Mamata Banerjee, Market Research & Your MSME

Mamata Banerjee can easily qualify as a poster child for why Market Research is so important! Why do I say so?

With elections to the W. Bengal State Assembly scheduled to take place in 2021, all political parties in the fray are now nearing the business end of the race. The stark contrast in their approach to wooing the electorate can be put down to one simple fact. How well they understand & tap into the issues, concerns & aspirations of the average Bengali voter. In order to this this, it is vital that they have a robust & reliable mechanism for filtering on-ground inputs. This filter is Market Research.

The frontrunner is the upstart in the fray, the Bharatiya Janata Party. Friends with generational roots in W.Bengal report that their parents who live in the state often tell them with a sense of dismay and resignation that a fading Laal Salaam & waning belief in Ma Mati Manush has ensured that the gerua (saffron) takeover of Bengal is complete.

How does the BJP do this? In state after state? With such consistency? Part of the reason can be attributed to the change in party working style brought about by BJP’s Past-President Amit Shah. Mota Bhai, as he is popularly referred to, was relentless and lead from the front. He followed a very scientific process of organizational strengthening and growth. Soon after the party lost elections in Bihar and Delhi in 2016 and amid murmurs that BJP’s golden phase could be on the wane, he went back to the grassroots. Focussing on expansion and membership, the party began to revive the cadre, went back to its strength of presence at the booth level and borrowed from the Sangh’s (RSS) outreach of door-to-door connect.

Amit Shah had his ear firmly to the ground & insisted on daily reportage from the states. While a breakthrough in West Bengal came in the form of 18 Lok Sabha seats in the last election under his watch, there is no let-up in preparations for the 2021 assembly polls. What many pundits fail to understand is that the BJP sees every election as a transaction between the party & the individual voter, to be played to maximum mutual benefit. This is why apart from using regular methods of electoral campaigning, it invests so heavily in below-the-radar messaging using WhatsApp groups, advertising on a giant scale on Facebook, Instagram and other such open, searchable platforms & campaigning door-to-door where physical canvassing & other such tasks are meticulously assigned & followed up with the party’s 18 Crore karyakartas (workers).

So it is only natural that in 2021, you can expect W.Bengal to turn saffron.

As a business owner what can you learn from this?

1. I can understand you think of your business as mighty & robust. I can also see why you believe you know best about how to run your ship. Every capable & competent business owner believes this. This is exactly what the redoubtable Captain Edward Smith of the ill-fated SS Titanic believed & what Mamata Didi believes! So, unless you want a shipwreck on your hands, its wisest to invest in market research that can spot, not just the iceberg for you in the treacherous waters of The Great Indian Bazaar, but also tell you how you can navigate it safely. At Cobblestones Consulting we have helped many business owners do precisely this!

2. Do not aim for ‘stability’ in your business performance. This is the mistake the almost-irrelevant Indian National Congress keeps making in election after election that it loses. Instead, like Amit Shah does, focus on ‘impact’. If Year 2020 has taught us all one thing, it is to expect the unexpected. Then adapt to thrive amidst the disruption, as best as we can. In the community-oriented भारतीय (Indian) mercantile ecosystem, fundamental boundaries that have specified the relationships, interactions, and possibilities of most businesses are rapidly blurring and dissolving. In भारत that is India, as these boundaries move, be they geographic, scientific, technological, institutional, or cultural boundaries, the results have been momentous. Industries and sectors have been converging, reducing the clear lines of demarcation originally defined and codified almost 70 years ago. Boundaries between and within firms have been weakening. Old distinctions between products and services are breaking down as businesses traditionally specializing in one seek to integrate the other, to create fuller “solutions” and more compelling experiences that serve customers’ growing expectations. In such a flux, the only way you can hedge your bets is by making business decisions in a minimal-risk environment. Cobblestones Consulting works closely with business owners in exactly such situations to provide decision inputs that help maximize clients returns with minimum risk.

3. Leverage technology, innovation & communication to maximize impact in new & existing markets. But rather than relying on advice from people who do not have much skin in your game, or foray into markets based on your ‘gut feel’ at best or a ‘wild hunch’ at worst, you need robust market research, such as the one provided by Cobblestones Consulting, to read underlying market trends. This is because, technology, innovation & communication are the tools you most frequently deploy these days to achieve an objective. This is the ‘what should I do?’ part of your business decision. And many entrepreneurs fail because they do not know the ‘why is the market showing this behaviour’ part. Unlike Mamata Didi who is busy safeguarding her home turf against a BJP-led ‘poriborton’ (change), strategizing with the help of advisors like Prashant Kishore & issuing lame sound-bytes, or the INC entering a poll alliance in the state with Left parties, Amit Shah invested early on in deep, reliable ground-level research in W.Bengal.

The research commissioned by BJP showed that voting in the state in 2021 will be driven by three main issues:

1 – The overarching aspiration of all Bengalis to create & live in Shonar Bangla, the golden Bengal that Rabindranath Tagore spoke of

2 – The clear religious polarization evident in voter choice & the overwhelming support PM Narendra Modi enjoys among the women electorate in the state  

3 – Transformation of the great Bengali pastime – adda and armchair revolution over cha-biscoot. Rapidly morphing into a real spirit of revolutionary nationalism in W.Bengal, this is being fanned by an increasing sense of impatience among large sections of the electorate, including some politicians within the Trinamool National Congress & the Left parties, who feel let down by the incumbent government’s inability to deliver change & progress.

If you see the BJP’s election-approach in West Bengal through the prism I’ve just created for you, you’ll understand why their juggernaut is unstoppable!

