MRSI highlights

Mid November saw a gathering of researchers and research users in equal strength for the 20th MRSI annual seminar. The seminar, conducted by Market research society of India in association with ESOMAR (European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) is an annual event and provides a forum to share success stories an exchange new ideas and techniques in MR. The theme of this year was ‘Unraveling the New age consumer’. It was a two day seminar held in Mumbai at Hotel Westin and broadly covered Technology and New Media in research and New thoughts, Trends and new applications in MR.

The key note address on both days was made by senior client members (Day 1 CMO-Aegon Religare and Day 2 MD- Kimberly Clark Lever) and set the tone for the two days ahead. The key focus in the address was on the need for Market Research to transcend from just information to knowledge, to be a lens that allows Marketers to see the picture clearly and to push for innovation to stay in tune with new age consumers and changing client demands.
10 key observations and highlights of the seminar:
1.The focus was on challenging status quo of research techniques. The entire research fraternity was in a mood to push for adoption of newer techniques and thoughts on how innovation was critical to be in tune with the changing consumer and changing client.

2.The topic of data integrity and delivery timelines, which is usually not discussed too openly was put on the table, acknowledged and action areas suggested. The role of technology was thought to be vital in helping the data collection process.

3.A lot of emphasis on ‘action ability’ of research findings, most papers discussed how their approach made the research more action oriented.


4.The interesting observation was that the seminar saw an enthusiastic response from clients as well. It was encouraging to see papers presented jointly by research team and client team.


5.There was a clear call for research agencies to start improving the perception that clients and general professionals had about research being just ‘information’. A pertinent question raised was ‘why is it that a strategy meeting does not happen without the communication agency partner but the research agency is not really missed?’ The need to improve quality of conversation, initiative and transcend from mere information to knowledge sharing was seen to be important.


6.It was felt that a lot more of innovation and imagination was needed in research design and processes. It had to be self motivated effort, with or without client buy in. The opinion was that once an innovation is proved to make a difference, client follow suit. So probably there is a case for R&D budgets for Research agencies.




7.In the Indian context, it was interesting to note that industries which were known to be highly gut based on their decision making were looking at MR to put a method to the madness. Hindi films and Hindi music were new areas of opportunity for research.

8.A lot of discussion on new media, both in terms of how it is going to impact the business processes and also about how it is opening new opportunities of providing measurement products.


9.Using social networks, conversations on the web to gain real time consumer insight was explored. Since India is a ‘face to face’ market, it was interesting to note how agencies and clients are experimenting with hybrid techniques that bring together real and virtual.

10.The new ‘Socio economic Classification’ parameters were shared by the MRSI. The SEC GRID which has been used for decades to determine demographic profiling of consumers is undergoing a review. The key changes were in durable ownership where one saw ‘Personal Computer’ and ‘internet connection’ being added. Some categories were done away with. This however is not yet formally launched but was shared since the forum had key people in the industry attending.


Its time for MR to become knowledge marketers!