 'The world this week' - to engaging journalism of the early days when everything in the newly liberalized India was opening up and along came with it the influx of the first few private news channels - to splitting up of the NDTV team into splinter channels, the fight for TRPs and sensational journalism - to its current avataar where the content bears little resemblance to what we once knew of news. And so, had not thought about the extent things have changed, until recently.

During the research discussions people's reactions ranged from nostalgia about the older days to outrage at the trash that is thrown at our face and sometimes humor. Since we were benchmarking to BBC the transition from 'news' to 'new news' seemed quite stark. A few interesting snippets -

• We have seen a general 'dumbing down' - instead of talking about the Prime Minister's outlook on the economy, news channels cover his hospital visits
• News anchors - instead of moderating discussions, inviting views - dominate discussions, out-shout panellists. Welcome to the world of high decibel news content.
  
• There is day-to-day reportage on celebrities, their whereabouts, who fought with who. As if that was not enough, even the ups and downs of Reality TV shows are regularly covered.
• There is even something called 'fake / made up' news :) - tune into to India TV that feeds you with breaking news stories like 'end of the world in year 20xx, gateway to heaven' - I am yet to make up my mind whether to call it news or entertainment or the workings of some lunatic mind.
• Most news programing now have regular ad breaks. Recently, I happened to catch Vinod Dua anchoring a news show and leaving the audience with his favourite bollywood track to listen to - bang in the middle of news!
  

This conversation between a colleague and his son sums it up quite well...

Colleague - trying to catch up with the happenings of the day, Son - Papa what is this that you are watching. Colleague- This is the news beta. They show you what is happening in the world
Son - Then why are they fighting and shouting so much?

The discounted customer experience - Bathroom Blogfest 2009

The bathroom blogfest started a couple of years ago with - a bunch of global women bloggers narrating their good…bad…and ugly experiences around restrooms.

The theme this year is a bit more inclusive - ‘Flushing the Recession and Plunging into Forgotten Spaces.’

There is not much more I could add around the bathroom customer experience. I have not been actively following that category in my research work nor has the public restroom facilities in India changed a great deal in the last couple of years.

Flushing the Recession...did bring to mind customer experience of a different kind. Earlier in the year when most retail brands had seen a steep drop in sales – the reaction was to announce large discount sales to get back the foot-falls. Their game plan worked and people did rush back. Though the experience at most stores was disappointing to say the least.

All I could remember of my visits to retail outlets during that phase was – brands being reduced to an untidy heap of merchandise…one had to really sift through the pile to get something that matched one’s size or taste. Sales staff were either missing or chatting way in corners and worst of all the discounts were far from attractive. Trial rooms were cramped, with disheveled clothes strewn around the place. And the experience was consistent across brands – whether one stepped into global brand outlet like UCB / Levis or a local brand outlet – it all felt the same. It did really feel like a ‘forgotten space!’ Did sales pick up? I don’t know thought I doubt it. However what such an experience does – is dilute the experience / image that a ‘brand’ creates for a long time to come.

A brand that stood out at that time was one that offered a consistent in-store experience to what it would offer on a ‘non-discount’ day – well stocked, well organized merchandise, courteous...helpful staff, the trial room was spacious, tidy and pleasant.

Brand owners often think that customers never fail to notice a discount in price…what they forget is - the customer will also never fail to notice a discounted experience.

Participating bloggers for the Bathroom Blogfest ’09 include:

• Susan Abbott at Customer Experience Crossroads
• Shannon Bilby at From the Floors Up
• Shannon Bilby and Brad Millner at My Big Bob’s Blog
• Jeanne Byington at The Importance of Earnest Service
• Becky Carroll at Customers Rock!
• Leslie Clagett at KB Culture
• Katie Clark at Practical Katie
• Iris Shreve Garrott at Checking In and Checking Out
• Julie at Julie’s Cleaning Secrets Blog
• Marianna Hayes at Results Revolution
• Maria Palma at People To People Service
• Professor Toilet at Professor Toilet’s Blog
• David Reich at My 2 Cents
• Bethany Richmond at The Carpet and Rug Institute Blog
• Carolyn Townes at Becoming a Woman of Purpose
• Stephanie Weaver at Experienceology
• C.B. Whittemore at Flooring The Consumer and Simple Marketing Blog
• Linda Wright at Lindaloo.com: Build Better Business with Better Bathrooms

Links to the Bathroom Blogfest’s official Blog and Facebook Fan page

#ladiesroom09

The impact of mergers on Qual Research : Bricolage to standardisation

Earlier this year Martin Sorrell won his latest battle when the merger was announced between TNS and RI, an event that seemed to indicate a growing trend: the creation of market research behemoths.