At Cobblestones Consulting, our research expertise is delivered in the light of such analysis. We not only tell you what business tactics will better serve you, we also show you why you need to do it. Do reach out to us at cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com. Based on real-time, relevant, client-specific and rigorous market research, we will be glad to help you lean into your learnings & grow into a more confident business version of you.

Two Case Studies Showing You How We Did This With Clients In The MSME Sector:

Case 1 – Global Client:

Company profile: The client worldwide specialist in energy management and automation with a global presence in over 100 countries. It develops safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable connected solutions to manage energy and processes.

Innovative tech: High-end ePAC – Ethernet programmable automation controller

Introduced: 2018

Market Research Requirement: The client was a Market Disruptor in the Programmable Automation Controller (PAC) market in the country. To match the growth & expansion of IoT across major industries, it had become important to analyze and use efficient controllers that could handle the demand. In order to satiate this emerging need in the industries, a high-end controller which also enabled IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) had been introduced into the market.

The client commissioned Cobblestones Consulting to create a features-benefits grid that could serve as the basis for the marketing strategy of his product. This was done because this New Market Disruption targeted customers who had needs that were not being served by existing companies. Also, because this was unlike the traditional industrial marketing scenario, where the company would first develop products or services and then implement strategies to help attract new customers to their business. The research scope also included investigating how consumers were driving the market, not just a business. And how the client could tap into a market’s mood and provide what consumers wanted.

Positive impact: With Ethernet at its core, the product is the first smart/connected ePAC built for the Industrial Internet of Things in India, which improves productivity and efficiency in the best feasible manner. Based on market research insights provided by Cobblestones Consulting, the product was sold as an ePAC that could be effectively merged with the existing features of Unity PAC present in trending technologies, in order to provide it with a strong Ethernet base.

Sales pitches highlighted how it successfully optimized communications and improved the connectivity capabilities of clients which allowed these companies to react faster to information demands in a safe and cyber-secure environment. Slowly, consumers began to perceive the product as delivering an open, transparent, yet fully cohesive, stable and secured system, making it ideal for today’s dynamic market. The product USP was framed as “Built for the industrial IoT, the high-end ePAC is designed to provide total flexibility, and enhance efficiency in all major operations of medium and large companies”.

In just over a year since the conclusion of the market research assignment, this product has been successfully commercialized. It is widely used by Indian companies in industries as diverse as water and wastewater plants, hydropower, oil, mining, transportation, and gas.

Case 2 – Local Client:

Client Profile:

A renowned engineering company in Pune approached Cobblestones Consulting to survey the Indian market to identify market size, customer base and expected pricing for grain sorter machines based on line scan camera technology. Grain sorter machines are widely used by grain and pulses processing units, large stores and malls in India and abroad for colour sorting of rice, pulses, granules and a large variety of beans. Such machines are currently known to be manufactured in India, China and Switzerland.

Market Research Requirement:

1. Market size and granularity

2. Customer segmentation

3. Possible pricing

4. Prospect names and phone numbers

5. Access to interview questions and answers

6. Details on current best selling models in the marketplace

7. Types of grains that get sorted using these machines the most – rice, wheat, pulses, etc.

8. Competitive information

Post-Research Results:

Using the market research results, the company was able to understand customer demand and market potential (Market Potential Research), to identify its customer base (Market Segmentation Research) & synchronize the product-market fit (Pricing Research). Three years into the research, the company has an annual turnover in FY 19 of around Rs. 70 crores with about 2000 machine installations in India and the SAARC region.  

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Why Lean Market Research is your safest option to grow sales in the bazaars of India

From large corporations to owners of small & medium businesses, it’s the same story across India. Diwali this year isn’t as bright as it used to be. The markets are just as brightly lit as the year before, the offers on sale are just as attractive as they used to be, yet consumers aren’t taking the bait. They just aren’t biting! This is proving to be a cause of much heartburn and stress for the business community. Last year, during Diwali season alone, Indians spent close to Rs.300 billion in purchases. Earning roughly 4 billion dollars in just one fortnight is not something you can see waning off without feeling acute distress!

Indian markets in present times, appear like the proverbial ‘Flux Vortex’ we saw in the 2009 James Cameron sci-fi fantasy adventure ‘Avatar’. In fact, if you superimpose India Inc. on a single scene in the Avatar movie, Trudy Chacon, the SecOps pilot would be Head of Marketing, Dr. Grace Augustine would be CEO, Norm Spellman would be front line Sales Staff, VFR would be Market Research and Hallelujah Mountains would be Consumer India! The script would play out like this:

[Trudy is flying them towards Hallelujah Mountains]

Dr. Grace Augustine: We’re getting close.

Trudy Chacon: Yeah, look at my instruments.

[the instrumentation is going haywire whilst they fly through clouds]

Dr. Grace Augustine: Yep. We’re in the Flux Vortex.

Trudy Chacon: We’re VFR from here on.

Norm Spellman: What’s VFR?

Trudy Chacon: It means you got to see where you’re going.

Norm Spellman: You can’t see anything!

Trudy Chacon: [laughing] Exactly. Ain’t that a bitch?

Given off-the-charts levels of market risk & sluggish sales in Diwali season this year, as a business owner, what can you do to quickly increase your sales in a ‘cheap & best’ way? The answer: Commission Lean Market Research, a revolutionary new way of doing market research in times of COVID-19.

