Ethnographic design research in West Bengal

We finished our ethnographic design research with West Bengal. The preparation was very chaotic; we were having great difficulties to find people to interview. At last our friend Sunil Barik from Delhi introduced us to a wonderful couple from Kolkata who helped us very much.



Alike Tamil Nadu, West Bengal has a kind of self-sufficient social life where people enjoy local and regional relationship without the need for extending their relationship to other states or countries. Among the people we interviewed we found that they had less of interaction with other states or cultures. Nevertheless, Bengali’s are warm and welcoming people.

Arjun and Shankhamita, are youth entrepreneurs in Kolkata. They helped us in reaching people for our study, occasionally translating interviews in Bengali language. Arjun’s family lives at the centre of Kolkata. Their house is very pleasant and reflects the cultural richness of the family.

We have now taken more than 100 interviews in North India. Most of the time my wife, Melina conducted the interview in either English or Hindi for around 45 minutes. The quickest interview we took was for 22 minutes and the longest was more than 3 hours, but both interviews were rich and insightful. Time is not a factor.

During the interview I took down notes, recorded the conversation and took number of environment pictures. In villages, people use slangs what makes the communication difficult. In these cases, we took the services of local interpreters who participated to the discussion and corrected any miss-interpretations. For conducting the interview we had a large set of questions structured in such a way that we could get the key information at different levels of interview. This protocol is the fruit of extensive research and testing we did at the initial stage of our initiative.



Arjun is a kind of person who can appreciate anyone’s personality and views without judgment. He is a good human being and knows a huge diversity of people he meets across his business activity. We asked him to introduce us to various people from high to low level background, so that we could get a true picture of the Bengali population. Arjun is an excellent orator; realist by nature. I like very much the way he depicts his culture with coldness and admiration.



Bengal has been deeply influenced by the communist culture. Many people give importance to the government and do not like when you present your initiatives as “private”. That makes our research difficult since it is important for us to understand the aspirations of those people and how they want things to evolute. After they understand the social benefits of our project they were willing to speak.


We found Bollywood pictures very efficient to understand how people project themselves in future. What are their social aspirations and dreams? Sometimes people’s choices totally contradicted what they said in response to our interview questions and provided clues to understand the choc points.


Thanks to McDonalds for allowing us to interview 2 of their busy staff members. Awful things have been written about this company’s work culture; on the other hand we found their work culture as a positive impact on their staff’s willingness. Farah told us how her job has made her more confident in life. She has higher expectations towards the future and plans for a better life. In Kolkata also the corporate culture has an impact on people’s life.



It is difficult to finish an interview without a group picture. Children were inquisitive to know what we were doing around but it is always a pleasure to share our experience with them. Bengal would remain one of the best places we have seen in India.



We had the great pleasure to take the interview of Mr. S. K. Das who has been the MD, CEO of several group of companies in India. Mr. Das has passion for progress and prosperity for our country. He is an ardent writer. Quite of his writings, short stories, poems, articles on management have been published in leading journals and newspapers. He has also received awards in Delhi in 1991 and 1996 for excellence in Industrial Management. After retirement in 2002, he is associated with several groups as Chairman / Vice Chairman of Board of Directors. At the age of 73, he is still active and continues to advice industrialist and political leaders like Mr. Ratan Tata, Dr. Debesh Das. He also has the privilege of correspondence with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. Besides his career as a businessman, he has also helped more than 400 people in getting employment and means of subsistence through his association.



Sumit has a double Masters in History from a reputed university. He could work for some university or a multinational in Kolkata but he prefers to concentrate on what is really important for him. Sumit gives tuition of Indian history and spirituality. He takes only students who are really passionate about the subject and can appreciate the transcendental value of his teaching. Sumit told us how to re-interpret Indian classical history in the modern world. What lessons we have taken from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his disciples. He also paints and sculpts images of gods and deities according to the tradition of his gurus.


We would like to thank the below mentioned people who have enormously helped us in realising our research in North India:
Amit - Hyderabad
Arjun and Shankhamita - Kolkata
Arun and Maggie - Mumbai
Ashish and Monu - Jaipur
Saurabh’s family - Siyana
Sonam’s parents – Pune
Sunil - Bangalore
Sunil - Delhi

We meet hundreds of wonderful people from various backgrounds and culture. It is materially difficult to keep in touch with everyone but you stay in our hearts forever.
You all are most welcome to Bangalore!

