Marketing Research Methodology - A Sublime art

We all remember the Cute yesteryear "I Love you Rasna" advertisement
But would you have ever wondered about the massive undercurrent of research methodology involved for designing and coming up this simple commercial. Frankly, if you had asked me i would have scoffed if anyone had told me that to even come up with the orange color on the pack of Rasna was after a meticulous round of focus group discussions.
Well, was i wrong.. it was prof. Rajiv Bagayatkar Associate Director, ACNielsen ORG-Marg who introduced us into the various levels of research that happens for every product branding decisions and with the Rasna case it was proven without doubt that it was not just a stroke of luck that the decisions of the Rasna commercial proved to be a track record.

Starting from how the first commercial was conceived, in order to create a niche in the SDC (Soft Drink Concentrate Segment), to target Moms as the primary buyer and kids (age 3-5 yrs) as the primary influencers, he went on to tell us about how difficult it is to target children because of their extreme associations with color, taste and all the other senses but also lack of proper existing data on the same target segment.

The more he described the world of Marketing research methodology, the more i began to believe that all marketing research involves is to get your basics right. The more basic is the thought process of the advertisement/marketing honchos the better would be the reach across all the segments. It is really not about shattering technological innovations but more about finding how do humans react to specific signals such as the bikini-clad babes or the colgate smile grand-moms. Marketing research is hence why i would say is a sublime art of understanding human psychology.

Few of his other insights; to categorize the behaviour of the people across the borders in India
1) North : They are more external show-offs. All of the products such as T.Vs or T-Shirts which would be visible to others (neighbours,family) would always be branded; while products which would rather not see the light of others; such as washing shampoos or toothpastes would be the cheaper cousins.
2) South : They are more rational people. For ex: in case u have the Heads & Shoulders shampoo commercial, in the north if it shows only that your hair gets clean and gals flock you it shall sell, but in the south you have to show pictures of ZPTO molecules doing the actual cleaning.
3) East : They are more tradition oriented. They would stick on to any old product and are very wary of changing their preferances.
4) West : As a nature of the people, the west is a mix of all the above three characteristics.


Go ahead and explore... Marketing research might just be the field for you