With established brands in भारत that is India like Parle-G, Bajaj, Titan & Amitabh Bachchan feeling the heat in the unforgiving Indian marketplace, no business owner today can afford to be critical of market research which, to put it simply, is any set of techniques used to gather information and better understand a company’s target market. Businesses use this information to design better products, improve user experience, and craft a marketing message that attracts quality leads and improves conversion rates.

During the Lockdown when businesses were struggling to stay afloat & during Unlock season when companies actually went under, my market research agency, Cobblestones Consulting, was not only able to weather the storm, but today we are actually clocking more sales than we did at the same time last year. As a business owner, how did I lead my team to achieve this feat?

Like millions of business owners/CEO’s/CMO’s across भारत that is India, I too was feeling lost, unsure & held back by market conditions. The best way I found to break this this inertia was to look around for information. Lean Market Research gave me an accurate answer, on a budget outlay I could easily afford. 

At Cobblestones Consulting, our model of Lean Market Research is a model for continuous improvement that relies on quick, efficient research to understand customer needs and test new features. Take for example, the pan-India market research project for an Eye Wear client that we’ve just wrapped up. Before his Eye Wear business took off, this entrepreneur had launched two startups, but both companies crashed and burned. Each time, he and his team spent months trying to design an amazing new product and user experience, but they failed because they didn’t have a clear understanding of what the market demanded. With the Eye Wear business, they did things differently. Long story short, they commissioned Cobblestones Consulting to conduct market research in the early stages to figure out what their consumers really wanted, and they made (and continue to make) constant improvements based on regular market research. Today the company looks poised to give established brands a run for their money as positive word-of-mouth & a strong digital buzz have set the cash registers ringing.  

Commissioning a Lean Market Research project to Cobblestones Consulting can help you become more…

1. Efficient: it gets you closer to your customers, faster.
2. Cost-effective: no need to hire an expensive marketing firm to get things started.
3. Competitive: quick, powerful insights can place your products/services on the cutting edge.

Like in the case of the Avatar movie, the plot in Indian markets today can also be described in just three words: Technology II Innovation II Ideas. Market research is the only reliable way you have to understand your users. Sure, you might have a general idea of who they are and what they need, but you have to dig deep if you want to win their business. Winning their loyalty? With the current mood of Indian consumers, that is a long shot these days! At Cobblestones Consulting, the way we do market research is neither expensive nor time-consuming. Our Lean Market Research inputs helps us give clients quick answers that help them stay ahead of the competition.

Here’s are 4 key reasons why Lean Market Research will be critical for your business survival, especially between the years 2021 to 2025 when sudden market disruptions, consumer upheaval & changes in business structures across markets in भारत that is India will become the norm as Consumer India matures & the economy struggles to reach a state of equilibrium.

1. Obsessing over your users is the only way to win. If you don’t care deeply about improving user experience, you’ll lose potential customers to someone who does. Whoever gets closer to the customer wins.
2. Analytics give you the ’what,’ but research gives the ‘why.’ Big data, user analytics, and dashboards can tell you what people do at scale, but only research can tell you what they’re thinking and why they do what they do. For example, analytics can tell you that customers leave when they reach your pricing page, but only research can explain why.
3. Research beats assumptions, trends, and so-called best practices. Have you ever watched your colleagues rally behind a terrible decision? Bad ideas are often the result of guesswork, emotional reasoning, death by best practices, and defaulting to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO). By listening to your users and focusing on their customer experience, you’re less likely to get pulled in the wrong direction.
4. Research keeps you from planning in a vacuum. Your team might be amazing, but you and your colleagues simply can’t experience your product the way your customers do. Customers might use your product in a way that surprises you, and features that seem obvious to you might confuse them. Over planning and refusing to test your assumptions is a waste of time, money, and effort because you will likely need to make changes once your untested plan gets put into practice.

In India, in the 1990’s we moved on from the Industrial Age propelled by the government’s LPG push & entered the Computer Age (1990-2010). With the advent of the Digital Age in India (circa 2011), Indians no longer live & operate in an Analog world. COVID-19 has shoved all of us Indians into the digital world fully. Today, we are all connected in a tangible way.

As an entrepreneur, this can leave you feeling like you have one foot on the dock & the other in the boat that is setting sail. As a market research professional with close to 25 years of Indian market experience under her belt, I can tell you that you have no choice but to get onto this great adventure. Your best option is to flow with the market currents. Be less constrained. Get on the technology train. Update your skills. This Diwali season, I find that many businesses have suddenly disappeared, either because they are not visible or because they are no longer required.

Based on my close, on-ground interaction with consumers over the past three months, here are a couple of hacks that you can use as a business owner:

HACK-1: There is not anyone out there who does not feel they need to take control of their business profits and put things back on track. But words such as control & victory will not earn you much consumer goodwill. Not market dominance, but customer inclusion, collaboration & co-operation is the best way forward for you in Indian markets. 

HACK-2: For Indian consumers these days, it’s not just about economics. Aesthetics are equally important in product design. Think in terms of beautiful, not just useful. If you are a service provider, don’t focus solely on utilitarian aspects in your delivery. Let cohesion be just as important. Embrace, do not conquer. Balance being gentle, kind, nurturing with a fiery, independent & strong brand persona. Remember, in these present times consumer transactions are either smooth or full of friction.

HACK-3: Consumer free will is an on-ground market reality you have to accept. As this next phase of your business journey is underway, what parts of your business story are you holding on to in light of this fact? So much has happened over the last two to six months that the landscape of your path has changed drastically. With each passing day you will be moving forward, slowly at first, but the pace will gradually escalate. It is not in your best interest to maintain the same stance as you had six months ago. While ‘The Lockdown’ & three ‘Unlock’s’ have spun you around a few times, they have not stripped you of every part of your business existence. Using Lean Market Research, you can decide where you go from here, and things you need to retain in your business story in order to ensure your security. A conservative approach is still the best to take, allowing the consumer mood in the coming months to smooth out in your favour.