The reason cited for the merger was, as always, to strengthen the value of the offering to the client. But is there a different truth lurking somewhere beneath the surface? The general consensus seems to be that an industry-wide movement towards global research conglomerates will force the smaller merged companies to conform to 'templatisation'. The underlying assumption is that less researcher time spent on customisation translates to greater ROI on projects. It's a tempting assumption – and it could work with quant research – but the qual business plays by a different set of rules.

The effect of restructuring

Susan Abbott, of Canada-based Abbott Research & Consulting, believes that insights from qualitative projects result from the customised research designs and wisdom of senior researchers when interpreting studies. In larger firms, however, these same people would typically be responsible for managing people and bringing in business, not interpretation or analysis.

Sadly, this often prompts a form of 'straight jacketing'. The impetus to look beyond the available toolkit flags. In fact, individuality is discouraged – possibly one reason why clients opt out and go to smaller agencies where thinking out of the box is possible. Susan Saurage-Altenloh, of Saurage Research in the US, confirms this thinking. She believes that, as firms merge, there are economies of scale, but some of the spunky creative abilities and ensuing client benefits get flattened out.

History tells us what we might expect in the future. A senior researcher in France recalls that the merger of Insight, then one of the most sophisticated French qual agencies, with European quant giant IPSOS, prompted the exodus of over 10 research directors. And today? It could be argued that Insight's creative 'savoir-faire' is but a shadow of former days.

Dina Mehta, from Mosoci India, quit one research firm soon after it switched from a bricolage-like approach to one that was more structured, large scale, focusing on quantity rather than quality. With the need for quick turnaround times and high volumes, she found herself behaving more like an administrator chasing targets than a researcher.

Another research consultant, Charukesi Ramadorai, points to what may be the first signs of a more serious issue – that of commoditising the business. Since, within large agencies, a tailored approach is discouraged she observes that those 'brand qualities' differentiating the qual service offering are becoming more and more diffused. Barring projects that involved the use of copyrighted models, which inherently have some degree of differentiation to offer, there is little difference in the way most large agencies work.

Virginia Valentine in her MRS 2001 conference paper 'Repositioning Research: A New MR Language Model' highlighted how the MR discourse currently encodes the old imagery of a researcher as backroom technician while consumption has changed and demands that the researcher takes on the role of a strategic thinker.

The TNS/RI press release talks – on the face of it – about increased capabilities. It mentions 'that both TNS & RI will join forces and use their strength, resources and talent to deliver value to their clients.

The new company will be either the largest or second largest in every major research market giving them 'on the ground' ability to deliver industry knowledge and global protocols to clients.'

But let's take a step back and view this statement in the context of Virginia Valentine's framework for analysing the MR discourse. It might suggest that creating a large, stable information fortress could end up taking the research business in a direction that is not conducive to fostering a strategic forward thinking approach to research.

It could also mean taking qualitative research away from the metaphor model (a nimble, entrepreneurial environment that encourages intuition, creativity) and towards the metonymy model (a stable, predictable environment that emphasises conformance and process led endeavour).

How will qual survive?

Spinach's Helen Taylor observes that, for every big company merger or acquisition, a new crop of small boutique agencies spring up. While some continue to remain small and personality-led, others develop and grow into mid-sized agencies. So, overall, the qual market always offers a choice for research buyers.

Clients entrust large agencies with global projects and regular brand work since many of these organisations have historically conducted research for certain brands. N. Muthukumaran, from The Nielsen Company in India, points out that global outfits also, apart from offering logistical advantages when managing international projects, have access to nuances of what works well in which culture, which enhances a researcher's sensitivity. This is a competitive advantage that some of these large agencies may lose out on in the days to come, thanks to some of the new kids on the block.

The recent past has seen some global niche agencies in the qualitative space. They are nimble yet global, with the marketing focus that comes with multidisciplinary talent – a bunch of passionate individuals who love their craft.

Yet somewhere the line between a boutique agency and a large full service agency is blurring. In the ultimate analysis, it is not so much the size and reach of an organisation that by itself hampers or nurtures the spirit of qualitative research as its culture and orientation to business.

*Featured in InBrief May-June 2009

Digital Media – is destination the over-riding decision?