If you would like to be informed about the publication of the North India Consumer Trends Report, drop us a line in this Kovent’s contact form

Ethnographic research in North India

Our ethnographic research took us to Siyana a small town located at 3.5 hours from Nizamuddin railway station. We were staying at my friend’s place whose parents live there. From the roof top of the house we could see the green belt that delimitates the town.

Most of the people in Siyana have small businesses; one of the main businesses was agriculture. Electricity comes few hours a day only. People who have better standard of living can afford to have invertor or generator to keep the machines and fans running. Of course, no one uses air conditioner as that would be too expensive. We had a walk around when we reached the town. We were not accompanied with any local fellow. People were looking very strangely at us since they understood we are not from the town. One person came and asked us where we are from? As we started speaking with him more people joined with 1000 of questions. We had to run away as our presence was generating traffic jam in the market. Still we had a nice visit and enjoyed interacting with the local population.

We started with our research the first day itself. The family who received us were very helpful in introducing us to people around. Being in a small town it was easy to reach a large diversity of profiles from business people to employees, teachers, workers, farmers, etc. In Siyana, people hardly get opportunities to speak with outsiders. So, they were very much interested to speak and know about us. Many a times it happened that youth guys came up to asked me to speak about my country. This made our work pleasant but longer since we had to establish trust and build relationship with people before starting any interview or field observation.

The first interview we did was in a small village around Siyana that caught the interest of everyone. Ayan the person we interviewed was comfortable in speaking in front of everyone. This type of interview shared with the community had an advantage.
It helped us in understanding the difference between individual motivations and what is commonly accepted by the group. More than anyone else, villagers need to justify their behaviour to the community they belong to. Ayan considered himself as a rich person since he worked for a corporate company for a couple of years. He explained to his community the social necessity of having a fashionable lifestyle working at ICICI Bank.

Villagers were explaining us the interest and necessity of having multiple sources of income in the family. Ayan cannot think of closing his business even if he gets a permanent job at ICICI Bank. “Job is a short term solution; you never know how long the company is going to run”.
Villagers have 4 to 5 regular businesses they pass on to each other as time and opportunities come. Basically, more you go at the bottom of the pyramid more the source of income is diversified. Since many people have lost their faith in the corporate world the small business thinking gains the interest of the overall population.

Middle class behaviour is quiet predictable in towns and villages. Being at the edge between modernity and tradition, middle class are pushed in developing strong ideas about what is good and what is bad. Mostly, they are well informed and leave less space to subjectivity.

At one evening we had the great pleasure to attending a party given for a new born baby. There was nothing traditional but Bollywood music, food and drinks… we all had great fun. Coming back home was an adventure since there was no light anywhere. We had to walk in queue behind uncle’s torchlight till we reached home.

After interviewing 34 people in towns and villages we went to Ghaziabad, New Delhi and Gurgaon. My wife Melina felt in love with Gurgaon shopping malls. The most happening place she found in India so far.

In towns and villages people’s lifestyle evolutes in a linear way. It is always a kind of compromise between tradition and modernity and the whole family follows a similar pattern with different level of understanding.

But in New Delhi people follow a pattern that is much more based on their individual life experience. People’s lifestyle is the fruit of a long process of individual liberation where personal reflection matters a lot.

“I have reached this level of thinking because of…”
“I had to change something about myself and I did it…”
“Knowledge is painful you can never stop rethinking the world around of you”
Etc.

People have no fear in experimenting themselves to access to a better way of being. This long process for discovering the “Who am I?” is very much influential on their way of living.

Kovent’s North India consumer trends will speak about how the “Who am I?” attitude influences consumption pattern in North India. What are the keys factors to implement innovation and respond to consumer’s aspirations? Innovation always question consumers; our next report will provide you the right question for the right user group.

Family continues to occupy a central role in people’s pre-occupation. But, there also we found new behaviours in all layers of the society. We used a set of pictures representing Bollywood actors and actresses in different roles and personality. It is interesting to see how people reinterpret family values in today’s society. How they project their role model from the past to the future.