HACK-4: On a personal level, you can do as I did. I created and conducted a Timeline Exercise for my business journey. Whatever you’ve been dealing with in terms of your business story, look at your timeline for answers to what is holding you back. Like me, you’ll find that over this past decade & more, you handled some things really well. Others you put on the back burner, to be reviewed later. It is a fascinating exercise. In my business story, I found major turning points occurred in the years 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017 (when Cobblestones Consulting went international in our operations & which bought home to me a full awareness of my professional capabilities) & of course the unforgettable Year-2020.

In the recent past, Cobblestones Consulting has helped many clients execute Lean Market Research in domains as diverse as Product & Offer Development, Brand & Communications, Service & User Experience, Business & Stakeholders, Consulting Services, Education, Healthcare, Consumer Goods & Retail, Social & Government & Technology.

If you are looking to conduct conduct quick, effective market research & wish to hire a market research agency that fits your budget, reach out to us at cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com. Our Lean Market Research is easier than you might think. Both on your pocket & in terms of your time. And it can be done at any stage in a service/product’s life-cycle!

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Brand Tanishq’s TITANic Moment…and what we can learn from it

Now & then I come across business owners who tell me, “Oh, we’ve been in this business for many decades now…we know our customers quite well…we understand the dynamics of our business enterprise better than most others…we are quite aware of how the latest technology developments/market trends/govt. schemes/regulatory norms affect our business…our funds would yield better results if we put them into sales/HR rather than into market research…at the moment we really do not need market research, thank you!”

Okay. Gotcha. This is exactly what Tanishq thought too…and look what has happened to them!

One of India’s strongest brands, the Tanishq brand wagon has been rudely & swiftly upended by the treacherous iceberg that is the inscrutable, iconoclastic, opinionated Indian customer. This could not have come at a worse time for the brand. 2020 opened in the midst of an economic slowdown, continued into the Coronavirus Lockdown, moved into the Unlock phase & consumer demand had just started to pick up with the onset of the annual Diwali shopping season when Brand Tanishq was struck by disaster!  

As always there are two sides to this brand story at the heart of which is the tough-to-figure-out-and-win-over Indian customer. And they have both happened in the same span of less than a week, October 9-14, 2020 (I’m writing this on the 14^th of October).

Let’s start with the good news first. Last week, food blogger Gaurav Wasan shared a video of an elderly couple (in pic below) selling home-made food from a small kiosk in South Delhi. In the video, 80-year-old Kanta Prasad movingly lamented about the hardships that he and his wife Badami Devi (77) faced during lockdown. The video went viral overnight, reaching millions of Indians. By the next morning, huge lines could be seen outside their small eatery – Baba Ka Dhaba. Customers made a beeline to eat his food as did camera crews, bloggers and journalists. The fortunes of the elderly couple turned around overnight, as if in a straight plot lift out of Slumdog Millionaire. 

This ‘Baba-Ka-Dhaba effect‘ is being felt across the country, especially keenly in South Delhi, which has seen 150+ local, small vendors requesting customers to help them just like they did with ‘Baba Ka Dhaba’. In a manner typical of New India, brands like Baba Ka Dhaba are increasingly starting to emerge overnight & grow organically, shaped & promoted by proactive Indian customers who act as brand evangelists. It helps if business owners keep a good work ethic, are humble & grounded and focus on product delivery & service quality. This ‘Baba-Ka-Dhaba’ effect is something brands need to watch out for & capitalize on, especially in post-Corona Indian markets. 

Now for the not-so-good-news.

On October 9, 2020, Tanishq, a division of Titan Company that is promoted by the Tata Group released a video advertisement for marketing its newest jewellery line “Ektavam”. The audio-visual advertisement released simultaneously on mainstream TV channels & digital platforms showed how a Hindu daughter-in-law is adopted as one of their own by a well-to-do Muslim family. In the advertisement, the timid Hindu daughter-in-law asks her assertive Muslim mother-in-law, “Ma (mother), these Hindu baby shower rituals do not happen in your home…So how come now…”. The Muslim mother-in-law answers, “That’s because the ritual of keeping the daughter happy is in common to every household in India, be it Hindu or Muslim” The video ends with the message that if Indians come together as one, we can achieve whatever we set out to do.

So far, so good. The advertisement checked all the right boxes. Positive messaging. Visual appeal. Fantasy portrayal.

What followed next was a free-for-all social media slug-fest. Many Hindus on Twitter (the instant barometer of public opinion in India) found this video to be spreading Love Jihad. Muslim Twitter users on the other hand found it to be a beautiful example of Hindu-Muslim harmony. But the end result has not been a laughing matter for Tanishq. Hindus are target customers for the brand. With Diwali purchase season kicking off this Saturday and the majority of Hindus in India not looking to buy Tanishq jewellery, but patronize local brands instead, it promises to be a long & grim road ahead for this once-loved jewellery brand.

Hindus across the world are outraged over how their community has been depicted in the advertisement. The community is shown to be endlessly accommodating, patient, painfully meek, lost, slightly awed, confused & very taken in by the attitude of Muslims towards them & their rituals. This is why #BoycottTanishq is trending on Twitter & why the company was forced to issue an apology. Images of Tanishq jewellery stores pasting apology notes on storefronts are surfacing. Although the advertisement has been removed from official accounts of the jewellery brand on the night of October 12^th, a barrage of comments directed at the brand and Ratan Tata (under whose Tata Company, Tanishq rolls up) continues unabated as I write this.