Your brand needs a digital media presence. That is the new medium. That is what people read, watch, where the new gen consumers hangout these days. If you don’t have a Facebook page and don’t send tweets to your 340 friends or consumers, then you must surely be from another planet. Everyone including my grandfather is on facebook…aren’t you?

Some such spiel by a digital media ‘expert’ typically leads to a flight (I don’t how to get on to this social media space and so I’ll just stand back and watch) or fight (let me find out the most popular social media tool and create a page there) response.

Lately, the utterly butterly delicious Amul decided to get itself a digital media presence and how? Through Second Life!

There was buzz around Second Life a few years ago and predictions how half the world is going to have a second life id by 2019 but then one day the buzz waned. Second Life expected me to download an application once I created an account and buy linden dollars. I wanted to do neither. Besides I didn’t see much sense in creating and avatar and hanging around second life.

It is surprising then that Amul’s foray into digital media ‘to be seen where it mattered’ happened via Second Life. Amul for sure has a digital presence thanks to that, though how it would enhance the brand’s visibility is a question I grapple with.

Its topical witty campaigns are so popular that I have often come across those campaigns do several rounds of my mailbox. And like a good sitcom each time I see them, I enjoy them. Converting these hoardings to virals or creating virals afresh would have been a natural extension of making the brand visible in the digital world. Refreshing their site, bringing it to date, making it more interactive with users would have made a more meaningful connect with people than a presence on Second Life. There is a lot more that can be done with their orkut page and blog which currently only has information on the Amul Vidyashree Awards – nothing more!

Rather than asking yourself WHERE I need to be in the digital media space, what makes sense to me is to ask yourself WHAT I wish to do while I’m there and then work the digital media strategy backwards from that point.

social media brands, Amul, Amul and second life

Blog URL Update

The blog is back on its parent host - blogger

Please note the updated URL

http://onqualitativeresearch.blogspot.com/

For feeds click here
cheers :)

Two is company, three is …?

A while ago I got thinking about the number three. It’s recurring occurrence in myths and symbols.

Why do/es

• The genie grant you three wishes?
• A winner’s podium have three places?
• Hinduism and Christianity both have a holy trinity?
• Japanese mythology have three monkeys?
• Freud talk about three ego states – id, ego and super ego?
• Fairytales have three little pigs, Goldie locks and the three bears?
• And time get divided into three: past, present and future?

When I turned my attention to the television – I came across brands that promised three benefits. A new shampoo brand that mentions three benefits - Nourishment, Protection and Hydration.

Aqua Fresh toothpaste with its iconic three stripes signifying protection, cavity fighting and fresh breath

Tea brands that played around with strength, colour and aroma highlighting one or the other.

Of course there are products with fewer or more benefits though I have deliberately cited examples with 3 to try and see if there is any more meaning to it. Do they talk about three just because one is too little and two still not good enough? By that logic it could be 4 or 12 or any number of benefits that people could remember.

Then I realised: Three is the smallest number of co-ordinates required to enclose a geometrical space.

Two straight lines cannot enclose any space!

In this context therefore three = solid, real, substantial, complete.

In another context three represents the ‘middle ground’ between the binary extremes of black and white, of good and bad.

Life is not always about the extremes.

We are not happy with things that just have do-good benefits; we also want those products to make us feel-good. For instance, people had the option of a) having staple home cooked food that one did not always enjoy and b) feasting on the more alluring street / junk food that was not good for us and then there was c) Maggie noodle that gave people the third option – Taste Bhi Health Bhi. Similarly we understood cleanliness as being good and dirt as bad – again two extremes – until Surf Excel appeared on the scene occupying the middle ground by positioning Dirt as good.

In life we cannot always exclude the existence of a “grey “area - a 3rd option. Three then = balance, realism, the in between space.

So coming back to the question I started with – what do you equate three to?

brand communication, symbolism & number three,

Cross-posted on Chlog

Brands : Making a promise and keeping it too!

Let’s play a guessing game…

We have an international youth brand

They say - they are committed to designing products and marketing programs that reflect creativity and the desire to constantly challenge the status quo

Their positioning - Celebrate Individuality in Sport and Life.

Their product line – well…let me give you a snapshot…

What some of their target consumers say about their products?

“I don’t wear their clothes because at my age I want to wear clothes that reflect my identity. When I walk into their store I see very few cuts, style variations…the only variation is the colour…it reminds me of uniform”
“I don’t think they’ve changed their style in the last 10 years…do they follow any fashion trends…year after year I see the same stuff”
Still haven’t guessed?

Some years back they rolled out a new global advertising campaign -- "I Am What I Am" celebrating the individuality they stand for!

