Finally the day
that team Illumina was eagerly awaiting for came on 24th October- Dussehra!
This was the day that had been decided upon to go and conduct disguised market
research for Berger Paints in a rural area. The venue was the Dussehra fair
held at Pataudi village (40 km from Gurgaon city) every year. We reached the
spot about the same time when others had started putting up their stalls. A
tent had already been put in place for us to set up shop. The Illumina team
accompanied by the team selected to conduct the market research (MR) quickly
got down to work and readied the tent for the occasion.
The research
brief was given by Berger and the objective was to cater to the demand service
gap in rural segments with a hassle free painting experience. For this, Team
RDB had devised a themed ‘natak’ on the concept of recent marriage of popular
movie stars Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor. The natak was done with a plot in
which the movie stars had just been married and wanted to decide on the
painting for their new home.
Before we got
down to work, all of us had a quick but wholesome lunch, giving us the much
needed energy for the exhausting task that ensued.
The fair was a
cold affair till 1.30 pm with no appreciable crowd. It was then that the action
began with the heroic entry of the protagonist of Ramayana and our very beloved
king of Ayodhya and destroyer of evil- Lord Rama, accompanied by his brother
Lakshamana and his greatest follower- Hanuman. Following him in another vehicle
was the evil king- Ravana and his army. And behind them flocked the people, and
suddenly the ground that wore a deserted look a moment ago seemed to be
overflowing with people who seemed to come out of nowhere. Practically, the
whole village had gathered there to watch the final battle between Lord Rama
and Ravana, and witness the triumph of good over evil.
And on this
note, our team too got down to work. Many of the members went out in the ground
and nearby places to conduct a survey on the buying behaviour of the villagers
while others took their position in and around the tent where the real action
was.
The huge size of
the tent and a large poster of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor aroused enough
curiosity among the people to see what was going on that very soon we had a
huge crowd waiting in a queue to go inside and experience the whole thing. The
tent had been divided into sections with game for kids in the starting section
(who were being given toffees and chocolates for their performances) followed
by the disguised MR being conducted in the subsequent sections. Students posed
as Bollywood actors and entertained people while also asking them questions.
We got an
overwhelming response from the people who looked quite eager to respond to our
surveys and questions. At times, the crowd seemed to be getting too impatient
to wait in the long queue and the team had to work really hard to keep
situation under control.
After a day full
of hard work and successful accomplishment of our task, we left the place in
the evening. All in all, it was a an assuring success in terms of completion of
objectives and a great learning experience for the students who got to have
first-hand experience of conducting an MR. Though everyone was tired but it
hadn’t dampened the team’s spirits, a fact that was proved when we saw an
arrangement for celebrating the success of the task by dancing on the beats of Dhol-
a surprise for the team by the Secretary of Team Illumina. Soon, the whole
hostel was out in front of the CM hostel, dancing their hearts out and enjoying
to the core. All in all, a day well spent.
At Peace
Illuminati
No comments:
Post a Comment