What has added fuel to the fire is statements by ill-informed folks with a sizeable Twitter following like Rajiv Bajaj (entitled, 3^rd generation corporate scion & torch-bearer of a fading automotive brand) & Chetan Bhagat (house husband, self-styled ex-investment banker & purveyor of puerile prose with unimaginative titles that range from whole numbers to decimals). The gist of the comments uttered by these gems of Indian Commerce was that they being on one side and the surrender of Tanishq on the other highlighted the difference between spine and supine! Really? (eye roll) Someone needs a reality check!

All of this could have been brushed off as typical Twitter cacophony by Indians. But then news came in yesterday that Titan stocks had fallen 2.5% on a single day, soon after ‘Boycott Tanishq’ began to trend over the controversial advertisement. The company’s market cap has dropped by Rs. 2700 Crore at the time I write this. It’s certainly time for market pundits to wake up & smell the roses.

What shift in consumer attitudes have led to this unmitigated brand disaster? Why has this happened to a popular brand like Tanishq, smack-bang at the start of Diwali season when gold-crazy Hindus splurge big ticket amounts on jewellery purchases? What consumer signals did the brand miss? Can the brand recover? If so, how can it do this?

Sensible, scientific & rigorous market research can answer all these questions. Of course, hindsight vision is always 20/20 but this need not have been the case had market research been used sensibly right in the beginning, both by the brand managers at Tanishq & by the ad agency that commissioned market research for this advertisement. Like a double-edged sword, market research can maim just as easily as it can help brands monetize their offering. Like in the case of Tanishq, where market research may have been wrongly employed to feed into the Advertising/Brand Manager’s bias as (s)he looked to open newer target segments for the brand. By stretching brand equity past a reasonable limit, Tanishq stands to lose significant market share in the near future.

Let me use my own example to explain how this is happening to Tanishq. I’m one of those gold-crazy Hindus I just spoke about. Every year I buy some Gold Coins from Tanishq on Dhanteras. On Dhanteras eve, diyas (lamps) are lit at home which are kept burning ritually all through the night in honor of Devi Lakshmi and Lord Dhanvantari. The extended family joins me on this auspicious day & as a team, all of us ladies set out on our annual night shopping fun fest, usually chauffeured by a lone suffering male family member! We make new purchases, especially of gold or silver articles and new utensils. In the face of the insensitive Tanishq advertisement & the insincere company apology that followed it, this year, all of us family members have decided to buy Gold Bonds from RBI which will earn us 2.5% annual interest & are issued at a discount as compared to the market price. On the other hand, we have to pay premium prices for our purchases of Tanishq jewellery. This is a net gain, earning all of us wealth at the same time saving us time, money & precious petrol rupees!

How can Tanishq regain market favour with a typical value-conscious Indian ex-customer like me? The answer to this lies in market research. The company must clearly understand the reasons behind why its target customers have taken such offence to a simple advertisement that they are now taking their purchases away from Tanishq, ditching years of brand loyalty. Only when this reason is clearly understood can the company decide on taking the most appropriate corrective action. Failing this, they will just be deploying more lifeboats as they hopelessly watch their brand sink!

The Hindu outrage on social media over the Tanishq advertisement is a cumulative result of many factors. Poor timing by the Tanishq brand management team. Structural dishonesty in public discourse. A growing sense of dissonance among Hindus in India. The issue of reciprocity. If you’d like a detailed explanation of these factors along with a dashboard that tells you how to employ learnings from this to strengthen your brand, do reach out to us at cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com. Based on real-time, relevant, client-specific and rigorous market research, my company, Cobblestones Consulting will be glad to help you lean into your learnings & grow into a more confident business version of you.

To conclude, here’s are 7 things that I can tell you as a market researcher, that could help you to avoid committing Brand Harakiri in India.

1. Question your customers relentlessly. Listen to their discussions attentively. Stop living in your parallel universe of biased opinion, one in which you can guilt trip customers into purchasing from you. With customers of New India, this passive aggression will take you down faster than you can let it fly.
2. In Business India these days, on-ground facts affect your bottom lines & brand sustainability more than your opinion as a business owner or brand manager. Do not get rigidly stuck in your beliefs simply because, “this is what I’ve always done & it worked fine for me till now”. Tanishq thought so too and the result is playing out publicly for you to see. In the choppy white waters of rapidly changing customer opinions & preferences in भारत that is India, learn to catch the downstream current & flow easily with it rather than wasting your effort resisting it, flaying about chaotically & capsizing in your effort to swim against it. Choose your battles wisely.
3. Surviving in Indian markets is all about maintaining balance. Toggle back and forth between leading the customer & learning from her. Do not get too solidified in the idea that YOU are leading anyone, be it your customer or the market situation.
4. Create wealth through stability. You can do this by staying in alignment with your company mission & entrepreneurial authenticity. 
5. Understand that in the customers eyes, you are no longer a hero whom they put on a pedestal. If powerful brands like Tanishq & Amitabh Bachchan are getting tanked overnight, you need to be vigilant & ensure that your brand does not take a dunking anytime soon. Expand how you see things by using objective, unbiased market research inputs.
6. Market Research, especially in Unlock season is no longer a luxury or an afterthought. It is an absolute necessity. Use it to avoid being stuck in a mindset that does not serve you anymore. In India, old allegiances & belief systems no longer hold true. Use market research to get rid of what is holding you back. Get into alignment with your customers, not with what you believe they want.
7. Make decisions in a stable, grounded way. Not on the fly. Only market research can deliver this stability to you at a time when customer preferences in India are changing at a very fast pace & their way of thinking is rocking both business & brand stability.

