Researching consumers in India – what they say vs what they feel?

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Ramesh Karra

This should ideally be two blog posts, but one thought led to another, and so on! With that warning, here goes…..

An article I read recently – Paying for Sport Online – highlighted the challenges with sports research in India (actually most research in India)! This was a Global Web Index survey which covered 16,000 internet users across multiple countries. Indians ranked really high on consuming sports highlights on the web – I guess you could credit the IPL-YouTube deal for that. But here is the killer – the sports fans ‘most likely to pay to enjoy streamed sports without advertising’ are…..you guessed right….Indians!!  Check out the chart below!

The guys at CricketNirvana and Ten Sportsm will be laughing at this research (for those of you who are unaware, CricketNirvana tried offering LIVE India cricket matches on the internet through subscription, found no takers and finally had to go to a free, advertiser funded model)! They know (and so do we) that we in India prefer our content for free. If that means having to put-up with hundreds of ‘irritating’ ads, so be it! Paying for content is out of the question!

So what’s with the survey then? Marketers and researchers in India describe this as “the top-box phenomenon”! I.e. we Indians have a tendency to be extremely generous with our ratings of products, answers to questions etc – always pick either MOST LIKELY TO BUY or LIKE IMMENSELY or some such superlative! In the 5 point scale, our answers are almost always in the ‘TOP Boxes’ (4 or 5). Which means that absolute ratings/scores in India have no meaning – we always need a benchmark/control sample score etc. to interpret results (there are cases where 90% consumers surveyed saying that they would DEFINITELY BUY a product is interpreted as – the product is doomed!!).

Top-box phenomenon or not, most consumer research in India is flawed.  When you (the researcher) ask a consumer a question, his answer is dependant in many factors – who you are, who he is, what he thinks, what he feels, what he thinks you feel, what he thinks you will think about what he says etc etc. This is a global phenomenon, but is especially exacerbated here, which is why a lot of the ‘scientific ways’ to address these ‘research challenges, biases’ etc still fall short.

That said, consumer research is still really useful, provided you know what you are doing. I’ve been a part of quite a bit of quali research, where we have got quite a lot of insights – the key is to look for stuff beyond what the consumer is saying – what is the tone in which the consumer has responded, what are the circumstances, the facial expressions, the body language and most importantly – what is the consumer not saying?

Which brings me to something that was recently showcased in India – neurological research. This is about capturing consumer’s responses at the sub-conscious level – eliminating cultural, social and language barriers – and quite literally getting to the heart of the matter. This research is quite expensive (you need proper medical equipment) and has been in the developmental stage for quite some time – but has now acquired some serious momentum as a commercial offering. NeuroFocus is a leading company doing such research (the founder incidentally is a Dr. A.K. Pradeep). The company is supported by Nielsen as well – so we will probably see it in action in India fairly quickly.

NeuroFocus has done some sports related research as well.  A piece on the Beijing Olympics - Was Beijing Worth Billions -  concluded that “Achieve” and “Inspire” were attributes that resonated highly with the Olympics.  Attributes like “Peak” and “Celebrate” didn’t resonate too well (which probably means that Coke shouldn’t be extending its FIFA “Celebrations” activation idea to the Olympics). They did another piece around picking the right NFL Quarterback for brand endorsements - NYT SuperBowlQuarterbacks. 

Undoubtedly, this stuff will get more refined as we go along. The potential to really understand what the consumer feels (instead of getting swayed by what they say), holds great promise in a market like India:-) The potential of applying this kind of research is even more with sport fans - after all there is so much passion involved in sport!

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Where are the Test stars?

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Ashok Karanth

Ian Chappell’s article on the competitiveness at the top of the ICC Test rankings is a good read. He is bang on when he says that there is no clear leader, and that there can be no better time to create a World Test Championship. India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Australia and England are bunched together quite closely, and Pakistan are just being, well, Pakistan – beating Australia one day, getting dismissed for 80 the next. There is enough masala in the Test hierarchy to launch a serious attempt to spice up each and every Test series.

However, one other thing he said got me thinking. This is what he wrote:

In the long periods when one team dominated, the game survived mainly on a group of extremely marketable stars strutting their stuff.

He goes on to add that their numbers are dwindling, but expresses hope that youngsters will come in to fill their shoes. Now this is where I am concerned. I am sure younger cricketers will come through and become stars in their own right, but there are two issues.

Firstly, will they be as big as the stars that are on the wane/have faded already – i.e. Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly in India, Warne, McGrath, Ponting, Hayden in Australia, Lara in WI, Flintoff in England, Murali and Jayasuriya in SL, Pollock and Donald in SA?That is some list of names to match up to, and chances are that it will take some time for the new corp to come close to that kind of superstardom and fan following.