Our North India trip was a wonderful experience. We interviewed 83 peoples with 62 hours of recorded interview. There is a report available on http://www.kovent.com/

Top 10

Here are the top 10 questions we received from our clients about
More & More - South India consumer trends report.
www.kovent.com

1. The world goes green! What about India?
We all know that Indians have a holistic relation with nature.
On the other hand, Indian industrialists like to repeat that we must get developed before thinking about environmental protection. This sounds logical but it is no more acceptable for the South Indian consumers who have deep ecological consciousness.
Unsurprisingly, our approach of sustainable development is catching the attention of non-profit organisations and government bodies. In More & More, you will learn how South India may become the world laboratory for sustainability and local living economy.

2. Is there any interest in encouraging local and national trends?
No, but it is necessary if we want to reach the next 100 million consumers who are not yet willing to afford a consumerist lifestyle. These consumers we are referring to are the ones who lead a modest lifestyle but still have a good spending potential. They need radical innovations that are contextually integrated. Thus, the future of innovation will be a mix of both local and global consumer experience. That’s the reason for which our trends report aims to facilitate people’s adhesion to global consumption pattern.

3. What kind of trends report it is?
A trends report is either:
1) Macro or Micro - Micro trends all together form macro trends.
2) Fast or Slow - The period the trend will last.
3) Global or Local - The geography of the trend.
More & More trends report focuses on Macro, Slow, Local trends.
It is useful for any industry that deals with consumers who have local or national exposure and moderated lifestyle. You will find business opportunities on medium and long-term basis.

4. Will the report be relevant for my industry?
The report deals with consumers needs and wants. As those needs and wants can be applied across all industries, the report is relevant for any brand looking to innovate in the B2C arena across South India.

5. Did you find any variations in the consumer’s behaviours between the South Indian states?
Yes and for each of the 21 trends presented we have included a map of South India showing where the trend is present. Some trends are spread all over the 4 states whereas others only affect particular states or cities. This trends report can be utilised for localising your products and services however it is not its primary objective. The objective of this report is to understand South India’s macro consumer segmentation. It makes more sense from a business perspective to focus on cross-states trends than geographically isolated ones.

6. In what way can NGOs contribute to R&D?
Our experience working with the poor clearly showed us that there is no direct relation between income level and buying capacity. NGOs have the experience of working with the poor and know what is the ecosystem associated to peoples spending habits. NGOs helped us to understand how community behaviour influences the consumption pattern of poor consumers.

7. What will be the next technological hit for India?
At last, India is coming out of the technocratic black-out it was stuck in for the past 10 years. Technology has become a fully integrated component of lifestyle. Now, we can think about humanised innovation that would require powerful technologies but not for the sake of it.
Let me say once again:
“Innovation is no more about constantly upgrading technology. Innovation is about relieving social and cultural barriers. Make global resources accessible to everyone. Free every human being from ignorance and poverty.”
Become an ambassador of India’s social revolution. More & More will provide you clues to innovate in that direction.

8. Why to make a trends report about South India and not the whole country?
We thought that this trends report could capture the whole population of India. But, after interviewing people in Mumbai and Delhi we realised that the findings would be entirely different in North and South. Hence, we decided to release 2 separate versions. This edition focuses exclusively on South India.
We are currently conducting workshops in Mumbai with NGOs, social workers and business entrepreneurs. Yet we have no doubt that North India trends will be a different blend of life experiences and consumer aspirations.

9. Can you share with us the process followed to generate these trends?
The methodology used to realise More & More consumer trends report is called Target Point. This methodology has been specially created for studying emerging market populations. It helps to understand in-depth environmental factors and underlying needs of the consumers rather than surface information with no proper indicators. Emerging market populations are often attached to their traditions and not always receptive to global trends. Hence, it is essential to understand their cultural ecosystem for framing accurate social and commercial trends.
Read about Target Point design methodology on our website:
http://www.kovent.com/targetpoint.html

10. Is there any business opportunity in this period of recession?
We are all feeling the cold shower of recession particularly the rich and middle class consumers who fear job cut and postpone buying expensive stuff. All sectors are affected real estate, banking, distribution, etc. Indian middle class consumers are likely to suffer and see their buying capacity decrease significantly till the economy gets better. However, it is not the case of the Indian rural market that continues to grow as a self-sustaining economy. Your company can contribute and benefit from it while providing contextual innovation.