#खट्टी_मीठी_छोटी_सी_बातें (#Khatti_Meethi_Chhot_Si_Baatein)

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Do you dream about your business revival or do you doubt it?

Just like you, I’ve also struggled to keep my business course steady as economic activity across the country tanked in the face of the tsunami that was the Coronavirus Lockdown. What helped me steer my company to the relatively calmer waters it finds itself in today is Brand Power. In May this year, a client approached me to execute a fairly big market research assignment for his company. As we got talking, I gently asked this successful tech entrepreneur with operations in India, Europe & North America why he sought out & commissioned work to my market research company thrice in the last three years. He answered, “You & your team are really good at what you do. Cobblestones Consulting offers me research insights that are simple to understand & easy to execute but impact bottom lines & growth very significantly. Your services are in my price range. And most importantly, you understand the entrepreneur psyche really well. You speak to us in OUR language about what is in our hearts. That’s why I didn’t just notice your brand, I remembered it!”

This, right here, is deep stuff. This single feedback that was as powerful as it was unexpected, helped me pivot my company in very uncertain times and today, we are all set to sail into prosperous times.

So, what’s the key learning in this for you? Like I inadvertently did, don’t get so caught up in the mechanics of running your company that you overlook a simple truth of business: People don’t care about your business. They care about their problems. Be the solution that they are looking for.

I thought the reason why most clients approached my company Cobblestones Consulting, was because we provided them cost-effective, common-sensical decision inputs based on market research & we did this with quick turn-around times. It was only when I ran a Brand Audit Market Research Exercise on my own brand that I uncovered the reason for my company’s fairly good performance, even during the lean Lockdown months. While many other market research agencies offer clients the information they seek, my brand understands that people are drowning in market information but thirsting for business wisdom. This is exactly what we provide. And at a price point that does not hurt either one of us!

This is our source of Brand Power. It does not emerge from marketing cubicles or advertising agencies. It emanates from everything the company does. As a team, each one of us focuses our energy not on furthering transactions but on fostering relationships. With each client acquisition, we do not aim to be different from the competition. Our attempt is to better ourselves. We know what our values are & we stay true to them.  What we bring to the table is simplicity & common sense. Every single time. For Cobblestones Consulting, branding is all about authenticity & credibility, in the smallest of market interactions. I can continue to blow my own trumpet rather melodiously, but as someone who knows a thing or two about branding, I know for a fact that a great brand is a story that is never completely told!

Today, 75% of our sales comes from leveraging our Brand Power.

– Team Cobblestones Consulting

Here are five hacks to help you pivot your business around your brand & come unstuck:

• In these difficult market times, make your brand your voice. Make it reassuring & rewarding for the customer. Your product/service is just the souvenir.
• These days, you can forget about trying to sell with marketing. Instead, use marketing to help customers buy.
• In the near future, it is authentic brands that will help keep companies afloat in भारत that is India rather than synthetic ones. Focus on building a valuable brand by branding what is valuable about you.
• Understand that not everyone is your customer. Don’t count the people that you reach. Reach the people that count.
• Sales go up & down. Service stays forever. Focus on what really matters.
• Given our social and cultural history of using storytelling embellished by gestures and songs and jokes to sell everything from services to social welfare programs, marketing in in भारत that is India was never about the stuff you made. It still has to do with the stories you tell. Tell Indian customers a fact and they will learn. Tell them a truth and they will believe. But tell them a story and it will live in their heart forever. Make the customer the HERO of your story.

To help SMB owners in भारत that is India successfully implement such simple branding tactics, Cobblestones Consulting is pleased to offer 5 types of individual, stand-alone Customized Brand Reports that can be tailored for your specific company & business domain. These reports are tailored specifically for the post-COVID-19 Indian marketplace. Cobblestones Consulting scientifically examined the process of branding of 101 successful Indian brands to distill specific techniques that could help other business owners intensify the customers connection with their brand. The purpose of these Customized Brand Reports is not to prescribe but to explore and present. You won’t read “must” and “should” here. We can’t tell you how to brand. No one can. But my team is a strong believer in tools, not rules. These Customized Brand Reports can show you what works in great brands, how you can replicate the way these powerful brands capture the customers attention, and hold it from beginning to end, with a wide range of visceral emotions in between.

Our hope is that you can apply these techniques, and combine them with skill, talent, and imagination to create a great brand for your own business. The only rule that matters in भारत that is India is that the brand works, in other words, that it engages the customer emotionally. If fact, this is the only rule in branding which has no exceptions. Rules, principles, and formulas are about what to do. Craft and techniques are about how to do it effectively. No page numbers, just basic branding tools. Put them in your toolbox and use them as needed.

List of Customized Brand Reports offered by Cobblestones Consulting

Brand Creation Report
Brand Enhancement Report
Brand Extension Report
Brand Repositioning Report, and
Brand Audit Report

The templates for these reports have been created by harnessing our cumulative team experience of 45 years in real-time, relevant, client-specific and rigorous market research for branding – across domains, products, services & technologies. Drawing upon sources from Vedic Philosophy, Yoga Sciences and the principles of Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology and Economics, these Customized Brand Reports are tailor-made for Indian markets & audiences.

