Consumer Research in India - What marketers need to do featuring shalini rawla

I think there is a lot of struggle okay that the marketeers are trying to do. They are aware that there are some you know the to do things on their list, which is social is now a big thing let's get on to social platforms and figure out what's so what we can do to connect to the consumer. So these are really gestures which we do as lip service but we don't really know how to actually reach out to the consumer. Most of the recent studies that I have done in the last five or six years I haven't seen any attempt from a client-side to come and actually you know be face to face with the consumer I'm talking to. So 90% of the clients don't even accompany me okay and I think that's the only window where they can actually feel the consumer inflation blood they can understand what's happening. Well maybe there are only a few very handful I can count on my fingers on my hand going to my finger who actually are interested in finding out and they have genuine interest and curiosity about how the consumer is changed. So I think we pay lip service that's one. Number two is that we the consumers have changed okay we need to make it very constant process, it's very very adhoc with companies so it is again still very brand driven. Brand has to be re-launched, brand has got this mandid and now we must do something in terms of research. So the need of the hour is to actually constantly be with the consumer, breadth, think and actually follow him in stock him, to understand what is she up to but that effort I don't see happening either from the agencies communication agency side or even from the brand management side. In fact if it all the communication in the ad agencies completely are disconnected that consumers, they never acompany I don't think they do ever their own no interactions because they never have the resources were doing their own no proactive researchers. It's the marketer who is interested but even when they're really spending that much money I think it behaves them to actually just you'll see and meet them and I don't agree with some agencies research companies who actually don't want to client to accompany them I think my buy in with the plane stucks to see what's happening with the consumer when the consumer is actually very interestingly giving feedback and that is the critical point where the client starts to buying into your findings they start to understand where you're coming from. So I don't buy into that philosophy that let the researcher do their job and the agency we give you report at the end. that I don't think is on.