[Editor’s Note: Petek Dalyan, QRCA member in Istanbul, Turkey, agreed to
interview Piyul Mukherjee, another QRCA member living in Mumbai (Bombay),
India. What follows is an edited version of the interview conducted by
email earlier this summer.]
boyutresearch@superonline.com
Published in CONNECTIONS, the online QRCA magazine
Were you an inquisitive child?
Actually I was more observant than inquisitive. As an older child, I was
in charge of keeping all kids occupied (middle class neighbors in India
are like one large extended family). In that sense, I was the unpaid
child-minder that many liked to confide in. Of course, what my family
would tell you is that I became extremely bossy, also!
How did you step into this profession?
Would you believe it - by default! I was studying for my management
degree, and back in 1986, I was placed in an ad agency for my summer
training. Here I was told to conduct a few face-to-face consumer
interviews for a two - wheeler brand, and I was hooked for life.
What type of projects do you like doing most?
The ones that take me beyond the (yawn) standard focus groups and into
homes and villages, or into the latest pubs to meet today's style leaders.
Did you know that every time we have a rural focus group, we also have a
parallel “placebo” focus group running for their ever-vigilant
mothers-in-law who accompany the womenfolk to such suspicious gatherings,
and then insist on having their say.
Given the chance and sufficient resources, what would be your "dream
project"?
With the kind of traveling the job entails, one that would take me to
Munnar, Kathmandu, Darjeeling, Kashmir even if not to Switzerland or
Austria. Oh well! Right now, I really enjoy those projects where I am
treated as an essential part of the top management team to help with
strategic issues that they may be wrestling with, rather than mere
elicitation of consumer reactions.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
Without a doubt, the leap from consumer-speak to that sudden blinding
insight. I also think this is one aspect of the job of a QRC that is
grossly underrated.
What is the biggest challenge for a QRC in India?
Tackling the suspicion of “subjectivity” amongst key clients, who feel
that the same project given to two different QRCs will get different
results.
Has your gender been an advantage or a disadvantage for you?
A male QRC would not get the time of day from women consumers in our
tradition-bound society. On the other hand, we women can meet everybody.
What has been the funniest (or most difficult, or strangest) project you
ever been involved with?
Fertilizers. Learning about potassium, nitrogen and phosphates, and
dealing with the very down-to-earth farmers who think city slickers are
complete idiots (maybe they are right!). Also, the one where I had to meet
Indian multimillionaires. They are an insecure, narcissistic lot who
seemed to me to be totally out of sync with the rest of the world. By the
way, I am always amused at the comment that I remind the consumer of an
cousin/ aunt / friend of theirs. I have heard this over a few hundred
times already. It stopped bothering me after I realized that the person I
reminded them of, was invariably a favorite.
How do you relax and unwind at the end of a long and tiring project?
Read, read and read some more. Also, I am an ardent stargazer at night
while I contemplate on the overall meaning of it all. Like Richard Bach
would ask, why, on our kind & immense earth, are you and I alive…