Axis My India is India’s foremost Consumer Data Intelligence Company that has revolutionized the field of election polling in the country, with an accuracy rate of ~95%. Today the market research capabilities have been written as a case study in Harvard Business School. Axis My India has strived to constantly delight clients with accurate insights that demonstrate their hold over the nation’s pulse, particularly in rural communities. Axis My India is now launching India’s biggest syndicated consumer behavior study, Consumer Trust Index. With a 1 Mn. sample representing 700+ districts, across 40+ categories and a quarterly district level reporting on consumption & future purchase intent – usage, loyalty, net gain/loss to which brand & analysis across audience segments it will provide rich actionable data & insights.
Apart from market research Axis, My India is a well-entrenched player in printing & micro-distribution of utility bills and customized brand solutions. What distinguishes them from their peers is the unmatched scale. Reaching over 700 districts, physically & digitally, the network provides comprehensive access to India’s diverse consumers. With a track record spanning 23 years, Axis My India is at an inflection point, as they continue to expand their portfolio of service offerings of consumer insights to corporations, backed by a robust digitally enabled platform as part of their big, audacious Mission Himalaya – UnchiUdaan- roadmap – a vision to connect and resolve problems of over 250 million Indian households.
Pradeep Gupta, Chairman & Managing Director, Axis My India speaks to us on the company, their vision on the Consumer Trust Index, and much more…
Axis My India has been in the business for nearly 2 decades, what has changed in the way you conduct surveys now and in the earlier times?
We have been revolutionizing the field of market research & election forecasting for many years. Technology has played a pivotal role in how research is administered now as compared to earlier times. To ensure quality, the surveys are conducted using Tablets with Geo stamping &Audio enabled software. There is a strong integration of monitoring with Computer-Aided Personal interviews on Tablets for our all-India fieldwork. This ensures GPS tracking of surveyor movements during the interviews along with a fully equipped and integrated backend infrastructure to guarantee quality control with regional languages proficiency. We have a strong analytics & data science team for dashboards, data visualization & real-time reporting. All of this plays an important role in doing robust research. Having said that, one cannot solely rely on technology. It is equally important to understand consumer psychology and that is one of the key reasons for our success when it comes to exit polls & other research studies. Axis My India’s training team focuses on two elements of the surveyor’s job: their ability to form an empathetic connection with respondents, and the need for them to be unbiased. Our clients have often appreciated our understanding of the consumer’s pulse, especially in rural & poor communities, and that been a consistent benchmark of our success for decades.
You are also into election surveys, how do you go about it?
We have a very process-driven structure when it comes to election surveys, right from – selection of field surveyors, to their hiring & training, use of technology for data collection, quality auditing, data analysis & final forecasting. We constantly strive to understand the voter sentiment and that is one of the major reasons for our high accuracy when it comes to exit poll results. Recently, we have also been included as a case study in the prestigious Harvard Business School curriculum. The case study highlights the complexity associated with successfully predicting elections in the world’s largest democracy, whose diversity is evident to all, with varied geographies, shared borders with six nations, sprawling rural populations, and 23 different languages spoken across the country.
The recent Consumer Trust Index is very expansive and detailed; can you take us through as to how you went about it?
Consumer Trust Index is undoubted, India’s largest syndicated consumer consumption study. It measures current consumption & future purchase intent across 40+ categories with a 1Mn+ sample spread across 726 districts, which is unprecedented not just in India but across the globe. For the CTI, we have attempted to look at it from a marketer’s point of view for developing a winning brand. To achieve the same, our goal is to acquire insights on consumers at scale, keeping in mind a diverse nation as ours. It moreover measures product consumption, loyalty, brand shift, net gain/loss & future purchase intent not just restricted to few markets, but data spread across 5000+ Villages/ Cities/ Towns/ Metros. The biggest differentiator is the massive sample size, it is not in the few thousands, but we are doing it across a sample of 2.5 lac per quarter and a total of 1Mn sample in a year. We believe this will be a true reflection of consumer behavior & the diversity which exists in India and help marketers navigate their brand’s growth.
What is the TG you target for your surveys? How do you decide on the profiles of people you survey?
Consumer Trust Index uses a multi-stage stratified random sampling method. The sample size for each district is determined using a population proportionate approach and the census data which is extrapolated to the current population. We ensure that each reporting unit meets a standard designed to minimize the margin of error, thus ensuring the highest levels of accuracy in data.
This pandemic and then the lockdown saw a huge change in consumer behavior, has the survey captured all of it?
Consumer Trust Index, captures two important questions – Which brand do you use currently? & which brand are you going to purchase next? Hence it captures current usage & future intent.
To measure the current consumer sentiment & the month-on-month change we are seeing because of the pandemic, we would soon be launching, India Consumer Sentiment Tracker. On a monthly basis, it will offer real-time insight into the shifting consumer sentiments across the country on important parameters like – household spends essential & non-essential product consumption, media consumption & mobility patterns.
The report says you will survey 1 million respondents across India, and 40+ categories of products, how long will this take and how accurate is this data?
We have a 1000+ strong field force and presence across all 726 districts including remotest of the places like Andaman & Nicobar and the hinterlands of India. We have a totally transparent study & are open for data validation & verification at any stage
How will this Data help Marketers in planning their future brand strategy?
Consumer Trust Index will be a great enabler if any marketer wants to have a deeper understanding of his/her consumer. It will not only tell what is the current usage share of a brand but more importantly among those currently using what % will stay loyal to me in the future and the % which will shift to some other brand. It will also highlight the gain & losses across different brands. All of this information at a demographic & geographic level will brands shape their overall marketing strategy. They will be able to fill gaps/find answers to their pertinent questions such as ‘Do I have a distribution problem in these markets?’, ‘Can I plan a promotion only in these markets?’ etc.
Going forward, we can also create an additional panel to delve deeper on the reasons of the shift, lapses. With a deep level of analysis, it will be an ideal tool for marketers for shaping their brand strategy.
Any other feature you would like to elaborate on?
To create, run, and improvise any business, multiple tools are required. We at Axis My India, have developed a business tool kit that has multiple offerings. Post understanding one’s consumer, the other critical factor which any marketer wants to address is distribution. For example, marketers might want to understand if their brand’s trial & usage is declining due to product availability issues at a retailer level. Axis My India’s product availability audit gives one an accurate insight into their brand’s on-ground accessibility and visibility across 700+ districts. Further, if marketers want to sample their products to a targeted audience in a clutter-free environment, Axis My India can do mass scale sampling with third-party back checks. Our cross-media management study provides media measurement including TV, Print, Radio/OTT, social media, outdoor, and much more across 5000 cities/towns/villages with 250000 households across districts. Finally, if one wants to understand the spending to effectiveness ROI for the brand, our Brand Equity Measurement study is an effective tool that measures the real valuation & demand of a brand across demography & geography.
This is to say that we as an organization have a problem-solving approach, which look at helping brands at scale. Our goal is to respond to brand issues at a holistic level with our variety of research & marketing offerings.
