Insights on the go continues....

The other day when I was travelling in metro, a thought crossed my mind, a thought to call it a ‘consumer trap market’, but a market which in every way truly is a marketers’ delight. Thousands of commuters travel at different point of time in a day, and relish the comfortable experience of their journey. Metro act as an effective medium for brands to get maximum exposure, due to the capacity to reach different segments( age, class, profession) of target audience at one point of time. The eyeballs that rolls in the limited area of the train also makes it an effective medium. Above all, commuters have no chance to run away from the targeted print ads which is in front of them in the entire journey … at some point of time they are likely to give atleast a glance to those ads.. that’s why a 'trap market'


You can see advertisements all around, just above every seat or around the support strap handle



Source: Flickr.com
But how effective is just a glance, not sure about the recall factor of those ads as well. I think as far as the regular commuters are concerned, the ads around them tend to get unnoticed and slip out of their mind too. I just thought to observe commuters, their eyes giving attention to the ads. And as I had thought, very few commuters bother to spend a couple seconds on those panel/display ads. I am not sure about the ROI being generated from just a glance (by very few commuters); it might be good as well. But, there is a room for the creativity in the mediums adopted by marketer to catch maximum attention of commuters
Some of my observation turned strategy could be… (Viability still a question mark)

1. Use of digital signage/ LCD dispalys, a combination of advertisement and entertainment.
2. Station announcements inside the train can be followed by another announcement related to a brand/service like a new food outlet opening near that station.
3. Motivate commuters to give attention to the display ads inside the train. Like by playing a game or contest. sms on xxxx about the total number of ads covering banks or which bank’s ad talks about giving a personal loan at x%…. The idea is to involve commuters and motivate them to not only give glance to those ads but also read it through….’Can we call it Add on Ad’ concept
4. How about a brand representative on the train, to inform or educate about the services… the example that comes to my mind is of Citibank + metro travel card. I really liked that TVC that used to come during IPL matches, “jhoom jhoom” Wonderful ad, followed by billboards on station and also help centres on a few stations. I really wanted to know more about it, the benefits that the card is offering, how different it is and other queries, but never get time as I am always in a running mode to catch the train. Why not a representative from Citibank gets on the metro and travel at a schedule point of time, with their target audience to give a meaningful exposure to the card. Only selected brands or any educational campaign can be allowed to run inside the train with prior approval from the DMRC

Considering the amount of free time commuters have while travelling, makes me wonder other new initiatives that can be introduced for a mutual beneficial involvement between commuters and companies. Brands can get meaningful exposure with confirmed ROI and commuters get entertainment in return…..

Consumer Insights on-the-go…….

"Ab toh aadat si hai mujhko aise jine mein", no no, it's not the pain of separation or being cheated in love… it's the description of my daily travel routine! I am sure many would identify with my feelings and can easily relate to this song if they also end up spending a good amount of time from their daily schedule on traveling. So, how do you spend your time when you travel to office? Reading, gossips, discussion or sleeping? No, not for me I can say. It is hard for me to read while traveling, I tried a lot, but couldn't do. Gossip, nah! I generally travel alone. Sleeping, yes! would definitely love to do if I ever get that precious possession - a seat!

So, with none of the activities exciting enough, my journey started becoming quite tiring and at the same time very  frustrating. Then I realised the power of observation – yes observation, have you ever spent hours just observing people while traveling? I tell you it's fun, and at the same time being a marketer myself I amazingly found observation on-the-go as the meaningful source of first hand consumer insights! Imagine this, a typical morning time in Delhi metro - a bunch of college going girls discussing their lecturers, boyfriends, parties, clothes/accessories – great to see and hear those exciting looking young girls, all pep up and raring to go! Careful attention given to their discussion and lot of insights come out of every word that they utter, which is just insightful! If I turn around, I find an intellectual looking boy (as a picture perfect I find this boy with specs on ) giving full attention to the notebook on his hands,  - the last minute review before an exam I guess! Now, let's have a look at the 'kings of this world' (read those with precious possession in the form of a seat), you will find almost 50% of those taking a comfortable nap, ahaa! Even a 5-10 mins nap does wonder, isn't it. And, poor night-watchman/woman (read those who are standing) looks on as if they are guarding the place near that seat. Little movement of body by any of the kings brings a ray of hope to those standing near, but unfortunately that turns out to be just a slight change in the position of a bag and here goes king again in his day dreaming leaving night-watchman grumbling on his fortune... body language, worth capturing! I have gone through this many times, so I know how it feels .. you think a seat is coming your way and you start to take position( deceived by the body movements of the king off course), but much to your amusement, it just turns out to be an act to play with your feelings :-)

Good to see many middle-age men, strangers to each other, getting into some kind of discussion - most of the times it is politics which takes the center-stage, but young generation and the changing economy is not that far behind… But in the middle of all this, you may  come across a few young/old short-tempered monsters who get into pity scuffle even over a minor issue, like a simple request by one of the passengers to get some space, "thoda side ho jaiye bhai sahab" ..

These are a few of those instances which many would come across while traveling, but the idea is how well can these be converted into consumer Insights. Marketers/ Advertisers consider first hand insights as a very useful source to understand consumer behavior.. Here is an example of observational method of study and how it gets implemented successfully- you must have seen the award winning ad of fevicol, in the words of Prasoon joshi who shot this ad, he said, "The campaign was a true representation of observation method delivering consumer insights. When in school, we used to travel through Jaisalmer in the bus crushed between people and their trunks, and at times even their poultry. The insight was this strange human bonding. The ad clicked and the rest is history,"

Observation on-the-go is one of the many sources available to capture consumer insights everyday.. To understand your consumer, then just be with them - "Just watch and study"!

To be continued.......