Secondly, will the emerging/current stars – i.e. Dhoni, Sehwag, Raina, KP, Morgan (?), Clarke, AB de Villiers, Aamer et al – be able to pull in crowds and TV audiences for Test cricket? Most of the newer guys are better at ODIs/T20s than Test cricket. That, and the fact that shorter forms of the game are being played more these days means that the stars will shine brighter in the shorter formats, thereby leaving Test cricket, well, star-less.Fans of these guys will get their fix from watching T20s – there is more of it in any case, and their favourite players do well in those formats. A quickfire Dhoni 30 in an IPL game may give a Dhoni fan as much joy as a painstaking 70 in a drawn match at Lord’s. So why spend more time and energy watching the Test, might as well wait for the next T20 to come along.

Not for a moment am I suggesting that Tendulkar et al were only good at Tests – far from it. However, they all emerged as stars during an era when Test cricket was the primary form of the game. Most of them acquired their star status on the back of some  terrific performances in Test cricket. That they were able to parlay their skills onto other formats of the game just added on to the lustre, and kept many of them relevant in the current era where the other formats dominate. The exact opposite is happening with the current stars – they are acquiring their star status because of their performances in T20s/ODIs – not because of Test cricket.

At a time when Test cricket needs all the help it needs, not having Test stars will severely impact that format of the game. I hope I am wrong, and Test cricket will go from strength to strength on the back of some seriously marketable stars, but it is cause for concern.

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If Murali was Indian

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Ashok Karanth

Some will say Murali is somewhat Indian anyway (his wife is Indian, he has family in TN). We all know Murali is a very loyal and patriotic Sri Lankan, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. But consider this scenario for a moment – what if he was playing for India?

India would surely have won a lot more Tests and ODIs in the last 15 odd years. Look at this incredible stat – Sri Lanka have won 61 Tests since inception (trending word these days), and Murali has featured in a staggering 54 of them. Simply put, Sri Lanka don’t know how to win Tests without Murali in the side. Arguably, India had the better bowling attack for much of Murali’s career – Kumble, Srinath, Prasad, Zaheer definitely stack up better than Vaas and assorted others. Thus, Murali could have won more games for India than he did for Sri Lanka. Of course, he may not have got to 800 wickets because the afore-mentioned Indian bowlers would have shared the spoils.But imagine Kumble and Murali bowling for the same team – devastating.

Cricket-wise, one can safely say that Murali would not have gone through half the anguish regarding the chucking controversy if he was Indian. The BCCI is so much more powerful than the SL cricket board, and there would have been no need for a Ranatunga to stand up for Murali. I cannot see any international umpire calling an Indian bowler.

It would have been financially much more rewarding as well. It is a good time to be a cricketer in India these days, with Ranji cricketers make close to Rs. 3 Lakhs a game (~6500 $). Murali would have been on a Grade A contract (60 Lakhs a year – 130,000 USD, plus match fees). However, the big difference would have been in terms of endorsements. Conservatively, he could have been earning Rs. 2 crores (~ 425000 $) a year for the last few years. Not to mention the wall-to-wall media adulation and demi-god status that a billion people would have bestowed upon him. The icing on the cake would have been a fatter IPL contract. If Murali was indeed Indian, it is highly likely that he would have been an icon player for the Chennai Super Kings, thereby earning upwards of 1.2 million $ (double of what he gets currently). All told, back-of-envelope, he could have earned close to Rs. 5 crores (~ 1.1 million $) more per year in India.

What a difference the Palk Strait makes.

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Raison d’être

Posted on July 23, 2010 by Ashok Karanth

We are here to change the sports marketing world. To make India the hottest sports market in the world. To help create world-beaters who can take on the best in sport – and win. To create path-breaking and impactful marketing programs using the sports platform. To significantly add value to our clients. To make some money while we are at it. To retire into the sunset with a bottle of France’s finest in hand, feeling all warm and fuzzy that we made a difference.

True, all of the above. but not the entire truth.

We are here because first and foremost, we are fanatical sports fans. Is there any joy in the world that can match watching Tendulkar scoring a century on the last day and winning that Test against England in Chennai? Can anything beat the thrills and spills of the IPL, which has the whole of India glued on for 6 continuous weeks? What about thrilling Messi – who surely has an invisible thread that attaches the ball to his feet. Cannot wait to see whether Tiger has it in him to come back from all that he has been through and win 5 more majors which will take him ahead of Nicklaus.

It is just a game, after all, but it keeps us (and millions of others) going in this increasingly weird world.

We will use this blog to try and make sense of what is happening in the sports marketing world, and use this pulpit to offer our grand ideas to an unsuspecting world. But don’t be surprised if you see gushing posts when Rahul Dravid scores yet another technically correct century to beat Australia in Bangalore.

We think the tone will tend towards informality, irreverence even. Oh, but you figured that one out already. Please contact us at info@springboardsports.com, or leave a comment here. We could have some fun.

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