A press release that I read said they flawlessly integrated the message of "I Am What I Am" through an aggressive and consolidated marketing plan which includes - cinema, TVC, billboard advertising, strong retail presence, SMS and Internet activation and public relations. Why didn’t this extend to their product line I wonder?

They wanted to make a connect with the youth through contemporary icons, athletes who appeared in this campaign. It was intended to capture the minds of the youth by giving them a voice for self- expression and therefore become relevant and inspiring to them.

Did the campaign work in encouraging youth to embrace their individuality by identifying with their sports heroes…perhaps.

Did it inspire more young people to go to their store and buy their products? I guess not until their products start to reflect the individualistic streak that their campaigns have talked about

If branding = promise keeping…then it should reflect in everything that the brand says or does. Everything!

Last year they launched…a range of clothes that reflect a confluence of sport and style reflecting the edginess that youth seek.

Now… this looks more like - keeping the promise that they made.

brand alignment, Reebok, Reebok Classics,

Cross-posted on Chlog

Lost amidst a 1000 windows!

We live in strange times…

We sms while dining…eat while watching tv…read, check mail while in a meeting…catch up with friends on chat while at work …take our cell phone with us to sleep…some of us even take it to shower!

Constantly flitting between open windows on the computer…we perennially scan the environment around us so as to no miss anything. Linda Stone calls it a state of ‘continuous partial attention’

There is suddenly so much information all around and so much to catch up with that it leaves one feeling challenged. The info-glut creates a sense of info-guilt…a constant feeling that there is so much out there that I don’t know – books I haven’t read, movies I haven’t seen and therefore the race against time to catch up with things leaving us hurried and restless.

We are so busy keeping tabs on everything that we find it difficult to focus on anything for too long. Shortening attention spans would impact what kind of information and how much we will be able to absorb. We’ve started enjoying T-20 as opposed to test matches, reading blog posts, microblogs and tweets instead of thick tomes. The bytes are reducing to as much as we can chew. At a movie theatre after a standard 2.5 hour movie I overheard people say that movies are becoming too long these days…who has the patience? Short film may not seem like such an offbeat format in the future.

A few days back I was at the Kala Ghoda Festival. A crowd of people waited patiently around a stage waiting for a classical dancer to appear and perform. Someone introduced her with what seemed like a never-ending list of her credentials…checked sound…and finally she arrived. Instead of performing…she decided to lecture the audience for a few minutes…and disappeared again back stage… and another round of sound testing – by which time I had lost patience and moved away from the stage to a more alluring part of the festival buzzing with activity. Had I paid to watch the performance I would have been mentally prepared to spend 2 hours of my time dedicated to this activity but at the festival I was out for a quick round of fun. More over the environment around has way too much stimulus to have me standing there firmly by the stage.

Many a time brands expect us to do just that…marketers assume that people would focus on and be wowed by what their brand is saying or doing or selling. In the hope of grabbing attention, the claims made by some brands mirror this hurry sickness that consumer’s are gripped by. Personal care products till a few years back promised visible results after many weeks / months of continued product usage. Then came Ponds that promised an anti-ageing miracle in just 7 days. As if that was not miracle enough Pantene now assures you that their product will strip your hair off 3 months of damage (and god knows what else) in 3 minutes! At this rate I can’t imagine what the next advertiser will say to try and sell his product…what could be faster than 3 minutes – just think of my brand and you’ll turn beautiful maybe!

Instead of shouting louder and faster brands that help consumers manage interruption will be valued. One that caught my attention was UrgeMe. Once I set a reminder on their site they send me a email telling me You are supposed to call xyz for shopper info before 13-Feb-2009.Don’t forget to do it.

And now…in the interest of not grabbing more of your attention…I’ll let you go this time. Do come back for more :)

Cross-posted at - http://chlog.chlorophyll.in/

brand and culture, continuous partial attention

The Culture of Service

Hullo! Its been awfully long and hope some of you are still here :)

Sometime back an acquaintance asked me to put together my thoughts on 'service'...what customers expect...what retailers do, don't do and perhaps should do. I was reminded of some of the strange...contrasting experiences I've had.

I remembered how I felt when I first visited UK. I had walked into a Candy store late one evening. I was the only one at the shop apart from two girls who managed the store. They noticed me getting in but did not say much…nor crowd around me as I browsed through what the store had to offer. At first it felt weird…perhaps I was even a little offended when I thought they did not acknowledge my presence there. They asked me the mandatory ‘are you ok…there?’ I gave them a confused nod. I browsed for a few minutes and walked out. It took me a few more visits to realize how liberating this experience was.