They are designed to empower both start-up entrepreneurs & खानदानी (family) business owners to:

• Consciously co-create a meaningful brand with customers
• Use marketing muscle to create customer evangelists (who don’t buy what you do but why you do it)
• Employ valid marketing metrics to accelerate/control business growth

So if you are a Small or Medium business owner in भारत that is India with a big heart but lean budget & want to grow your business to capitalize on existing & emerging business opportunities, drop us an e-mail at cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com. We can tailor a package that is best suited to your branding needs & pocket size.

Act now.

#खट्टी_मीठी_छोटी_सी_बातें (#Khatti_Meethi_Chhoti_Si_Baatein)

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Pivot or Perish

Its pivot or perish time for business owners in Maharashtra these days. Google mobility data for the retail sector shows that the state has registered the biggest decline in economic activity among large states in भारत that is India.

With the Coronavirus decimating the health of Pune-Mumbai citizens with wild abandon, a state machinery chasing misplaced priorities & a tanking economy, how can entrepreneurs in Maharashtra ensure their businesses stay afloat & if possible, post profits? This question becomes all the more urgent to address given that competition in other states of India like Uttar Pradesh & Karnataka is racing ahead to capture the market with their easier access to resources, manpower, capital, technology & funding.

Market Research is the answer. Because in the new normal your old ways of strategizing for growth no longer work.

Market research insights provided by Cobblestones Consulting can help you hedge your bets before you lay your cards on the table or fold up.

Our Standardized & Customized Market Research Reports have been created specially to provide Small or Medium Business owners fact-based research insights that can enable them to make optimal decisions on how to further their business in an environment of uncertainty, such as the one presently existing in Maharashtra.

These affordable, objective & context-driven reports have been successfully used by our clients for three main purposes:

1. Jumla For Markets – Discover newer value spaces, newer market opportunities & new customer segments for business offering
2. Ensure Constant Money Flows – Raise funds for business by providing investors proof of positive ROI
3. Jugaad With Technology – Leverage existing technology/infrastructure to create new products/services for a different target market

Standardized & Customized Market Research Reports created by Cobblestones Consulting offer business owners:     

1. Sectoral deep dives
2. Light bulb insights
3. Sharp analyses

So if you are a Small or Medium Business owner with a big heart but lean budget & want to grow your business to capitalize on existing & emerging business opportunities, drop us an e-mail at cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com. We can tailor a package that is best suited to your business needs & pocket size.

Act now. Because in the new normal in Maharashtra, SMB’s have only two choices. Perish painfully or pivot your business to growth & profitability by using objective, reliable & affordable market research insights such as the ones provided by Cobblestones Consulting.

Image Courtesy: Google Images

Proven strategies to generate & sustain demand for your products & services in Indian markets, post-lockdown

COVID-19 is arguably the single most disruptive influence on Indian business operations, markets & systems in recent memory. It has changed the business paradigm & with it come a host of adjustments that business owners are being forced to make in an environment that is both uncertain & challenging. Addressing both risks and potential rewards in times like the present takes confidence, both in decisions and actions alike, and in the solid analysis that should precede them.

Today, every business owner in भारत that is India is asking the following pressing questions that need urgent answers: 

1. How can I generate demand for my product/service?
2. What are the aspects of changed consumer buyer behaviour I can quickly leverage for maximum sales?
3. What is the best method by which I can forecast demand for my product/service & set realistic & achievable sales targets?
4. How can I sustain my sales momentum?
5. How can I re-negotiate my push strategies given the breaks in the supply chain?
6. What are my customers pain points? How can I integrate them in my business strategies to create an effective market pull for my product?
7. How can I shift the focus of my company’s management team from getting the same things done ever more efficiently to strategically pursuing creation of new value, achieving breakthrough performance & sustaining growth?

Based on an e-mail survey of 26,300 owners of SME’s from across India during April-June, 2020, Cobblestones Consulting has created Standardized Reports & Customized Reports for our clients that answer these questions in an actionable & urgent manner.

Standardized Reports are available industry-wise & Customized Reports can be tailored to meet the unique needs of an individual firm/company. These reports are designed help YOU, the business owner, understand where the present market changes can take your company, the new options & threats they present, how you can embrace business constraints without foregoing profits and the strategic and operational shifts necessitated by digitization, connectivity, and new modes of collaboration that are dramatically reshaping important core structures of the industrial economy in India.

By using these Standardized Reports & Customized Reports, business owners have successfully been able to create & implement novel strategies to escape stagnant demand in भारत that is India, create new and profitable revenue streams, and find competitive advantage.

We sincerely hope that these fact-based research insights are helpful as you undertake your journey into a fast-changing future. Order your copy NOW. Send an e-mail to cobblestonesconsulting@gmail.com & get your business back on the growth path.

How businesses can prepare for the new normal after Coronavirus

As markets open across Maharashtra after months of Lockdown, business owners will be looking to step up on sales. It’s all very good to do this, but a word of caution based on my personal experience of working with various companies across the country during this period. Many business owners aren’t able to succeed in the post-Corona markets of भारत that is India because they don’t properly harmonize their capabilities with existing market potential.

My market research company, Cobblestones Consulting is presently partnering with many business owners as they grapple with exactly this business challenge. We help business owners with real-time, relevant, client-specific and rigorous market research that helps them match their capabilities with the existing market potential. Additionally, we also offer to walk the last mile with our clients.  

Let me show you how we do this.

