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.......