Contrasting this with my experience in India – where the minute I set foot in a shop…I expect to be followed around…asked questions repeatedly about what I want…and if nothing else watched by the sales staff from close quarters. This happens at restaurants too where if you are not surrounded by waiters standing barely two steps away from your table all huddled up…your conversation is constantly interrupted by waiters coming and re-filling your glass of water the minute you’ve had a sip from it.

Perhaps this ‘over servicing’ attitude is rooted in our cultural beliefs to treat ‘Guests as God’ and thus - Atithi Devo Bhav. Or may be it originated from a cautious mindset – with only a miniscule number of shops having CCTV cameras or any surveillance system, ‘following the consumer’ must have seemed like the safest bet to prevent pilferage. Over the years we became accustomed to being watch, followed, questioned, interrupted - though with more people traveling across the world…this is changing.

Nevertheless the notion of what good service means is therefore largely context and culture specific therefore.

Kingfisher airline was able to turn this around positively by delivering some of the little things that made a service difference. They refer to their customers as not just passengers but as guests, have someone escort you with your luggage as soon as you arrive at the airport right up to the check in terminal. In fact Kingfisher Red was the first low cost airline to serve water (and now even food) on board, when competitors were charging for it. Being charged for water does not just translate to a monetary cost. The annoyance value it brings with it and the associated ill will a brand earns is far more. During consumer research we often heard people complain about how even when a stranger shows up at the door he is not sent away way without being offered water – and to think of it that ‘charge us for water’…their tone almost suggested that it was blasphemous!
In fact I’ve heard my mother say that - offering a thirsty person water to drink is like doing a good deed.

Whether you are a low frill brand whose offering is based on giving the consumer a bare minimum experience or a regular brand trying to survive recessionary times and cutting down on service … it cannot be a blanket cutting down the service experience - the trick would be in figuring out – what goes and what stays.

Boring is Normal….

A couple of weeks ago, in response to a call from a friend who asked me how I am doing…my reply was ‘I am just so bored’. That would have been a normal response had I been doing nothing for days preceding that conversation though in fact things were quite the contrary. My hands were more than full with work…work that I most often enjoy doing…except at that time it did not seem terribly interesting. Her response…

Do you think we are all a little too bored…too often these days? Whenever I talk to any of my friends, boredom somehow crops up in every conversation

We spoke at length about boredom that day…

When I was in my teens 7 up had a TVC on air featuring Fido Dido (with his spiked hair and triangular head ) stood for all that was ‘cool’ when he proclaimed…’normal is boring’…a value that kids identified with those days. Not that the teens today would find normal any less boring - though the converse of this statement has become so true of their lives too.

Is ‘being bored’ reflective of times we live in. There was relatively less restlessness and more contentment amongst people of an older generation. Are we as a generation constantly craving excitement, thrill, adventure or all the rush that comes up with new experiences? My feeling is the more we expose ourselves to exciting stimuli …the shorter is the span of excitement…the quicker the onset of boredom.

So, if ‘engaging in a new activity’ kept me interested for a few months in the past…today it may keep my interest sustained for a few weeks. Perhaps it stems from too much stimuli we are exposed to….a feeling of wanting to do too much…in too little time. My friend labeled it the ‘super human syndrome’ – and talked about how even professionally – we are not content with focusing on one narrow area of work…the more we read about related / peripheral areas the greater is the restlessness to learn and excel at those. One fights to reach the top…and when one has, instead of thinking about & enjoying that feeling of achievement, we fix our attention to the next peak…and the next peak…

If this is a latent feeling amongst people today…then brands / products that keep reinventing themselves will continue to remain exciting.

Rashmi Bansal (editor of JAM – a popular youth magazine in India) cites Mobile phones as an example of a category that has done just that

The mobile phone, has no problem invading ‘other’ territory and annexing it. Going by conventional wisdom, phone companies should have stopped at improving voice clarity and enhancing looks. But they never thought of themselves as merely a phone. Instead of waiting for someone to express the desire for a service called SMS or a camera embedded into a phone, someone just went ahead and invented it. Part of the reason the mobile maintains its cool is the scorching pace the industry has set in terms of innovation….The term ‘mobile’ happens to be associated with a technological device, but ‘mobility’ lies at the core of what it means to be young.

On bathrooms and babycare rooms...Bathroom blogfest 2007

I'm a little late in joining the ladies in the loo this year. The bathroom blog fest which Susan and Stephanie initiated last year, has been on this week. Its about a group of women bloggers around the world writing about how customer experiences can be improved around restrooms.