Never let a crisis go to waste

#खट्टीमीठीछोटीसीबातें (Khatti, Meethi, Chhoti Si Baatein)

The world around us is changing rapidly. Russia is no longer the prime focus of the United States of America. China is. In the face of Chinese manufacturing & supply chain capabilities, the European Union is losing its relevance. On the global eco-political stage, India, Australia and Japan are quickly emerging as key players. As a result, the focus of world politics is shifting from Europe to the Indo-Pacific. Coupled with the economic & humanitarian impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this situation has offered India a wonderful opportunity to ease into the role of विश्व गुरु (Vishwa Guru – a teacher to the entire world, a reformer, a world leader and the hub of innovation and knowledge).

As business owners, there is so much we can learn from India which, in so many ways, is the soul of our planet. There are so many stories from this land that entrepreneurs can draw valuable learnings from.

Take Indic history for instance.

Two brothers, Harihara-I and Bukka Raya-I of the Sangama Dynasty, established the Kingdom of Vijayanagara in the Deccan Plateau region of the Indian sub-continent in 1336. In time, Vijayanagara became the greatest empire of Southern India, known for its efficient administration & vigorous overseas trade. By serving as a barrier against invasion by the Islamic sultanates of the North, it fostered the reconstruction of a सनातनी (Sanātanī) way of life and administration after the disorders and dis-unities of the 12th and 13th centuries. In the Indic scheme of things, सनातनी (Sanātanī) is a term used describe a co-existing Hindu way of life based on an ancient, eternal science that is both sustainable & holistic.

Srirangam, a small town located in the town of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu is famous the world over for the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple that was built by the Raya’s of Vijayanagara.  The town is a major pilgrimage destination for Hindus (especially Sri Vaishnavites) and is the largest temple complex in India. The Vijayanagara Kingdom had liberated Srirangam from the onslaught of bloody marauding invaders and restored it to its former glory. The “Rajagopuram” (The Royal Temple Tower) of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, at Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu commemorates this victory of the Vijayanagara Empire. This royal tower is 237 feet (72 m) tall and is made up of thirteen tiers ascending towards the sky. Around 200 workers toiled nearly eight years to construct this rainbow carved in stone.

In the present times, as a business owner, what can you learn from the “Rajagopuram” of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, at Srirangam? Two things:

Are you asking the right questions when assessing market growth opportunities?

Year 2020 started with an economic slowdown, only to nosedive into a three-month Lockdown brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic. As the Indian economy slowly gets back into rhythm, businesses are increasingly operating in complex, dynamic, and adaptive ecosystems across the country. The importance of relationships, partnerships, networks, alliances, and collaborations is obviously not novel in भारत that is India—but it growing rapidly now and is too significant to overlook. As it becomes increasingly possible for firms in the country to deploy and activate assets, they neither own nor control, to engage and mobilize larger and larger numbers of participants, and to facilitate much more complex coordination of their expertise and activities, the “art of the possible” is expanding rapidly.

In the community-oriented भारतीय (Indian) ecosystem, as a business owner, you have the power to forge deeper business relationships by making the decision of how you deal with the dynamics that are disrupting “business as usual”. Driven particularly by digitization, connectivity, and new modes of collaboration, important core structures of the Indian economy are quickly and dramatically reshaping, as many long-standing boundaries begin to blur and dissolve. The “art of the possible” is expanding—enabling new approaches to serious societal challenges, and new business opportunities are emerging, waiting to be explored and monetized.

Business gurus tell us that a variety of phenomena—including feedback loops, stocks and flows, scaling and network effects, power laws, and so on—must be understood to properly appreciate and anticipate how systems behave and might evolve. But we tend to forget a simple truth amidst the complexity of the business landscape of today’s भारत that is India. The business ecosystem in India mimics प्रकृति (prakriti – nature) closely. Nature works and evolves through achieving a harmonious interplay of one organism with another. When we fall out of harmony with the natural rhythm of the business world, discord develops. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided all of us business owners in भारत that is India with the opportunity to move back into the natural, Indic ecosystem of our business world. A place where we function powerfully and harmoniously in ourselves & in the world around us.

Through this harmony, as a business owner, you ignite your business potential. It begins to move and grow. No longer are you a slave to the past and the insecurities that came with it. No longer do fears tie you. Your mind is freed.  You start to become poised and decisive. Choices start to be made with courage & certainty. Your business is rejuvenated and happiness and success become a reality in your business.

Knowledge of the changed business scenario in in भारत that is India is crucial if you are to harmonize response and power in your business.

Entrepreneurial survival in Coronafied Bharat : Everything is figureoutable

#खट्टीमीठीछोटीसीबातें (Khatti, Meethi, Chhoti Si Baatein) means sweet & sour small talk. Through this series of blog posts I intend #BustingIndianConsumerMyths. Its time for business owners in Bharat to wake up and smell the chai. Because in this country, coffee is not everyone’s cup of tea!

Savvy business owners know that the secret to business success in the markets of Bharat  is to serve a collective offering in an individual way. Take for example, the success of ‘Jio-wale uncle’ who made data available to Gen Z & the rest of us Indians across the land using BSNL infrastructure and forced his competitors to make both data & talk affordable for the आम लड़की लड़का (aam-ladki-ladka meaning girl/boy next door) with his bottom-of-the-barrel pricing. Or consider a major player in the market for financial services in India, ‘Bajaj Finance-wale Sirji’ who, unlike his brother who manufactures two-wheelers & three-wheelers, adjusted his sails in 2014 to coast on MODIfied winds of change and proved that ‘हमारा बजाज” (‘Hamara Bajaj’) does not need protectionism to serve Gen X-ers or fall back on crony capitalism to become a market leader serving the Millenials.

Let me explain what I mean when I say that we Bharatiyas are not collectivist but community-oriented.