Last year, since there was not too much i could recall about positive restroom experiences in India, I had written about the restrooms at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay and how those were one of the very few restrooms i had visited where one would not feel like pinching one's nose and running out at the earliest. We have come a long way from those days. For starters as a woman I can actually 'think' of finding a decent restroom in a public place - Malls have made life easier on that front. Airports are being revamped and so are the loos. Its a not unusual anymore to come across restrooms that are not only clean, but also adequate in their
supplies.

Of all the restrooms I've visited in the recent past - there has been one that stands out as the best I have seen here. I found it at a mall in Bombay that has is known for its design that matches international standards. What stood out there was - the wash basin designed for kids. Though this is becoming common in restrooms abroad - it is not something one would spot easily here and certainly reflective of the fact that people have started paying more attention to designing restrooms !

The other thing i came across at this mall - was a bright cheerful place -called the baby care room ! Most places have a small section of the women's restroom dedicated for this purpose though I have often wondered how uncomfortable it would be for women who sit in a busy restroom and attend to their babies. Besides comfortable seating, a baby changing table - this room had toys that older kids could play with and the cushions on the couch were adorable. This space felt like something that was in between what we have seen and know of a typical baby changing areas and the kids play area that one often finds at supermarkets.

On a related note...(though not specific to the Indian context) - I came across a news letter that talked about emerging consumer typologies....one of which they labeled 'denim dads' and described this creature as

The modern stay-at-home dad is admired for seeking work-life balance. He spends a good chunk of his day online, gleaning parenting tips off Slowlane.com and posting his own. He shares musical tastes with his kids, and appreciates the changing tables in the men’s room at Home Depot.

Now...how many businesses would even think of having a baby changing area in the men's room...you tell me.

For more visit the bathroomblogfest blog

customer experience, bathroom blogfest, ladiesrooms

Lets Face it - is facebook the new buzzword in research circles?

In the past couple of months I have encountered facebook –quite literally - wherever I have turned my face! I have seen it land up in my inbox as invites from friends, pop up in conversations with colleagues, featured on blog posts and finally yesterday I was sent an article on - what sites like face book and myspace mean for research?

In the midst of all this I caught on to the facebook bandwagon just to see what it was all about!

From the little time that I have spent on facebook here is what I’ve observed…

What are people there for?

Small conversations that may not be of any consequence. Things like Wassup with you? Saw ur pics…really liked them or Am off to SL…see you guys in a week.

Grant McCracken has a good post on this – How social networks work . He refers to these as ‘phatic conversations’

This is communication with little hard, informational content, but lots of emotional and social content. Phatic communications doesn't get much said, but it has social effects so powerful, it gets lots done

It seems like a place for dipping in and out rather than immersing oneself deeply. Immersing would involve investment of a lot more energy and time. Perhaps email / IM would be a relatively more immersive style of communication.

My conjecture is – that’s what keeps the regularity of such conversations going and these networks thriving. Dropping in a one-liner on someone’s facebook wall is far less taxing than sitting down to write an email which would warrant some thought, structure and purpose.

So what does it mean for research?

Research has traditionally warranted an immersive approach to conversations. Lengthy & purposeful.

Online research and the use of discussion boards brought some change to this format. That was all about recruiting a panel and having short, non immersive, regular conversations with a set of people. Those were still purposeful conversations

What then is the difference between using a social networking site for research as opposed to using a discussion forum? The way I see it is that participants who are part of a discussion board have been brought there / have come on their own volition - for a specific purpose vis-à-vis people on social networking sites who are already hanging around there.

The difference is also that people at social networking sites are hanging around there and primarily engaging in Phatic conversations – the everyday emotional fillers. The kind of conversations marketers / researchers are likely to have on such platforms would not be quite like that. Even if they are limited to the small non immersive format – they are still going to be purposeful and rational – and therefore not likely to fulfill the need that people are there for.

The closest example I could think of was lunch time conversations that I would have with my female colleagues about inane things, interjected by our boss who’d spoil the party by constantly talking something work related. Even if it was something as small as just throwing up a question – it would be met out with disgusting looks – since that was not the right time and place to talk about such affairs.

What could be the way of tapping into social networking sites?

To start with it would require being sensitive to why people are on that channel. Use it to create that initial contact – open up a channel of communication….perhaps even understanding the way a target group thinks. I would be weary of using the platform literally to conduct research

Your thoughts?